소희
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Getting lost (and found) in Korean drama land
As any other dedicated student of Korean I shy away from watching anything on tv that is not Korean. Anything else is just a waste of precious time which could otherwise have been spent learning this awesome language. However, with Korean dramas there are just SO many to choose from that actually choosing one can…
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My hanja hunt
I’ve really come to enjoy the game of building my Korean vocabulary through hanjas. This morning when I was reviewing the new words from my most recent TTMIK news delivery I came across the word 획득하다 meaning “to acquire or obtain”. I definitely recognized the 득, and wondered if it was the same 득 as in 설득 (persuasion). Indeed…
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Speaking practice
Yesterday my language partner had to cancel our meeting, so I didn’t get to practice any real Korean conversation. However, I was pretty determined not to let that stop me from practicing my speaking, so when I got home I spent the time I was supposed to have spent on our meeting reading a veeeeery…
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How I all of a sudden got plenty of time to study Korean today
Today was supposed to be a busy day. My schedule looked something like this: 8:00-10:00 Give econ lecture 10:30-11:00 Attend meeting with professor 12:00-12:45 Lunch date with colleague Afternoon: Attend seminar and meet with discussion group Well, whilst giving the lecture this morning an hour and a half into the lecture a student yells out:…
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The puzzle of the “ㅅ” 받침
The more Korean words you know, the more compound words you can make. This is of course very neat, but I’ve noticed a peculiar thing about written Korean which makes making compound words slightly more complex than we are used to with English. In English “coffee” + “shop” simply form the compound word “coffee shop”…
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Studying Korean grammar
A while ago I bought the intermediate version of Korean Grammar in Use. I admit that this wonderful book has spent too much time just sitting in my bookshelf looking new and shiny. I therefore recently made a pact with myself to study two new grammar points every day. They’re not all “new” to me…
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So, apparently I have a “Korean-language-partner guy”… Who knew?
I’m really big on cryptic titles, but I know this one probably takes the prize, so here’s an explanation. Before going all in on anything and everything Korean, I used to like the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother. (This statement is NOT based on the past three seasons of the show.) I particularly liked…
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The struggle of retaining and building Korean vocabulary
Ever since I started subscribing to TTMIK’s “News in Korean” my reading speed and vocabulary have both improved rapidly. While that is a huge step forward, I felt that I was having a hard time learning and retaining the often specialized vocabulary presented in the news articles. Until now I’ve studied with the articles by looking over the…
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Random Korean ramblings
I’m currently enjoying a lovely three-day weekend as the class I usually teach on Fridays got moved to Thursday. That means plenty of time for studying Korean, and just generally immersing myself in Korean culture. I started my weekend yesterday by meeting with my language partner. We started as usual by reading an Iyagi lesson,…
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Korea through the eyes of foreigners
So far, I haven’t been too keen on watching Korean variety shows (I’m more of a melodrama enthusiast). It’s not that I haven’t tried, but frankly the pace, sound effects, and cartoon like appearance of some of them have made me give up after a few minutes of frustrated watching. However, I’m sure there is some great…
Sofie to Korea 