Sol's Log -- Spanish/Russian/Korean!

[tarvos]

Finally got around to studying in my busy schedule. Did some Korean again. I'm in love with how easy the alphabet is! I have a bit to go before I perfect those vowels though.




Ughh I love this language so much, it looks so pretty. I had no problem staying up till 2am watching Korean dramas, at least with this language I'll never get bored!

ALSO pro tip: search for "SBS" on your podcasts app, a bunch of Korean podcasts come up.

I've also got myself a copy of Como Agua Para Chocolate for some Spanish practice later. Strangely I understand more than I thought I would!

Your handwriting looks suspiciously like mine, only prettier...

[Sol]

Your handwriting looks suspiciously like mine, only prettier...

Haha! Post sample of your handwriting, please

If mine looks pretty I'd love to see yours... I remember being disgusted with my handwriting when I was younger because everyone had neat ways of writing and I was just all over the place.

[Sol]

I did so much Korean today. I can literally study it all day, if only I didn't have other things to do!
I'm past all the conjugation tables (thank god, that went on forever) and onto adverbs today!



I think those hours of conjugations really helped me though because I can more-or-less conjugate verbs into past/present/future with all honorifics. I actually found myself being able to piece together correct sentences by looking at the English first and then checking my answers!! That really surprised me considering I only started a month ago!! These were sentences like "I went to the park beside the hospital yesterday" or "I will do my homework quietly." When I was doing high school Spanish we didn't get into conjugation until the second year, and it took me ages to feel confident in conjugating. This is proof that if you love what you do and do it smartly, you'll make much more progress in a shorter period of time.

I'm also getting more confident in writing in Korean, it no longer looks like chicken scratches!

Oh and I also drew myself a compass because I'm really bad at directions in any language (I still have to chant "never eat shredded wheat" in English, and "изток запад север юг" in Bulgarian*).



*Funny story, I just found a hilarious post of a Bulgarian asking for people to explain exactly where the directions are in layman's terms as he has a geography test the following day and still hasn't learned them!

[BOLIO]

I am enjoying the log. I have a question about Bulgarian. Is it pronounced as Russian is and if so then is it the vocabulary that is different?

Anyway, I look forward to following your log.

BOLIO

[Sol]

I am enjoying the log. I have a question about Bulgarian. Is it pronounced as Russian is and if so then is it the vocabulary that is different?

Anyway, I look forward to following your log.

BOLIO

No, I'd say one of the biggest differences between Russian and Bulgarian is pronunciation. Bulgarian has "harder" vowels, while Russian is much softer. Bulgarian is very phonetic, Russian is not. For example:

"I know"
RU: я знаю (ya znayu)
BG: Аз знам (az znam)

"I speak"
RU: Я говоpю (ya gavaryu) - note how the o is pronounced as a
BG: Аз говоря (az govorya)

There are a lot more ya, yu, ui, etc in Russian while Bulgarian is more "straightforward". I think that's what differentiates Bulgarian from many Slavic languages -- the vowels aren't as rounded. Also we don't have a case system like Russian does.

Vocab is really similar! I can read and get the gist of something in Russian just because the vocab is so similar. There are, obviously, differences, but it's always surprised me how similar RU and BG are considering how far apart they are geographically. Here's a list of the similarities in vocab between both.

[Sol]

Yay! I finished the first section of Unit 1 (8 lessons)! It took me about a month and a half, which sounds quite long considering there are 133 lessons in total. I think I've learned a lot more than I expected to in such a short time though. The basic tenses, the honorifics, the particles, and some common vocab.

I got 5/7 on the quiz and found that I understood everything I read in it (even if I made mistakes). I can read Korean well now and catch some words from kdramas. I'm beyond pleased with my progress, and especially with the fact that I haven't given up (usually I give up on a language I'm self-studying within 2 or 3 weeks lol). Korean is incredibly fun to study, it's never a chore for me, and I think I'll keep studying until ultimate fluency!

Btw I found an awesome word.

물고기 - fish

It literally means "water (몰) meat (고기)". Water meat!! Loooool

[Evita]

Yay! I finished the first section of Unit 1 (8 lessons)! It took me about a month and a half, which sounds quite long considering there are 133 lessons in total. I think I've learned a lot more than I expected to in such a short time though. The basic tenses, the honorifics, the particles, and some common vocab.

I got 5/7 on the quiz and found that I understood everything I read in it (even if I made mistakes). I can read Korean well now and catch some words from kdramas. I'm beyond pleased with my progress, and especially with the fact that I haven't given up (usually I give up on a language I'm self-studying within 2 or 3 weeks lol). Korean is incredibly fun to study, it's never a chore for me, and I think I'll keep studying until ultimate fluency!

Btw I found an awesome word.

물고기 - fish

It literally means "water (몰) meat (고기)". Water meat!! Loooool

It's nice to see that you love practicing the verb conjugations so much. Keep it up!

However, I do want to point out that what you call honorifics is actually speech levels. Honorifics is a different concept, it refers to the subject of the sentence, not necessarily to the person you are speaking to. Most verbs can be turned into the honorific form by adding the honorific suffix -시- like this: 가다 -> 가시다.

For example, if you are speaking to a friend and you want to say that another friend of yours went somewhere, you can simply say "갔어". However, if you want to say that your father or your friend's father went somewhere, you have to say "가셨어", which is the past form of 가시다. You see that the speech level stayed low, but the sentence is honorific.

Honorifics also applies to nouns and even particles. You can read more about it on Wikipedia:

Korean honorifics
Korean speech levels

[Sol]

It's nice to see that you love practicing the verb conjugations so much. Keep it up!

However, I do want to point out that what you call honorifics is actually speech levels. Honorifics is a different concept, it refers to the subject of the sentence, not necessarily to the person you are speaking to. Most verbs can be turned into the honorific form by adding the honorific suffix -시- like this: 가다 -> 가시다.

For example, if you are speaking to a friend and you want to say that another friend of yours went somewhere, you can simply say "갔어". However, if you want to say that your father or your friend's father went somewhere, you have to say "가셨어", which is the past form of 가시다. You see that the speech level stayed low, but the sentence is honorific.

Honorifics also applies to nouns and even particles. You can read more about it on Wikipedia:

Korean honorifics
Korean speech levels

Oh, thanks for telling me

I thought honorifics meant the different formality levels you use when addressing certain people, that's what the website I'm using refers to them as anyway. The "real" honorifics seem really interesting! Koreans really do care about formality

[qeadz]

I thought honorifics meant the different formality levels you use when addressing certain people, that's what the website I'm using refers to them as anyway. The "real" honorifics seem really interesting! Koreans really do care about formality

I've always been intrigued by honorifics and politeness when built into a language like Korean does.

Recently I found out the actual difference between when to use 주다 and when to use 드리다. I never quite understood those so I made it my mission to finally read up on them. Its a lot to think about when one has honorific words (is this what they are called?) PLUS honorific particles and politeness levels all interacting based on the web of relationships between speaker, listener, subject and other people involved in the sentence.

"Me Tarzan, You Jane" is suddenly very appealing.

[Sol]

I thought honorifics meant the different formality levels you use when addressing certain people, that's what the website I'm using refers to them as anyway. The "real" honorifics seem really interesting! Koreans really do care about formality

I've always been intrigued by honorifics and politeness when built into a language like Korean does.

Recently I found out the actual difference between when to use 주다 and when to use 드리다. I never quite understood those so I made it my mission to finally read up on them. Its a lot to think about when one has honorific words (is this what they are called?) PLUS honorific particles and politeness levels all interacting based on the web of relationships between speaker, listener, subject and other people involved in the sentence.

"Me Tarzan, You Jane" is suddenly very appealing.

Yes, I really appreciate how there are no politeness levels in English. It's just "you" for everyone and you don't have to worry about offending anyone. Though sometimes I feel weird not being able to say "you" formally to someone I feel I should be more respectful to, like in a lot of languages you use the plural form of "you".

But I'm grateful the conjugation is a bit simpler than other languages. Imagine if you had to integrate politeness levels with conjugations similar to Spanish.