Tag: Korean

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/

K-movie: Secretly Greatly

K-movie: Secretly Greatly

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I read the synopsis and I knew it was going to be a sad movie. But they put it as a comedy. May be, may be this one has a happy ending?  With this heart, I started watching it. It started on a very serious note. Will it be of my taste? Should I just stop here?  But still I continued. I had heard a lot about it, so I was going to give it a chance. And the comedy part indeed started. I was happy. I had had a bad day today and it was all dissolving in the fun I was having. At the same time, a lot of thoughts were running in my mind. And then the time came. The sad part – the reunions, the deaths, breaking of bonds, facing the realities. I couldn’t stop my tears from flowing, mixed with the feelings I had experienced earlier in the day and which I had not been able to let out, yet.

Why does life becomes so cruel for some? Why doesn’t life give opportunities to those who really wish to live? And people keep wasting their lives over some petty issues, ultimately taking this precious gift away from themselves. Don’t they see the misery of such people? Why is the true face humanity so ugly? Not just these two countries, on which the movie or the webtoon to be more precise is based. Right now, how many people may be facing the same condition ? I don’t know. But this movie did set me thinking much more than this. And probably, the thoughts will keep haunting me forever. But would I be able to do something about it? I wonder…….

Anyways, you enjoy it here – http://www.gooddrama.net/korean-movie/secretly-greatly-2013

My Second Korean Experience – My Faith has been Restored!

My Second Korean Experience – My Faith has been Restored!

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Just one week after the last incident, I had my second encounter and I’m very happy that I met that ahjusshi…. Yesterday I went to the Museum of Floral Culture (look forward to my next post reviewing this place). It had been past the lunch time and me and my friend were very hungry. We stopped by this mall which had many many Korean shops from cosmetics and clothes to restaurants and book shops.

And there was this pair of shoes I liked so much and they were on sale. I would have got those kind of shoes in India very expensive. Too bad, my size was not available. Then we went to this shop named Korean DD. It was a cosmetics shop. Although I’m not interested in such stuff and my friend was not sure about the brands from South Korea (she is learning a little though under my influence starting with K-Pop), we still entered the shop. What caught my eyes were the posters of K-pop idols all over. And without thinking over I just went inside the shop. The lady inside was a Thai but when I was naming the idols aloud, she and the guy sitting outside started laughing. Nevertheless, I asked if she was Korean and she replied, the ahjusshi standing behind was.

Ah! So excited >.<  Then my friend asked me to talk to him in Korean and suddenly I froze (갑자기, 왜?). She then explained him that I was learning Korean and then trivial questions like where do we come from and such followed (but in English. Too bad again). We left the shop and suddenly I thought I would ask something about Korean. He didn’t understand what I was saying. Guess he knew only Korean and Thai (Ah! Too bad. Don’t know how many ‘TOO BAD’ moments I had yesterday). But he was a cheerful ahjusshi who tried to help me however he could (Ok, I could have thought that he was a shopkeeper and hence did all that. Marketing strategy? Even so, I want to trust his help). And thus my faith was restored. Then we went on shopping spree with clothes in another shop selling Korean goods at 80-90% discount. There were K-pop songs playing in background and there were Korean movies posters in the shop too. There also whatever piece I was liking was not available in right sizes. Sigh!

But in the end I got a packet of Jjajangmyeon and on the packet there was nothing non-veg. I’m still doubtful about it and will be translating the ingredients although they are written in Korean as well as English. If anyone of you could tell me whether the noodles themselves are non-veg or not, I’ll be very grateful.

And today’s song is – 

Falling in love with the dance…….

My First Korean Experience

My First Korean Experience

by eastasianlover ♥ 3 Comments

As I wrote in my last post, I went to KoreaTown which was a disappointing experience. There is more to what I mentioned last time.

Actually, I have this senior at the adjacent company to the one in which I’m working, who went to South Korea for his post PhD. And he had to leave in between because he couldn’t adjust to their culture. Now that he knows I’m inclined towards the place, he keeps telling me stories about his experience. Initially I used to think that may be, maybe it was just the culture gap. I have seen enough dramas to make out that people are very strict towards work and are very competitive (I hope I’m right). Because, you can’t dismiss everything in k-dramas or any dramas of the world, as a matter of fact, as pure fiction. You can learn a lot about the culture and many a times, general behaviour of the public (saying that by experience 😛). So, I tell him that he must be unlucky to find only such people.

But guess, I was wrong. I met this group yesterday. Two older men and one young girl (may not be as young as I think her to be). They were speaking Korean and I got all excited to see native people from South Korea. Now, I had read in some very interesting book that if you meet some native person of the language you are learning, try to gain as much as possible from them. Though I’m very shy to approach strangers like this, even so, I did-

Me – Umm…..Are you from South Korea?

Lady – Yeah

Me – Hi, I’m from India and I’m very big fan of Korean Culture……

Lady (Interrupting) – Yeah, but you see I’ve to go. I’ve got some company.

Me (Taken aback, don’t know what to say) – Oh, ok. Just wanted to say that I’m very excited to listen to real Korean. Thanks. Bye.

She walks away laughing and telling the uncles about this. I couldn’t hear anything further nor did I want to. I had to go in same direction because I wanted to go to JapanTown too. But I was so shocked that I went to opposite direction, crossed the road for no reason and went to a small book shop in hope to find some Korean books. There also, found only Korean to Thai books.

Ah! My attempt failed. It, kind of put me off. I was thinking of taking admission in some good South Korean university for my higher studies. But now, subconsciously or not, this place will probably go to last country in my list of countries where I was thinking of applying (I will still apply though coz I want to have first hand experience of the culture).

After that, I heard a lot of people talking in Korean and Japanese (which, trust me, has never happened before), but I couldn’t gather enough courage to stop and talk to anyone. I’m not saying that everyone is like that. I haven’t known any real Korean people (I mean personally, I do want to though) and I’m not trying to disregard anyone. I know one or two people can’t represent the whole country. But you are a foreigner here and I’m too. I get it that there are a lot of K-pop fans in Thailand and that’s why there happen a lot of concerts. But at least stop for a moment to listen to me, even if you are in hurry. Am I wrong in expecting that much?

I just know that if some stranger approaches me or tells me that they loved my country when they went there (even though they found a lot of bad things too), I feel so proud and give them a big smile and thank you. Am I overthinking over this whole incident? What do you think?

I just hope that this doesn’t happen again……

But, somehow, I don’t regret it…….

But, somehow, I don’t regret it…….

by eastasianlover ♥ 3 Comments

Yup, I committed a grave grave mistake and I’m very sorry for that to myself. I don’t know how I missed it. Why did I think it was in September? And I didn’t even bother to check it. On the top of that, I came across the whole thing on the last day of all days, not even once in past twenty days?

Oh, sorry sorry. I was talking about 32nd TOPIK registration. I just came to know yesterday that I had already missed the deadline. Everybody keeps a milestone for the date of exam but no one tries to display registration dates. I had a list of plans to execute before and after the exam. I have to take another engineering exam in February and I thought I would start preparing for it after this one. But oops! Everything failed. So what now?

Nothing. Life will go on and I will take the exam next year. 34th TOPIK for sure. And I won’t be outside the country at that time so I won’t get confused as to where to take the exam and where to register. That being said, now I’m going to study even harder and become serious. I already started from yesterday. Everyday, learning new words feels so great. And I have decided to continue with Japanese also.

It makes me a little worried though. Now I’ll have to give time to everything including my engineering related studies whereas earlier I was thinking of taking up Korean only till TOPIK exam.

I know I am 바보 and I seriously wanted to clear at least one level before sitting for placements in December, but oh well, it may as well be advantageous for me. May be, that’s why I’m not regretful about it.

 

It’s been a while since I posted some song with my post, so here it is – 

So Fast!!

So Fast!!

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I love it when people answer me as soon as possible. Right now I’m facing both the extremes. I have been waiting for an answer to one of my queries for quite sometime now and I don’t want to call the people. I check my mail several times everyday, if they have sent some reply, but in vain. For the first mail, they responded so fast that I thought, may be, we might be able to establish good relations with this company. And if that happens, it would be a great achievement for me as an intern. I’m seeing the whole matter after all. I even sent a reminder email but I don’t know if I am doing something wrong.

On the other hand, after I talked to 케쓰 yesterday, I finally sent the mail to PEGASUS society for my lessons. And I got the reply within hours! And yesterday night, I was added to the group, received all the files and now I have started doing my homework too! (And it indeed is interesting, I must add. I’m lovin’ it.)

Ah! That reminds me, I don’t have much time to complete my homework. I have got a big heap of work at the company. On the top of that, I have got a two days trip planned for the coming holiday on 12th August in Thailand. So much to do!!! And a lots of catching up! So less time!!

But truly, I’m very thankful that I could join the group of Korean Enthusiasts like me and I’m looking forward to learning a lot. Oh! And thank you 케쓰 for advising me, otherwise I would have remained in dilemma for the whole time 🙂

On the side note, I have been slacking in posting reviews and all since I’m finding myself really busy with work and dramas. And on holidays, we generally go out because I have received my insurance. Now I have to compensate for all those weekends when I couldn’t go out for sightseeing 😛

In the end, today’s song is – 

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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Language learning – part 2 – The answer

Language learning – part 2 – The answer

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

In the last post you read the story. But the main question remains unanswered – how to approach the things. I, till now, have tried a lot of things – creating flash cards of my own, flash cards in my phone, writing things again and again, sticking hand-made fully decorated charts (wasted a lot of time in that) on walls of my room, downloading language learning apps, and what not. I did learn (and now, know) a lot of languages’ alphabets but then vocabulary remains weak. In that case, I can’t actually say I know the language, can I? (Yeah, in resumes, it looks good and if you write that you are learning the mentioned languages, you can answer if someone asks that yup, you do know the alphabets, at least!) Then I saw my juniors studying them in schools. Not the foreign ones but the common ones. And, I remembered how my mother used to teach me and how I used to help my sibling learn things.

Hence, the solution I found out was – Start From The Basics. In Indian system the procedure goes as follows (at least I did that).  Learn the alphabet. Start reading small small words, then larger ones. If possible arrange some newspapers in the target language and then start slowly. When you get a grip over reading, start with dictations. Obviously, you need some native speaker friend of yours or you can use your favorite dramas for that. For vocabulary, you can begin, like small children, with fruits, vegetables, colors, parts of the body, counting etc. Then you can go to the newspaper you started with and add to your vocab.

For writing part, you can start with short compositions like describing things in small sentences. Then go to bigger things like essays and all. Last remains speaking. First the pronunciation needs to be accurate. For that, native speakers are the best source. You listen to them and repeat them. In this regard, the movies and dramas can help too (but, no matter what, don’t get hooked to them!!) Even better, if you know some native speakers.

Ah! This is nostalgic. All the school memories ran through the mind. See, it isn’t that difficult. But this covers basic only. If you want more, you can read this book – How to Learn Any Language by Barry Farber. It not only tells this person’s journey of language learning but also how to learn, how to take out time when you don’t have any, but still want to explore new cultures through their mother tongue and the languages themselves. It’s a great resource for those who want to start anew as well as those who have become frustrated with variety and never reached anywhere (include me too in the category)

how to learn a language

This brings me to the idea, that I can write reviews for the resources available online which I found useful! Hmmm…. I should go and find a good name if I want to do a series of reviews like that.

Language Learning – Part 1 – The story

Language Learning – Part 1 – The story

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I did say in my first story, how due to envy, I got introduced to languages. But waaaay before that, I had had some exposure to a lot of languages, not foreign though. Being in an English medium school, you have to learn English from the start. Then obviously you know your mother tongue. In India, there is vast diversity in terms of culture, people and languages. If your father is in a job where he and the family have to move a lot, you do get a lot of experience, meet new people, make new friends and learn how to adjust. In different regions, you get to learn a different language. In my case, I got to learn one in my 3rd class (which would probably be Grade 3rd of Elementary School in East Asian countries) because my father got transferred to a new region. Then, generally, in north India (I don’t know about other regions and there may be variations in this region as well! It depends!) you are given a choice between 2 languages – Sanskrit, which is considered to be mother of all languages and the one which I learnt before in my 3rd grade. So I chose Sanskrit (and did really well too! Thank you, thank you). So now four languages were added to my account – English, Hindi, Sanskrit and last one Punjabi (this one belongs to the state called Punjab).

In my 10th class (this will be !st year of high school in East Asia) I started with Japanese but I only had one small book. I never had a look on the kana charts earlier in my life. In those days, internet used to be a rare commodity, so I didn’t have it. The kana charts given in the book looked suspicious. Some syllables in the end were missing (which was because they didn’t exist but hey, I didn’t know that!). And it was only a phrases book and I wanted to start from the basic. But even so, my curiosity wasn’t gratified. Nonetheless, I copied it in hopes of learning a new language and did learn some words but 10th class, here, is a major class. I couldn’t give my new found “hobby” enough time. Next two years are the most important from career making point of view. Preparing for various entrance exams for getting admission in the best colleges takes hard work of your two years.  Can’t even think of other activities. Before college admissions, I did get time and took up French. Learnt some. But again there was no proper guidance. I never got to understand how to start things. Vastness of material available on net confuses you more.

Then college life started. And here I got to see different kinds of stuff. Travel books basically give you phrases which will be useful while roaming around in the concerned country. Phrase books include some more, related to daily life. Then there are grammar books. But they seem so high leveled sometimes that you want to give up. There are a lot of websites, books telling you how to learn a language, other kind of books, audio lessons, youtube tutorials etc. etc. And if you get into the trap of watching dramas and movies of the language you wanna learn, with the desire to grasp something in an entertaining way, then my friends, you get deviated from your goal. Trust me, I’m one of them.

In the next post, find out the answer I came up with for all my troubles.

And today’s song is:

 

The story

The story

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Greetings,

This is the story about how my love (or obsession?) for East Asia bloomed.

This all started when, one day, one of my classmates back in my school (I think it was 6th class) suddenly said that I looked Chinese. I mean, come on. Having small slanted eyes doesn’t mean you’re Chinese (no offence to anyone). But let it be!

Around the same time, a variety of anime started on Cartoon Network. Cardcaptor Sakura was one of the first anime I watched. After that came Pokemon, Beyblade, Captain Tsubasa, Ranma 1/2, UFO Baby etc. etc. and then started Naruto and One Piece. (Me and my sister used to get up at 6 on Sunday mornings to watch One Piece at 7 am!) Their old houses, falling sakura leaves and martial arts used to intrigue me as a child. I was so amused by their culture that I made it my aim to go to Japan once I grow up.

Later, I found a Japanese language learning book in my school’s library (It was due to envy towards my best friend who got French learning book from her brother as a gift but that is another story) and it was the final blow. I couldn’t get it photocopied because it was quite thick and I was afraid of my parents (Of course, it was my 10th class and if you are a good student, your parents would like you to concentrate on studies rather than “wasting” your time on such things). I used to copy the book in a diary myself during the time my mother used to go for her walk ( hehehehe ^w^). They still don’t know I have such a copied book!

Then my college. Now BITS Pilani is a place where, once you get your laptop (I got mine in 2nd sem as most of the people did here), you get access to vast variety of media. A lot of downloaders (I thank such people from the “bottom of my heart”) download movies, series and ANIME (and much more as you can expect and guess!). The old series which I could not complete because they stopped airing and some series I wanted to revisit, were all there. Now, my most enjoyable time started. (I did screw my grades due to that)

And then I was introduced to manga. After that, I started devoting around 16 hours(!!! <My poor Roomie>) to these things (f*** studies) and my curiosity and love for Japanese language and culture (and  people especially handsome guys appearing in J-Dramas) kept increasing. I started listening to Japanese songs (OSTs) and learning the language. It was fun.

Now since there is manga, manhwa and manhua (Korean and Chinese versions of manga respectively) can’t be left and it takes some time for a beginner to figure out which is which. So before I read manga, I read manhwa. Then came webtoons, K-dramas and ultimately K-pop! Chinese was almost the same too.

Its amazing how these things keep introducing you to other related things and you keep getting absorbed. Now I am all into K-pop and considering how their songs are copied in India, it increases my interest more (I am totally against it. These people just ruin the songs!). I think I should add frustration in the name of the blog……

I have written a lot more than I had planned to but it can’t be helped. Once I start on this topic, I can’t stop (I am the same with my friends here and they are now irritated >:-) ) In due course, I’ll keep posting J and K-pop songs and may be some of my fandrawings. Now that I have introduced you to my story, I can start for real from my next post. (I still haven’t figured out what specific things I would write – maybe reviews and more stories?)

Thank you, Gomawo, Arigatou, Xie Xie for reading this and here is a song from one of my favorite boy group, Super Junior (I found it yesterday and I am totally hooked to the song) :