I think once in a while, it’s probably a good idea to take a break from grammar books and their “artificial” passages/dialogues and switch to primary reading material.  News articles, short stories, novels, nonfiction books, magazine articles etc. can really broaden your knowledge in general, not to mention your knowledge of the language you are learning. There are a couple things worth keeping in mind if you want to maximize your learning through reading primary material (novels, in particular) without getting bogged down and discouraged.

1. Choose something above your reading level.  I know it’s tempting to go for the easy stuff.  I’m guilty of that.  But you won’t be doing yourself any favors if you choose to read something you can fully understand!  I like reading manhwa just for fun but I barely learn anything except for a few words here and there.  해품달, on the other hand, is clearly above my reading level but I understand enough to keep me motivated to continue reading; and at the same time, I’m learning a lot!  I would not, however, suggest reading Charles Dickens or something equally “heavy” in Korean because it could get really discouraging.  There’s a lot of trial and error involved in choosing the right book.
2. Choose something that you are familiar with.  For example, a book that you’ve read in English that has been translated into your language of study.  I, personally, prefer to read material that was originally written in Korean as opposed to translated into Korean, so I tend to go for novels that have been made into dramas (e.g. Coffee Prince).  I find that having at least a vague idea of the plot prevents me from feeling completely lost in the middle of the book.
3. Don’t wait until you’re “ready.”  By this, I mean don’t put off trying to read primary material until you feel like you’ve reached a certain degree of fluency in your language of study.  In Korean, I would say maybe six months to a year’s worth of study gives you sufficient familiarity with the language to allow you to start venturing into the world of manhwa and short articles.  Of course this depends on the foreign language, but I think you need to be comfortable with at least basic grammar before jumping into reading books and such.
4. Read and re-read.  You’ll probably misunderstand a lot of things in your first round of reading.  Take notes and look them over.  Then put them away and come back after two weeks, re-read the same passage/article, and see if you have processed the new vocabulary and grammar.  I often find that what I read the first time around is not exactly what I read the second time around.  I usually have a better grasp of the content after re-reading.
5. Take copious notes.  Just in case this was not obvious, it is important that you do not read passively.  Since I usually don’t read my grammar book when I’m reading novels and vice versa, I have to make up for that lack of “instruction” on my own by looking up words and grammar points online.  I usually only read a page or two out of 해품달 everyday but that amounts to about 40-60 minutes of study.  My reading “cycle” usually goes something like this:

(a)  Read the passage.  First, I simply read straight through and try to grasp as much as I can without looking up anything.

(b)  Re-read and look up all unfamiliar words and grammar.  I jot down every single one of these in my notebook and look them up online.  Blue ink for new words, red ink for new grammar.  I separate my notes by paragraph and add the page number of the original source next to it too.

(c)  Re-read again.  This time, I read for overall comprehension.

(d)  Repeat.  And finally, I move onto the next couple pages.

It may seem like brute force but it definitely works for me and it’s a welcome change from those grammar books.  (Though I really should get back to my Integrated Korean; it’s been far too long.)

I started blogging about my Korean studies on February 16, 2011.  I’m not sure what’s more surprising – the fact that Korean is now, in all veracity, an irrevocably integral part of my daily life and existence (dramatic, but true) or the fact that I’ve somehow managed to harp on about how much I love it for an entire year.  Heh.

More than anything, I’ve come to realize how much I treasure being able to share my thoughts, discoveries, worries, and musings about language learning to a wonderful community of fellow language learners.  Whether you are a silent reader or a fellow blogger (or both), I’m glad you guys are here with me!  *Group hug*

제운은 아랑곳없이 눈을 감은 채 고개를 숙이고 주위의 움직임을 읽었다.  먼 곳을 보던 훤이 산자락에 있는 희미한 불빛을 발견하고 반갑게 말했다.

“아!  잠시 저기서 비를 피하자꾸나.”

-정을궐, 해를 품은 달

First off, here’s a structure most of you are probably very familiar with:  “V + 자” – the casual way to propose something you want to do with someone else.

예) 먹자! = Let’s eat!

예) 가자! = Let’s go!

-자꾸나 is equivalent to -자.  It can mean “Let’s…” or “How about… [we do something]?” but it tends to sound more intimate and is often used by an older person when addressing a younger person.  (In this case, Woon is older but Hwon is the king.)

예) 한잔 하자(꾸나) = Let’s have a drink.

예)  잠시 저기서 비를 피하자(꾸나). = Let us seek shelter from the rain for a moment over there.

I think I’ll just post a few of my favorite passages from 해를 품은 달 and 성균관 유생들의 나날 as examples of the grammar/vocabulary that I want to write about (nothing spoilery, I promise!)  Without further ado:

“왕인 이 몸에 주술을 걸었다면 넌 능지처참*을 당할 것이다.  말해보아라. 주술을 건 것이냐?”

월이 놀란 눈으로 다시 훤을 돌아보았다.  그의 눈빛이 따뜻하게 웃고 있었다.

“아니면 내 마음이 왜 이런 것이냐?  설명해 다오.  목소리를….., 들려 다오.” 

*능지처참:  death by dismemberment 

- from 해를 품은 달

I cheated a little bit in that 다오 is an example of 하오체 which isn’t exclusively heard in sageuks (it can be heard in contemporary Korean and I’ve read it here and there on the internet but I’m not sure how common it is overall).  It is quite commonly heard in sageuks and gives the dialogue a more “old-fashioned” feel.

It’s pretty easy to tell from context how 다오 is used.  Basically, it’s a semi-informal way of requesting someone to do something.  Examples:

예) 돈 좀 빌려 다오. = Lend me some money.
예) 창문을 조금만 열어 다오. = Open the window a bit.

Two updates in a day?  My oh my.  I hope this means I’ll get back into the habit of blogging regularly.

The drama deviates quite a bit from the novel, but both of them have their own charm so I will forgive this otherwise heinous crime this one time.  Heh.  The drama also had an incredible cast of child actors for the first six episodes; and currently, Kim Soohyun is stealing the screen, blazing as the young, bitter king whose heart longs for the girl he loved as a boy.

The drama is garnering shockingly high ratings week after week; whether that’s to be attributed to the pure genius that was Tree With Deep Roots or the Joseon crack that was The Princess’s Man or perhaps the popularity of the novel itself, it’s hard to tell.  For me, however, the magic is more in the novel than the drama.

The novel takes place during the Joseon dynasty, so there is quite a bit of figurative language and historical words that I’m not familiar with (and also a lot of words that I just don’t know in general; unsurprising, considering the fact that I’m attempting to read a historical novel barely two years into learning the language).  The incredible thing is I can understand most of the plot despite my extremely limited vocabulary and, while I’m at it, I’m gaining such an appreciation for the beauty of “old” Korean.

Personally, I find contemporary Korean more poetic than English and speech during the Joseon era, especially royal speech, even more so.  Unsurprisingly, this novel is filled with absolutely gorgeous language.  Metaphors and motifs galore and, my personal favorite, parallel structure, which is just as pleasing to read in Korean as English.  I plowed my way through book 1 and I’m halfway through book 2, but at this point, I’m reading more for the language than the plot.  In terms of the plot itself, well, I will suppress my inner literature bitch.  It’s little more than Joseon flavored cotton candy fluff but it’s addicting and definitely worth reading for the language.

Mom and I were talking a few days ago about reading in different languages.  My mom’s trilingual in English, Marathi, and Tamil.  She grew up reading novels with ease in both  English and Tamil.  I asked her if she ever had a weird out-of-body feeling when she was reading in either language because I experienced that several times while reading 해를 품은 달.  I’d be sucked into the story for several minutes and then I’d stop and marvel at the fact that this story is written entirely in a language that was unknown to me for 20+ years.  And I was understanding it.  Not only was I understanding it, I was having a visceral reaction to it.  For the first time since I started learning Korean, I was doing more than just comprehending.  I cried during the sad scenes, blushed during the romantic scenes, bit my nails when things were getting intense.  I always thought that no matter how long I study Korean, I would never be able to shake off that element of “foreignness.”  But the fact that I’m getting to the point where I can react to a story written in Korean the same as I do when it’s in English is yet another indication that I can be comfortable enough in a “foreign” language to the extent that it doesn’t feel “foreign” any more.  Amazing!

Mom said she never felt like that when she switched between reading in different languages, probably because she grew up learning all three at the same time.  Sometimes  I wish I had grown up knowing multiple languages just as well as I know English, but then I guess I would miss out on experiencing a transition like this!

훤: 가만. 설마 너 나와 그 아이를 질투하는 것이냐?
연우: 예? 아님니다.
훤: 이거 큰일이구나. 투기는 여인의 칠거지악 중 하나거늘…  나의 비가 될 아이가 이리 투기심이 많아서야…
연우: 아니라는데 왜 자꾸 그러십니- 예?
훤: 세자빈 간택이 시작된다는 말이다.  너도 처녀단제를 올릴테지? 기다리겠다.  너라면 분명 세자빈이 될 수 있을 것이다.

칠거지악 is a curious little word that I wasn’t familiar with.  I’ve seen it translated as “The Seven Deadly Sins” but that’s not what it literally means.

칠거지악 [명사]: 조선 시대, 아내를 내쫓을 수 있는 이유가 되는 일곱 가지의 허물. 곧 시부모에게 순종하지 아니하는 것(不順舅姑), 자식을 낳지 못하는 것(無子), 행실이 음탕한 것(淫), 질투하는 것(妬), 나쁜 병이 있는 것(惡症), 말이 많은 것(多言), 도둑질을 하는 것(盜) 등을 이른다. (source)

During the Joseon era, these were seven reasons for divorcing a wife:  Disobedience to her in-laws.  Inability to bear children.  Promiscuity.  Jealousy.  Having an incurable disease.  Talking too much.  Stealing.  

I did a bit more research into 칠거지악 and learned that it is a Confucius teaching found in 대학(大學) or The Great Learning, one of the 사서(四書) or Four Books which, along with the The Three Classics, make up the definitive texts of Confucianism.  Collectively, they are called 사서삼경(四書三經) or the Four Books and Three Classics.

Unsurprisingly, there is no equivalent for a woman wanting to divorce a man.  However, I did read that there are three exceptional situations in which a man cannot divorce his wife, even if she commits one of the seven faults under 칠거지악:

1. If she has no other place to go.
2. If she has mourned his parents for three years.  (i.e. She demonstrates filial piety.)
3. If she was at first poor and then became rich after getting married.  (i.e. She raised her family’s social status through marriage.)

I remember learning a little bit about Confucianism forever ago in high school but not terribly in depth.  I wouldn’t say I’m… completely interested in learning about it but in the context of sageuk dramas, it definitely helps to understand Confucianism to understand certain plot points and bits of dialogue.  It’s also a novel experience (no pun intended)  trying to read up on Confucianism in Korean… yeah… I think I’ll stick to English for now.

I still have a lot to learn about Korean culture, but I do know that one of the major New Year’s traditions in Korea is to watch the first sunrise of the new year.

My friend (the same one I skyped with a while back) told me that he and his father would be going to 강원도 to see the sun rise by the beach.  I told him to take lots of pictures and Kakaotalk with me if he was bored of waiting, and he did exactly that (photo credits go to him).  He arrived at 3:00 AM and had to wait five full hours (in the cold!) for the sunrise.  I asked him why he couldn’t just wait inside somewhere but, clearly, I had no idea about how many people actually did this every year.

He complained that it was so cloudy that you could barely see anything, but his dad managed to take a rather beautiful photo.

They also climbed to the top of a very slippery mountain.  I can’t imagine doing this in warm weather, let alone freezing winter weather.

It was a lot fun Kakaotalking with him while he was there!  It made me feel like I was there too.  Although, if I were ever in Korea during New Year’s, this is probably one tradition I would shy away from.  I prefer waking up warm, cozy, and sober on New Year’s Day.

Best wishes for 2012, everyone.

For the past year, I’ve been using the “soft” (i.e. onscreen) Korean keyboard that comes with the Microsoft Windows IME – so basically, using my mouse to input each Hangeul character.  It’s slow and unnecessarily abusive to my poor index finger.  My netbook, which runs Windows 7, doesn’t come with the soft keyboard so I finally have to face the harsh reality of learning how to type again.  This time, in Korean.

A while back, I made my own Hangeul stickers and had them on my keyboard for a couple months before they all started to fall off.  That gave me a general idea of where all the characters are but unfortunately my speed and accuracy are nowhere near that of my English typing ability.  This clearly has to change or I’ll start to hate typing in Korean, which means I’ll start to hate looking up stuff on the internet on my own, which means I won’t study as much.  And that’s bad. >:(

But look what I found while browsing through the kids section at Daum!

 타자연습 (click!)

It’s your standard typing game.  You can chose to work on different sets of keys, an entire row, and/or simple words.

Individual characters are fine but typing full words are still really hard for me.

The only criticism I have is that game doesn’t actually teach you which fingers go with which key (i.e. pinky finger for ㅂ ㅁ ㅋ ) but if you are familiar with QWERTY keyboarding in English, it shouldn’t be a problem to carry that over to Korean.

I still have a long way to go till I can comfortably type in Korean but I guess practice makes perfect.  One more thing to add to my ever growing list of Things to Accomplish in 2012. ^^

This week, for the first time since I started learning Korean, I spoke in Korean to a Korean friend of mine through skype.  Usually, I’m pretty paranoid about giving out my contact information and/or talking to people I’ve just met over the internet but I had met this particular friend through me2day over the summer and we’d talked on and off.  He seemed quite nice!  He usually commented on all of my me2day posts, engaged me in conversation, and always offered to help me whenever I had questions about Korean.  I learned about 수능 through him as well, since he was a 수험생 this year.  After he got a smart phone, we chatted a lot with each other using Kakaotalk, which really helped me think on my feet!

Anyway, we’d been talking about skyping for a while and he kept saying that we should do it at a time that was convenient for me but, to be honest, I was incredibly nervous and so I kept blowing him off.  Until finally!  I decided I should just do it.  As much as I think reading+writing+listening+speaking are all important components of language learning, speaking has always been something I disregarded because there was just no opportunity at all to practice speaking in Korean where I live.  I didn’t know a single Korean person and all my Korean-American friends were more comfortable speaking in English.

But I’m so glad I took this opportunity to skype with my friend even though I was so so so incredibly nervous at first.  For the first five minutes, all I could keep saying was “어 진짜 어색해 ㅠㅠ” over and over again.

To that my friend replied, “누나 진짜 한국사람 같아!”

Heh.  Well, that was pretty generous of him but it gave me a lot of confidence.

Frankly speaking, my spoken Korean is very BAD.  Like, horrible.  According to my level of experience, I’d say my writing is above average but my speaking is way below average.  That being said, my friend spoke to me entirely in Korean and I managed to speak in a weird mix of Korean and English ( 영어+한국어  = 영국어?) and I consider that somewhat of an accomplishment.  Haha.

The entire experience was kind of surreal because, for the first time, I was actually saying all these words that I’d read and used in writing and utilizing them in a conversation.  I’m quite proud of my listening abilities too, since I was able to understand pretty much everything my friend was saying to me.

I really do have to give most of the credit to my friend, though.  Despite being much younger than me, he seemed to know exactly how to hold a conversation at my level of Korean.  If I couldn’t understand a question, he rephrased it using easier words.  If I didn’t know a word, he’d define it for me using really simple Korean.  We talked about a lot of different things – really basic stuff like what we did that day, our hobbies, music, dramas, language in general (he kept saying he was envious of my English pronunciation haha), how to improve my Korean and his English.  The amazing thing is that he understood what I was trying to say even if I screwed up the grammar or the word.

We managed to talk for an entire hour like that.

Honestly, I was completely like “신기해!!” the entire time.  I remember feeling the same way when I left a comment in Korean for the first time ever at TTMIK and Hyunwoo replied back in Korean.  The fact that I am getting better and better at interacting with others in both written and spoken Korean is somehow slowly stripping the language of its “foreignness” to me – and that’s a really great feeling.

Looking forward to speaking more Korean in the new year. ^^

A couple months ago, I stumbled across this interesting article in Discover Magazine that I think is worth sharing:

The Language Fossils Buried in Every Cell of Your Body (click to read the article).

The article is about a certain gene known as FOXP2 which may, at least in part, be involved in the acquisition of language in humans.  As the article states:

FOXP2 didn’t give us language all on its own. In our brains, it acts more like a foreman, handing out instructions to at least 84 target genes in the developing basal ganglia. Even this full crew of genes explains language only in part, because the ability to form words is just the beginning. Then comes the higher level of complexity: combining words according to rules of grammar to give them meaning.

First of all, this is exciting.  I don’t care if you don’t like science but the idea that scientists have identified at least one gene (even if it’s not THE gene.  Chances are THE gene doesn’t even exist) that may be involved in a process as complex as language is kind of mind-blowing.  Humans seem to be the only species that have language and some have even gone so far as to speculate that language and communication is our “innate” ability, so identifying any kind of genetic connection to language is the first step in figuring out the evolution of language.

Obviously it’s difficult to come up with… um… ethical models to study language at the genetic level.  But the fact that certain individuals with language defects have very specific mutations in FOXP2 is fairly convincing evidence that the gene is one of the key orchestrators of language acquisition.  Personally, I’m not sure how much I believe in the existence of a single “grammar” gene or a “syntax” gene, as the article mentions in its concluding sentence, but I’ll have to read up more on the actual neuroscience behind speech and language before I form a solid opinion about it.  It’s an interesting thought though.  And also, mutations don’t necessarily have to have negative effects so it would be interesting to see if polyglots have any beneficial mutations in the FOXP2 gene and/or differential growth and activation of the neurons under its control.  Then again, scientists like to attribute everything and anything to genetics these days but that’s a debate I’d rather not get into.

Wheeeee!  Cool, cool stuff.  And extra cool because the FOXP2 protein is actually part of the same family of DNA regulator proteins as FOXP3, which I’ve been reading a lot about in my classes.  Interestingly, FOXP3 is completely unrelated to language – it’s a key regulator of a special type of immune cells in your body.  But I digress.

Thoughts on the “language gene” anyone?