Book reviews
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Korean pronunciation tips I wish I’d learned sooner
With most of the country in continued lockdown, I’m still confined to my apartment from which all my teaching, class preparation and self studying takes place. In order to feel a sense of progress and purpose I’ve created a detailed study routine for myself with several chapters to be read every single day. If you…
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My last Korean reading project of 2020
With only one day left of 2020, my last Korean reading project of this year has come to an end. In total, I’ve managed to read 12 Korean novels this year. This averages one per month, and I guess that’s not all bad considering the amount of Korean text and grammar books that I’ve also…
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Habits
Up to 40% of our daily activities are made up of habits. Especially how we start our day before being completely awake is very much dictated by habits. Do we snooze, do we get up right away, do we immediately brush our teeth or do we reach for the coffee before anything else? While this…
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A mind-blowing reading experience
The winter break is soon over and I’ll officially start teaching again next week. These days the Sogang campus is packed with new graduates clad in the traditional cap and gown and their families beaming with pride and even more new freshmen participating in orientation. I’ve spent a lot of time enjoying my beautiful Seoul…
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Book review: Your First Hanja Guide
Regular readers of my blog will know that I’m a strong advocate of learning basic Chinese characters (called Hanja in Korean) if you are serious about learning Korean. Not because you’ll necessarily need to be able to read them to get by in Korea, but because around 60-70% of all Korean words have a Hanja…
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Gender roles, sexism, and feminism in Korea
Yesterday, I went to the teacher’s lounge for a cup of coffee, when I met one of my older male colleagues. He asked me how I had spent my Chuseok holiday, and I replied that I had mostly spent it in my office, as I had no Korean family to spend Chuseok with. And growing…
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Slow down… reflect and learn
There’s a book that I’ve already read 3 times this summer, once in English, once in Korean, and once as an audio book. Okay, well, then technically I only *read* it twice. Anyway, the book is called “The things you can see only when you slow down” or 멈추면 비로소 보이는 것들 in its original…
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Learn through Korean proverbs (and Naver)
All languages have proverbs that often originate from ancient times and provide an invaluable insight into the culture and mindset of the native speakers. The more proverbs you know in your native language as well as in others, the more you’ll be able to understand the nuances of the language and how the language is…
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Perks of living in Korea: Korean books
Korea is a nation of bookworms (fun fact, bookworm in Korean is 책벌레 – I guess some things are just universal). There are bookstores everywhere, and books are usually reasonably priced too. I’ve already purchased quite a few books here – hard not to when there’s a bookstore right in front of my building (yes,…
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Korean vocabulary: Going beyond the intermediate level
While I wrote in my previous post that I had enjoyed learning what may be considered quite basic vocabulary from my Korean children’s book, I still want to keep expanding my knowledge of Korean in all possible directions. When it comes to Korean fluency, one thing is sounding Korean and having the correct intonation. Another thing…
Sofie to Korea 