nyahongo:

studyjapanesewithme:

3 weeks until my end of year Japanese exams!∑(ﾟДﾟ)

On May 10th I have my 日本語 oral exam where I have to prepare a presentation and then the teacher will ask me questions about it after.

Then I also have my 日本語 comprehension test. I plan on posting my study progress over the next couple weeks! Please join in and study along with me♪

試験は頑張って！！ファイト！ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

最近、勉強はどうですか。少し、少し練習しているはいいよ！無理しないでね！

ありがとう！

For the oral exam I’ve been preparing my presentation and thinking about possible questions the teacher may ask about it. None of my family speak any Japanese so I’ve been practicing with them just in English too.

Studying for the reading exam is a little trickier- I’ve been making flash cards for kanji but what helps me remember them the most is just writing it over and over and over. Boring but it works!

I’m trying to compile a list of all the verbs we’ve covered in Genki 1 & 2- which I will post later!

日本語の勉強はどうですか？

I love your blog- I hope I get as good at Japanese as you one day!! (о´∀`о)

5月のカレンダーだよ↑ 今週は'Golden weekです。

mars-langblr:

Have any of you ever taken Japanese through an online college course?

If so, did you like it? I can’t imagine that all college Japanese 1 courses differentiate too much from each other (especially if you happen to be in California like I am).

I’d love to hear your experience since I’m personally considering it!

Hi! I’m not sure if this will be helpful since I live in England so the courses might be different (?). I did 2 semesters of an online Japanese for beginners course which followed the first Genki textbook. Here are some of the pros and cons I found!

Pros-

- I met a lot of new people who were interested in Japan like me and it was fun to talk about our interests

- I loved my teacher she was super friendly and always gave us time after class to chat to her 1 on 1 incase we didn’t understand anything

- I learnt a whole lot even though the course only consisted of 2 hours a week. She set homework for us each week and then marked it which was useful.

Cons-

- doing the course online meant I never got to meet my teacher or classmates in person

- Now that I’m studying Japanese as my major I’ve learnt 10x as much in 2 semesters, so online courses are more of just a small taste at everything there is to learn.

- doing it online meant that I had less opportunity to practice my speaking. We did get put into ‘break out rooms’ but even so my speaking didn’t hugely improve

My new favourite thing is studying on long train journeys by the window ☕️

Grammar, ながら

Verb 1 (in the verb stem) + ながら, Verb 2= describes two actions happening at the same time

Examples

- 本を読みながら、おふろにはいります- I read a book whilst taking a bath.

-  テレビを見ながら、仕事 をします。- I do my homework whilst watching TV.

Verb 1 needs to be in its stem form - 読みます needs to become 読み so the masu is removed 読みます.

Verb 2 however can be in any tense. 

Important note- The second verb is the most important verb that is the main action taking place, and the first one is what you do on the side at the same time. For example, here taking a bath and doing your homework is the main action, and reading a book or watching tv is the side action. 

Grammar -ばよかったです

ばよかったです is used to mean I should have done something to express regret. Putting this into the negative form なければよかった implies you should not have done something. 

Example- かさをもってくればよかったです！- I should have brought an umbrella!

the verb conjugation for this grammar item is a bit complicated- 

In the positive form of ばよかったです：

Verbs drop the う and add えば= 食べる - 食べれ + ば

In the negative form of なければよかった：

verbs drop the final い and add ければ + ば= 食べない- 食べなけれ+ ば

Reading practice

This is a reading practice taken from Genki 2 pp310-311.

[ある新聞が大学生の橋本くんの生活を紹介しています。

橋 本 く ん は 大 学 三 年 生 だ。 大 学 の 近 く の ワ ン ル ー ム マ ン シ ョ ン に 住 ん で い る 。 家 賃 は 一 か 月 五 万 円 だ 。 食 費 、 電 気 代 な ど を 入 れ て 、 一 か 月 の 生 活 費 は 、 十 万 円 ぐ ら い だ 。 毎 月 、 両 親 が 七 万 円 送 っ て く れ る。]

Let’s break down the sentences:

Title-  ある新聞が大学生の橋本くんの生活を紹介しています。

Kanji- 

新聞- しんぶん- newspaper

学生- がくせい- university student 

橋本くん- はしもとくん- Hashimoto-kun (name of the university student)

生活- せいかつ- life

紹介－しょうかい- introduction/ presentation 

sentence meaning- A newspaper introduces the life of Hashimoto-kun, a university student.

Sentence 1-  橋 本 く ん は 大 学 三 年 生 だ

kanji- 

橋 本 く ん- Hashimoto-kun 

大 学 - だいがく- university

三 年 生－せんねんせい- third year student 

sentence meaning- Hashimoto-kun is a third year university student

Sentence 2- 大 学 の 近 く の ワ ン ル ー ム マ ン シ ョ ン に 住 ん で い る 。

Kanji- 

大 学- だいがく- university 

近 く- ちかく- near 

住 む- すむ- to live

Sentence meaning- He lives in a one-room mansion near the university 

Sentence 3-  家 賃 は 一 か 月 五 万 円 だ 。

Kanji- 

家 賃- やちん- rent 

一－いち- one

月 五 万 円- げつごまんえん- 50,000 yen a month 

Sentence meaning- the rent is 50,000 yen a month 

Sentence 4-  食 費 、 電 気 代 な ど を 入 れ て 、 一 か 月 の 生 活 費 は 、 十 万 円 ぐ ら い だ 。

Kanji- 

食 費- しょくひ- food expense 

電 気－でんき- light 

 代- だい- charge

入る- はいる- to enter/ to go in

一 か 月－いちかげつ- one month 

生 活 費- せいかつひ- living expenses 

十 万 円-じゅまんえん -10,000 yen 

Sentence meaning- food expense, electricity, and living costs amount to around 10,000 yen a month. (not sure about this sentence)

Sentence 5-  毎 月 、 両 親 が 七 万 円 送 っ て く れ る。

Kanji- 

毎 月- まいつき- each month

両 親- りょうしん- parents 

七 万 円- ななまんえん- 70,000 yen 

送る-おくる- to send 

Sentence meaning- Each month his parents send 70,000 yen.

I hope you found this reading practice helpful! I will continue breaking down the next part of the story in another post ^^

English - italiano-español

health - (la) salute-(la) salud

illness - (la) malattia - (la) enfermedad

healthy - sano-sano

ill - malato-enfermo,malo

to fall ill, to become ill - ammalarsi-enfermarse,ponerse malo

to heal, to recover - guarire,rimettersi-recuperarse,reponerse

Hello, everyone! I’m breaking my short break because I was recently clued in to another language learning app, so of course I had to check it out! This app is called “Drops”, and it is a vocab builder for a pretty wide variety of languages. Is it worth it? I tested out the Korean course; this is what I think about this app.

Drops is not an app that will teach you grammar—it is strictly a vocabulary builder. Now, if you’ve read any of my other posts on learning vocabulary, you are aware that I am typically against using pre-made flashcards and vocab lists and all, for the reason that context is key for really learning a word, especially for more advanced vocabulary that can be easily confused with words of other meanings. Since this app focuses on relatively simple, concrete vocabulary, that is largely not an issue (though I still highly recommend using your own vocabulary list)!

Getting started with Hangul

Okay, so let’s look at this app from the beginning. When you start it up, you’re presented with a long list of languages you can select, and once you choose a language, you can choose beginner or intermediate level. Depending on which one you choose, different levels will be available to you. For example, if you choose “Beginner,” you can only choose from the foundation courses, or the first course of each level, including the higher level courses. If you choose “Intermediate,” over half of the levels will be totally unlocked (so you can skip around at will!), and the first course of each intermediate level is unlocked. You can switch freely between “Beginner” and “Intermediate,” so your first choice is not really important.  I started with the beginner track and went into the Hangul lessons.

Before I get into talking about the lesson, let me talk about the format of this app. You click into a lesson, then you match words with pictures to move on. Each word is introduced as a “drop” with a picture and the word written in Korean, though you can see a translation if you press and hold the image. There are also spelling and writing questions mixed in as well, but the basic premise is sliding a word or syllable to the right place to move on. There is an automatic audio reading out of the words, and if you start with beginner, romanization is standard. All of this can be turned off or left on from your settings, so I immediately went to turn off the romanization. You are given five minutes of play/study time per day (unless you find a way to obtain more time… more on that later), so this is supposed to be a quick and casual usage app.

Anyway, the Hangul lessons! Unfortunately, they get it wrong from the very start. The sound files are quite nice, but they pair it with romanization (yes, I know that every Korean learning app will have romanization, but I reserve my right to complain about it!), and they include the names of the Hangul with no explanation of what it is. For example, this is what you see when ㄱ is introduced. If you don’t already know what “giyeok” is supposed to be, then you might be a bit confused.

Once you’ve matched the Hangul and romanization a few times, you’ll be instructed to write the Hangul… incorrectly. They teach ㄱ as being two strokes (and accordingly, ㄲ as four) when they are one and two strokes respectively. If you try to write ㄱ in one stroke, it says you’re wrong. This is a really lazy error, in my opinion. It’s so easy to look up proper stroke order, so why are they teaching it incorrectly?

Moving on

The Hangul section left a bad taste in my mouth after a few rounds of forcing myself to write incorrectly, so I skipped the Hangul levels for the next block in the “Foundation” group, which is “Essentials.” It starts out with simple words like “네” and “아니요”… and then you get a cheery “알겠어!” and “안녕!” followed by “감사합니다” with NO explanation of different formality levels and the proper situations in which to use all of these. If you are new to Korean, the words/sentences there are all in different formality levels, which means that some of them are very inappropriate depending on your relationship with the person you are talking to. It is a big deal in Korean, and this section left an even worse taste in my mouth than the Hangul section did, unfortunately. I understand that Drops wants to introduce what they consider useful phrases and all, but by carelessly mixing formality levels with no explanation, they do new learners a HUGE disservice.

I ran into a similar error when I checked out the emotions panel, as feelings in Korean are expressed through verbs that need to be conjugated. Again, with no explanation of the grammar, they introduce feelings in noun modifier form (ex: angry = 화난, bored = 지루한 [though that should be 심심한 if anything since 지루하다 is “boring,” but I digress]). This creates a false equivalence (at least for native English speakers) of “angry = 화난”, treating it like we would an adjective in English instead of looking at it in terms of Korean grammar.

Redeeming factor

Thankfully, once you get into things that exist independent of formality levels and conjugation (that is, nouns), there is actually a pretty good variety of words for building up vocabulary. The app covers a wide range of words classified under various themes such as “People & Health,” “Science & Wisdom,” “Society & Politics,” and more.

Pros and Cons

So now we get to the final verdict. Let’s check out some pros and cons of the app “Drops”:

Pros:

• Clean, colorful, user-friendly interface
• Option to not display romanization
• Good, clear audio files
• Useful vocabulary
• Ability to skip around a lot of the levels if you go straight to intermediate mode
• There is a “Collection” area where you can look at all the words you have learned so far

Cons:

• Incorrect Hangul stroke order
• No explanation of formality levels or grammar, just mixing up levels and giving conjugated forms as if there is a 1-to-1 equivalence with English/whatever other language
• Limited to five minutes of play/study time per day
• Popup messages asking if you want to sign in on Facebook or upgrade to premium to get more time :]
• Other popup messages telling you about other features you could get if you sign up for premium
• Images can be misleading or ambiguous. For example, the image for “감사합니다” is a person bowing, but if the learner does not know that one often bows when thanking someone else, they might not make the connection. Also, 네 and 아니요 are boxes with a check mark and an X respectively, which could reasonably lead a new learner to think the words mean “right” and “wrong” instead of “yes” or “no.” This is a small thing since you can press and hold for translations, but still something to consider.

Verdict

Drops can be a fun and easy way to review vocabulary, but it fails on some really basic points as it fails to correctly teach Hangul stroke order and mixes formality levels with no respect for their significance in speaking Korean properly. There is a pretty good variety of vocabulary if you can get past the unexplained grammatical things, but it’s a shame that you can only play for five minutes before they start hounding you to link up your Facebook or pay for their premium service. Ultimately, Drops is a visually pleasing vocab practice app that is pretty fun to fiddle with, but it fails beginners from the very start. I would only recommend this app to people who already have at least a basic understanding of formality levels and conjugation, and who know how to write Hangul correctly. Use this if you have five minutes to kill picking up or reviewing nouns, but don’t trust it to tell you anything about Korean grammar.

Time for more grammar! In the past I covered -게 되다, which one can use to show that someone or something ended up doing something, or ended up in a certain state. This time, we’ll take a look at -게 하다, which is used when someone or something makes someone or something do something or take on a certain state. Let’s check out some examples and see how it works.

Function

-게 하다 is one of of a few ways to express that one thing made someone or something else do something. It’s a form that lends itself to usage when we want to express thoughts like the following:

My friend made me happy.

Mom made Taeyang go to school.

Usage

Using this form is very simple! Just attach -게 하다 to the end of a descriptive verb or action verb and make sure to conjugate 하다 in the appropriate tense. Be careful not to confuse this form with -게 that turns descriptive verbs into adjectives! Let’s look at some examples to show the difference.

친구는 나를 행복하게 했다. (My friend made me happy.)

친구는 숙제를 행복하게 했다.  (My friend happily did their homework.)

In the first sentence, we know we are looking at -게 하다 because the adverb- making -게 would not make sense here. If it were the adverb -게, then the sentence would have a weird interpretation such as “My friend did(?????) me happily.” That’s a whole different beast!

The second sentence is the adverb-making -게. It wouldn’t make sense to say that the friend made the homework happy because homework, as an inanimate object, is not something that has feelings and that can be made happy.

Now let’s check another example:

이 기계는 자동차를 더 빠르게 한다. (This machine makes cars [go] faster.)

이 기계는 자동차를 더 빠르게 만든다. (This machine makes [produces] cars faster.)

Here, the difference in the verb lets us know how to interpret these very similar sentences!

Now let’s look at -게 하다 examples using action verbs. These have a lot less potential for ambiguity compared to -게 하다 with descriptive verbs.

엄마는 태양이를 학교에 가게 하셨다. (Mom made Taeyang go to school.)

남동생을 요리 재료를 사게 했다. (I made my little brother buy cooking ingredients.)

Happy studying, everyone~

Happy Wednesday once more! It’s been ridiculous hot here in Korea for the last few weeks, and it looks like it’s just going to continue. I know that a lot of places have been trapped in a serious heatwave lately. Stay safe, everyone!

This week we have three new writing prompts. You can check those out and read examples from last week’s prompts!

New prompts (August 1~August 7):

Please submit your writing responses on the Google form here!

1. 유령을 믿으세요? 왜요? 유령을 본 적이 있으세요? (Do you believe in ghosts? Why? Have you see a ghost before?)

2. 무인도에 가서 혼자 살아야 돼요. 5 가지의 물건만 가져갈 수 있는데 어떤 것을 선택하시겠어요? 왜요? (You must go and live on a deserted island. You can take only five things with you. What do you choose? Why?)

3. 지구 온난화가 심해지고 있고 큰 문제가 됐어요. 사람들이 알 만한 또 다른 문제가 있어요? 그 문제가 무엇인지, 그리고 왜 중요한지 쓰세요. (Global warming is getting more severe and has become a big problem. Is there another problem that people should know about? What is that problem, and why is it important?)

Sample responses (July 25~July 31):

1. 친구들과 만날 때 무엇을 하는 것이 좋아요? 왜요? What do you like doing when you meet up with your friends? Why? (Internet friends and online ‘meetups’ count, of course!)

My response: 

나의 친구들 대부분은 인터넷을 통해서 알게 된 사이다. 특히 한국어를 배우는 사람들을 위한 인터넷 커뮤니티를 통해 알게 된 친구가 많아서 우리는 보이스채팅을 같이 해서 주로 한국어 공부와 연습을 한다. 물론 공부를 안 하고 간단한 대화를 나눌 때도 있다.

인터넷 커뮤니티로 알게 된 사람하고 친해지는 게 어렵거나 불가능하다고 생각하는 사람이 많은데 그게 사실은 아니다. 그렇게 알게 된 사람들과 채팅하고 보이스채팅을 자주 하다 보면 금방 친해질 수 있을 것이다. 인터넷 친구들이 한국 여행 올 때 우리가 직접 만나서 놀 정도 친해진다. 친구가 한국에 오면 나는 마중하러 공항에 가는 것을 좋아한다. 얼굴을 처음 보는 것인데 만나기 전에 다양하고 많은 대화를 이미 나눠봐서 낯선 사람보다 오랜만에 뵙지 못한 친한 친구와 만나는 게 다름이 없다 느낀다.

친구의 숙소를 찾는 뒤 보통 저녁을 간단하게 먹고 다른 날에 다시 만나서 구경하러 여기저기 간다. 내가 가장 좋아하는 곳들을 인터넷 친구들에게 소개해 주는 것이 나를 행복하게 한다! 우리가 한국에서 만나서 새로운 경험을 같이 하고 시간을 즐겁게 보낼 수 있으니까 그 친구가 자기 나라로 돌아갈 때 우리는 그 뒤에 다시 만날 기회가 없더라도 서로의 기억에는 잊지 못할 사람으로 남을 수 있다.

2. 가장 소중하게 생각하는 어릴 적 기억이 뭐예요? 그 기억이 왜 소중해요? What is your most precious childhood memory? Why is that memory so precious?

My response:

내가 어렸을 때에는 동물을 많이 좋아하시는 외할머와 함께 살았다. 우리는 고양이 몇 마리를 키우고 있었는데 나는 강아지도 키우고 싶었다. 그래서 이웃집의 개가 강아지를 낳았을 때 외할머니에게 강아지 보러 가자고 노래하듯 부탁했다. 결국에 우리는 이웃집에 가서 강아지들을 봤다. 강아지 6마리가 있었는데 내가 가장 좋아했던 강아지는 가장 작고 약한 검은색 친구였다. 그 강아지를 키우고 싶다고 외할머니에게 말했는데 외할머니께서 흑백 점무늬 강아지를 좋아하셨다. 그래도 나는 걱정할 필요가 없었다. 왜냐하면 외할머니께서 우리가 마음에 드는 강아지 2마리를 다 키우자고 하셨기 때문이에요! 그날 나는 정말 행복했는데 강아지는 아직은 엄마에게 떨어지기에 너무 어려서 몇 주일 기다릴 수밖에 없었다. 기대하면서 기다렸고, 드디어 강아지를 우리 집으로 가져올 날이 왔다. 이웃집에 혼자 가서 집으로 돌아가는 길에 강아지들이 춥지 않게 그 두마리를 나의 패딩안에 넣었다. 집에 빨리 가서 회할머니와 내가 강아지 이름을 지었다—오레오 (내가 선택한 강아지)와 도미노 (외할머니께서 선택하신 강아지). 도미노는 한 2년 전에 죽었지만, 내가 어릴 때 처음 안았을 때와 똑같이 많이 사랑하는, 이제 만16살인 된 오레오는 아직 살아있다.

3. 한국의 최저임금이 최근에 올랐어요. 자기 나라/주의 최저임금이 충분하다고 생각하세요? 최저임금을 인상하는 것을 찬성/반대하는 글을 쓰세요. Recently Korea’s minimum wage increased. Do you think the minimum wage of your country/state is sufficient? Write in favor/in opposition of minimum wage increase.

My response:

한국의 최저임금이 최근에 올랐다. 미국에서도 최저임금이 큰 화제다. 내 생각에는 미국의 최저임금은 너무 낮고 최저임금이라는 개념자체 최저임금이 처음 시행됐을 때와 많이 달라진 것이다.

한국과 달리 미국은 연방 최저 임금도 있고 주 최저임금도 있다. 둘은 거의 서로 관련되지 않은 것이다. 어떤 주는 최저임금이 없고, 어떤 주는 연방 최저 임금보다 최저임금이 낮은데 대부분의 주 최저임금이 연방 최저임금보다 높다. 게다가 어떤 주는 사람이 팁을 받는지에 따라, 그리고 기업의 규모에 따라 최저임금이 다르다. 예를 들어서, 오하이오 주의 최저임금은 8.30USD (대규모 기업)이나 7.25USD (소규모 기업)이다. 미국 연방 최저임금은 7.25달러 (8,117KRW)고 나의 고향인 메릴랜드 주 최저임금은 10.10USD (11,314KRW).

지역마다 최저임금이 많이 다른데 미국 평균 최저 생활임금이 10.60달러이면서 대부분의 주 최저임금은 그보다 낮다. 최저 임금은 원래 최저 생활임금을 생각해서 만들어진 것인데 현재 일주일에 40시간씩 일해서 최저임금을 버는 사람들은 빈곤에 시달릴 수밖에 없는 게 안타까운 사실이다. 미국은 최저임금을 시민들이 다 편하게 살 수 있게 증가시켜야 된다고 생각한다.

Happy writing, everyone! :D

Welcome to another 漢字 배우자! post~ It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Today, I want to take a look at a character that is really common, 가운데 중. Meaning “middle” or “center,” you can see it on, of example, menus indicating the medium size of a dish. It is also a component of a lot of words. Let’s check out some of those words and how the character contributes to their meanings.

If you have read the past 漢字 배우자!, you will already be somewhat familiar with 가운데 중 中. We first saw it when we talked about Hanja in country names—in this case, China or 중국 中國. However, we did not dive into how it is used in other words. Some common words that use 가운데 중 中 are:

집중 集中

집중, meaning “concentration,” is made of 모을 (to gather, collect) 집 集 and 가운데 中. If you are collecting or gathering everything to the middle, then you end up directing everything to one point. This can be mentally concentrating or focusing on something, directing one thing toward another.

아리 씨는 불만을 직원에게 집중했다. (Ari focused her dissatisfaction on the employee.)

2시간 동안 열심히 집중해서 에세이를 썼다. (I concentrated hard for two hours and wrote my essay.)

중심 中心

A combination of 가운데 中 and 마음 (heart) 심 心, 중심 中心 can be translated as the heart or center of something. This can be the heart of a city, the heart of a matter, or really just about anything else as long as it is considered the most central or important part.

김 교수님은 우리 팀의 중심이다. (Professor Kim is the heart of our team.)

동네의중심인 주민센터는 매월 다양한 행사를 한다. (The community center, which is the heart of the neighborhood, has various events every months.)

중간 中間

With 가운데 中 and 사이 (space) 간 間, we get a word that refers to physical or temporal middle point.

우리는중간까지 와서 돌아가기에 너무 늦었다. (We’ve come halfway, so it’s too late to go back.)

영화중간에 가 버리면 표 값이 아깝지 않나요? (If you leave in the middle of the movie, isn’t that a waste of the ticket cost?)

중지 中止

Comprised of the characters 가운데 中 and 그칠 (to stop) 지 止, 중지 means “stopping in the middle of something.”

비가 갑자기 쏟아내려서 경기가 중지되었다. (It suddenly poured down rain, so the match was stopped.)

주변에 싱크홀 3개가 생겨서 석유 시추가 중지되었다. (The oil drilling was suspended because three sinkholes appeared in the area.)

중지 中指

Of course we have 가운데 中, and the second character here is 가리킬 (to point out) 지 指. Very simply, this word means “middle finger”!

선생님은 수업 시간 동안 반친구에게 중지를 뻗어 올린 학생을 혼냈다. (The teacher scolded the student who put up his middle finger toward a classmate during class.)

As always, happy studying!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope you got some good practice out of last week’s writing prompts. I got a few responses on the Google docs form; thank you to those people for writing and allowing me to share their work!

Before I show example responses to last week’s prompts, I will of course introduce this week’s prompts!

July 25~July 31:

Please submit your writing responses on the Google form here!

1. 친구들과 만날 때 무엇을 하는 것이 좋아요? 왜요? What do you like doing when you meet up with your friends? Why? (Internet friends and online ‘meetups’ count, of course!)

2. 가장 소중하게 생각하는 어릴 적 기억이 뭐예요? 그 기억이 왜 소중해요? What is your most precious childhood memory? Why is that memory so precious?

3. 한국의 최저임금이 최근에 올랐어요. 자기 나라/주의 최저임금이 충분하다고 생각하세요? 최저임금을 인상하는 것을 찬성/반대하는 글을 쓰세요. Recently Korea’s minimum wage increased. Do you think the minimum wage of your country/state is sufficient? Write in favor/in opposition of minimum wage increase.

Sample responses:

1. 여름에는 더위를 어떻게 피하신가요? (In summer, how do you avoid the heat?)

(My response):
여름만 되면 한국 날씨가 덥고 습해진다. 지난 며칠 동안 기록적인 폭염으로 36도까지 오르는 낮기온이 사람을 많이 힘들게 하고 있다. 날씨가 이렇게 더울 때면 나는 주로 집에 틀어박혀서 인터넷을 한다. 방이 조금 시원해질 때까지 에이어컨을 틀고 시원해지면 에이어컨을 끄고 선풍기만 사용한다. 집에 있는 동안 공부도 하고 유튜브 비디오도 보고 인터넷 친구들과 채팅할 수 있어서 하나도 심심하지 않다. 그래도 어쩔 수 없이 밖에 나갈 수밖에 없을 때가 있다. 그럴 때는 얇고 시원한 옷을 입고 선크림을 바른 다음에 부채를 쥔채로 집을 나선다. 나는 원래 빨리 걷는 편인데 날씨가 더울 때는 땀이 덜 나게 더 천천히 걷는다. 그런데 나의 여름 습관들 중에서 가장 중요한 것은 물통을 들고 다니는 것이다. 땀을 많이 흘리면 흘릴수록 탈수 증세를 보일 가능성이 높다. 외출할 때 물통을 챙겨서 물을 충분히 마시면 폭염 때도 안전하고 건강할 수 있다.

Anon 1:

매년이 점점 더워지다. 그래서 탈수를 열사병도 피하려면 시원한 곳을 찾는 것은 중요하다. 내 집은 에어컨을 없어서 카페에 자주 간다. 카페들이 평소에 WiFi가 있고 편한 좌석도 있다. 그러면, 가페에 가는 길에 더위를 어떻게 피한다? 요즘은 휴대용선풍기는 인기가 있으니까 휴대용선풍기를 싸게 살 수 있다. 그림자가 없으면 휴대용선풍기로 시원해질 수 있다. 돈이랑 휴대용선풍기가 없을 때 나는 그냥 더위를 참아야한다.

Anon 2:

우리 나라에서는 4계절이 없습니다. 여기는 날씨가 항상 여름 같은 아주 더워요. 그래서 저는 집 밖에 안 나가요.

鬼佬 from the Let’s Learn Korean Discord server:

에리조나에 살으니까 내 방에 항상 있어. 방에 음악 들고 책을 읽어. 가끔 수영장에 걸어가고 친구하고 같이 수영해. 또 slushie를 먹어.

@anotherspacekid​:

서서히 죽어요? 저는 더위가 너무 싫어요. 영국에 에어컨이 없기 때문에 학교가 지옥 같아요. 그래서 학교 끝나면 친구와 항상 아이스크림을 사 먹었어요. 하지만 이제는 다이어트하기 때문에 아이스크림을 안 먹어요. 아…살려주세요.

2. 최근에 읽은 책이나 기사를 요약하고 자신에게 어떤 영향을 미쳤는지 쓰십시오. (Summarize a book or article that you read recently and write what impact it had on you.)

My response:

나는 외국어로서의 영어 교육 전공 석사를 하는 중이라서 교육학과 언어학, 언어 습득 이론, 교육 철학 등 다양한 주제로 쓰인 교재와 기사를 읽게 됐다. 5년 동안 선생님 일을 하고 왔는데 그럼에도 불구하고 이런저런 다양한 것을 새로 배우고 있다. 예를 들어서, 다국어주의(multilingualism)에 대한 교재를 읽으면서 다양한 나라의 다국어 교육 정책에 대해서 많이 알게 됐다. 이 세상에는 공용어가 2개인 나라가 많은데 보통 그 국어들이 정부와 시민들에게 똑같은 취급을 받지 않는다. 특히 한 국어는 다른 국어보다 더 중요하게 여기게 되는 경우가 많다. 그리고 시민들이 국어가 아닌 다른 언어를 말할 때 그 사람들이 그 나라에서 태어났더라도 이민자나 외국인 취급을 받고 비난과 차별을 많이 당한다. 그런 상황에 대해 읽으면서 우리는 다른 사람의 조국이나 모국어를 이유로 해서 그 사람을 비판하면 절대로 안 된다는 것을 새삼스럽게 느꼈다.

@anotherspacekid​:

최근 제가 읽은 책은 아스페르거 증후군에 대해 안내서입니다. 월요일에 저는 자폐증 평가가 있습니다. 저는 한국에서 자폐증 걸린 것에 대한 견해는 자폐증이 나쁜 것을 알지만 자폐증에 걸리면 저에 대해를 많이 설명하기 때문에 저는 행복하겠습니다. 한국의 자폐증에 대한 견해가 더 좋아지면 좋겠습니다.

3. 남녀평등을 이루려면 사회는 무엇을 해야 하고 어떻게 변해야 한다고 생각하세요? (What you you think society has to do and how must it change to attain equality of the sexes?)

My response:

남녀평등을 이루려면 우리는 태어날 때부터 아이들에게 전달하는 남자와 여자에 대한 메시지를 바꿔야 된다고 생각한다. 최근에 한 기사를 읽었는데, 그 기사는 간단한 실험에 대한 글이었다. 학생들이 병원 신생아실에 들어가서 무슨 아기가 남자인지, 무슨 아기가 여자인지를 추측하는 간단한 실험이었다. 이 실험을 위해서 신생아들을 다 똑같이 입혔고 이름표 같은 정보를 다 가렸다. 그래도 그 날 신생아실에 들어간 학생은 아이의 성별을 90%이상의 확정률로 추측할 수 있었다. 어떻게 그렇게 잘 했을까요? 간호사의 행동이 단추가 된 거였다. 여자 아이를 학생들에게 보여줬을 때 간호사는 아이를 품에 안고 머리를 쓰다듬었는데 남자 아이를 보여줬을 때 거의 자랑하듯이 아이를 껴안는 대신에 학생들에게 내밀었다. 무의식적으로 한 것이었는데 아주 간단한 그 간호사의 행동으로 우리가 아이에게 태어날 때부터 보내는 '남자와 여자가 다르다'라는 메시지가 잘 보인다.

그런 무의식적인 메시지에다가 의식적인 남자과 여자의 사회적인 역할에 대한 메시지도 전달한다. 얘를 들어서, 남자 아이가 울 때 어떤 사람은 '울지마, 남자가 울지 않는다'고 하는데 여자 아이가 울면 사람이 달래준다. 그리고 여자의 외모를 무엇보다 중요하게 여기면서 남자의 경제력을 그 남자의 또 다른 무엇보다 중요하게 여기는 사회가 있다. 남자와 여자는 이렇게 차이가 크게 나는 메시지를 계속 받으면 물론 사람이 남녀평등을 잘 지키지 못할 것이다. 남녀평들을 이루기 위해서 아이들에게 남자와 여자는 생물학적인 차이가 있더라도 사회적인 차이가 없다고 가르쳐야 된다.

Thank you to everyone who participated this week, and I hope to see more writing next week! Happy studying~

Hello everyone! Today I would like to break out a new post series that will hopefully help you get in some Korean writing practice and make it a bit easier for me to keep up with my posting schedule.

Writing Prompt Wednesday is… exactly what the name says it is! Each Wednesday I will write three prompts and make them available for you to answer. This week’s prompts are:

1. 여름에는 더위를 어떻게 피하신가요? (In summer, how do you avoid the heat?)

2. 최근에 읽은 책이나 기사를 요약하고 자신에게 어떤 영향을 미쳤는지 쓰십시오. (Summarize a book or article that you read recently and write what impact it had on you.)

3. 남녀평등을 이루려면 사회는 무엇을 해야 하고 어떻게 변해야 한다고 생각하세요? (What you you think society has to do and how must it change to attain equality of the sexes?)

Here is a link to a Google Form with all of the prompts and spaces to write and submit your answer(s) if you’d like. I would really like to display some of your example responses next week along with the new prompts, so it would be great (but definitely not necessary!) for you to share. If you do choose to share, please submit your responses via the Google Form by 6PM KST July 24 so I have time to read a few and work them into the next post. Of course, you can always just respond to the prompts in your own personal notebooks! Also, you can of course use these prompts for any other language you are working on.

Happy studying, everyone~

Hello everyone! Today I’m moving a little bit away from languages to discuss studying in general. Particularly, note taking! When reading hefty textbooks or research papers, it can be hard to determine which information you really need and which information you can just read and move on from. Today I want to share some tips from my university and grad school days that make slogging through hundreds of pages of material a less daunting task.

Start from the end

One of the nice things about research papers and textbooks and the like is that they typically sum up all of the important parts of the paper/chapter at the end. If you read that summary first, you will have a good road map of what to look for when you read the whole chapter. If the conclusion contains any words that look like they might be key words, or if there are any terms that you are not yet familiar with, take note of those and make sure you seek them out in your read-through.

Again, the chapter conclusion is your guide to the main concepts. After you finish every main heading of the chapter, quickly reference the conclusion to see if you found any of those key points!

Read the section headings!

Section headings are so easy to gloss over, but they’re actually great because they tell you very generally what you should understand by the end of reading that section. For example, if I’m reading a subheading titled “The fuzzy boundaries of named languages”, then I expect to come out of that section with an understanding of why those boundaries are fuzzy and what exactly that means. Furthermore, considering that it’s a subheading in a chapter titled “What is a Language?”, I should be able to not only understand what “fuzzy boundaries” means but also what it means in the context of understanding what a language is.

Sometimes it might help to think of every heading and subheading as a question! For the “fuzzy boundaries” example above, I could ask myself “What are the fuzzy boundaries of named languages?” or “Why are the boundaries of named languages fuzzy?”. If you find that you’ve read a section and it doesn’t seem to answer any kind of question, you’ve probably missed the point and need to read a bit more carefully.

Find the answers to heading questions

Having read the heading or subheading of the section you’re about to tackle, you know what you can expect to have learned by the end of that section. Keep that goal and any heading questions you made in mind. Your job is now to find the answers to those questions. How detailed you get when note taking here is up to you, but the idea is that everything you highlight, underline, or write down in your notebook should directly contribute to answering the heading question(s).

Taking note of things like specific examples is, in my opinion, not really necessary if you understand the overarching concept and do not need to cite specific examples. Of course, if you are synthesizing material for your own research paper, taking note of some of the specific examples can be great evidence for your argument. Just make sure that those examples contribute to your understanding of the section, AND make sure that you are not misrepresenting the example when you use it in your own paper.

That said…

Take notes!

Taking notes (actually writing out notes instead of highlighting only) as you read is really important. It makes you have to stop and actually think about what is important. Also, it gives you a chance to synthesize information on the spot. If you are reading a section and suddenly make a connection between that material and another section, write it down! You will be able to remember things better later, plus if you have some notes written, you can skim those for review instead of rereading the whole chapter again at a later time.

Finally, if you have time…

Do any practice problems/thinking activities in the book

It’s so, SO easy to look at textbook activities, especially ones that want you to think about the new concepts, and say, “Yeah, yeah, I got it.” But if you have time, you really should give those exercises a fair try. They will let you know which concepts you really do understand and which ones you need to go back and read about again.

As always, happy studying!

(Sorry for the late post; I didn’t realize that I queued my Saturday pot incorrectly this week!)

Happy Saturday (or Friday evening depending on your time zone), everyone! Today I bring you an advanced grammar point that is really simple, and that can really help you sound more expressive. Have you ever spent so much time at a friend’s house that you might as well have been living there? Ever done so much work on a group project that you practically could say you did it all on your own? It’s cases like those where today’s grammar, -다시피 하다, is useful.

Function

-다시피 하다 is great when you want to indicate that something was done to such an extent that one could practically say that something else, typically more extreme, was accomplished. That’s a bit of a mouthful, so let’s check out some examples:

I did so much work on this group presentation that I practically completed it alone.

Jaejoon sleeps over at his girlfriend’s house so much he practically lives there.

In these cases, working on group presentations and a guy sleeping over at his girlfriend’s house are pretty mundane things. However, so much work was done by one person that the project was almost completed alone! And our fictional Jaejoon stayed over at his girlfriend’s house so much that he might as well have been living there. This grammar lends itself very easily to exaggerations just like “practically” does in English when used in this manner.

Usage

To use this grammar, attach -다시피 to the root of an action verb and conjugate 하다 after 다시피 to the appropriate tense for what you are trying to convey.

그룹 발표를 준비하는 데 이것저것을 많이 해서 혼자서 다 완성하다시피 했다. (I did so much work on this group presentation that I practically completed it alone.)

재준 씨는 여자 친구네 집에서 자주 잠 자서 거기서 살다시피 하고 있어요. (Jaejoon sleeps over at his girlfriend’s house so much he practically lives there.)

원경 씨는 공부를 안 해서 시험 날에 답을 찍다시피 해서 답안지를 냈다. (Wongyeong didn’t study, so on test day she practically guessed all the answers and turned in the test sheet.)

에세이를 수정했을 때 고칠 게 너무 많아서 결국에 에세이를 새로 쓰다시피 했어요. (When I edited my essay there were so many things to fix that in the end I practically wrote a new essay.)

As always, happy studying~

Hi, I’m taking a course on New Wave Cinema and so this blog might just have gifs from movies I like! More original content to come

Oké ga dus waarschijnlijk volgend jaar historische taal- en letterkunde doen maar nu komt de echt moeilijke beslissing: welke talen

ヲタ恋☆単語②

Continuing my ヲタクに恋は難しい vocabulary revision, here is another list!

JLPT N2 Vocabulary - Ep 0/1

余計　よけい　unnecessary, needless, uncalled for

量　りょう　quantity, amount, volume, capacity, portion (of food)

片付く　かたづく　to be put in order, to be disposed of, to be solved, to be finished

警備　けいび　defence, security

ひとまず　to now, for the time being, for the present

確率　かくりつ　probability, likelihood

勝負　しょうぶ　match, contest, game

複数　ふくすう　several, multiple, plural

低い　ひくい　low (rank, degree, value, content, quality, etc.)

丁寧語 - Polite Keigo

敬語 (けいご・keigo) is respectful speech in Japanese. 敬語 is based in the social hierarchy that has carried over into modern Japanese society from ancient times. There are three forms of 敬語 - teineigo,sonkeigo, and kenjougo.

丁寧語 (ていねいご・teineigo) is polite Japanese. This is the simplest form of 敬語, using regular grammar and with a structure similar to casual speech. Thus, this is the form of 敬語 first taught to Japanese language learners. This means using the です and ～ます forms rather than the dictionary forms.

です comes after nouns, adjectives, and adverbs at the end of a sentence.

ます is added to the stem of verbs.

Casual vs. Polite

ます系　ます form

Casual → Polite

する → します　to do

行く (いく) → 行きます (いきます)　to go

言う (いう) → 言います (いいます)　to say

です系　copula です

Casual → Polite

本だ (ほんだ) → 本です (ほんです)　(it is) a book

猫だった (ねこだった) → 猫でした (ねこでした)　(it was) a cat

暑い (あつい) → 暑いです (あついです)　it is hot

Example Sentences

I am going to buy a book.
Casual: 本を買いに行く。(ほん を かい に いく)
丁寧語: 本を買いに行きます。(ほん を かい に いきます)

The mobile phone is broken.
Casual: 携帯が壊れた。(けいたい が こわれた)
丁寧語: 携帯が壊れました。(けいたい が こわれました)

What is this?
Casual: これは何だ？(これ は なん だ)
丁寧語:こちらは何ですか？(こちら は なん です か)

See also: Basic Keigo