어린이 공기 (시나모롤 & 포켓몬)
This picture reminds me that the Korean word ‘공기’ can mean ‘(rice) bowl’ or ‘air’. (‘Children’s bowl’ is the correct translation for ‘어린이 공기’). And that the white dog character’s name is Cinnamoroll. ###
Children Air
New Earphones and Korean Textbook
I ordered a Korean textbook (in Japanese) and a set of Philips earphones online and they arrived yesterday. Yay…!
A Korean language textbook in Japanese and a set of Philips earphones
I bought the earphones for about 250,000 rupiah hoping that I would get better sound quality than my old Panasonic ones which only cost me about 100,000 rupiah.
Left: Panasonic, right: Philips
But after comparing both of them, I’m actually disappointed with the Philips earphones because they sound screechy and terrible and a lot worse than the cheaper Panasonic earphones. The Phillips one just look cuter. Sigh.
The Korean textbook is about onomatopoeic words. With the book, I can learn 360 onomatopoeic words with 1~2 sample sentences for each term, and it comes with 2 audio CD (one CD for the words, narrated in chants (interesting idea), and one CD for the sentences). The chants are supposed to help me memorize the words. I kind of find the music distracting but let’s see if it works…
The first word to learn is 갈기갈기.
I think onomatopoeia is something that is not too urgent and it’s fine to wait until later to learn it, just like Korean slang, or proverbs. Intermediate and above, according to the book itself.
This kind of usage is not written in the book.
I read the first word: 갈기갈기 (찢다) or ‘rip/shred something into pieces’. I thought maybe I didn’t need to learn this word now but then I read my favorite Korean rapper, Zico’s Instagram update and he used the word 갈기갈기 in the caption. 😍 I think he meant he would perform his very best on Jisan Valley Rock Festival. ###
Bought “2000 Essential Korean Words – Intermediate” from Darakwon
I downloaded the audio files of 2000 Essential Korean Words – Intermediate from Darakwon official website (http://www.darakwon.co.kr/koreanbooks/BookView.aspx?BookID=76). I used Internet Explorer 11 and didn’t experience any trouble like the last time at all. I guess they fixed the website. But you still have to use Internet Explorer to download, in case you don’t know it. You can download the audio files without purchase.
Free Mp3 Download on Darakwon
And then, I thought, I would just buy the e-book version of 2000 Essential Korean Words – Intermediate on Ridibooks (http://ridibooks.com/v2/Detail?id=1204000080) because… I wanted to. It’s not that expensive anyway (about 15,000 won because I had accumulated points from previous purchases).
From the audio files, I notice that Darakwon (다락원) actually sounds more like [ta-ra-gwon] in Indonesian… sounds…
2000 Essential Korean Words – Intermediate follows the same format as the one for beginners. There is a word in Korean, its pronunciation (because sometimes a Korean word is pronounced differently than the way it’s written), the word meaning in English, Chinese, and Japanese, whether it has irregular conjugation, and a sample of usage in form of conversation between 2 people but without translation (I would love a translation in English or Japanese, but I don’t mind, the sentences are not difficult to understand).
I think it’s great that the use of the word is given in conversation, not just a simple sentence. It’s easier to remember words when you think you can use it in conversations. The conversations are read/narrated in the audio files so you can practice listening, too.
Just like the other book of the same series for beginners, the intermediate one has some pages explaining about hanja (Chinese characters) to expand vocabulary.
There’s also a self-check exercise at the end of every chapter.
And that’s all I know because I haven’t really read it thoroughly yet.
But I do notice one thing from page 23, about the word 싫증 (명/noun), pronunciation [실쯩].
I don’t think ‘a lack of interest’ is the correct English translation. Maybe ‘dislike’ or ‘distaste’.
(Audio file 1, -3:07)
가: 시간이 없는데 우리 김밥 먹을래?
나: 또 김밥이야? 넌 싫증도 안 나?
No translation given so here is mine:
A: We don’t have time so why don’t we eat gimbap?
B: Gimbab again? Don’t you get tired of it?
The voice actors pronounce 김밥 as [김빱]. So I got curious…
I checked Naver Dictionary for pronunciation and it just says [김ː밥], not [김빱].
Then I found a tweet by @urimal365 replying that the standard way to pronounce 김밥 is [김ː밥].
‘김밥’의 표준 발음은 [김ː밥]입니다.
At least now I know that native Koreans also pronounce 김밥 as [김빱] even though it’s not officially standard Korean. ###
Trying Out Korean Hair Dye: Etude House Hot Style Salon Cream
I dyed my hair at home yesterday with hair coloring kit from Etude House (that’s a famous Korean cosmetic brand). I bought a hair coloring product called Hot Style Salon Cream, the color was ‘cherry red brown’, and the price was 125,000 rupiah on YES24 Indonesia (more expensive now).
에뛰드하우스 염색약
Inside the box I found a tube of solution no. 1, a bottle of solution no. 2, a sachet of hair treatment liquid, a disposable comb, a plastic cover to prevent your clothes from getting dyed, and a sachet of lip tint (free sample).
There is a ‘simplified’ instruction and ingredient list in English at the side of the box so you can still use the product even if you don’t know Korean. The more lengthy instruction is written in Korean in a leaflet inside the box. I read the Korean leaflet but I ignored things that were not written in the English one, for example I didn’t do test patch 48 hours before I dyed my hair.
But it was good to know that my Korean was good enough to read the instruction of a hair coloring kit.
태어나서 처음으로 셀프염색이라는 걸 해봤어요.
It was my first time dyeing my own hair. I felt like my scalp was burning at the beginning. It was painful but not very painful so I just endured it and after a while the burning sensation was gone. The result? My hair didn’t become red or even reddish. It’s still black, but under the light, it looks slightly dark brownish. My hair doesn’t look dramatically different and nobody notices that I dyed my hair. Thank God (?).
I wonder how to say “have you ever tried dyeing your hair at home?” in Korean.
여러분은 염색약으로 집에서 셀프염색 해보신 적이 있으세요？###
My New Blog: Mandarin Vitamin
Today I’ve decided to learn Chinese on my own. Then I thought I needed a new blog. On WordPress.com, Chinese Vitamin was already taken so I named it Mandarin Vitamin https://mandarinvitamin.wordpress.com. Lame name. But anyway, I’m excited to start a new journey. I absolutely know nothing about Chinese language. I just wrote my first blog post there: Learning Chinese, Step One if you want to read it. Or not. Time is precious. You should do what you really want with your time.
그럼 주말 잘 보내세요~ ☀️ ###
Study Korean (http://study.korean.net/)
Study Korean (http://study.korean.net/) is a site full of free Korean language learning materials, and some of them have English translation. I think your Korean must be at a certain level to use the website (not for beginners). It seems there is more useful stuff there if you log in but you have to be Korean to be a member of the site. The site only accepts 재외동포 (Korean living abroad), 내국인 (Korean living in Korea), and 단체회원 (group membership).
Anyway, these are 2 sections of the site that I’m using to learn Korean because they’re interesting to me:
Learn Korean from Korean Drama:
http://study.korean.net/servlet/action.cut.DrmAction?p_process=drama_view11&p_menuCd=m20201
Learn Korean from scenes of K-drama
and
Korean newly coined terms/slangs that everyone knows: http://study.korean.net/servlet/action.app.WeekKorStudAction?p_tabseq=94&p_menuCd=m30404
There are also other interesting sections such as learning Korean from K-pop, daily conversations, idioms, children stories, Korean history, culture, etc. ###
