Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5533 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese
| Message 209 of 344 25 November 2013 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
That's a big part of the reason I very rarely find new words (or even grammar forms) in songs
now. I've picked up so many words and grammar constructions from songs (including
intensively reading quite a few of them) that I thoroughly know the vast majority of "pop
song" Korean now. My comprehension also went way up in variety shows after I knocked out
most of the vocabulary that appears repeatedly in that form of media (some of which
doesn't really appear all that much outside of variety TV).
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The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5647 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean
| Message 210 of 344 25 November 2013 at 3:29pm | IP Logged |
I personally read the Chosun Ilbo. There are some
English versions of the articles.
You could also do something similar and just read a lot of articles, looking up the
common words that appear a lot, and over time, you'll find it easier to pick up the other
words because of context and seeing it used a few times.
I wish to do this with some of the history articles on Wikipedia, but that would probably
require a strong knowledge of Hanja to make sense of things, so I've held off on that for
now.
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 211 of 344 27 November 2013 at 3:26pm | IP Logged |
The Real CZ wrote:
I personally read the Chosun Ilbo. There are some English versions of the articles. |
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Thanks! I had a look at a couple of articles in the general news, entertainment and culture sections. While I generally understood the topic and what they were saying about it, there are many words I don't know yet - some of which I can, some of which I can't guess. Really going through these systematically by topic sounds like a good idea.
How challenging is the politics section for you? How much would you say that your knowledge from the entertainment articles helps?
@Warp: I envy you for being able to understand most entertainment Korean. I usually find those shows difficult to watch because there's so much talking and writing going on at once... Do you have any plans to dive into other media or are you concentrating on Spanish for now?
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Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5533 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese
| Message 212 of 344 28 November 2013 at 1:10am | IP Logged |
druckfehler wrote:
@Warp: I envy you for being able to understand most entertainment
Korean. I usually find those shows difficult to watch because there's so much talking and
writing going on at once. |
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There is a lot going on in variety shows, but they are also notorious for plastering text all
over the screen so if you have decent reading speed that makes for a useful crutch at
times. In fact, originally I'm pretty sure I read more than listened on those shows, but
I've noticed lately (especially after I started watching X-man which does not have subs
available for the first 25 or so episodes) that my listening comprehension has definitely
been climbing. I'd probably do well with dramas, if I had to guess, but I find it harder to
want to watch a drama in the first place, so I haven't really tried to watch any dramas
unsubbed yet (since I usually only watch dramas with others who need the subtitles).
Quote:
Do you have any plans to dive into other media or are you concentrating on
Spanish for now? |
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I'm not really sure. One thing I've been meaning to focus on with Korean is going back to
do some grammar study for a bit to fill in some holes here and there, so that will
probably be what I focus on next. I'm definitely not planning to stop working on my
Korean anytime soon regardless of what I do with other languages.
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The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5647 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean
| Message 213 of 344 28 November 2013 at 1:12am | IP Logged |
I can understand the general gist of any political article because I have read quite a
few articles. Certain themes and words are used often, so there is a lot of carry over. I
don't think entertainment articles have helped that much with reading political articles
except for getting used to the type of grammar that is used in newspapers. Thankfully the
grammar in newspapers in much simpler than grammar in novels. If anything, reading many
political articles have helped me understand business articles since the two topics are
usually intertwined, and has helped with the 생활 articles as well, especially the
criminal articles.
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 214 of 344 01 December 2013 at 2:29pm | IP Logged |
2013년 12월 1일.
Korean 한국어
I think I read about 50 or 60 pages this week and finally finished 어떤 작위의 세계, the novel I started in April. Because I wanted to finish it for the November challenge and didn't have an enormous amount of time, I abandoned the intensive reading approach. While this meant I got a little lost in some passages (more of the author rambling on and on about the meaninglessness of everything and his boredom, I think), it helped me to actually finish the novel and develop a decent reading speed. I may or may not return to the novel with a more intensive approach. While it did get annoying to read about all the random ideas and associations of the author, I feel that I could still get many useful words out of the book. I was especially happy to notice that context and syllable knowledge (so to speak Hanja knowledge without knowing the actual Chinese characters) made it possible to recognise more and more new words. 외계인 (alien) and 채식주의자 (vegetarian) spring to mind. It was also nice to meet some of the words from Pippi Longstocking again, like 주근깨 (freckles).
I have already started a new novel that is pleasant to read: 세계를 재다, the Korean translation of Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann. I'm also debating on whether to buy Anne Frank's Diary (안네의 일기) and a non-fiction book by a Korean about learning foreign languages (교과서를 덮으면 외국어가 춤춘다). I think both would teach me very useful words. I find that translations of European books can help me to express things from a European/German context that I would like to talk about in Korean, which makes them very useful.
Edited by druckfehler on 02 December 2013 at 7:26pm
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 215 of 344 05 December 2013 at 7:59pm | IP Logged |
2013년 12월 5일.
Korean 한국어
I've recently listened to another one of 전진희의 음악일기 podcasts and was pleasantly surprised how much I understood on first listen. I transcribed a passage for fun and there were only a few words I had to figure out with help of the Naver dictionary. I'll post it, maybe someone finds it useful:
전진희의 음악일기 wrote:
어제는 날씨가 엄청 맑았죠? 어쩐지 엊그제 하늘을 보니까 달빛이 너무 맑더라고요. 요즘은 정말 하늘 보는 재미에 삽니다. 아, 맞다. 저… 해마다 가을이 되면 땡땡이 치고 경복궁 놀러 가는 거 아시죠? 바로 어제 학교 땡땡이 치고 경복궁에 놀러 갔어요. 제가 대학원에 간 이유 중의 하나가 그 땡땡이의 즐거움을 보기하기가 싫더라고요. 너무 철이 없나? 근데 어제는 사실 몸이 좀 안 좋아서 아침에 병원을 가느라고 학교에 못 갔습니다. 병원에 계속 누워 있다가 너무 답답해서 경복궁에 갔는데요. 어제 정말 좋았어요. 어쩜 그렇게 하늘색이 예쁜지… 제가 경복궁에 가면 제일 좋아하는 데가 하나 있는데요. 경회루 앞에 느티나무가 하나 있고요. 벤치가 두 개 나란히 있어요. 그래서 어제는 거기 가서 벤치에 누워서 나뭇잎 흔들리는 걸 보고 있었습니다. 너무너무 이쁘더라고요. 한… 한 시간쯤 그렇게 누워서 나뭇잎 흔들리는 것 보다 왔습니다. 아, 그리고 경회루 앞에 작은 기념품샾이 하나 있는데요. 잠깐 드러가 보니까 너무 귀여운 소품들이 많더라고요. 저는 캠퍼스백이랑 조그만한 머리끈의 몇 개 사 왔습니다. 비단의 수를 놓은 손톱 크기 만한 작은 머리끈인데요. 예쁘더라고요. 여자분들은 나중에 혹시 경복궁에 가실 일 있으시면 한번 구경해 보세요. |
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new words:
엊그제 - a couple of days ago
철이 없다 - childish, immature
경회루
소품 - small things (like deco articles)
비단 - silk
수를 놓다 - embroider
I really like the expression "...하는 재미에/로 살다"
I wouldn't know how to translate it exactly, but naver gives two examples:
naver.dict wrote:
그는 요즘 손주의 재롱을 보는 재미에 산다.
He finds it most pleasing to watch his grandson do cute things these days.
네가 떠나면 나는 무슨 재미로 살지?
If you leave me, there won't be any fun left in my life.
If you leave me, what am I going to live for?
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I think the Korean expression is far more poignant, though: "I live for the fun of doing..."
Actually, transcribing short passages seems like a pretty good idea for further improving listening comprehension and learning a couple of words. I usually have less trouble remembering words I listened to than words I read.
I'm thinking about my goals for Korean next year. I don't want to try anything ambitious or follow a strict schedule, but having no clear goals this year made studying feel a little aimless, though fun. Maybe I'll try something like:
- read 10 books
- listen to 100 podcast episodes
- have 20 meetings with a language partner?
- write x number of goldlists?
- read x number of newspaper articles?
...
I'd love to have regular tandem meetings, I'll probably try to revive the one I had earlier this year. It was great for studying and we got along quite well, it just got difficult to schedule the meetings. A fixed time, twice per month would be ideal for me. I'll see how it goes.
Edited by druckfehler on 06 December 2013 at 2:08am
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 216 of 344 16 December 2013 at 1:05am | IP Logged |
2013년 12월 15일.
Korean 한국어
I just finalised my goals for TAC 2014. In Korean, I will aim at reading 10 books, listening to 100 podcasts (native materials or lessons - everything counts) and starting at least 50 new goldlists. That will pretty much occupy me for a year, I think. I'll try to work on speaking and active grammar usage as well, but that depends on factors somewhat outside of my control.
Korean is slowly mutating into an expensive hobby. I have ordered three new books which will probably arrive in time for Christmas. I'm very much looking forward to the Korean translation of "Anne Frank's Diary" (안네의 일기). The vocabulary should be pretty useful, considering that she writes about her daily life. I also felt stumped when I wanted to talk about German history and World War II, because I didn't know the vocabulary. Anne Frank's Diary will remedy that. I also ordered a contemporary Korean novel called "Bond Girl Mimi's Adventure(s)" (본드걸 미미양의 모험). I read the preview and it seems like it will be a pleasant read. It won't be as philosophical as my last two Korean novels and I'm glad about it. Mimi is a former bond girl who decides to become a spy herself after getting dumped. Then I also bought "Intermediate Grammar in Use" which Evita recommended. It looks fun (it's a long time since I last did grammar exercises) and I think it will help me convert many of the patterns I understand passively into active knowledge.
I just did two 3rd and 4th distillations each of my goldlists. I hadn't looked at them for about a month and a half and was quite surprised with the results. I only had some slight trouble choosing which words to eliminate on one of the 3rd distillations. For the others, I had trouble choosing which words not to eliminate! Although the 4th distillations are supposed to keep 9 words, I had to leave the last spot empty. There were only 4-5 rather difficult words left, I knew the rest at least vaguely. I decided to add goldlisting to my official TAC goals, because not using some method to learn vocabulary (besides immersion) seems like a waste of opportunity. I haven't used the goldlist method regularly so far, so maybe having a goal of 50 lists will make me utilise it some more.
Persian فارسی
Persian will be my main focus for TAC 2014. I have decided to open a separate log for Persian to keep things neat and to motivate myself more not to slack off in either language. This is my new Persian log.
Edited by druckfehler on 16 December 2013 at 1:09am
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