한국어 공책

(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.

Tonight I peeked at my worms. I couldn't remember the Korean word. "에비? 발이?"

"벌레," Good Man said, "but we call those worms 지렁이. Earthworm."

"지 like that word I asked about last night?" Last night I'd been reading The Little Prince and kept running into 지구. I thought it might be "region" or something similar since 지역 is region.

"Ah, 지구, yes."

"지리학!" I yelled out. Geography. Good Man nodded and I smiled. "I am very clever."

지 (地) Earth
지구: globe; earth
천지: heaven and earth (also a series of forms in taekwondo)
지옥: hell
지진: earthquake
지하(철): underground (subway)
지도: map
지리(학(자)): geography (geographer)
지역: region
현지: that very spot

There are more examples, of course, but these are the ones that made me smile or nod. I've been confusing 지도 and 기도 (ji-do and gi-do, map and prayer) for years. I finally came up with "jeez, I forgot the map" and "God, I forgot to pray" to link English letters with the Korean sounds. But this root knowledge will make a much better hook!

(영어)

오늘 시어머니께서 전화하셨어요.

시어마니: 아만다! 스웨터 이뻐!

저: 제 미니 홈피 보셨어요?

시어마니: 어!

저: 여자친구가 남자친구를? 남자친구한테? 남자친구로? 앗! 남자친구 위해?

시어마니: 어.

저: 여자친구가 남자친구 위해 스웨터 만들면 헤어져요.

시어마니: 하하!

저: 그리고 우리는 결혼 안 했어요. 저는 헤어지고 싶지않아요... 우리는 결혼하면 괜찮아요.

시어마니: 알았어, 알았어...

I knew I was using the wrong verb, but I couldn't remember 뜨개질하다.

I learned "위해" from Korean music and actually got to use it. Random.

This always happens. One of my current grammar points in Sogang is -처럼. A few days later, I started listening to this song and ta-da! -처럼!

가지마 가지마

우리 함께했던 날들 그 기억들만 남아
너를 지워야만 내가 살 수 있을까

우리 함께했던 날들 자꾸만 너 떠올라
너를 보내야만 내가 살 수 있을까

(가지마) 떠나지마 제발 (가지마) 사랑하잖아
(가지마) 나 혼자 남겨두고 제발 제발 제발
가지마~ 가지마~ 가지마~

아직 너를 위해 바보처럼 살아가는데
너는 어디에 니가 필요한데
oh~baby 내 사람아 이제 그만 내게 돌아와줘
장난처럼 그렇게 돌아와

항상 너만을 위해서 살아가고 싶지만
때론 그 사랑마저도 힘이 들잖아

(가지마) 떠나지마 제발 (가지마) 사랑하잖아
(가지마) 나 혼자 남겨두고 제발 제발 제발
가지마~ 가지마~ 가지마~

아직 너를 위해 바보처럼 살아가는데
너는 어디에 니가 필요한데
oh~baby 내 사람아 이제 그만 내게 돌아와줘
장난처럼 그렇게 돌아와

아프고 아플만큼 지치고 지칠만큼
지워봐도 참아봐도 니가 떠올라
너도 나처럼 아프잖아 너도 나처럼 힘들잖아
돌아와 내게로 잊지 못할 내 사람아

아직 너를 위해 바보처럼 살아가는데
너는 어디에 니가 필요한데
oh~baby 내 사람아 이제 그만 내게 돌아와줘
장난처럼 그렇게...
oh~baby 내 사람아 이제 그만 내게 돌아와줘
그때처럼 그렇게 돌아와

나: 건? 건? You have a counter for ACCIDENTS?

굿 맨: accident or event

나: 이상해!

I had another brilliant realization about 날/일 today, this time while studying flashcards on the subway.

I have been using 다음년 for a while now. Only recently did people start correcting me, saying it was 내년. Today my boss said, "Amanda, it's 다음해 or 내년."

"But it's 다음달? And 내일?"

"Yes! OK!"

I started thinking about it and suddenly an idea that it might be related to pure Korean vs Sino-Korean words popped into my head.

Hey, what do you know! The prefix for "next" and "last" indeed depends on whether the word is Sino- or pure Korean. A few notes, however. 주 apparently has no pure Korean word (at least none that Koreans could tell me). Some of these words do exist technically, but are very, very rarely used; the bold words are most often used.

As a special note, 어제 is used for yesterday. 그저께 is the word that I can't remember that means "the day before yesterday." While I was on a dictionary rampage, I discovered 어제 comes from the longer version of the word 어저께. Now it makes sense.

Good Man and Diana's coworker helped me out with this, but the idea popped into my head on its own.

Sogang 2B chapter 5 (KGIL page 358) is about 아/어/여지다. To have changed into some sort of adjective. Today Good Man listened to me and helped with 금도끼와 은도끼 and 빨간 부채와 파란 부채.

I wanted to know why it was 농부는 부자가 되었습니다 and also why I couldn't say 사랑해지지 않았어요.

Thus I learned the following patterns. Note, because these are patterns talking about change, they are usually conjugated in the past tense, even if you are speaking in the present tense:

adjective verb-(아/어/여)지다: gets to be, becomes (adjective)
negation -(아/어/여)지지 않다
농부의 코가 길어졌어요.
관장님이 슬플때 소주를 마시면 기뻐졌어요.
해지지 않아요.

noun-(이/가) 되다: gets to be, becomes (noun)
negation -(이/가) 안 되다
농부는 부자가 되었어요.
제가 공주가 되면 농부들이 기분이 기쁠 거예요.

action verb-게 되다: gets to be, becomes (action verb)
negation -안 (하)게 되다.
아만다를 사랑하게 되었어요.
연세가 어떻게 되세요?

A few more thoughts. First, 되다 conjugates in the past tense irregularly as 되었어요. Good Man said it can be shortened to 됐어요, but the super scientific Google Test proved that the longer form is more common.

The last examples is best translated at "I began to love Amanda." 빠지다 means to fall into something (water, a hole). It was one of the words in 2B chap 4 because 콩쥐 loses her slipper in the water. I was having a hard time remembering it until I saw an ad that said "사랑에 빠지다!"

그런 such; like that; that sort of
그런하다 to be so; to be such

그런데 but; however; still, etc
그러면 (shortened form of 그렇다면 AND 그럼 is an even shorter form!) if so; in that case; if (when) it is like that, etc
그러니까 so; therefore; accordingly, etc

I don't know where the 데 comes from, but on the way to work today I suddenly realized/decided/concluded that 그러면 comes from 그런 and the vst-(으)면 form (if..then, when...then) form. Long, "If it's like that then..." Short, "If so, in that case."

This form can be shortened even further to 그럼, which is commonly used as a filler word. "OK; well; then..."

I also realized/decided/concluded that 그러니까 comes from 그런 plus vst-(으)니까 form (since A, then B; because of this) form. Long, "Because it was like that..." Short, "So, therefore, thus."

I don't know if these realizations will actually help me use the words any better, but it was cool to realize the connection on my own.

Edited: 2월15일

그래도 nevertheless, even thought
-도 form added (even though, yet, although)