Amanda Takes Off...

I am re-reading The Little Prince in Korean (어린 왕자), in graphic novel format. I got to chapter four with the king. He kept ending verbs in "-라."

I asked Good Man about it. "What is this 오서 오너라? 모모 하지 마라?"

"Ahhh, that is 하노라 form. It's used by kings and yangban class—"

I held up my hand and started shaking my head. It was as I'd expected. "Nevermind, I don't need to memorize this. I will just ignore the ending."

Since staying with Mother for more than a week has put the fear of the mother-in-law in me, I've been studying Korean more lately. Conveniently, this lines up with Gori Girl's language challenge. As such, I've been posting more over at 한국어 공책. A week ago, I posted this.

From next week through the end of this year, I will study Korean 1 hr a day, 5 days a week, including writing 1 journal entry of at least 1 page, size 12, double-spaced in Korean.

If I succeed, I get to spend $50 on Korean books. If I fail, well, I suck.

I haven't gotten to an hour a day most days. But I've gotten close. The five hours a week part is what I'm really aiming for, but I didn't want it to turn into a weekend of massive study sessions.

As part of my goal, I've decided to participate in National Blog Posting Month—over at 한국어 공책. I'll be posting once a day about my studies. It's mostly going to be a boring account of what I've studied, but at least it'll keep me honest!

I also found two new Korean grammar books on Amazon, Basic Korean and Intermediate Korean, both subtitled A Grammar and Workbook. They are published by Routledge.

I have Korean Grammar for International Learners already. It's good. It's very detailed. It also has sentences like this (about 과/이, 하고, (이)랑, found on page 159).

When coordinate particles are used in conjunction with predicates which require two nouns, they express the idea that the two nouns either have something in common or are comparable.

Compare this to Basic Korean, page 102.

The particle 와/과 tends to be used in formal or written communication. [...] The particle (이)랑 tends to be used for more informal and/or colloquial settings. [...] There is no apparent meaning difference between 하고 and the other two particles 와/과/(이)랑. However, 하고 seems to be less [formal] than 와/과 but more formal than (이)랑.

Well, that finally explains why Good Man uses (이)랑 when ordering things at a restaurant! That also explains why I see (이)랑 in writing in children's books and when people are speaking banmal in books, but I only see 와/과 in newspapers.

I think International and both Routledge books are useful to Korean learners. International Learners has a much, much better index than the Routledge books. And it had grammar points I haven't found elsewhere. The publisher (Yonsei University Press) also has a separate grammar workbook. This is an excellent reference book.

The explanations in the Routledge books are much clearer to someone who hated learning grammar in school. Also, the exercises are built right into the books, which people might find more convenient. These books seem more "readable" and seem easier to study. Also, before the exercises in each chapter there's a word list of necessary vocabulary.

I've been reading Basic but not doing the exercises. I'm reviewing things I already know and it's clarifying things I've come to sense over time.

Longer version of this entry is available in Korean.

Last week Fairy Godmother Co-Worker and I went to Super HMart together. She wanted to see what sort of food they had and she likes it when I explain what the foods are. Super HMart was having an Asian food fair and that meant we got "service," too, in the form of free Lock-and-Locks! (OK, a Korean knock-off of Lock-and-Lock.)

They also had dragon fruit. I decided to get some because we never eat it and I recall eating it in Thailand and Vietnam.

I gave Good Man a half a dragon fruit to eat for dessert one day this week. He was not impressed.

"키위 친구 친구!" It's kiwi's friend friend! He also called it kiwi's half- half-brother. I asked how that was possible and he was not sure.

I asked him to try one more bite. He obliged, but was not impressed.

"뭐?"

"싫어."

Dead Meat: Naked boy! Put on some clothes!

Robot: I'm so, so cold! Where are the clothes?

Amanda Teacher, shaking her head and trying not to laugh: 'Naked boy! Put on some clothes.' Not something I ever thought I'd hear in my classroom. I think that will be the title of my teaching memoir. Naked Boy: Put on Some Clothes.

For the record, the students were acting out one of the difficulties of being an explorer during the Age of Exploration. They were showing "inadequate supplies." Nobody was naked. (Whether or not my students need to wear more clothing is up for debate.)

12월25일 21시15분부터 1월8일 12시15분까지 한국에서 있을거야! From 12/25 until 1/8 we'll be in Korea.

We called Mother to tell her the news. Good Man told her we were coming on Christmas.

She asked, "언제 와?" When are you coming?

"이십오일이에요." The 25th.

"앗! 크리스마스!" Oh! Christmas!

I laughed and said, "You go to church!" She laughed, too.

We also called Master, which was especially fun.

"여보세요?" he said. Hello?

"관장님이예요?" Is this Master?

"네." He sounded very tired and I double checked the clock, afraid I'd calculated the time incorrectly.

"안녕하세요!" I said. Hello.

There was a pause. "안녕하세요..."

"누구 몰라요?" You don't know who this is?

"누구예요?" he said. Who is this?

"아만다예요!" It's Amanda!

Master roared with laughter and his voice suddenly sounded awake. I told him we were coming to Korea and he chased the dates out of my mouth. He demanded I come to the studio. Wouldn't miss it for the world!

Good Man found an awesome Firefox Add-On to spell check in Korean. I've only used it a few times but I really like it.

"Did you read my essay?"

Good Man nodded. "Yes, it was good."

"I don't believe you."

"Why?"

I shook my head, "Because you always say that, and when I type my things up and post them [on Lang-8], I always get corrections."

"Yeah, that is the beauty of learning."

Good Man wanted 비빔밥 (bibimbap) this week. Bibimbap is literally "mixed rice." You basically take whatever veggies are in the back of the fridge and sauté them, salt-water soak them, or boil them. Then you layer them on top of a bowl of rice, alternating the colors so it looks pretty. An egg in the center, some sesame seeds, possibly some seaweed or meat, and some gochujang on the top and you're good to go.

You admire the bibimbap for about 8 seconds and then mix it all up into a delicious mess.

A variation on this is to put the rice in a hot bowl. The rice forms a nice crust on the bottom.

Good Man and I made vegetarian bibimbap tonight with carrots, red-leaf lettuce, mushrooms, leeks, an egg, and some seaweed (김). Damn, it was good! I should've been born Korean.

Good Man simply piled everything into a mess in his bowl. I made everything pretty first.

Good Man frowned. "The beauty of bibimbap is in the mixing!"

"No, the beauty in bibimbap is in destroying the beauty of bibimbap."

My Bibimbap

Good Man

And he is.

So the chain in our toilet broke. Now, we rent, so it's really up to our landlord to fix it. But he was out of town, and I didn't want to tidy up the living room (judge me as you will), so we went and spent $2.59 to buy a new chain.

I figured it couldn't be too hard to replace a chain. The guy at Home Depot told us what to do and the box had directions on it. No problem, right?

Except we couldn't turn the water off. The valve was really, really stuck and I could only turn it approximately 180 degrees in either direction.

Good Man's solution?

Turning Off the Water With a Chopstick

It worked, and after some minor adjustments, the chain was fixed!