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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 9:04 am Post subject: Are you comfortable using Korean? |
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After several years and a little ability in the language I still dislike using it. But of course I realize it is useful or even necessary often enough to lead a less limited life here. Mainly if I am somewhat drunk I can manage better, less inhibited I guess. Generally I prefer to avoid it though, with the pronunciation mishaps and other misunderstanding wrangles that inevitably arise. But so few Koreans seem to know much English or at least dislike using whatever they can, as much as I dislike using Korean, that if I cannot use Korean, communication dies. Anyway I can get the students' feeling on this. We live in a land where Korea really is the entire world, so to speak. Language/culture is Korean 24/7 for almost everybody here. |
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Cedar
Joined: 11 Mar 2003 Location: In front of my computer, again.
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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In Korea I am -more- comfortable using Korean than English. So are 99.9% of the people I meet in my daily life. It makes sure we are understanding each other!
And it's not so hard to learn! I met a guy yesterday who was sitting on a bench at my school (cause it's green and quiet) studying Korean, and he's only been here two years, but his accent was good, and his ability pretty advanced. It just has to do with -desire- to learn!
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Korea Newfie
Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Newfoundland and Labrador
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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When I'm alone I use it, but when with Korean friends, I defer to them and play dumb. For example, last night I went out with my school to eat. I wanted more gochu jang, but I asked one of them to ask for it for me. Koreans (my coworkers and friends included ) see no problem with laughing at my efforts to my face, which I don't care for. |
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Trinny
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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I am in the area where I have to speak a decent French to be able to get any job, even the administrative assistant level. However, I simply have no hearts to learn French from the get-go. Being a Korean speaker, there is no way I can be fluent in French in a year or two. And having learned English as a Korean speaker, I got totally freaked out about the estimated amount of time I have to spend down the road to get my French up to scratch.
Learning a new language is a frustrating thing to do indeed. |
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FierceInvalid
Joined: 16 Mar 2003
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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I'm pretty comfortable (trying to) use it, even if I do mangle it a fair amount of the time. I'm at that point where I can have a basic conversation with someone if they slow down and use easier words, but I often get that "Aahh! Hangwugmal chal haeyo!!" followed by rapid-fire speech that I can't catch much (if any) of. This is one thing that has turned a lot of people off of learning I think. I try to use it as motivation, and try not to get too discouraged by my slip-ups, even if I do get chuckled at a bit. |
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posco's trumpet
Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: Beneath the Underdog
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by posco's trumpet on Sat Dec 06, 2003 7:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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I am with FierceInvalid here, and that I feel comfortable trying to use it. I make a lot of mistakes, and often the listener needs to fill in the blanks to really understand what I am trying to say. I need to practice.. .. that is easy to say, a lot harder to get motivated to do. |
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Chillin' Villain
Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Location: Goo Row
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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I'm pretty comfortable with mine, although I often find myself feeling less comfortable with people that I talk often with- my girlfriend's family, for example. Because I've known them for a while now, I think I've exhausted my lexicon with them, and am finding it increasingly harder to express certain things to them...
On the flip side, I've got the taxi-driver conversation mastered! Friends'll hear me chattin' away with the driver and look kinda surprised, but it's practically rehearsed and recited ad nauseum.
Kinda frustrating- I think I've hit that long, slow, bending part of the ol' learning curve. |
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kimcheeking Guest
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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Used to be comfortable... but my Korean is on a downward spiral. Need more time. |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: |
I can say it's probably harder to feel comfortable using Korean than other languages. I expect it would be -- for cultural, rather than linguistic reasons. |
y'know, for me that was a large part of the attraction |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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According to the American Language Association, Korean is 3 times as difficult as a European language.
Even that seems optimistic to me.
I've been here studying like crazy for 3 1/2 years and I still don't know flip.
After 2 years of classroom Spanish, I arrived in South America and conversed with anyone who wanted to converse with me.
And I know that I've put in three times as much study time learning Korean. |
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Zyzyfer
Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 12:30 am Post subject: |
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Speaking Korean? S'all good. I'm intrigued by other languages...too bad I lacked this intrigue during those 6 years of French... |
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little mixed girl
Joined: 11 Jun 2003 Location: shin hyesung's bed~
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by little mixed girl on Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:30 am; edited 1 time in total |
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hojucandy
Joined: 03 Feb 2003 Location: In a better place
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Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 8:32 pm Post subject: quiet |
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Rike wrote: |
Here, I don't understand what is going on around me and the "noise" (not an insult, just what it sounds like when I don't understand something) is very easy to tune out. Here, I am not constantly bombarded by media, advertising, and other people's conversations.
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i fell the same. i recently went back to australia after a year here. i was overwhelmed by the fact that i could understand everyone. i found it quite intrusive. i too enjoy the peace of not knowing what is going on around me.
nevertheless, this year i am determined to learn korean well, and am already making great strides. i long to be able to converse with old people here. i'm sure they have interesting tales to tell. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 3:59 am Post subject: |
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The best way to quickly pick up Korean for those who already know it to a certain extent is to learn hanja. Hanja looks impossible considering how many there are, but the time used in learning them becomes invaluable later. Knowing hanja is like having a dictionary in one's head, and is similar to gaining a better understanding of English by studying the many Latin/Greek loanwords.
For example: take a few hanja that are pronounced ȭ.
��:Change. This is seen in ȭ��(����), chemistry, the study of change. It also can be used to turn a noun into -ization, as in ����(���)international - ����ȭ �ϴ� - internationalize. Note that this hanja is also only four strokes.
��:Harmony. This is the hanja seen in ��ȭ-peace. ��(��)-flat, level.
��:Talk. This is the ȭ seen in ��ȭ. ��(�) means electricity, so phone actually means electric talk.
Also the �� in ����� for Saturday is the �� �� that means soil. But the interesting thing is that the planet Saturn is �伺 (��, �� meaning star), and the word for Saturday in English comes from Saturn's day.
For those who have learned Korean to a certain extent and now feel as if they have run into a wall and can't seem to improve, learning about 400 hanja will do a world of good. Koreans like to pretend that they don't need hanja but the vast majority of their nouns and almost all of their names come from hanja so IMO it's quite necessary. |
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