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Advancing Korean, Year 5/6: TAC15 東亞

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druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 233 of 344
12 January 2014 at 7:33pm | IP Logged 
2014년 1월 12일. Week 2.

Goldlists: 1
Podcasts: 2
Books: 0
-----
News Items: 0 (read) 4 (watched)
Written: 2
Conversations: 0
Grammar Practice: 0


On Monday I handed in my final thesis and I'm extremely relieved to be rid of it. One of the first things I did was to write to my former language exchange partner, but unfortunately she hasn't answered yet. I guess I might have to look for someone else. I'm thinking about putting up a message on some of the notice boards at university.

Reading is going very well. I'm already half-way through my first novel for the year. I'm so glad to be able to follow the plot well and understand many - though by far not all - details. For now I'm not looking up any words (well, I looked up about 5 words for 100 pages). I may mine some vocabulary later if I think it's worth it.

I'm also having fun watching short news segments from EBS (the only news videos I found on itunes). They are on cultural topics like books, events, etc. and I usually understand a lot. Worst case is understanding the general topic but picking up only a few details apart from that. Best case means understanding almost every word. I usually watch every item twice or three times to get the most out of it.

So far I've only listened to two podcasts. One was by Jeon Jin-Hee, with whom I'm very familiar. the other was a Jazz podcast (이길주의 JAZZ IN). The music and her comments were enjoyable, but her pronunciation is a bit of a challenge. Challenging is good, though. I feel like pushing my listening comprehension as far as possible to understand less standard speech. I listened to both podcasts on the tram, which was also a good challenge. I had to re-listen more often, but it's good to get used to understanding Korean speech with a lot of background noise.

Edited by druckfehler on 12 January 2014 at 7:35pm

1 person has voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 234 of 344
19 January 2014 at 6:50pm | IP Logged 
2014년 1월 19일. Week 3.

Goldlists: 1
Podcasts: 5
Books: 0
-----
News Items: 0 (read) 7 (watched)
Written: 5
Conversations: 0
Grammar Practice: 1


I just can't keep my mind off Korean, it seems. I've already studied more than I thought I would and I'm still leaning towards more Korean and less Persian. I think that having a list where I count completed things is very motivating.

At the moment I learn the most new words through short news clips by EBS about cultural topics. I listen to each clip 2-3 times and look up words I understand but don't know the meaning of. It's a good method for listening practice while at the same time closing vocabulary gaps. And I've noticed that I still have quite a few gaps to close...

Writing is going surprisingly well. I wrote a fairly long text about my Korean studies (etc.) for the January challenge of team Gumiho. I got a lot of compliments on lang-8. Although language compliments by Koreans are to be taken with a grain of salt, I seem to be moving in the right direction. While three different people looked over my text, about half of the sentences didn't get any corrections.
1 person has voted this message useful



Kerrie
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Kerrie2
Joined 5191 days ago

1232 posts - 1740 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 235 of 344
20 January 2014 at 2:32am | IP Logged 
druckfehler wrote:
I think that having a list where I count completed things is very motivating.


I find that for me, too. Even just having a list of things I plan to do (for the week, for example) motivates me to cross things off, or to add to the number of something finished. :D
1 person has voted this message useful



Tarko
Senior Member
Korea, South
Joined 4487 days ago

119 posts - 148 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, French

 
 Message 236 of 344
20 January 2014 at 12:58pm | IP Logged 
druckfehler wrote:
I just can't keep my mind off Korean, it seems. I've already studied more than I thought I would and I'm still leaning towards more Korean and less Persian.


Welcome to the dark side! ;)


druckfehler wrote:
Although language compliments by Koreans are to be taken with a grain of salt, I seem to be moving in the right direction. While three different people looked over my text, about half of the sentences didn't get any corrections.


So true. There are times when all I say is, "안녕하세요?" and the other person instantly replies: "우와 한국말 잘하시네요~~" But I feel as if this is a frequent occurrence for people who study a language that isn't commonly learned.

That's HUGE progress! Your text was quite long and making mistakes in half of the sentences is impressive! Great job!
1 person has voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 237 of 344
26 January 2014 at 2:08am | IP Logged 
2014년 1월 26일. Week 4.

Goldlists: 1
Podcasts: 7
Books: 1
-----
News Items: 0 (read) 7 (watched)
Written: 5
Conversations: 1
Grammar Practice: 1


Lots of things happened this week. I just returned from one of the monthly Korean-German meetings. They are getting bigger and bigger. This time we were around 20 people and more than half of them Korean with varying degrees of German proficiency. It was great practice. Unfortunately I still can't follow natural conversation too well - although I have very few problems when people address me directly. Speaking feels more natural nowadays - I'm faster, but I still have to search for grammar, words and expressions. And I feel incompetent. I really lack practice (but my former tandem is interested in meeting up again, so this could change soon).

Today's meeting was rather interesting, because one of the Koreans set up a kind of informal job interview for me. There's the possibility that I might be offered a job by a Korean company and it seems like something I'd like to work at. But I don't yet know all of the particulars, so it's a rather vague thing for now. I mention this only as a piece of encouragement for all you language enthusiasts. The advice given in this forum is usually that other skills are more valuable for the job market - but I'm starting to believe that knowing a different language & culture can really be a valuable asset. I had another job interview on Friday where the interviewer was most interested in my English major (apart from some experience in the field).

But back to Korean :) This week I also finished reading my first novel for the year (본드걸 미미양의 모험), which I'm pretty happy about. The novel asked the question what happens after the happy end of a James Bond movie - how does life continue for 007 and the bond girl? It was pretty funny in some places (and I probably still missed quite a bit of the humor). It was my 15th Korean book overall. I read most of it extensively, but some chapters intensively for better understanding. By now, reading with true enjoyment is quite possible. I started on Anne Frank's diary (the newly published complete version) and it's easy to read. I'll probably not read much until my exams at the end of March are over, though. I already have to read too much for those.

Edited by druckfehler on 26 January 2014 at 3:42am

3 persons have voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 238 of 344
02 February 2014 at 1:26pm | IP Logged 
2014년 2월 2일. Week 5.

Goldlists: 1
Podcasts: 10
Books: 1
-----
News Items: 1 (read) 7 (watched)
Written: 6
Conversations: 1
Grammar Practice: 1


I didn't do much this week and I don't expect to study a lot during the coming 2 months either. I have a lot to read for my oral exams and I doubt that I'll find time for any Korean reading. However, it looks like I might get some more speaking practice soon. Now that her semester is over, my language exchange partner has answered my e-mail and it looks like we might be able to meet for breakfast and conversation soon.

This week I listened to some more podcasts. I understood a lot of Yoo Inna's radio show, which was very encouraging. I don't think there was any segment where I didn't get anything. With listening routine seems especially important. It's very gradually getting easier - and easier means that it requires both less focus and I understand more overall.

I also read my first news article for the year. It was both long and interesting: 왜 지금, 떼죽음 당했나..가창오리 '미스터리' It seems like the bird flu has struck again in Korea and the article explains that the epidemic is really the fault of agricultural practices and mass meat production and not the fault of migratory birds.

Edited by druckfehler on 02 February 2014 at 5:03pm

1 person has voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 239 of 344
10 February 2014 at 12:05am | IP Logged 
2014년 2월 9일. Week 6.

Goldlists: 1
Podcasts: 12
Books: 1
-----
News Items: 1 (read) 9 (watched)
Written: 7
Conversations: 1
Grammar Practice: 1


Language-wise, I mostly studied Persian this week, thanks to the 6-week-challenge. That's great, because I was planning to make Persian more of a focus language than Korean this year.

For Korean, I caught up on some old goldlists and prepared a new one, using words I mined from 2 news items I watched. One was a generic "we're volunteering to make Kimchi for the needy" report - I had gone through a very, very similar one on G.L.O.S.S. two years ago. I still got a lot of new words out of it, like 장애인 (disabled person) and 버무리다 (to mix - any difference from 비비다? I have no idea). The other news item was more challenging. It talked about virtual money - as used in a Korean community as a means of exchange with neighbours and as used online in the form of bitcoins. The great thing is that I can catch a lot of words by listening, so after looking up many unknowns and listening for the third time the report became very clear. I got words like 공동체 (community) and 금융 (finance, banking) out of it.

Edited by druckfehler on 10 February 2014 at 12:08am

1 person has voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4664 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 240 of 344
16 February 2014 at 2:59pm | IP Logged 
2014년 2월 16일. Week 7.

Goldlists: 1
Podcasts: 14
Books: 1
-----
News Items: 2 (read) 9 (watched)
Written: 7
Conversations: 1
Grammar Practice: 1


I'm very proud of myself for not doing anything much in Korean this week :D There just isn't time and brain space. I read one article from Advanced Korean but every time I double-check with their translation the slight mistakes they make, which sometimes change the meaning, irritate me to no end. Either my Korean sucks or their Korean sucks. I strongly suspect that their grasp on Korean grammar needs some work...

Edited by druckfehler on 16 February 2014 at 3:17pm



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