No Notes November

November (십일월), has been a hectic month for me. I've had many assessments coming up and it's caused me to lag behind a bit on my learning schedule. So, to make up for writing-practice I usually do, I watched videos and some Kdramas to understand dialogue and situations- when and where to use what words, and that's where I stumbled upon honorifics.

In Korea, honorifics are a really big deal. Well, they are in India as well, but no one really cares. When addressing an adult, it's important to finish off whatever you say, with a "-yo". You'd say "Annyeong" to someone younger than you, but when it comes to someone's parent or an uncle, you'd say "Annyeonghaseyo". Another thing about honorifics, is that age earns you respect. If your male friend is older to you by two days, you'd call him "Oppa" (after his name) if you're a girl, and "Hyung" (also after his name) if you're a boy. For me, because I'm a girl, I'd call my older sister or even her friends "Unnie", because they are older and female.

In India, it's normal to address a random female on the street who seems to be your age, "Didi". The same with a male, but you'd call him "Bhaiya". The only difference there is between India and Korea is that the pronouns change depending on the speaker's gender.

Anyway, what I've really been focusing on this month is listening to different types of Korean music so I can really grasp the words they sing. By "different", I mean slow and fast songs. So far I have listened to rap, rn&b and of course, my favorite, pop. (What I've also been thinking of adding is a short list of my favorite songs of the month every time I write an entry)

To add, I've managed to squeeze in some time to refresh my memory on what I learned in October.

Let's say, my memory is not of the best capacity after all the algebraic equations and Spanish conjugations I've had to remember.

{Shout out to my friend jin for always correcting me!}

After my little mishap on Instagram, I thought using my Korean Textbook along with its' audio would probably strengthen my understanding of the pronunciations.

Moving on, I've watched about 3 K-Dramas now, and they have all given me unrealistic expectations of all the aspects of life. But, they did help me understand when to shorten certain phrases, for example, you can say "Thanks" like "Gomawoyo", but you can also shorten it further by saying "Gomawo~".

(Yes, that's Hoseok dabbing to Gucci Gang above)

I've also been watching many Korean Idols, like BTS and Jay Park go live on some SNS like V Live and Instagram. I also realized that they try to the best of their effort to speak in English for their international and non-korean/japanese/chinese/mandarin speaking fans and figured that the least I could do was reciprocate, as I already know English at a decent level, I think I could reach Korean at that level in no time as long as I have a strong will and determination to do so! That's all for November!

Fun Fact!- BTS are the first KPOP group to make it on the American Music Awards!!

안녕 for now!