learn languages with me!

That’s exactly how I feel.

- Korean

Hangul: 저도 같은 생각이에요.

Romanization: Jeodo gateun saenggagieyo.

- Japanese

Kanji: 私も同じ考えです。

Romaji: Watashi mo onaji kangae desu.

.

I was just going to say that.

- Korean

Hangul: 저도 그 말을 하려고 했어요.

Romanization: Jeodo geu mareul haryeogo haesseoyo.

- Japanese

Kanji: 今、言おうと思っていました。

Romaji: Ima, iou to omotte imashita.

.

■Learn Korean quotes about family: http://ow.ly/aA7P30emjEA

■Learn Japanese quotes about family: http://ow.ly/PlTk30ejyrn

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I just made this new sideblog to ramble about linguistics and hopefully help myself study the languages I’ve set for myself, so if anybody blogs about the following I’d love to check out your blog!

linguistics (syntax, phonetics, origin, evolution, accents, dialect, etc)

especially accents and dialect

english

korean

latin

russian

spanish

japanese

Week One

Week Two

♡ in korean, it is important to use the correct sentence structure, or your sentences may seem really confusing :

-> in english : Subject Verb Object -> in korean : Subject Object Verb

now, let’s look at some examples!

we are gonna use this simple sentence : “i bought a book”, in korean it would be : “i a book bought”

저는 책을 샀어요 책 = book 샀어요(past tense) from the verb 사다 = to buy it’s really different, right?

⚠ the object ALWAYS comes BEFORE the verb, and the verb is ALWAYS at the END of the sentence. ⚠

♡ locations are also used BEFORE verbs :

“저는 학교에 가요” i go to school 학교 = school 에= location particle (to) 가요 (present tense) from the verb 가다 = to go

“저는 학교에서 공부해요” i study at school 학교 = school 에서 = location particle (at) 공부해요 (present tense) from the verb 공부하다 = to study

“저는 집에 잤어요” i slept at home 집 = home 에 = location particle (at) 잤어요 (past tense) from the verb 자다 = to sleep

⚠ you can put the time before or after the subject though :

both of these sentences mean “today I will eat at home” :

before -> 오늘 저는 집에서 먹을 거예요 after -> 저는 오늘 집에서 먹을 거예요 오늘 = today 집 = home 에서 = location particle (at) 먹을 거예요 (future tense) from the verb 먹다 = to verb

“tomorrow, i will study at school” before -> 내일 저는 학교에서 공부할 거예요 after -> 저는 내일 학교에서 공부할 거예요 내일 = tomorrow 학교 = school 에서 = location particle (at) 공부하다 = to study ~ㄹ 거예요 (future tense)

♡ adverbs are added before verbs : 저는 열심히 공부해요 I study hard 열심히 = hard

and finally, adjectives work the same way as they do in english! just put them before the noun they describe :

매운 라면 = spicy ramen 매운 = spicy 라면 = ramen

예쁜 여자 = beautiful woman 예쁜 = beautiful 여자 =  woman

How to make sentences in Korean! [CORRECTED]

Sentences in English go in the order: Subject, Object, Verb.

Korean sentences go in the order:

1. Subject + Noun = 나는 의사다 (I’m a doctor)

2. Subject + Verb = 나는 공부하고 있다 (I’m studying)

3. Subject + Adjective = 날씨가 좋다 (The weather is nice)

4. Subject + Object + Verb = 나는 한국어를 공부해요 (I study Korean)

~고 있다 = “(I am)   ~ing”.

In the english language the word “sorry” has multiple functions. It can be used to apologise for something, as well as excusing yourself from a situation. 

But as we’ll see, Korean has distinct ways to express that. 

We’ll look at the context of apologising first 

Apologising in Korean 

Watching Korean celebrities or media, the most common way of apologising that i’ve heard is:

미안해 mi-an-hae 

미안하다  mi-an-ha-da 

which is akin to just saying “sorry” in english

or its abbreviated version 

미안  mi-an

which is akin to just saying “sozz” 

All these are on the 반말 side of language. So the version you’ll normally be taught in language courses is. 

So if the previous two iterations were like saying “sorry” or “soz” saying 죄송합니다 is like saying

 “my apologies, the depths of my soul are burning red with embarrassment/regret” 

not that extreme, but you get what I mean. It’s a step up. It’s the kind of thing Namjoon says on a vlive after he impersonates Jin’s part in Best of Me. And instantly regrets what he’s done so he covers his mouth and whips out a 

“죄송합니다” 🤖

👂Auditory  vs. 🖍Written Variance 

Now if you’ve heard this before, and you’ve noticed that the 

헙 (hab) sounded like a 험 (ham) when you’d heard it before 

you’re right. that’s just the way the language has evolved, as explained by TTMIK in one of their videos. It’s useful to note that it’s still not a “M” sound though. As seen in the reference picture I made of Jin’s luscious lips above. 

it’s more of a h-ab. A soft ‘b’  Like when you opened your mouth to speak, but quickly close it because GODDAMN the MMA’s just cut off your speech time.

🚫When not to use it

You know how in English when someone’s cat has died, or they just failed a test or your life is just generally going to shit, you’ll throw someone a “oh i’m sorry”

yeah don’t do that in Korean. You’ll get asswhooped. 

From what I’ve been taught, ㅂ full on changes to ㅁ in front of nasal sounds (sounds which make your nose vibrate such as ㄹ and ㄴ). It’s called nasalization.

So I think it’s pronounced exactly as it would be had it been spelled with an ㅁ [죄송함니다]

P.S.

There are lots of apps and books that are really helpful but I’ll just give you a few of favourites!

1.) Talk To Me In Korean is one of the best ways to learn korean I have come across. You learn through podcasts, workbooks and study books. They also have a website and an app. I love that series and I know lots of youtubers and other people I know that use and love it as well.

2.) The app LingoDeer. It’s got a few other languages as well but the korean is really good. It focuses a lot on vocabulary but you learn sentence structure along the way as well.

3. Memrise is another app. It’s pretty good at teaching vocabulary. My only problem with this app is that it does not really teach the differences between formal and informal so you sort of just have to guess or look it up.

4.) Duolingo also has a good korean section that I enjoy using.

5.) Another book series that you can find on amazon and probably other websites is called Integrated Korean. It’s very similar to TTMIK but it teaches new and different things. Like TTMIK it goes through levels so you can choose where you feel comfortable starting.

I’m not a native speaker, so of course my Korean pronunciation isn’t perfect, but whenever I speak to Koreans, they usually mention that my pronunciation is good. But I think as long as they can understand what you’re saying, they considered it good haha…

Anyway, when I studied linguistics in college, phonetics and phonology was one of my favorite subjects, so I learned the pronunciation rules of Korean from a linguistic perspective. It’s just a lot easier for me to remember these rules when I know the linguistic reasons why they exist.

When reading 한글 (and speaking Korean in general), if you know the standard pronunciation rules, it’ll get you pretty far. But there are a few sounds that can be pronounced differently, depending on the sounds that come before or after.

ㅎ is one of these sounds. (In Korean, the letter is called 히읗).

THE STANDARD RULE

The standard rule when you learn 한글 can be heard from from the name of the letter itself 히읗. When it is comes before a vowel, it’s pronounced like “h” and when it’s a final consonant, it’s pronounced like “d.”

FINER RULE #1: NOT PRONOUNCED

Sometimes, the more natural way to say ㅎ is to not say it at all. The word where you will hear this the most 안녕하세요 and 안녕하십니까. Although there’s a ㅎ in there, the pronunciation actually sounds closer to 안녕아세요.

Another example is when ㅎ is a 받침 (final consonant) but followed by a vowel, like in 넣어요 (pr: 너어요), 넣으면 (pr: 너으면), 좋아요 (pr: 조아요), 놓아요 (pr: 노아요).

Lastly, before ㄹ, ㅎ isn’t pronounced, as in 말하다 (sounds more like 마라다).

FINER RULE #2: MERGES

In this case, instead of pronouncing ㅎ exactly like an “h” sound, the “h” sound merges with the consonant before or after, which changes the pronunciation of BOTH sounds.

This only applies to 4 consonants: ㅂ, ㅈ, ㄷ, ㄱ. When ㅎ comes before or after one of these consonants, both sounds merge and become the voiceless aspirated version (i.e. ㅂ -> ㅍ, ㅈ -> ㅊ, ㄷ&ㅅ -> ㅌ, ㄱ -> ㅋ). ㅅ is also turned into ㅌ because it sounds like ㄷ as a 받침 (final consonant).

It’s easier to see what I mean with examples, so I’ll just get straight to them.

ㄱ:

익숙하다 –> 익수카다

행복하다 –> 행보카다

식히다 -> 시키다

ㅈ:

젖히다 (bend back) –> 저치다

ㄷ,ㅅ:

좋다 -> 조타

못하다 -> 모타다

ㅂ:

괴롭히다 -> 괴로피다

졸업하다 -> 조러파다

But there’s another special case: 닫히다. Why is it pronounced like 다치다 instead of 다티다? Well, you know how whenever the 이  sound comes after ㅅ, it’s pronounced like “she” instead “see?” For example, 식사 is pronounced like “sheek-sa” not “seek-sa.”

Well, it’s the same sort of thing. There’s something about the 이 sound in Korean that makes them want to pronounce certain sounds further back in the mouth. ㄷ is said like ㅊ after 히; ㅌ is said like ㅊ after 이; ㄷ is said like ㅈ after 이. This is why 같이 is pronounced like 가치 and 굳이 is pronounced like 구지.

음악 - music

노래 - song

노래방 - karaoke room

부르다 - to sing

듣다 - to listen

가수 - singer

래퍼 - rapper

악기 - musical instrument

피아노 - piano

기타 - guitar

클래식 음악 - classical music

랩 - rap

바이올린 - violin

드럼 - drums

트럼펫 - trumpet

색소폰 - saxophone

오페라 - opera

재즈 - jazz

pronunciation rules in Korean & further reading

Both technically mean: Stop

하지마: do not do it (said before an action has happened) 

(하 from the verb “하다” which means “to do” 지마 which is an ending that means “do not”)

그만해: Stop (the action is/has happened, and you want it to stop/not happen again)

Family - 가족

Grandfather - 할아버지

Grandmother - 할머니

Father - 아버지

Mother -어머니

Younger brother - 남동생

Younger sister - 여동생

Son - 아들

Daughter - 딸

Husband - 남편

Wife - 아내

Younger sibling - 동생

(from a male perspective)

Older brother -형

Older sister - 누나

(from a female perspective)

Older brother - 오빠

Older sister - 언니

Interrogative pronouns

Who - 누구

Who - 누가 (누구+가(subject marker))

What - 무슨

Personal pronouns

My - 나의 / 내 /제

Our - 우리

(honorific)

This person - 이분

That person - 그분

That person - 저분

Other helpful vocabulary words:

Company - 회사

To work for / to go to - 다니다

Flower - 꽃

Rose - 장미

Library - 도서관

Morning - 아침

Nurse - 간호사

Counting unit for people - 명

College student - 대학생

To love - 사랑하다

to be right - 맞다

Really - 정말

Photograph - 사진

To be pretty - 예쁘다

To marry - 결혼하다

Last year - 작년

I’ve summarized professor  Alexander Arguelles’ video, because I think this is crucial for language learning. 

There is no magic trick that will help you become fluent in 1 month, but there are very effective approaches to learning a new language and if you combine them, you will surely become fluent.

If you’re learning a new language, the most important thing you need to consider is – what type of language learner are you? 

1. If you:

have a more deductive approach, which means that you’re better at listening to and observing the language first and learning through that, rather than starting with plain grammar points from a textbook

have a fair degree of intuition

like to observe a phenomenon

feel somewhat comfortable with ambiguity for a while, until things become clear

are someone who can feel comfortable being corrected when they realize they were wrong, rather than getting confused and frustrated because they went down an initial path that turned out not to be correct (so you actually learn from being corrected and you don’t get confused by it)

then, these manuals are best suited for you: the Assimil Language Series, the Linguaphone Series, the Cortina Methods.

2. If you:

have a desire to have things explained to you beforehand in a nice and clear way

have a logical and analytical mind (which is usually the product of education in general)

have a need for a systematic approach (basically if you’re most comfortable with a book which is going to introduce the grammar according to an agreed set of methods or an organized plan)

then, you should try out some of these manuals: the Hugo Series, the Made Simple Series, the Teach Yourself Series, the Buske Series. 

3. PAY ATTENTION TO PATTERNS!!!

the most important part are the patterns of a language

no matter what type of language learner you are, I think it’s really clever to incorporate this method into you learning. 

a language is actually made up of patterns which constantly repeat themselves and that is THE KEY TO FLUENCY

repeating the patterns over and over again, until they become natural, until you no longer have to conjugate the verbs in your head before speaking

when you become really good with patterns, your sentences will come out naturally, and patterns are what will get you to fluency

I’ve provided the links, where you will find a review of the books, so that you can have an idea of what they look like. You can find most of these on amazon.

La gasolina: (noun) gasoline, gas