Category: Korean

Free Language Classes in Pittsburgh

Free Language Classes in Pittsburgh

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Hi dear readers,

It’s been a while, as usual. This time, I have been actually really very busy. As I stated in some previous post (or did I at all?), I have taken some 5 grad courses, I have research to do and then I have a part time job for which I have to pull all-nighters twice a week. So, I am pretty busy. I have been unable to keep up with new anime even. However, I do find time to go to anime club every week. I have missed only twice this semester. I have been to quite a few movies as well and meet friends not from my department at least bi-weekly. Now that I have written it down, I realize I am really enjoying this sem. And then, I have joined these free language classes which will be the main focus of this post.

One of my Chinese friends knew how interested I was in languages (she herself is a big fan of Big Bang and hence is interested in learning Korean) and she took me to these free language classes that are held in Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (by volunteers I think, not sure). I have joined Korean, which is held every Saturday, Japanese which happens every other Monday and the Russian which happens every alternate Thursday. There are options for Chinese, French, German and Spanish as well. I wanted to join Spanish but had already missed number of classes so gave up on it.

First of all, let me review Korean classes. I joined Korean classes when they had already done 8 weeks of work, out of which 4 weeks were spent in learning the alphabet supposedly. Thank God for that. The best part about these classes is that there is structure, there is review and there are buddies to practice with. We have learnt the general stuff in Korean till now: Where do you go?, Your family, What do you like?, making verbs out of nouns etc. etc. This time, the grammar sticks! Because we’re continuously using it in practice. We form pairs and try to talk. The teacher is really helpful and cute as well. And since she is not actually a teacher, we get to learn from a commoner’s perspective: the commoner’s language. I have been to 2-3 classes and enjoyed them thoroughly. This is the most fun class out of three.

For Japanese, since it happens once in two weeks, I have gone to only 2 classes. They were teaching very basic stuff: What do you like, time etc. I was planning on dropping this class because I thought my level was definitely above than that. However, yesterday, when I got to know that minutes in Japanese are ‘ふん’ and not ‘ぶん’ which I had thought was the case all along (for like 5 years! Gosh!), I realized I have never really paid attention to the details. I was also struggling with numbers greater than 10 somehow (THESE ARE SUCH ELEMENTARY THINGS!! No wonder I don’t pass my JLPT exams ;-;). Well, it gave a huge blow to my confidence but after the practice session, I did get a little bit of it back. So now I am planning to go through it till the end. And if I end up interning in summers in CMU only, then I’ll have access to the new semester of classes, so I can join Spanish and French and second level classes for the ones I am learning already.

Third is Russian. The first class for me was a disaster. Not because the classes were bad, but because I had missed more classes than I had thought I had. I joined them in probably 5th class and though the class was small (like 8 people) all of them were proficient with the alphabet. I had learnt their alphabet 2 years ago, so obviously I didn’t remember anything. But the teacher was quite patient with me and let me attend the classes. I promised her to learn the alphabet before next class and I did well with reading in the next class (a small yay!). I have no clue what happened in the classes I missed though. The one I attended, we talked about family, pronouns and gender. I have also started with duolingo for Russian. Russian is totally alien to me except one song I hear in Ukrainian which is distantly related to Russian language including similar alphabet. But I am enjoying learning it thus far because the teacher is interesting as well.

Here is a link for if you’re in Pittsburgh and interested in attending the free classes: Pittsburgh Free Language Classes
They will start new ‘semester’ of classes in summer, May I think. Check their website for more info.

So, this is what I am doing apart from all the academic stuff. I would have loved to post pics of worksheets but it might be copyright violation so I won’t do that. I’ll post the song I talked about above.

First Step Korean: A Beginner Coursera Course from Yonsei University

First Step Korean: A Beginner Coursera Course from Yonsei University

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Hey peeps! This time I am going to review this course which I took up in their last available session. I hope, most of you are aware of Coursera, a platform for free and paid open MOOC courses. I have been a student there since they started (although I never came around to complete any of their courses because laziness).

I have been waiting like crazy for them to introduce language courses, and I have always wondered that they have courses from so many non-English Universities, why these universities wouldn’t introduced beginner level courses for their languages. There are a ton for English language!! Well, this just goes to show how much learning languages is unpopular (or that universities are busy enough to not make any elementary school level course?) Things are certainly improving though and I found two language courses there apart from English: Korean and Mandarin

So, since I have been neglecting Korean for quite sometime now, I decided to take up this absolute beginner level course from Yonsei University. It turned out to be easier than I thought (at least initial levels), for of course, my level was a little above than the level of material provided here (WARNING: this was written before I reached 4th week). But for a beginner who is confused as to where to start, or a person who has been able to acquire some words from the dramas, this is a great head start. I, at least, learnt a lot from it.

The professor Seung Hae Kang seems to be very sweet and gentle lady and her lectures are like she is teaching a live class before her. It does excite one to take Korean classes from a Korean professor. The TAs are very helpful and prompt in the forums. The course is divided into 5 weeks and each week takes up one topic and introduce grammar points based on that. The topics covered are Korean Alphabet, Greetings, Family, Time and Date and Daily life. Through these lessons, grammar portion covered is Hangeul, Particles, Verb conjugation in present tense and both types of number systems in Korean.

What I like about the course is that it’s self-paced. Within the given time frame of the course, you can complete your assignments any time you want, even after the weekly deadlines (but before the final course deadline). There are dozens of new words in each lecture. You get to listen Korean conversations, in context, directly from native speakers (although a lot of Korean language resources use that) and the lectures are quite interesting. The content covered in 5 weeks is really exhaustive.

Which brings me to the cons of the course that it might seem overwhelming to absolute beginners to do so much in so less time. But rest assured. They have new sessions coming up regularly and if you rejoin any subsequent session because you were unable to complete previous session in time, your progress from previous session will carry over to the new one (I have done it for another course, so it definitely works, but please do check, just in case).

Another thing I find a bit sad is really easy quizzes. I scored a 96.6% in total just because I committed 2/3 silly mistakes. Otherwise quizzes are way easier than the course covered. Nonetheless, they give a good practice of particles (I am finally able to differentiate the ones taught in the course, yay!!!).

The thing I absolutely disliked was that to get a certificate I would’ve to pay 29$. 29$!!! Coursera seemed awesome when there were at least free statement of accomplishment. I mean, for an Indian 29$ is not that big an amount but not that small either. If I have to pay such amount for each and every subject, then…. Although financial aid is available for most of the subjects but anyway, I gave up on the certificate for every course, and just focus on learning. Which is not that bad either. I also don’t like their verification thing before every quiz either. But, it’s not the course’s fault, so it’s alright. Also, I do understand why Coursera has to take such measures, so I have made peace with it.

Hence, I would recommend this course to people looking for a head start in Korean or brush up their concepts a little!! You can go and have a look for yourself at: First Step Korean

In the end, the story of me neglecting Korean studies is that, I have been trying to start with TTMIK again. Or start the books I have, though they might not be the best out there (but I learnt a lesson about books in my last post, remember?). But all in vain. I am putting Korean on hold after I completed the course. I will continue with the vocabulary though (don’t want to absolutely cut from it, since no good drama coming either. Weekly idol after format change has become a little boring as well 😦 )

Heck, I have even been thinking of taking up Thai again and at least finish the notes my senior in Thailand (who was provided with the material by her company itself) gave me. I am a lazy ass after all (That’s something you must have definitely observed given that I try to make a proper schedule of posting blog posts ultimately abandoning it in two weeks or so. I even forgot to put up my blog’s third anniversary post).

Height is that I have JLPT in two months and I just can’t seem to develop an interest in Genki 😐 Guess, I’ll lack in grammar again this time….

Improving reading skill – Short stories (Updated)

Improving reading skill – Short stories (Updated)

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment

I’ve been getting lot of topics to write lately, that I can’t resist blog posting. And when I really really want to write, I run out of ideas! So ironic! Anyways, I’ve been reading short stories now-a-days to improve my reading and speaking skills. And because I come across a lot of new words, vocabulary part is a bonus.

Although, many a times, it is really really difficult. I sometimes just throw the papers in frustration. But in the end, I pick them up again and start from the beginning. Since, I won’t be able to learn the stories in two or three readings except the words I already know, I can go to the same story again which I’ve already read.

It has been pretty hard for me to find stories online so that I can print them and read them, and sometimes I feel webtoons would be much better for entertainment and reading for Korean. But my schedule involves remaining glued to my laptop screen as long as I’m awake. Most of the work I do is on my laptop. If not, I’m watching dramas or MVs. If I’m revising flash cards, then it is my mobile screen. Too much strain on the eyes! (Ah! My eyes are already going bad. I don’t know when the optician uncle would be able to find my no.) That’s why, they are becoming a total no no. So I found out some and got them printed – for now, one in Japanese and one in Korean.

In this regard, news articles can do too! But stories are way more interesting. Last time I got an article printed and it’s still there in my bag, eating dust! (I’m sorry dude.) I haven’t even touched it (yet). I’m posting the stories link for Japanese stories, they are a few in number. Korean is only one though. I’m still searching and if I get some more, I’ll add in this post

For Japanese go here – http://life.ou.edu/stories/http://life.ou.edu/stories/

For Korean story go here – http://pds8.egloos.com/pds/200802/04/11/Episode_41_Worksheet.pdf

Side Story 1 – When my cousin went to China, I was so envious. Now my mentor is going to Japan. JAPAN! I’ve asked her to bring me souvenirs and I’ll try for books. That reminded me, I was searching for big book stores in Bangkok and there are plenty and at those places where I’ve already visited. I never noticed them *Facepalm*. If I had noticed them earlier, I would’ve spent my money on buying books instead of clothes. TT_TT (Now I’m a poor person)

Side Story 2 –  I’m using company’s waste papers for my printing. Here, they generally print on one side and the waste papers are either shredded and then sent to recycle or less important things are printed on the other side – much later. This time, after audit, there were many papers which were deemed to be waste but now I’ve found out the way to use them. Even for my writing, I’m using those only. (One more way to save money, yes!)

Today’s Song – After such a long time, I’ve found an idol group which solely is dominating my playlist. Yes, you guessed right. That is EXO. I already said that I am totally drooling over their charisma would be getting involved with their songs later than the variety shows. Now, not one day passes me without watching the MVs. I wake up and first thing I do is watch them before doing anything. And last thing before going to bed is their songs again. So, today’s song will be –

Update 22/12/2013: Aigoo!! Why didn’t I see this when I was in Thailand? So many worksheets are there and I was searching for them. Anyways, there are a lot of stories here and much more apart from that. So enjoy – http://freshkorean.com/free-resources/

Pegasus SERIES 6!

Pegasus SERIES 6!

by eastasianlover ♥ 4 Comments

This all is free? Whoa!
I finally get some concrete course which will keep me engaged and make it compulsory to attend and not miss out on classes.

Pegasus Society for Korean Studies's avatarThe Pegasus Society

The Pegasus Society for Korean Studies 2013 

Series 6 

-Application Form & Series Information – 

Dear Applicant, 

I am very pleased to introduce to you a new, exciting opportunity to learn the 

Korean language free of charge, also with the addition of further opportunities to expand 

your general Korean Studies knowledge in other areas, and to integrate other languages 

and language skills into your course. 

In Series 6 the Pegasus Society will aim to provide for you an intensive, vigorous 

and thorough training in the Korean language, whether it be our Beginner’s, Intermediate, 

or Advanced level. We hope to provide this to you through the combined teaching of 

Korean Studies university students and graduates, as well as native Korean speakers, 

allowing you to immerse yourself in the four main language areas of reading, writing, 

listening and speaking. 

Our courses are largely conducted via the internet calling programme Skype. We 

offer…

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