Attempts in April

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ manya ♥
Apr 30, 2018
4 min read

안녕하세요!

This month has been super eventful!

To start, I had MESAC, (Middle East South Asia Conference) and traveled to Oman for 3 days during April to play badminton and represent my school, and I came back with a bronze which I wasn't exactly satisfied with but it's ok I still have two more years.

During my stay in Muscat, I met up with a few friends I made last year in MESAC Abu Dhabi! Some of them are also Kpop fans so I had a great time reconciling with them and talking about BTS and NCT :) and also sharing some snacks my dad got me back from Korea.

This was my mood after we all hung out and took pictures. It seems really sad, but I actually have a kpop meme for any situation really.

Anyway!! Let's talk about my actual progress with Korean lol. If you are someone from my class or you're Miss Bruski doing her weekly Quest Slacker report, you would know that my determination and effort to learn this language kind of took a nose dive in the past few 4 weeks. I mean a month, but 4 weeks makes it sound shorter and makes me feel not so bad for myself.

Yes, I put off learning by a LOT and it just disappointed me as much, because I already do that and I thought that I would've known better. That AND my new year's resolution was being blocked by this dumb thing that I was doing which is called procrastination.

Okay this is going to sound very cliche and like what 80% of 10th grade's TedTalk presentations sounded like but I found my motivation. It came from this youtuber called Kennie JD. A girl from Michigan who did her makeup while narrating throughout in fluent Korean. I couldn't believe my eyes. Well it should be ears technically, but all I can do right now due to my lack of effort is read the darn subtitles. It's like the text taunts me every time I look at it, saying "Hehe you can't survive without me because of your dumb decisions."

So I look at this lady as an inspiration to continue my journey. I got back to using LingoDeer (I wrote a review in the previous blog post if you want info :)) and my KLEAR Korean Workbook. I also made some more pretty notes because why not! It's kind of like a mental therapy for myself because it feels like a less stressful scrapbooking activity.

Here are some pages of the bujoing I did.

In Basic Greetings (above) I learnt about some of the greetings I hear all the time during K-Dramas or reality shows. I also understood the math behind the habnida in many greetings. A tip that I'd like to give other learners:

On TV, many people say annyeonghaseyo~ but they either say it very fast, or shorten it to seyo~. You can pick up on this habit to come off as a fluent speaker.

I also learnt that the opinion system in Korea is very different to the one in the States. If someone asks you if you don't like coffee, (let's assume you do not) you would say (in Korean), No, I do not like coffee. And if your answer is the opposite, you would say Yes, I like coffee. This can get pretty annoying because you'd have to think twice before stating what you like or dislike.

On this page, I wrote notes on the verb to be. In Korean, there are no a's or an's. They have i-e-yo and ye-yo, which are used accordingly to the ending of the noun placed before it. (I talk more about sentence structure in my previous blog post). In addition, you can easily make a sentence a question changing the tone of the chosen verb. Unlike English, where you'd say Where is the water?, in Korean you can just say water? or mul-i-e-yo (because it is a noun that ends in a consonant.

As I wrongly spend my free time on YouTube when I should be doing work, I've come across various "Learn Korean in 8 Weeks!" videos, (clickbait, I tell you.) and almost all are by people who actually live in Korea, or people who are sponsored by super expensive educational companies. See, when I'm at an odd's end with a question I desperately need an answer to, I go to Quora. It's literally a Yahoo! Answers but with educated responses.

This popped up in my email really recently and

you can imagine how I instantly clicked on it.

So I read the article very carefully and visited the website the person recommended.

It's a good thing I didn't ask for anything for my birthday this year. $100 doesn't sound too bad if you look at everything that the Online Access deal offers, besides it will be beneficial in my future right? It's better than giving me money just to blow up on food. (Which I already do and it does not make my mother happy.)

Right now, I'm considering purchasing this package because it includes Korean certification tests, which mean that me self teaching myself will be accounted for, when I apply for official occupations.

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☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・.Manya's Monthly Suggestions。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

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1. What is Love? by TWICE

2. Rubberband by iKON

3. Love Scenario by iKON

4. Jealousy by MONSTA X

5. Don't Forget by iKON

6. Blooming Day by CBX

7. Overdose by EXO

8. Love Line by TWICE

9. Shine by PENTAGON