Korean building blocks
In my quest to improve my conversational skills in general and my narrative skills in particular, I have laid off all the grammar and vocab cramming for the time being. […]
Korean ups and downs
Here’s a blog post about two very different Korean-learning days. The first one (Saturday) was a very unproductive day. I had so many plans and good intentions for this day. […]
Meeting my LP and finishing my drama
Yesterday, I met my language partner for a very interesting session about political systems. In three weeks we’ll have an election to the parliament, so the topic was motivated by […]
The devil is in the detail
I don’t think I will ever stop being amazed at how detailed and nuanced the Korean language really is. Yesterday I was studying how to ask favors using fairly fixed […]
All or nothing?
This weekend I’ve been working hard on my listening skills through podcasts, Korean TED talks, and of course a few subtitle-free episodes of 여름향기 (currently have 4 episodes left). During all this listening […]
Rusty Korean?
녹슬었을까봐 조금 걱정했어요. (I was afraid that my Korean had become too rusty.) I told this to my LP whom I was finally able to meet up with yesterday after a three-week […]
“뭐”라고요?
This time I’m going about my Korean drama watching in a new way. I’m currently half-way through the classic “여름향기”, my last drama with 송승헌 before I’ll be able to cross “Watch […]
Four-syllable words in Korean
Not to be confused with four-letter words, these are words of Chinese origin used idiomatically for linguistic efficiency. A few examples: 십중팔구(十中八九) lit. meaning: 8 or 9 out of 10; use: […]
A Korean listening challenge
Earlier this week, Jeremy from MotivateKorean kindly sent me a link to a youtube video where a Korean professor of philosophy gives a talk about how we currently live in a polarized society […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Sofie to Korea 