2017 Book Haul Part 1

It’s been a while!

I have been busy with work and my Korean classes until a few weeks ago. I’m visiting my hometown in a couple of weeks so I started organizing the things I want to leave at my mom’s. There’s a lot of books I have bought in the past 11 months LOL. 

This part is dedicated to novels and other reading materials. 

I. Japanese Books:

I went to Japan back in February and my goal was to buy some more volumes from the Sailor Moon the Complete Edition (now it’s going to be released officially in English as the Eternal Edition)

This time I bought 2, 4 and 7. I still need 3 or 4 more and I will be done lol. 

A. Translation of Japanese Books:

English:

I loved reading The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. I can’t stop recommending it to people. I can’t even say anything or it would be a spoiler. On the other hand, Six Four by Hideo Yokohama was an okay read, it’s really slow and it’s more about police politics than anything else.

Korean: 

I loved Your Name and wanted to read the novel, but the English version was going to take forever so I bought the Korean one lol. The other one, I bought at the Seoul International Book Festival(?)

I also bought the manga and other titles.

II. Korean Books:

I bought 언어의 온도 per the recommendation of a friend. He failed to mention it could sometimes be a bit hard to read. Regardless, it’s more like a diary/essay kind of book so you don’t have to follow an order. 

In the case of 살인자의 기역법 by 김영하, I was browsing around and the title caught my attention. I started reading and was totally immersed in it. It’s good, short and not too hard to read. I had no idea a movie based on it would come out. The last one, 재미있는 이야기 한국사 조선에서 근대까지 is meant for kids which makes it easier (lots of pictures as well).

I bought the 2nd part of 성균관 유생들의 나날 and 홍천기 part 1 by 정은궐. I have history with this author LOL. It’s because of her that I started learning Korean in the first place. I also bought 사랑의 온도, but have yet to read it. I realized most of the novels and manhwa I’ve read in Korean are historical which is hard to read, yet I have gotten used to them lol. Now, I find it strange to buy novels set in the modern era.

If there was a Korean drama that had me riveted this year, it was Globlin. I couldn’t wait for subs or anything so I would watch it live LOL. Imagine my happiness when I learned they were doing a novelization of it. I also bought Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Korean. Still have a couple more to go until I have them all. 

That’s it for this part. Next part is about books to learn Korean and Japanese.

漢字 (Kanji) Readings

Kanji are one of the deepest rings of  Hell for a Japanese language learner. I, on the other hand, find Kanji to be interesting and fun. Nothing to dread about drawings (something I love). However, as I wondered how to read them, I felt confused about how to learn reading the characters. Some resources go on talking about the two types of readings, but don’t explain why they’re called such so I’m certain that was the root of all my confusion.

The first type of reading is called 音読み (On-yomi). This type of reading was imported from China (the “original” Chinese sound). It is reserved for words written with multiple Kanji only -mostly-. I stopped confusing it with it’s native Japanese reading when I learned that 音 stands for “sound”. 読み stands -more or less-  for “reading”. I made the association by thinking: reading the [Chinese] sound. Ex: 水曜日(sui-you-bi)

The second type of reading is 訓読み (kun-yomi). This one is the Japanese reading. It is usually used for a stand-alone Kanji, a Kanji accompanied by hiragana, usually verbs and adjectives. 訓 means Japanese rendering of a Chinese character. It also means instruction. I think it would be alright to assume that the instruction of the reading leads to learning  native Japanese words.  Ex: 水を下さい (mizu (w)o kuda-sai).

The kanji for water is 水. Wednesday in Japanese is 「水曜日」 which is a compound word in Japanese so 「すい」 (on-yomi)  for the water part and just plain water 「みず」(kun-yomi).

I noted some voiceless sounds change to voiced sounds in compounds. Surnames seem to be the exception to On-yomi as it seems they tend to use kun-yomi reading like 田中 (Ta-naka) -both are kun readings-.

That’s it for now. I hope it’s clear! I will try to explain simply Japanese verb conjugations next.

Until next time!~

New Year, New Goals

Hello, again!~

Unofficially, I will be staying much longer in Korea (over 1 year if it’s possible) so that means I will be able to keep studying and actively use Korean.

I haven’t made much plans as they have a tendency to not happen XD. I did decide that I wanted to pass TOPIK level 4 by the end of this year. I’ve been studying Japanese for a bit over 7 months (5 by myself) so I decided to take the JLPT N5 this year, just to see how it goes hahahaha.

Besides taking the tests, I haven’t made up my mind on what to do. I thought I wanted to return home by August and then apply for the JET Program and live in Japan for at least 2 years (if I got accepted), but now I don’t know since I want to stay much longer in Korea. I guess I’ll know for sure around summer LOL.

Blog-wise, I have a lot of drafts that I haven’t finished writing and hopefully will see the light soon. My goal is to have 3 more posts by the end of January and at least one of them about Japanese.

43th TOPIK Test and Other Things

As some of you may know, I took the last TOPIK I test of the year this past Sunday. Like I had said in an earlier post my goal is to score at least 90 points in both parts, but while I’m confident in listening, I’m not so much in the reading part. I’m certain that I will pass 2급, but perhaps my goal won’t be accomplished, but that’s okay too.

Honestly, I didn’t study much (lots of work to do in the last few weeks) so I deserve what I get XD. I mean each time I’d say I’m studying Korean today, I’d end up studying Japanese instead. I can say I have made progress with Kanji (reading them) thanks to Wanikani. Wanikani is absolutely amazing (I’m already doing their level 3)! Anyways, going back to Korean, after the test I felt really motivated to study and to improve. I want to see if I can actually try for the 3급 in January. However, I don’t know yet.

I have been reviewing the (으)러 (으)려고 and 을/를 위해서 and I completed reviewing them so I will post my notes here within this week. I also hope to post about Japanese as well, but maybe not this week.

Book Haul May-August 2015

This one was super overdue.

In late May, I started a Japanese course back home and we used Japanese for Busy People I and since my professor knew I could read Kana, she told me to get the Kana edition. I also bought Basic Japanese Kanji vol. 1 (which I noticed it is sold out online).  It covers 205 Kanji, and it has an interactive CD-ROM; the CD has reading quizzes, printable Kanji Flash Cards, and some other exercises. It is also under 20USD so it’s even better (I bought it for $14 online)

I love how Japanese for Busy People is quite simple to follow and it has a lot of writing exercises using and adding the grammar and core points of the lesson. The only thing I wish it had is an audio solely focusing on the vocabulary presented. Below are some pages of the 1st lesson:

On the left are the grammar points and on the right the dialog and vocabulary. They also add notes below the vocabulary for explaining briefly culture or grammar.

Writing Exercises and new vocabulary

What I like about Basic Japanese Kanji is that first they give you some mnemonics, and the most used words as well as common compound words. Every two Kanji, you get a short reading section using those Kanji as well as others and get a reading comprehension quiz. Mayor drawbacks are: it has no on-yomi, kun-yomi readings and if you are just starting (like me) then you don’t have much vocabulary so it can be a bit hard. On the other hand, it is good for acquiring vocabulary and excellent for reading.

At the end of the chapter (10-14 Kanji), you get a chapter test. This photo of the first test but as you go learning, it all becomes Japanese. Overall, I think it is a really good book to learn Kanji and use them actively through reading simple things. I do hope they keep adding volumes and fix some of the mistakes in this book.

While I was in Busan, I went to a Bookstore in 부산대 (also went to another one in Shinsegae) and bought:

The latest 3 volumes of 밤을 걷는 선비 and a book for learning Japanese.

I should add that the Korean drama and the manhwa are loosely related. I was really disappointed in it so I stopped watching it.

Sorry for the bad quality!

IT

It is super colorful, but that’s a trademark of most Korean language books. I plan to complement it with both my Korean studies and Japanese for Busy people because it starts with Kanji so I feel it’s more natural. Although, the Kanji has furigana at first, the book stops giving it when the word is one from a previous chapter or is in the exercise section.

Kana and vocabulary

The last 2 books were given for free during my TaLK National Orientation.

You can find the e-book version for free at: http://www.kscpp.net

That’s it for now!

Embarking on a New Journey

A long time has passed since I last posted anything. And even more since I last wrote anything about Korean lol. Honestly, I was extremely busy doing a research for the graduate-level class I took on Spanish linguistics so I barely had time to do anything else besides university stuff. I have finally graduated and passed all my courses with A ㅋㅋㅋ. I decided to push back going to grad school, so instead I’m actually going back to Korea as a TaLK Scholar (which I hope to start documenting soon).

I was feeling bored during the summer so I took a Japanese class with one of my university’s professors (there’s just one class left 😦 ). I really loved it and have decided to keep learning it even while I’m in Korea. My professor says I have a Korean accent when I speak in Japanese so she’s always teasing me about it (I’m trying to fix it though XD). I’m hoping to post more about Japanese in the future. I’m also interested in applying to the JET Program this fall, but i hear it’s really competitive ;A;.

I leave to Korea on the 27th, but I feel quite normal lol. That’s it for now! I hope to be way more active here (although I’ve been told the TaLK orientation is really intense lol).

Until next time!~~

After an Eternity, I’m back~

Hello! I have finally finished this semester as well as my bachelor’s degree, but the Commencement Ceremony is on June 17th. I was so busy during the latter half of the semester that I barely had time to sleep; I couldn’t actively study Korean nor Japanese. I only had time for French, but only because I was taking an intermediate writing and grammar class and a French phonetics class. I’ve been meaning to write here, but I was feeling lazy all week long XD.

I signed up for a Summer Japanese course nearby my University (it was only $180USD); I had the first lesson yesterday and I enjoyed it a lot. Now, I have to balance out Japanese, Korean and French during the summer and I hope that I don’t remain lazy.

I do hope to start writing soon ^^.

I’m Back~ -Sort of-

Belated Happy New Year (wow we’re already in February)!

My last post was almost a month ago, about a day before classes started again. I think I’m finally adjusting again so I’ll probably be able to finish some of my pending posts. I’m taking this semester 5 classes again but one of them is a graduate course. Although I fell in love with that class, I spend a lot of time reading and preparing for it and I also have to hand in a proposal for a research. Two of my other classes are in French so I had to review the verb’s conjugation lol. I can speak, read and understand it but I need to remember the verb inflections (endings) which I didn’t and still have to review some of them.

I decided to apply to a university in Korea called the Academy of Korean Studies (when they open the application) as well so I’m excited but also a bit nervous. I haven’t been able to sit and study Korean so I’m paying attention to random words in whichever drama I’m watching, write it down and look it up. The same with Japanese except that since I have a PDF book, I just read it while I’m at the university but haven’t progressed beyond the present tense and learning some verbs.Anyways, I’m glad that I’m adjusting so I can finally start “formally” studying Korean.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book 멈추면, 비로소 보이는 것들 ( that I loosely translated as The Things that Can be Seen When You Stop):

마치 내 꿈이 벌써 이루어진 것처럼

자신감을 가지고 행동하세요.

그러면서 열심히 준비하세요.

그러면 신기하게도 그 꿈은 이루이집니다.

-혜민 스님

pp. 103

I found a translation (it takes too much of my time to do one from Korean) from a blog:

Please act with confidence like your dream already came true.
And please put your heart and soul into the preparation.
If so, curiously the dream will come true.

Ps. The book isn’t translated into English yet but it was translated into French so I think I’m going to buy it.

Until next time!~

Hiragana Practice

I’ve been meaning to log my Japanese progress, but was lazy to do so. I still remember some but I have to fine-tune the similar ones.

There’s a picture of it. I think I have to start writing real Japanese words instead of just the character cause otherwise it makes it harder to remember.

On other news, I only have 10 days before starting my last undergraduate semester… and I’ve been skipping French. To make things worse, two of my classes will be held in French. I’m so not looking forward to that lol