a few questions

[chouclement1627]

Hey all. I have quite a few questions, and I didn't want to make a separate thread for eachfor fear of cluttering the boards, so here ae all my questions all in one thread. I appologize if hese have been answered in lessons, but I have no income to pay for my koreanclass basic or premium subscriptions.
1. What is a good explanation for the idiom "정신 업서"? I've heard this expression many times, and it's quite a source of umor among my Korean friends at Church. But I could never get a good explanation of what it means, since most of my frends speak better Korean than English. haha
2. I don't know if there are any Korean speakers who are also Christians, but in case there are... just how different is the grammar when praying and listenig to church sirmons? I don't tend to analyse the grammar while I'm listening for obvious reasons, but I am curious, since I hear that even Koreans have problems understanding it sometimes.
3. Is there a possibility of doing more culture classes on different dialects? These fascinate me, and the ones on the Busan dialect in particularly were really interesting. Could there be possibilities for something on something like the Jeju dialect? I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but the more dialects, the better imo.
Lastly, lately I've beenfrustrated with my lack of progress in learning. I have 3 beginner seasons downloaded and listened to all three, yet my conversations are still so limitted, and when listening to conversations I can only understand about 15-20% of it. Is there omething I am not doing? I try and practice as much as I can, but my vocabulary is so limitted and putting that with my nerves when speaking, it can be difficult. I appologize for the rant, but I do want to learn and improve. I'm enjoying it, but I know now how all my international student friends feel when they learn English! lol

[mmccart4622]

As I am also a beginner in Korean, i can't help you with the Korean-specfic questions you have. However as far as expanding your vocabulary and grammer, something that's very helpful to me with language learning is using flashcards to memorize vocab. If you memorize 10 words a day (which takes, at most, 20-30 minutes?) then thats about 300 words/month. Even 25 words/day isn't very time consuming in my opinion. Plus, having a daily goal to meet is motivating! Remember to review regularly though until you're sure old vocab is ingrained in your head. Also, writing sentences with the new words helps with spelling and grammer, especially if you try to use increasingly complicated sentences as you get more comfortable with grammer (i.e: He studies; He studies Korean; He studies Korean with friends; He likes to study Korean with his friends).

Yea, it's not the most "fun" method in the world, but it worked for me for preparing for the spanish and german AP exams. Also, (don't quote me on this) i believe the average adult knows about 15,000 - 20,000 words in his/her native language, so don't be discouraged if, after months of studying, there's still a lot of things you don't understand when you listen to conversations. Hope this helps, and good luck!

[chouclement1627]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice, I will definitely keep it in mind... though the flash cards might be a challenge being totally blind!
I think part of the problem is that I'm also the only beginner I know learning Korean, so it'd be nice to have other beginners to keep in touch with reularly and share new things learned.

[jaehwi]

Hi chouclement!

Here's an example for you.

What is a good explanation for the idiom "정신 업서"?

"정신없어!" When you have many works to do, or you couldn't make a plan to do at the same time, then you would say that " 아이고, 정신없어!".

Fortunately, you're enjoying learning Korean with us.
Keep it up! Practice makes better!
We're always happy to help you, just come and enjoy!

Thanks

Anne / KoreanClass101.com

[chouclement1627]

Thanks. But I was curious... can you also describe people with it? I remember one time at church when one of my friends was running around trying to be involved with everything, and he couldn't stay in the same place for more than 2 minutes and was just generally being distracting, another friend in the group I was with said that and everyone laughed. I didn't get it at the time, but I'm thinking about it now... could it be used to describe someone who is distracting and can't seem to focus on one particular thing?
And another question that just came to me. How does oneexpress desire for something? Desire as in " want this or that". I can do it with verbs, but how would you say something like "Do you want" followed by a noun EG: "I want a new piano" or something like that.

[trutherous]

Hello chouclement:

How great it is to see you here at KC101!

Edit: redundant content removed

Good luck with your Korean study!

George Posten - fellow student - 이칭은 (aka) 나영훈입니다

[chouclement1627]

That was definitely a lot to take in... but most of the advice you gave me was stuff I already knew, other than the bit about my question regarding desire. As to the idiom, I know how caeful I have to be if saying that to someone... and hence why I only use it among close friends. As to Korean, well, I was studying it when I had my premium membership and I actually downloaded quite a bit of content in that month. I've worked through the first four beginner seasons and am on my fifth. I have a decent grasp of the basics, so while your concern is appreciated, it's all good. Thanks to my knowledge of japanese, Korean got about 10* easier when I started.
Regarding church. I know that the Korean used in the Bible is archaic. However, I wasn't looking for an easy translation... I was simply curious because Korean hs become a regular part of my worship and prayer. But thanks for the comparison to the KJV... I understand a lot more now.
Yes, practice and exposure are definitely key. And while my church isn't nearly that big.. our main church tops 1000 and my Korean ministry is about 200 people. I get a lot of exposure to it, I just have t keep using it. Having learned 2 other languages over years, French and Spanish, I know how long it takes, was more just expressing frustration. haha And Korean going in my ears works great. My eyes... well, I can read it. But being totally blind, it's software that does the reading. lol And as to dialects, I have to agree with you.. gyeongsangdo dialect is definitely my favorite as well. And I simply call it Busan dialect because of all the Koreans I know who call it that, and because, to my knowledge, there are some differences between the Busan and Daegu accents, not to mention the other places, which is why I prefer to be specific.
And one more thing... since you seem to know something of Christian Korean grammar... one of the endings I hear and read very very often is 소서. Do you know what that verb ending is supposed to mean? Thanks for all your help as always! Much appreciated!

[trutherous]

most of the advice you gave me was stuff I already knew,

I know how caeful I have to be

I have a decent grasp of the basics

I know that the Korean used in the Bible is archaic

Got it. Sorry to have wasted your time.

Good luck with the study.

[chouclement1627]

I'm sorry if I came across as harsh.. I meant no ofense, honestly. The extra details are always good, especially for me... when learning a language, every little detail is important to me. So thanks.

[kc101com]

The extra details are always good, especially for me... when learning a language, every little detail is important to me. So thanks.

It is really true that every little thing helps especially learning a new language.

I really hope that you both are great to learn Korean each other.

Also please do not forget us we are always here to help

So if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate!:)



Thank you

Madison
Team Koreanclass101.com