This has been a difficult week for me. I had lots of things to do and too little time for all of them.
- My plan was to start Glossika's GMS on Wednesday (because Mondays and Tuesdays are specially busy and stressful for me), but I did not have time until yesterday. And then I found a problem: 50 sentences was too much for me at my current level of absolute beginner, so I decided to try doing 10 new sentences a day, but it was harder than I anticipated, so I finally settled with 5 new sentences a day (with other activities like dictation, recording and interpreting, I'll be working on a total of 20 sentences each day, 5 days a week). Reading while listening to the speaker was hard (I was too slow: when the speaker finished the whole sentence I was only on the second syllable of the first word). And then, speaking at the same speed as the speaker, proven to be difficult too. If I tried to read the hangul version of the sentence, then I would be reallly slow, so I switched to reading the romanized version and then I could go on with the speaker, but only for short sentences. For longer ones it was impossible for me to match the native speaker's speed. My new plan is to do 5 new sentences a day until I reach a total of 100 sentences (I'll take about a month), then, I'll check my progress and rate of improvement and maybe I'll increase the number of New sentences per day.
- I've been studying on Memrise every day (just a few minutes per day). so far I've started 31 of my first batch of 39 very frequent words.
A few days ago I encountered the 너무 word again. This time in K-pop Star season 6. One of the judges was saying "it hurts a lot" (너무 아파). I also heard the 돈 (money) word a lot. This time in a variety show called "2 Days & 1 Night". The group had to bow to elders for the Lunar New Year and ask them for money to buy the meals of the day.
- Today I finally watched my first 20 minutes of no-subbed drama (I've watched no-subbed drama before, but I would often skip some parts). My plan is to wach 20 no-subbed minutes every day and then, on the fourth day, watch the whole subbed episode.
For this first "official" experiment of watching no-subbed k-dramas, I decided on a new one that is currently airing: Tomorrow With You (내일 그대와). Here is the synopsis:
When a time-traveling CEO millionaire foresees a grim and unhappy future for himself, he marries an optimistic photographer to change his tomorrow for the better. Unfortunately, there is no love between them and the husband’s selfishness infuriates his once-hopeful wife.
Song Ma Rin is a photographer. She was once a child star but is now struggling in both her personal and professional life. However, that hasn't done anything to dent her optimism and overall cheeriness. She lives life without much fanfare or flash, which is the opposite of her husband.
Yoo So Joon is the CEO of a real estate company worth 200 billion won. He thinks only of profit. Life is a balance sheet. Everything and everyone is just a loss or a gain. He has the special power to travel through time via subway. His time-traveling capabilities have played quite the part in the real estate mogul’s tremendous success. But his life takes a grim turn when Yoo So Joon sees his latest vision of the future, where he sees he is living miserably. In order to avoid this fate and change his destiny, the selfish millionaire marries Song Ma Rin. The issue is he genuinely does not love her. He thinks she is “a bit of an idiot” and only sees this union as another business decision. Song Ma Rin, however, actually wants love and his callousness both infuriates and depresses her. Can Yoo So Joon, for once, stop thinking about the money he will make in the future, and just think of tomorrow as a good day with his wife?
(Source: DramaFever)
As I find context really important, I didn't want to dive in without knowing the synopsis at least.
My plan is to write a summary of those 20 minutes each day and say what I understood (or think I understood) and then, on the fourth day, contrast it with the knowledge of the actual subbed version.
So here is the summary of the first 20 minutes of episode 1:[MMC= Main Male Character/ MFC= Main Female Character]
It opens with a video-game match between a korean man and what seems to be a british robot. The korean man wins. The scene changes, a man was watching the korean man on the TV. He chooses some clothes and goes out (I think he is the MMC). It is Christmas, 2018. He sees some girls in santa costumes and thinks they are cute. The man buys a gift and puts it in his bag. Then he goes to the subway station. after passing a tunnel, the people in the train, and the train itself, change. The man is not surprised at all, he must be used to this. The man is now in June, 2016. He takes off his coat and starts saying a monologue (in his mind). He leaves the station. The scene changes. A female photographer is taking photos of a wedding (maybe she is the MFC? They don't show her face, so maybe not). The MFC seem to be one of the bride's firends. The scene changes, the MMC is talking on the phone, he meets with some friends and gives the gift to one of them (a woman) and congratulates her. His friends doesn't want him to leave but he says he ahs to go now (or something like this). When he is leaving, the female friend thanks him for the gift. His phone sounds (is it an alarm?) and it shows a little message (a few korean words and a time: 4:14 p.m.). The scene changes. The bride's friends are talking between them. It seems to be a really hot day because one of the friends is using a bottle of water to refresh her neck. The bride's friends seem to be bad-mouthing someone (maybe the MFC? because she is not with them). The scene changes. The MFC goes to the photographer and gives her a bottle of water. The MFC says she is a fan of the photographer (I think she wants to become the photographer's assistant, but I'm not sure). The bride arrives, they talk a little. The photographer gives th bottle back to the MFC and leaves. The bride asks the MFC if she (the MFC) is crazy. The MFC goes after the photographer. I think the photographer refers to the MFC as "Park Sung" (or something like that. And actually I think the bride used the same name), but the MFC says she is "Song Ma Rin". The MFC is asking for an oportunity (just once) and the photographer finally appears to give in. The MFC thanks the photographer. Then, with the scene still showing the MFC we hear the voice of the MMC talking about "Song Ma Rin". The MMC appears in the same park they are taking the wedding photos. The scene changes (I don't know if it is still the same day or a different one). The MFC has different clothes and the MMC is near (with the same clothes as before). The MFC enters a convenience store and seems to realize a man is following her. She leaves the store and the MMC follows her. He looks his watch. There has been appearing something on the left corner (some letters and a number: first it was 20 and now is 5). Now I think the numbers refer to minutes. I look for the korean word for minutes in Google translator and it says: 분, exactly one of the words that appear after the numbers. So it is a countdown. There are only 5 minutes left for 4:14 p.m. The MMC grabs the MFC arm and asks her if she is "Song Ma Rin", she ask who is him, he wants to have coffee with her, but she goes away. He asks her to wait. She looks perplexed and uncomfortable. There's a small flash foward that shows her being run over by a truck. She asks him how he knows her name. They talk for a little while (I don't know what they are saying). Then she continues walking and starts crossing the street. The MMC pulls her near him and the truck accident is avoided. I don't know if she realizes that he just saved her life. She continues crossing the street. There's a new alarm on his phone (it is 4:14 p.m., the zero hour). She is run over by a car. The MMC tries to wake her up, but he seems rather indifferent about her accident. The scene changes. There's an old photo and the MMC is talking about Park Sung. The photo is in his cellphone. He is in the hostpital and the MFC is near, sleeping in a bed (she looks fine). He is browsing the cellphone and sees a photo of her sleeping while being drunk (in the photo she seems to be in a shopping mall). There are more photos and videos of her being drunk at many different times (apparently those went viral on the net). Back in the hospital, she wakes up and wants to leave. The MMC puts her back on the bed and then he leaves. The scene changes. A woman enters the hospital asking for "My Park Sung Ri". She looks very worried. It seems she watched the news about the accident on TV. Then she sees "Song Ma Rin" leaving the hospital and calls her "Park Sung". The woman asks the MFC if she is alright (I think that woman is the MFC's mom). I think they talk about some older man, but I don't know what they are saying. The MFC rides a taxi and leaves the woman behind. The taxi driver ask the MFC where she is going.Overall, I think all those years watching subbed k-dramas are helping me to at least get a basic understanding. I recognized some very common words here and there, and some very short sentences.
- This week the word that stood out the most for me was 얼마나 (how long, how much, how many), not only because I heard it in the no-subbed drama, but because it is also an important part of a song from a k-drama OST I like a lot. I also listened to a variation of this word while watching a video about BTS (a korean boy-band).