mykoreanstudy - Tumblr blog

[mykoreanstudy]

Have you completely abandoned this blog? I’m sad. 😔

I apologize, I've been busy coping with my somewhat tumultuous life, my mental health, and the state of the world these past couple years.

I'm glad to hear that you appreciated my presence in this community :)

[mykoreanstudy]

Can I ask how did you learn Korean?

I prayed to a jar of kimchi

[mykoreanstudy]

I want to study Korean in university. Do you think that’s a good idea?

Depends what you want to do with it, I suppose.

If you have a specific career track in mind (teaching, translation, international affairs, etc.) it could be very beneficial.

That being said, if you just want to do it because you're interested in it and you think it would help expand your mind, that's fine too. I wouldn't personally have spent the money at an American institution to do this, because college is very expensive and student loans are a scam. But if you still think that's the best choice for you, or you are in a country where higher education is affordable, go for it!

[mykoreanstudy]

hello! after years of studying on my own i started taking korean classes in uni, and i realized that i wasn’t as good at writing than i thought! as in using certain words and grammar endings in writing. i’m in another writing-heavy class this semester and i don’t want to mess up, do you have a list of words/grammar words used specifically in writing? or know of any sites i could use? i try searching but to no avail :(

I think the first place you should go is past TOPIK tests. You can use the prompts to practice and then compare your writing to the writing in the answer docs. It's really helpful.

Outside of that, read the news! Read read read

[mykoreanstudy]

’A korean learning site you can trust’. Is that a jab at other korean blogs? 😅

Haha....I've changed it since....I guess it was intended as a jab a little bit. There was part of me that was very frustrated by how much inaccurate information about Korean I was seeing on tumblr, whether it was misspellings, mistranslations, or people answering questions they were not really qualified to answer. But I was frustrated with a lot of things back then, and I don't even know the state of Korean-learning tumblr now. I started this blog when I was 18 and I am now 27, so my views on a lot of things I've posted here have changed wildly, as has my attitude.

[mykoreanstudy]

Do you have tips on how to learn advanced Korean? Everything is for beginners. 😭

Oof, I wish I did. Honestly your best bet is to make your own content to study off of - I would go through news stories/movies, write down all the words/phrases I didn't know and memorize them through flashcard sites.

Another way is to go backwards and use all the amazing English learning resources for Korean speakers, as most of these will include Korean translations and make great study material.

This is assuming you are too advanced for TOPIK II study materials and level 6+ Korean 어학당 books/materials, which are a good place to start for those who are moving past the intermediate level stuff. But they will not be sufficient for learning the vocabulary/phrases that are needed for fluency.

[mykoreanstudy]

I am trying to sign up for a Coupang account to buy some ice cream (irrelevant) but, I don’t know how to format my number. I am from the U.S.. I tried typing in my number “regular” (xxx-xxx-xxxx) and even with the plus 1 extension (+1xxx-xxx-xxxx). This is still not working so I was curious if you were aware of a possible solution

The Korean internet has robust security that tries to link users to a real identity on most sites -- and often this involves providing a Korean phone number.

Without one, you cannot sign up for Coupang, unfortunately. Without a Korean number in Korea, your only alternative is to use a friend's number (a friend who has a Korean number, of course) or to use a site which generates Korean phone numbers for verification purposes, but I cannot speak to the legality or security of those sites.

[mykoreanstudy]

Hey! I have a question about Korean. I don’t get how -있습니다 is past tende but also an honorific? As in phrases like 잘 먹에씁니다.

있습니다 is not past tense or honorific. It means "There is/exists (something)"

The present tense is -ㅂ/습니다 (잘 먹습니다)

The past tense is -았/었/였습니다 (잘 먹었습니다)

The future is -겠습니다 (잘 먹겠습니다)

[mykoreanstudy]

How do you conjugate 나오다? I tried to say ’I can’t remember’ in Korean and I accidentally said 기억이 안 나와요. And then my teacher said that that’s something you say in the bathroom. 🙈 I was so embarrassed lol

The verb you are looking for is 기억나다, not 기억 나오다. You can say 기억이 안 나요. Hope that helps! No need to be embarrassed ever -- making mistakes is just part of learning a language, it gets easier after 100s of mistakes lol

[mykoreanstudy]

plz do korean BDSM words, i haven't been able to find them anywhere.

lol I was gonna leave some snarky one-liner as a reply to this but I've decided to actually sorta answer this instead

I mean ultimately most BDSM terminology comes from English so they're not gonna be much different in Korean, like 돔/섭, 본디지, 바닐라 etc.

There are a couple short hands that may not be instantly recognizable, like

사디 = short for "sadist" (사디스트)

마조 = short for "masochist" (마조히스트)

Korean words are generally used to talk about BDSM in the more academic or theoretical sense, but not so much colloquially, like

구속과 훈육 (B&D: Bondage & Discipline) 지배와 복종 (D&S: Dominance & Submission) 가학과 피학 (S&M: Sadism & Masochism)

Anyway, here's a Korean test to tell you what kind of kinky you are, have fun

[mykoreanstudy]

Did you write your thesis in Korean? If yes then wow.

Nope, both my bachelor’s and the degree I’m working on now are in practical fields, so they require(d) a practicum in place of a thesis.

I have written a lot of papers in Korean, but I can’t say any of them were amazing writing lol. Luckily, Koreans themselves don’t really learn how to properly write an essay in school, so I had a slight advantage in understanding how an essay should be structured, even though the language was a disadvantage for me.

[mykoreanstudy]

Hello, I'm south korean. I was wondering if you could tell me your experience with these two things: 1. How did you mastered matching 어간 and 어미? Like how does a person whose first language is an isolating language like English adapts to korean which is the text book example of agglutinative language that changes form all the time? 2. When you read hanguel now, do you have to consciously apply 음운변동 to read correctly or does it come out naturally? I'm so sorry my questions sound like

(continued) Continued integration. I just wanted to know what it is like to learn korean as the second language. Thanks for reading.

____________________________

Hi. My apologies for answering this question so late. I’m not sure how long ago it came in, as I don’t have the time to check this site much anymore. 

Regarding your first question, I think it’s just a matter of getting your brain around the idea of a language that works differently. It is very difficult to understand the concept at first, but the concept itself is not as difficult as understanding the meanings behind individual 어미. Most Koreans are incapable of describing the meaning of -네, or the difference between -지 and -잖아. Even those who teach it professionally cannot describe it in an exact, concise way. It’s mainly a matter of exposure.

As for the second question, I think it matters how you learned Korean. For me personally, I learned most pronunciation rules (those that are 표준어 and those that are just common use) just by living in Korea. For example, I pronounced 효과 as 효꽈 and 인기 as 인끼 without realizing I was pronouncing them with 된소리 just because that is the way that I repeatedly heard those words. But I imagine people who lived outside Korea and learned Korean in a classroom exclusively would need to learn the way words are (or should be) pronounced. I very rarely consciously think about those rules unless maybe there’s a really unfamiliar and odd word with an uncommon 겹받침.

[mykoreanstudy]

Hi! I’m studying abroad in South Korea this upcoming school year and was just wondering if you had any tips or general experiences to share? I’m going to SNU and will be only studying korean language, I’ve studied at snu once before for a summer, but I don’t think I navigated Korea well. As someone with more experience of being in Korea as a foreigner how did you navigate to stay sane, find people, and find clubs/sports/activities?

Haha....I didn’t stay sane....so I’m not sure how much help I will be.

I don’t think finding people and activities is much different from finding people and activities in any other place. Just ask around constantly! And understand that your options will be limited based on how much Korean you speak.

There is no wrong or right way to navigate your life there, just do as much as possible :)

[mykoreanstudy]

can you please help me understand the difference between 방법 and 방식?

Unfortunately I think this is just one of those things you have to get a feeling for. Literally they don’t really have much difference in meaning--in fact, they are both used in the definition for the either. 

My feeling is that 방식 is more formal since from my own observation it often follows nouns while 방법 often follows verbs (ex. 삶의 방식 vs 사는 방법). I also feel that 방법 tends to refer to the actual method of doing something while 방식 is more about the way of going about something, but I’m not sure if that makes sense to anyone else (or is even accurate, it’s just how I ~feel~). In any case, I’d say 방법 is used much more often.

It’s also worth noting that there are a lot of fixed expressions that only use one or the other (ex. 사용 방법, 사고 방식).

[mykoreanstudy]

Do you miss Korea at all? Do you want to live there again? I was an exchange student in Seoul and I want to go back so badly but there really aren't any possibilities for me so... Also I've always kinda been envious about your life and education especially. You're so great!

I miss it but I don’t think I could live there again long-term. Just wasn’t really for me after all. But things could change.

[mykoreanstudy]

I hope this isn’t inappropriate but in Korea how foreign do you look? I’m half vietnamese and sometimes Koreans will think I’m mixed race and grew up somewhere else. I look white and not really at all Vietnamese but I have brown eyes and black hair which I help makes me seem somewhat less like an outsider even though I still struggle with it. I imagine it must be more extreme with people who look very different from Koreans.

I’m very white

[mykoreanstudy]

Korean Hair Styles

Some of these styles are difficult to describe, so if my description doesn’t make sense, google image search should make it clear.

생머리, straight hair

곱슬머리, curly hair

층을 내다, to get layers

머리를 다듬다, to trim hair

Men’s styles (남성헤어스타일)

바가지머리, a bowl cut

까까머리, a buzz cut

이대팔, a man’s haircut which is parted to the side (the ratio is 2:8)

오대오, a man’s haircut which is parted in the middle (the ratio is 5:5)

댄디컷, a man’s haircut which is long with bangs

투블록, a man’s haircut which is shaved underneath and longer on top

맥가이버 머리, a mullet

울프컷, a short mullet

대머리/삭발, bald

반삭머리, hair that is very short (but longer than a buzz cut)

리젠트, the pompadour 

올백, slicked-back hair

드레드록스, dreadlocks

Women’s Styles (여성헤어스타일)

단발머리,  a bob

숏컷, a boy cut 

파마/펌, a perm

똥머리/당고머리, a bun

만두머리, two buns on side of head

양갈래머리/삐삐머리/트윈테일, pigtails

옆가르마, side part (가르마 means part)

올림머리, an up-do

땋은머리, braided hair

디스코머리, french braided hair

히메컷, hair with choppy side layers

벼머리, a small braid which is braided into the rest of the hair

포니테일, a ponytail

꽁지머리, a low ponytail

사과머리, one small lock of hair tied up on the top of the head (to look like the stem of an apple)

반머리, half of the hair tied up at the back of the head

아줌마파마, the classic curly perm that Korean ajummas often have

Bangs (앞머리/뱅)

일자앞머리, straight bangs

쉼표머리, bangs that curl to the side (like a comma)

여신앞머리, long bangs parted to each side down the middle

시스루 뱅 앞머리, thin see-through bangs

처피뱅, choppy bangs

깻잎머리, side bangs which are pinned to the side of the head (to create a shape that looks like a leaf)