한국어 공책

"남편!" I yelled from the living room.

Good Man appeared, sipping coffee. "뭐?"

I read to him.

만일 십 년 이십년 이후 자신의 미래가 여전히
고통스럽고 지금보다 더 못할 걸 알게 되다면 어떻게
하겠어?

"So, does that basically mean 'if you could know that ten or twenty years in the future your life would be miserable and worse than it is now, what would you do?'"

Good Man nodded, grunted "응," and went back to his computer.

어제가 어제하곤 달라져. 어제 어제 어제······ 그렇지?
남자는 여자의 어제가 무엇이었을까가 궁금했다. 한번도
여자의 어제를 물어본 적이 없었다. 남자 역시도 남자의
어제를 말해준 적이 없었고 여자가 물어본적도 없었다. 두
사람 사이에는 어제라는 말이 없었다.

"남편!"

Good Man sipped his coffee and looked at me. "응?"

"Does that mean 'the man was curious about what the woman did yesterday. But once again, he didn't ask the woman. The man didn't talk about what he did yesterday and the woman didn't ask. In their relationship, they didn't ask each other about yesterday.' Is that what that means?"

Good Man nodded.

"Damn. 똑똑한 여자야!" I am a smart woman.

Good Man sipped his coffee and sighed heavily. "Your ego is so big it is invading Canada."

299,050

1월7일: 빨간 머리 앤 (만화) ~20,400
2워9일: 내 이름은 삐삐 롱스타킹 ~50,800
2월21일: 꼬 마백만장자 삐삐 ~ 49,000
3월8일: 삐삐는 어른이 되기 싫어 ~41,700
3월17일: 이 솝 이야기 ~47,900
3월21일: 비 밀의 화원 (만화) ~9,850
4월4일: 비밀의 화원 ~52,900
4월13일:안데르센 동화 ~26,500

총: 299,050 자소

단어들을 배웠다:
이목구비 (耳目口鼻)

나는 태권도를 연습한다. 지난주에 태권도장에서 칠 급 고등학생이 찡찡댔다. "육 급이 되어야 했지만, 아빠 항상 일해요. 시험 못 봤어요!" 중얼중얼 거렸다.

나는 대답했다. "육 급이된 후에, 뭐할까?"

"오·사·삼······ 일단 받고 싶어요."

"그리고 일 단 받은 후에?"

"태권도를 그만두소 싶어요! 축구하고 싶어요."

나는 웃음면서 말했다. "그럼, 태권도 비써. 오늘 그만두고 축구 시작할 수 있어."

그 고등학생은 근소리로 외쳤다. "아니요! 일 단 받아야 해요!"

나는 생각했다. 1997년 대학교에서 태권도를 시작했다. 1999년까지 연습했다. 미국에서 보통 대학교 다닐때 체육 수업을 다녀야 한다. 2003년 다시 시작했다. 왜냐하면 취미가 필요하기 때문이다. 2003년부터 계속해서 연습하고 있다. 2007년 한국에서 일 단이 받았고 2008년 이 단이 받았다. 한국에서 한국어를 말하고 한국 사람들을 만나고 싶어서 연습했다. 한국에서 생월이 때때로 어려웠다. 태권도를 연습했으면, 어께가 가벼웠다. 그리고 한국 관장님께서 네 친구가 되었다. 관장님은 네가 이 단을 따는 것을 원하셨다. '이전에, 항상 까닭이 있었어. 하지만 지금? 무슨 이유가 있어?'

요즘은 머릿속에, 가슴속에, 마음속에, 태권도 사람이 되였다. 태권도하기 전에, 나는 "아만다"이였다. 이제 "태권도 하는 아만다"이다. 그것이 네 이유다.

(Cross-posted on Korean blog.)

I'm not sure why I chose "Read 1,000,000 Jaso" as a new year's goal this year, but I am happy that it gave me a push to really read in Korean.

I have studied, to varying degrees, Swedish and Spanish. Although I am apparently competent in Spanish due to my college studies (ha!), I have never read a book in Spanish. I tried reading a few books in Swedish, but I got caught up in all of the words I didn't know. I would stop at every unknown word and look it up in a dictionary. Bad idea. It was time consuming, discouraging, and boring. I subscribed to the idea (probably influenced by the never-ending intensive reading done in Spanish class!) that I had to understand every word.

Of course, this was untrue.

When we planned to go to Korea, I decided to ramp up my study efforts, primarily by building my vocabulary base and writing. The studying improved my Korean (or perhaps just my confidence?), but a side effect that I wasn't expecting was that not studying Korean at least a little bit every day felt...strange. Now doing something in Korean daily is a habit.

Around the beginning of the year I read about a project to read one million words in a foreign language over on Language Fixation. I thought, 'Well, I can do that. It'll be a challenge though.' I had been reading a bit and my speed was slowly picking up. I knew that committing to that much Korean reading was meant excluding most fun reading in English for the year, but I wanted to try it. I hoped that reading would increase my vocabulary, my comfort with Korean, and my understanding of Korean grammar.

I immediately realized that Koreans are loosey-goosey with spacing and I wasn't sure how to count a word. Good Man told me in Korean each character is counted rather than each word. I decided it was fair to go for 1,000,000 characters.

Part of taking on the challenge of reading 1,000,000 characters in a year was to see if the old saws I rattle off to my students are true. "The best way to improve your reading is to read at home daily for at least thirty minutes." "You should be making pictures in your head as you read." My grad school profs told me that, and Fountas and Pinnell said it, so it must be true, right? Another teacher line? "We learn to read so we can read to learn."

When I started reading extensively in Korean, I carried my intensive-reading habits with me. I would get frustrated when I couldn't understand a sentence or paragraph perfectly. Finally, I realized that I had to relax and just read.

Practicing reading near-daily led to a cascading series of events.

• Fluency. When I first started reading more (before I started the challenge), I read so slowly. I was embarrassed by how often I was reading syllable by syllable. (I do remember when I was reading Korean letter-by-letter, so I'll give myself some credit!) But after some practice I start reading full words. And eventually phrases came.

• Endurance. At first I could only read for 10 or 15 minutes at a time and then my brain would turn off. Now I can read for extended periods of time. More than thirty minutes, if I wish.

• Self-Correcting. I started correcting misunderstandings. I'd read something, realize it made no sense, glance back and correct myself.

• Visualization. At some point, pictures started forming in my head instead of English. I remember realizing I was making pictures in my head after reading Korean. I was so excited.

• Predicting. Soon I started making predictions as I was reading. I could often figure out what word would come next. Pippi would 외치다. She always does, that Pippi!

• Vocabulary. I am figuring out words from context. Words with multiple meanings? I used to run through the meanings in my head. Now I can usually predict or figure those out from context, too.

• Grammar. I hated studying grammar in school and couldn't tell the difference between a verb and a noun until I was a sophomore (seriously), but I usually knew what sounded right—probably because I read so much. I don't enjoy memorizing grammar rules in Korean either, but I'm starting to get a better sense of what to say, when. I can more easily pick out the parts of speech in a Korean sentence. Using the topic/object/topic markers is getting easier.

• Thinking in Korean. This one is coming along slowly. Sometimes my predictions or thoughts are in English, but sometimes they're in Korean. With more and more practice, this will come, too!

And this is where the allure comes from. I don't recall learning to read in English. I just recall devouring books. Now I am learning how to read all over again. And it's fun!

There is a deep sense of excitement and joy that comes with understanding a passage immediately. I am excited when I figure out a word in context and then see it in other contexts that prove I was right. I love finding a word in a book I just picked up for the first time—a word that I just learned from my previously read book! Most of the books I picked up in Korea are favorites from my childhood. Even so, these books spark something some magic inside of me. Part of this could be rereading the books as an adult, but I think more of the magic comes from discovering a new word or way to phrase something in an old favorite. 아바마마 is so much more delightful than "my Father, the King!"

I have read seven books in Korean so far this year. Now I feel like I can continue to tell my students that reading books for fun daily improves your reading. It's absolutely true.

미국에서 똑똑한 학생들이 특별 수업 있다. 그리고 난 똑똑한 교사가 되고 싶다. 1월부터 3월까지 대학원 다녔고 오늘 잠수 받았다. 100%! A+! ^^ 기쁘다!

I joined a reading challenge through AJATT. Stayed tuned to see how it works out.