My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Sat Oct 06, 2018 1:30 am

Quick update:

I finished the "맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1: Coreano para la Comunidad Coreana Hispanohablante" textbook :D!!!

Here is the commemorative completed bar:

: 194 / 194 맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1 (pages) :

For now I'm thinking about taking a break from textbooks during October and instead focusing on activities from the "Nuri Sejong Hakdang" website (there's a challenge/event during this month and I would like to participate).

I think I'll be making a longer update in a few days. See you then! ;)
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Mon Oct 08, 2018 6:31 pm

I'll make a summary of what I've been doing the for the past month and what are my more immediate plans.

- Watch korean TV with or without monolingual subs. I continue watching lots of korean TV (with and without monolingual subs). Lataley I've gotten into the habit of watching half of the 2 Days & 1 Night (1박 2일) new episodes without subs and the other half with english subs. When watching without subs I do not get obssesed with understanding each and every little detail. I'm fine as long as I'm having fun (which is getting easier as the time goes by because I've become really familiar with the format of the show and with many things they usually do or say). From time to time, though, I use the summary captions (that come in korean) as a reference to look for a word or a phrase that seems to be key to understand the whole situation or the humor.

I've also re-started to watch korean-dubbed japanese anime without subs.

And last weekend I marathoned the first 5 episodes of a new TV show called "Dancing High" (I watched it with english subs...hehehehe). This is my favorite performance from episode 5 in which the coaches danced together with their pupils (it is from Team-Hoya):



- Read at least a complete segment of the book "Korean: A Comprehensive Grammar" or of the book "Essential Korean Grammar". As I've said before, I'm not that good at focusing on many activities during the same period of time. As I was more focused on finishing the "맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1: Coreano para la Comunidad Coreana Hispanohablante" textbook, I barely read a few pages of the other two books.

- Take, from time to time, the Viki's K-drama Vocab Quiz. Basically the same as above.

- Reading korean webtoons. When I started reading I wasn't sure how to approach this activity. I read the prologue with the help of Google translator and some searches in websites like Italki to look for words, unknown grammar and solve doubts. I really enjoyed it (even if it took me about two or three days to complete the prologue) and then moved on to chapter 1. I did the same as before during about 1/4 of the chapter and then I got trangled while trying to decipher a rather complex set of sentences. Thanks to Google translator I could get the gist of them, but my perfectionist side wanted to understand each and every little detail (even when I knew it was not that important for the general plot). Thanks to that I procrastinated during many weeks until last week I decided to remember the gist of those sentences by using the Google translator and then move on. Now I'm almost 2/4 into chapter 1 and I'm enjoying it again.

- Work through and complete some korean-learning textbooks. As I said in my quick update a few days ago: I finished the "맞춤 스페인어권 한국어-1: Coreano para la Comunidad Coreana Hispanohablante" textbook!!!!!!!!!! :D

- Acting k-dramas dialogues. I started it this weekend together with my sister. To make it simpler we are not trying to understand every little detail in each line. We are focusing more on listening and speaking. We acted the first two scenes of the k-drama "While You Were Sleeping" (당신이 잠든 사이에) while using Viki's Learn Mode as a help. I also made and printed two versions of the scenes: one with the english translation and one with the korean transcription. For the korean transcription there were two missing short-lines and I completed them from what I could hear/watch/read. I marked each character with a different color so that it would be easier to recognize what character had to speak next. I'll show you an example:

English version:

Escena 1 (0:01:47)
[Afuera en la calle. Nieva]


Nam Hong Joo: I believe you.
Because of who I am... I can believe in you.

Korean version:

Escena 1 (0:01:47)
[Afuera en la calle. Nieva]


남홍주: 난 당신 믿어요.
나니까. 당신 믿을 수 있어.

We first saw each scene with dual subs in the Viki Learn Mode. Then we proceeded to watch again each scene, but this time line by line; pausing after each line and acting our part and then moving on to the next line.

For the first scene we used a big teddy bear as a stand-in for Lee Jong Suk (the male lead actor) :lol: . I really, really love the lines from the first scene. They are so beautiful!

For the second scene there were four characters, so we acted two each. And then we switched so that we could try all four characters. Two characters spoke super fast and we could not match their speed, so we decided to keep practicing on our own during the weekdays and then practice again the same scenes together next weekend.

My sister and I had a great time acting the dialogues. It was so much fun!!! :D

- I also continue to go to my korean classes once a week. Lately the teacher has been asking me first (and without any warning) different questions and I go completely blank. Not because I don't understand his question or because I don't know how to answer it in korean, but because I'm really bad at answering such sudden questions even in my own native spanish :cry: :oops: (I need more time to think properly and come up with something coherent!).

Plans for October:

As I said in my previous quick update, there's an event/challenge going on during this month at the "Nuri Sejong Hakdang" website and I wan to participate. I'll continue watching korean TV with or without monolingual subs, going to my korean classes once a week and doing the "acting k-drama dialogues" activity. But, in order to mainly focus on the challenge, I will pause all the other activities until November.
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:35 am

Quick update (sort of):

I know this log is mainly dedicated to korean, but at this moment I want to talk a bit about japanese:

Today I went to watch a movie in japanese with spanish subs. This is the first time I actually watched a japanese movie in its original language in a cinema/movie theater. It was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed the movie a lot and I even could predict part of some dialogues in japanese.

I think it may be because I got used to this while watching english subbed korean TV, but many times during the movie I caught myself comparing the japanese I heard with the spanish subs I read.

I also really liked the ending song:



Later, while listening to comments of people who watched the movie, I realized that I had a richer experience: most of them just enjoyed the story, but I had a double source of enjoyment (the story and the original language).

Experiences like this one make me want to go back to actively study japanese ASAP, but I'm trying hard to stop myself from doing so until I reach at least a solid B1 in korean. For now I try to keep myself at bay by occasionally dabbling in japanese without making any serious commitment.
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:13 pm

Since yesterday DramaFever is gone :cry: :cry: :cry:

I had noticed that new episodes of currently airing dramas had been postponed until a later (undefined) date, but I had no idea they were going to stop the service in such a sudden manner.

Yesterday I wanted to continue watching a k-drama, but instead of the usual homepage, I found this:

Thank you for nine great years

As of October 16, DramaFever has been shut down.

For nine years, DramaFever offered a place for streaming the best Korean, Chinese and Japanese dramas on-demand, straight to your device. We appreciate the passion of our fans and it’s been a privilege to deliver you this content.

While this decision is difficult, there are a variety of business reasons that have led to this conclusion. We appreciate each and every one of our fans and their passion for the content DramaFever was able to bring into your lives.

We'd like to take this time to extend our thanks and gratitude to you, our loyal subscribers. We'll be issuing refunds as applicable, and subscribers will receive an email from us with details in the coming days.

Sincerely,

The DramaFever Team

I still had some months left from my annual paid subscription. For now I'm waiting for their email and to see how they will go about the refunds.

It is sad when something like this happens. Not so much because the service is over, but because of the way they handled their subscribers: how could they stop from one moment to another without any warning? I think subscribers (and, in general, all users of the service) deserve more respect.

I think I'll double my use of Viki now and look for other alternatives as well. :cry:
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Sayonaroo
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby Sayonaroo » Wed Oct 17, 2018 10:55 pm

you can watch korean tv shows with full korean captions on ondemandkorea.com
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Thu Oct 25, 2018 12:43 pm

Sayonaroo wrote:you can watch korean tv shows with full korean captions on ondemandkorea.com

Thanks!
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Christi
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby Christi » Sun Oct 28, 2018 2:17 pm

You can also use marutv.com
It's a Korean site but (some) shows seem to have English subtitles.
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Sun Oct 28, 2018 3:28 pm

Christi wrote:You can also use marutv.com
It's a Korean site but (some) shows seem to have English subtitles.

Thanks! I'll check it!
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AndyMeg
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Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:44 pm
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Sat Nov 10, 2018 9:38 pm

Quick update:

Thanks to the event at "Nuri Sejong Hakdang" website I got a better understanding of the many possibilities and activities this website offers. I focused mainly on cultural activities, so I learned quite some things about korean culture but not so much about the language. :oops: :lol:

I feel I need to take a break from korean for the time being, so for the next few weeks I'll be focusing on two activities:

1) Writing the first draft of a novel in english.
2) Learning some chinese .

I think I'll make a new log for these two activities and I'll update this post to add a link.

I won't completely disconnect from korean: I'll continue to watch korean TV with or without subs. ;)

EDITED to add the promised link to the new log:
"A bit of chinese and a novel draft in english"
Last edited by AndyMeg on Sat Nov 10, 2018 10:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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AndyMeg
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Re: My korean adventure: fun and enjoyment as a guide

Postby AndyMeg » Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:41 pm

Hello!

I'm officially coming back to learning korean!!!

On February I'll be going back to my weekly korean classes so, during January, I'll try to catch up with the classes I've missed so far (about six clases I think, because they also took a one and a half month long break) plus the classes I'll miss this month.

Learning chinese during my break from korean has been a really fun and interesting adventure. I've been progressing faster than I initially expected and I want to see how far I can go this year. As chinese is my "newest" language (I'm studying it mainly in the written form) my current knowledge is not as solid as the bits of knowledge I currently have in korean, so I decided to keep learning both languages during this year but spend more time learning chinese than korean. I think the proportion will be something like 70% of my time for chinese and 30% of my time for korean, but these percentages may change during the course of the year.

My experiments with chinese also gave me new ideas about how to learn korean this year. I've decided to continue this log instead of starting a new one because I will still be following the approach of "fun and enjoyment as a guide". But now I'll try to take it a step further and look for activities that are not just fun but actually very compelling to me. For now I plan to start with these three activities and see how it goes:


1) Rewatch k-dramas with korean subs. I'll try to pay attention to the subs, but I want to have more of an extensive approach here, so I won't be pausing at each and every line and instead I'll just read whatever I'm able to read and understand whatever I'm able to understand without pausing the video. There may be exceptions to this "no-pausing the video" approach, but they will be exceptions and not the rule.

I decided to rewatch old dramas because this way I will have a better idea of the general plot and I won't get lost. Later, when I'm better at korean, I may try to do this with new dramas.

I decided to start with My Love From the Star (별에서 온 그대). This is a drama for which I had already watched the first episodes with english subs. I don't remember why I stopped watching it (I probably got busy and then forgot to go back to it), but I want to finish it. My current plan is to rewatch the drama with korean subs up to the point I had left it before, then I'll have to decide if I continue with korean subs or change to english subs.

My idea is to always being watching a k-drama with korean subs so, if I start to watch the rest of this drama with english subs, I'll look for another drama (that I had already watched) to start watching it with korean subs.

Besides this, I'll just continue watching korean TV with and without english subs (and listening to korean songs) as I feel like it (I continued to do this even during my break from "officially" learning korean).


2) I'll continue reading a korean webtoon that I had started to read a long time ago. I stopped when I was at chapter 2, so there's not much to re-read before "officially" continuing where I left.

This willl be my approach:

1. See the main image and the surrounding images.
2. Read a line in korean and try to guess its meaning without the use of additional tools.
3. After trying to guess the meaning, then put that line on "Google Translator" and compare the english translation to my initial guess and try to divide the sentence into parts and match those parts with the korean line.
4. If the translation from Google didn't make the korean line comprehensible enough (this usually happens with some slang, for example), then look for key words or parts on the internet and read about it (sites like italki or HiNative tend to be really useful for solving these doubts)
5. Move on to the next line and repeat the process.

NOTE: For now I'll just try to get the gist of each line and move on. Later, when I'm already at a level where I can easily get the gist of things, I'll move on to try to get a more precise understanding.


3) Read and understand the grammar points with 5, 4 and 3 stars from the book "Essential Korean Grammar" by Laura Kingdon.

★★★★★ Critical; with only the five-star expressions, you can communicate almost everything you need to say, and without them you’ll have trouble understanding any more than the most basic of sentences.
★★★★ Very helpful; you should learn this if you want to communicate well in Korean
★★★ Useful, fairly common, and will help you sound more natural and fluent
★★ Not that important; grammar only the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) people care about
★ Don’t worry about this unless there’s some reason you need to know it

Expressions are also rated according to whether or not they’re used more in speaking or in writing.

The expression is:
Speaking > Writing used more often in speaking than in writing
Speaking < Writing used more often in writing than in speaking
Speaking = Writing used as often in writing as in speaking
Speaking used only in speaking
Writing used only in writing

I'll keep the korean log and the chinese log apart for now. If you want to check out my chinese log here is a link: A bit of chinese and a novel draft in english
Last edited by AndyMeg on Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:28 am, edited 2 times in total.
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