How to become a better Korean conversation partner

How to become a better Korean conversation partner.

Language Exchange: Rice and Flowers

I would like to share a typical language exchange I had today with my friend Chulmoon, the organic rice farmer in South Korea.

I come off a lot better in text messages that I have time to compose with a Korean-English dictionary, Naver translate, dongsa verb conjugator, and YellowBridge Chinese-English dictionary handy. These are all shortcuts on my PC web browser.

Hanja from Cimi

As readers of my blog probably already know, my friend Cimi is going to China next year, so together we are learning a few Chinese characters (Korean hanja 한자, Mandarin trad. 漢字, simpl. 汉字 pinyin: Hànzì, Japanese kanji).  Cimi teaches me and shares resources, as well as me writing “Hanja for Cimi” posts.  Cimi is my language buddy, and we inspire each other, which keeps the motivation strong.

Here are some of the things Cimi has shared.

Basics of Chinese writing:

Chinese characters stroke order:

Cimi also sent me this amazing gift basket with facial masks (like they use in Korean dramas), a lavender and roses wreath she made with herbs from her garden, seaweed snacks to go with rice, and hydrating skin spritzer.  Language exchange can bring you closer to people, it is not just about the words you learn.

 

Buddhism: 5 Precepts 오계

In South Korea, the lay Buddhist ordination is called sugye 수계.  It is a public ceremony where the student affirms their Buddhist practice by accepting the Five Precepts  (ogye오계).

The Five Precepts

I vow to abstain from taking life.

I vow to abstain from taking things not given.

I vow to abstain from misconduct done in lust.

I vow to abstain from lying.

I vow to abstain from intoxicants, taken to induce heedlessness.

Bamboo Breakthrough

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Originally posted on followmybrushmarks:
After several weeks of concerted effort, my bamboo has got better.  Practice may not make ‘perfect’ but it sure can lead to ‘better’.  So, what did I do? 1.  hunt for bamboo in local gardens and…

Korean prayer – repetition & habits

Every night before I go to sleep, I play KUSZ’s evening bell chant. Then I repeat in English until I drift off

Hearing the sound of the bell,
all thinking is cut off,
Wisdom grows;
enlightenment appears;
[suffering] is left behind.

I combine listening, reading, speaking, memorization, intention, and focus for 3 minutes.

Now that I am back to Korean Digital Academy studying, I also have Rob’s “Korean prayer”.  Basically, you take a rule about Korean language, and repeat it each night until it is drilled into your brain.  The first rule to memorize is about verb conjugation.

I am not sure when I stopped falling asleep to repeating Korean vocabulary and grammar rules, but it is time to start that up again.  Counting sheep in Korean really does help my speed of recall. 🙂

Picking up Korean language learning again is remembering my habits.  The habit of struggling to write text messages in Korean.  The habit of flashcards every morning, and then again at night.  The habit of watching videos every week, writing sentences out by hand, thinking of what the Korean word would be for objects I see around me, and speaking out loud as I practice.  The habit of white board covered with words I am learning.  The habit of posting sentences on my bathroom mirror to be read out loud on each visit.  This feels familiar, like coming home.

 

What’s your excuse?

What’s your excuse for not studying, making progress, and speaking your target language?

Today, mine is that it is too hot.  Then I remember that my teacher Joonhee wrote “It’s toooooooo hot here in Korea. 너무 더워요.”  Summer and it’s hot and humid.  No excuse not to study.  None of the many excuses my mind is offering up are real obstacles to learning Korean, if my passion to do so is strong enough.

Today, each time my brain complains, I am just laughing at it.  HA HA!  You won’t stop me.  I am determined.

I wish my goal and motivation were clearer.  I need strength to resist my wily brain who tries to distract me.  I can’t be plowing through hundreds of vocabulary words just because I should.

My language exchange partner, who has put up with the worst of my Korean bumblings, is willing.  What excuse could I have for not giving it my best effort?

Starting again: my language mountain to climb

“after a few wasted moments of despair, I discarded the negativity, and just got started on it. I stopped thinking about all the problems I had, stopped being such a crybaby and just got on with it.

Whatever countless number of steps awaited me didn’t matter. The way I got to the top was simply by focusing on making each step” – Benny Lewis, Fluent in 3 Months

If I am honest with myself, this summer has been a vacation from Korean language learning.  Now I am trying to start up learning again, and I feel like I am at the bottom of a very big mountain.

Yushien, a Japanese Friendship Garden

On Amherst College campus is a Japanese garden. The Journal of Japanese Gardening has ranked Yūshien Garden one of the top Japanese gardens in the nation. Opened in 2001, Yūshien is a contemplative garden.  The $250,000 garden was designed by Shinichiro Abe of Zen Associates, Inc., an international landscape design firm.

Prominent features of the garden include a water basin, a 500-year-old stone Japanese lantern, and rugged boulders.

Flashcards from Korean Tourism Organization #KTO_Korean101 #VisitKorea

Love the folks at Korean Tourism Organization. Have you seen their Korean 101 flashcards? Like them on Facebook to get these every week.  Brush up your Korean so you are ready for a visit!

Hanja for Cimi: 心 heart 심

心 means heart; mind; intention; center; core; soul; spirit.  Typically, if you see 心 or 忄(心’s component form) in a word, you know the word has something to do with emotions or the act of thinking.  In Korean, it is 마음 ( mind, heart) or 생각 (think, idea).  

#SMILEgoal Take a step in the right direction

Impressed with Josette LeBlanc’s smile goal challenge, I have been giving my goals a lot of thought.

My vague plan was along these lines:

• Spend a day finishing up some of my unfinished blog posts, then put aside blogging for 2 weeks.
• Spend a day clearing my study area of anything not directly related to Korean Digital Academy.
• Go cold turkey, full immersion into Korean for 2 weeks, to prepare for taking Level 3 of Korean Digital Academy in September.

Chinese Garden of Friendship

The Chinese Garden of Friendship was a gift to the people of
New South Wales, Australia from its Chinese sister province, Guangdong. I fell deeply in love with this garden, which I visited with my grandmother.

Chinese calligraphy art collection

I discovered a 400 page book in my library: THE EMBODIED IMAGE: CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY FROM THE JOHN B. ELLIOTT COLLECTION.  THE EMBODIED IMAGE describes an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy at the Art Museum, Princeton University.  It covers 55 master works spanning the period from the fourth century to the modern era.

In China, calligraphy is regarded as the quintessential visual art, ranking above painting as the most important vehicle for individual expression.

“Calligraphy may be appreciated  by following the artist’s every gesture, re-experiencing the kinesthetic action of creation as preserved in the inked lines.” – Maxwell Hearn, Curator in the Department of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum

The book is a wealth of information.  I particularly enjoyed reading about how the Buddhist monks writing their sutras led to a calligraphic style that evolved the standard script that became the model for bookprint.  Magic, religion, culture, and history make this three thousand year old writing system fascinating.

Hanja for Cimi: 是 to be 이다

When I first started learning Korean, I learned nouns.  I added a few memorized phrases. Verbs only came later.  Once you start delving into verb conjugation, it gets complicated. However, sentences need verbs 🙂

This post will introduce one verb “to be” with a few sample sentences.  You will see that it is easier in Chinese than in English or Korean.

The Chinese characters I have presented so far have been selected for being fairly simple, easy to remember, with the goal of building Korean vocabulary and practice writing hanja. However, with a few dozen nouns learned so far, it might be worthwhile for Cimi to learn some of the most frequently used Mandarin words and see simple sentences.