myseoulmyheart

2.3 Korean Class

23 May 2012 Leave a Comment

by myseoulmyheart in Korean Class

The third class was a lot of repetitions of what we did and at what time, or what we are doing tomorrow and at what time. So, there were a lot of 내일 오후 뭐 해요? or 오늘 몇 시에 운동 해요? and we focused more on 오늘 약속 이 있어요? (Do you have an appointment today?).

We also had a test, whereby we had to translate sentences from English to Korean. I enjoyed these exercises.It  really tests our grammar, in particular, how to structure the sentences the correct way. Here’s one of the questions ‘There are a lot of people in the coffee shop’= 커피숍에 사람이 많아요. Ms.Kim said the ending: 많아요 and 많이있어요 can be used.

Something new I came across was 요즘 잘지내요? But I forgot what it means, I vaguely remember it meaning ‘how are you today?’ The problem is I forgot to translate what I wrote…Well, then I wrote 지내요, 지다(which I’m sure is the dictionary form of whatever 지 means). Following that I wrote 요즘 잘지냈어요? (past tense of the former) and respond in 잘지냈어요.      (I’m going to make a mental note to find out about this and edit)

In this lesson we used a lot of 어제=yesterday, 오늘= today, 내일=tomorrow. And during another exercise she wanted us to use 하고, to express with whom we were doing the activities with.

Instead of saying no when someone asks, for example, whether we are doing exercise tomorrow, she taught us to use 안, so  운동 안해요.

2.2 Korean Class

08 May 2012 Leave a Comment

by myseoulmyheart in Korean Class

Similar to last week we continued with asking the time and what they are doing at certain times.

Speaking and Listening

A new word I learnt was 오후 (afternoon). We were all paired up and followed the dialogue from the textbook. We asked each other “오늘 오후 에 공부해요?”, “그럼 뭐해요?” and as a response say what we were doing e.g. “일해요”, “대사관 에가요” etc.

Vocabulary

She went through some new words: 밖=outside, 목욕탕=bathroom, 세수하다=wash face, 조용하다=quiet/calm, 일하다=to work, 오후= afternoon, 숙제=homework

So, 조용하세요=Please be quiet.

Grammar (and my own questions)

We also spent some time talking about the ending of 잘지내세요? and the response ending 잘지내요. Ms. Kim said 세요 can be used for third person and 요 is directed towards the speaker. However, I’m still a little confused with it after looking at my notes. I noticed how 조용하다 changes into 조용하세요 and e.g. 숙제하다 can be changed to -해요 ending. My wild guess is that  -해요 is an ending for a verb and -하세요 for referring to everyone or not anyone specific. That’s just what I gather from the limited vocabulary I know. E.g. 쇼핑하다 can be changed to 쇼핑해요.

Ms. Kim also asked us how to make -해요 (informal) into formal ending. Therefore, it is -합니다.

Personal View

There were also good repetitions for all of us to get a chance to answer questions Ms. Kim asked us of e.g. what we did this afternoon. The freestyling (to make up an answer without looking at the book) was particularly difficult. I was mainly unsure and slow in getting my responses, which is what makes me want to practice more^^ Up until now I haven’t prepared before class. I’m going to try it and hopefully it would relieve some of the confusion in class.

For this entry, I changed the layout of things. I hope this makes it easier to see what I’m doing.

2.1 Korean Class

05 May 2012 Leave a Comment

by myseoulmyheart in Korean Class

It is finally term 2. The term started off with “지금 몇 시예요?” (What is the time now?)

After a quick recap, Ms. Kim asked each of us of the time. The time takes some practice to get around to. I learnt that I need to say the hours (시) in native-korean numbers and for the minutes (분) to use the sino-korean numbers. I said 육시십 분이에요 without knowing what mistake I made. When our teacher looked at me with a puzzled look I thought I must’ve said something wrong but couldn’t understand what. So Ms. Kim said do you mean 여섯시. I must have been tired that day because I didn’t get it lol. I asked her where did 섯 come from (yes you can laugh^o^)

We also went through some new vocabulary whilst being asked what we did today. 오늘뭐 해요? Instead we would refer someone’s name e.g. ____씨가 뭐 해요? Or making it more formal ___씨가 뭐합니까? In reply we had to say 오늘 ___해요. Some new vocabularies were: 궁부하다 (to study), 일하다 (to work), 슈핑하다 (to shop), 숙제하다 (to do homework), 아짐/점심/저녁식사하다 (to eat breakfast/lunch/dinner). I didn’t know how to say ‘stayed at home’ in Korean so I said it in English. Our teacher said something very interesting. She said in korean you say 방쿡= stayed at home, but it also sound similar to the city  방콕 (Bangkok). You can pull a funny joke on people with that word^^ However, she taught me to say 오늘 집 에있었요= I stayed at home today.

Next, we did practice on the levels of formalities used for the sentence ‘where are you going?’ So, she would ask all of us to role play. Let’s say, if I was younger and I had to ask someone older than me where they were going, would I say:

1.어디에가요?

2.어디에갑니까?

3.어디 에가세요?

4.어디에가습니까?

I would go for the formal ones no. 2 and 4. She also said when talking to close friends in the same age group or siblings, or when a mother speaks to her child they can drop the 요, so it becomes 어디에가? Whilst doing the usual vocalising the end syllable up to ask a question.

Finally, I don’t claim that these are all correct, these are only an account on what I learnt based on my knowledge so far and my notes. I always welcome people to correct me if I’m wrong.

It would have been better if she wrote it down. I learn better seeing the words, especially when things are new. That is also why I need to find a good workbook I can practice on. I’m finding my class very difficult at the moment having not practiced for a month due to my exams. Also, note that in term 2 our teacher is trying to introduce us to past tense e.g.-있었요.

1.8 Korean Class

03 Apr 2012 2 Comments

by myseoulmyheart in Korean Class

On my eighth lesson Ms. Kim covered ‘how much is it?’ and we had to use a lot of numbers since Korean prices similar to Japanese don’t use small numbers like £25 but at least a thousand. Thankfully, the system is similar to Chinese (my mother tongue) so it was easy to get the hang of the 백만, 십만, 만, 천 and 백…And also that it’s not necessary to say 일백 but 백 alone is fine and means the same thing just like Chinese.

We were paired up with the person next to us and changed roles of a cashier and customer. The dialogue went like this: A:모자가얼마예요?=How much is the hat? B: 발만 육천 원이에요= It is ₩86,000.

The next topic was ‘what is your telephone number?’ = 천화번호가 몇 번이에요? Ms. Kim would say a couple of numbers to test our listening skills, then have use write the numbers down individually to give a feedback at the end of the exercise.

I usually talk slowly but this sentence: 천화번호가 몇 번이에요 really flowed for some reason, I heard my friend say the same thing, that this sentence is easy. I think it’s because the flow of the sound makes it easy to learn and speak. When you hear this sentence for the first time do you think it is easy to memorise?

1.7 Korean Class

03 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by myseoulmyheart in Korean Class

I know I haven’t posted up in a long, long time! I had a hectic week last week due to several deadlines coming at once. I still have exams coming up. I’m going to post up all my first semester Korean class progress, so please bear with me. I’m a little annoyed with myself that I didn’t write down what happened straight after the class so I have to rely on the chapters of the book and my almost non-existant notes.

Ms. Kim always does revision before we start the class to refresh our memory on our previous lesson.

This lesson’s topic was ‘where is…?’

As part of asking where certain places are, we need to know what some of the common places are called such as library, pub, restaurant, theatre/cinema, church and toilet etc. Ms. Kim would ask all us how to say library and the lesson was a constant drilling of these questions. We also learnt to ask where things are e.g. Westminster이 어디에있어요? Also make sure to change the 이 and 가 when the subject (in this case Westminster) ends with either a consonant or vowel respectively. After Ms. Kim asked us where is…? She would go through everyone in the class to give a response, e.g. Westminster 역근처에있어요.

We were also taught how to ask ‘where is__?’ E.g. Where is Mia= 미아씨가어디에있어요? And as a response E.g. 학교에있어요=At school.

Later on the class, we went through the grammar with the new word we learnt such as: 알다=to know (Dict. form)-> 알아요=I know and 모르다=not know (Dict. form)-> 몰라요=I don’t know.

Key word of the day:

근처 = near