Learning tip: Become Korean

[timandyou]

이제 앞으로 조셉씨와 영훈씨와는 한국말로 말을 하겠습니다.
이 그룹에 참여할 분이 있다면 알려주십시요.
감사합니다.

[manyakumi]

한국어에 관련된 균형잡힌 시각이 필요하다면.... 저를 불러주세요. ㅋㅋㅋ

[acid_jazz]

My situation is similar to Giraffe's.

I married a Korean woman, and before that I had no interest in Korea let alone learning another language.

나는 한국어 잘못, but I still try and speak Korean and occasionally write in my "Korean Journal".

I'm a slacker student, only study about an hour a day (usually on the bus listening to these podcasts or going through flashcards). If I study too much, I get burnt out, and I get sick of it, which leads me to not touching Korean for a few weeks. I feel ashamed because I have an advantage over most you; I can speak Korean to my wife anytime I want... but I actually don't speak much Korean to her. Just a couple sentences here and there. She doesn't help me much because she gets frustrated very easily, and she prefers speaking in English.

My wife is the exact opposite student. She studies about 8 hours a day. She's fluent in Korean, English, almost in Japanese (her major), and can speak quite a bit of German, too. I envy her tenacity.

These days she has been tutoring me a lot more, which has helped immensely. I'm also talking to her parents which has been beneficial to both of us. They practice in English, and I speak to them in Korean.

Even though my studies are slow paced, I'm ok with it... because that's my learning speed. Maybe someday I'll be fluent, but I'm not going to stress out about it. I'm just going to have fun learning.

[trutherous]

Hi acid_jazz, thanks for taking the time to post a reply.

You said you study only about an hour a day, but that sounds like a fairly regular basis; I think that makes you a great student. No sense wasting that time on the bus.

I can speak Korean to my wife anytime I want... but I actually don't speak much Korean to her. Just a couple sentences here and there. Sad She doesn't help me much because she gets frustrated very easily, and she prefers speaking in English.

Dude.. I can sooo totally relate, because, ah.. I think.. I MARRIED HER SISTER

In my case though, a general interest in Asia and study of Korean led to a wife rather than the other way round. I complained to my wife one day "If you wouldn't talk so much in English I could learn Korean much faster." To that she replied, "Well, I'm American NOW so it's only natural that I speak English!"

And now you know where I got the idea for this topic

A word about 'burnout' and study (burnout and the name "acid_jazz" somehow remind me that my life is a constant acid trip): It occurs to me that "study" can be compared to many things, perhaps "eating" is a good analogy?

There must be hunger or expectation of enjoyment or there is no appetite; where there is no appetite One does not feel like eating. If One eats too much at a sitting then even the sight of food may be unwelcome. One does not feel like eating if one is full. Physical growth requires food on a timely basis, but even if One could eat a year's worth in a single meal, the growth will not happen overnight.

'''Kwang!''' "Kung-Fu" will be back after these messages...

gah!!!! $##^&*$#@! is there no way to erase the traces left by David Carradine's feet walking across the rice paper of my mind? Will those images be always entrenched in the deep recess of my forever memory?

[giraffe]

My situation is similar to Giraffe's.
I married a Korean woman, and before that I had no interest in Korea let alone learning another language.

Yeah good times! I love being married though. Before getting married I was really interested in korean horror/thiller movies ( none of those romantic comedies or drama stuff hahah) So I started meeting korean guys and eventually I met my wife. 4 years later were married. In my case, My wife doesnt really mind speaking korean with me, But i think the main problem is that she's a cute girl. And if she speaks to me shell pull out the cute talk and say everything CUTE ( much like how you would see young girls speaking to their boyfriends in dramas when they're all happy...) VERY hard to take anything serious and have a conversation this way. We're also just used to speaking to each other in English first. It's a similar situation when i go back to my parents place. I grew up speaking french at home so french is the first language ill speak to my parents and speaking anything but french with them is weird and out of the question =p. IT drives my wife nuts =p...

I think for me its been ALOt more beneficial to just speak with other korean strangers or guys my own age. I learn alot more and get alot more exposure that way.

[timandyou]

hello, George and Giraffe,

So... you guys are married to Korean women.
I knew about George before but I didn't know about Giraffe.
So... both of you live in Korea right now?
If you are, which area of Korea?

by the way... did you see the world cup last week?
Did you cheer for Korea? I hope so men~~!
I guess the day kick off on 12th of June must be crazy everywhere.
haha. cheers guys,

[giraffe]

hello, George and Giraffe,

So... you guys are married to Korean women.
I knew about George before but I didn't know about Giraffe.
So... both of you live in Korea right now?
If you are, which area of Korea?

by the way... did you see the world cup last week?
Did you cheer for Korea? I hope so men~~!
I guess the day kick off on 12th of June must be crazy everywhere.
haha. cheers guys,

My wife is from 대전. I've never lived in korea, however i've been visiting korea at least once a year for 4-7 weeks at a time over the last 4 years. We live in Canada. Her whole family lives in korea.

Unfortunately we dont don't follow soccer or any other sports other than what we read in the news...

[acid_jazz]

Same here... I met my lady in Canada and we still live here. All her family is still in Seoul so we visit once a year. Her family lives in 영등포 near the 대림 station. I actually just got back a few weeks ago and I wish we would have delayed our trip to coincide with the world cup. I saw some photos of people going crazy on the street and looked like a lot of fun! I had to wake up at 5am to watch the game. Not very fun.

[trutherous]

acid_jazz, giraffe, timandyou,

Hi all! So jazzy and giraffe are two hosers from the frozen north? I suppose yer wives speak English with a bit of the maple leaf in their voice then -aye?

I met my wife in 1985 here in the Los Angeles area, where we currently live. I'm embarrassed to admit this but I forgot my wife's home town. I forget a lot of things these days. We are both orphans, I have no real family left but my wife has 3 sisters and a brother still living in Korea. My wife has visited Korea several times over the years, but I have only been to Korea in 1984 for three months, and again in 2009 for 3 weeks. Both times I went alone, but last year I visited all the relatives. It was better to go alone because I felt a lot freer to speak, mistakes and all, than I do in front of my wife. Though these days I am much more confident to talk in Korean in front of her. This year we plan to go together.

I usually don't follow sports. It's fun to play but I never really understood cheering a bunch of people I don't even know. It seems like a kind of mania to me.

Oh well --

[timandyou]

나영훈씨. 저는 팀입니다.
timandyou 는 저의 i.d 이구요.
1985년도에 만났어요!? 와~~ 제가 초등학교에 들어가기도 전에...
아~~ 그리고 지금은 로스 엔젤레스에 계시는구나...!
전 캐나다에서만 거의 8-9년을 살아서 미국은 아직 한번도 가보질 못했습니다.
그래도 나영훈씨 한국 문화나 언어 그리고 많은 상식을 알고 계셔서 정말 놀랬습니다.
나중에 기회가 된다면 우리 꼭 만나서 소주 한잔~~?
정말 감사해하고 있습니다, 나영훈씨.
best,

Tim

[trutherous]

팀팀팀!

한국으로 가기전에 알려 드릴께요. 저는 소주 대신 맥주를 마실거에요. 팀님은 한턱 낼 거지요?

나 --나영훈

[timandyou]

물론 맥주는 제가 쏘지요.
대신 밥은... 영훈씨가...???
하하^^

이렇게 친구가 된것도 좋네요. 저번에 총든 사진만 빼면요...
물론 한국에서 만나면 정말... ... 말로 뭐라 표현하기가... 여친도 아니고...
But, 만나게 되면 정말 할 말이 많을 거 같아요.

그 전까지 서로의 위치에서 최선을 다하면서...
나중에 서로 웃으면서 볼 수 있도록...

ps 참, 저의 새 레슨 Absolute Beginner Season 2 and Audio Blog Season 5 will play in this July. If you have time, please give it a listen and advise me and correct me as you feel like. You would be a great helper for me, for KC101. com, and most importantly for KC101.com listeners.

Thanks a lot!

Tim

[trutherous]

팀님

ps 참, 저의 새 레슨 Absolute Beginner Season 2 and Audio Blog Season 5 will play in this July. If you have time, please give it a listen and advise me and correct me as you feel like. You would be a great helper for me, for KC101. com, and most importantly for KC101.com listeners.

꼭 참여하겠습니다.

아.. 근데 다른 포스트 읽으니까 제가 총 들고 있는 사진 때문에 '나리 ㅋㅋ 무슨 충격 받으셨나 봐요. 그러지 마세요. 군대 못 가셨어요? 한국 남자들은 모드 남자다운 사나이 중의 사나이들이라고 생각 했는데.. 아니면 그것도 기성세대이고 이제는 계집애 같은 사내 시대 아니겠지요? 아무튼 그 사진 대신 이 사진들을 보셨나요? 저한테 한 얼굴만 있겠어요?


저하고 가족들 그리고 몇몇 제가 만든 작품, 은 보석, 도자기, 안테나, 곤설 - 여기 LA 집, 아리조나 주에 있는 집도 - 등등 사진에서 볼수 있으면 대개 직접 만든 거지요.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10143056@N ... 2978/show/

이것은 우리 아리조나 집을 리모델링할 때 찍은 것들이에요. 지하를 방으로 쓸수 있게 온 집을 들어올려서 개조한 거에요.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10143056@N ... 3496/show/

[timandyou]

영훈님.

충격은 무슨! 군대 26개월 다녀 왔습니다. 총은 물론 이고 대포도 쏴 보았답니다.
사실 저도 남자다운 남자를 좋아해서... 하지만 마음은 항상 바다같이 넓고 유유한 남자.
영훈씨도 제가 캐나다에서 찍은 사진들을 보시면 많이 좋아하시겠네요.

우선, 정말 영훈씨 괜찮은 사람 같습니다.
사진이랑... 식구들이랑... 특히, 딸인가요...? 딸이 행복해하는 모습을 보니 아버지의 모습이 상상이 되네여. 그리고 집 사진들... "직접 자기집 공사를 한다" 그게 말이 그렇지 절대 쉬운게 아니잖아요. 화이팅 하시고...

저도 캐나다에서 오래 있어서 그런지 그런 풍경들이 너무 맘에 드네요.
영훈씨랑 거기서 낚시 하면서 한국말로 대화를 하고 그리고 시원한 맥주 한잔~~!
그러면 딱~~!!! 인데...

사진 정말 잘 보았습니다.
정말 감사드리며 영훈씨도 화이팅 하세요~~!
best,

Tim

[trutherous]

팀님,

영훈씨랑 거기서 낚시 하면서 한국말로 대화를 하고 그리고 시원한 맥주 한잔~~!

우아 -- "낚시"하고 "맥주" 한 문장에 쓰셨이니 정말 마음에 드네요! 진짜 마음에 들어요.