somewhere

i’ve just finished reading claude gueux, a short story by victor hugo, which was almost a kind of precursor to les mis ! here’s some of the vocab i picked up, not essential but interesting nonetheless.

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l’abbaye (f) | abbey

le cabanon | cabin, hut

le cachot | dungeon, cell

le galetas | hovel (littéraire)

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les décombres (m) | rubble

dédaigneux | disdainful

naguère | formerly

ridé | wrinkled

la touffe | tuft

s’écrouler | to collapse

7

le préau | exercise yard (prison)

le recourse à | recourse to, resort to

maint | several

Yes. Another. The other one is quite outdated and not very extensive. Amusez-vous bien. I’m from Paris so some of these are probably exclusive to the region.

Tu (me) fais chier (literally: you make me shit) / tu m’emmerdes / tu me casses les couilles (you’re breaking my balls): you’re pissing me off

Ça me saoûle / fait chier (vulgar) / gonfle: I’m sick of this

J’en ai ras le cul: I’m sick of this (vulgar)

J’en ai ras le bol: I’m sick of this

J’en ai marre: I’m sick of this

Fringues: clothes

Grailler: to buy / borrow / steal / take / eat

Crever: to die

Va crever: go die

Je suis crevé: I’m very tired / sick

Crevant: exhausting

J’ai la dalle: I’m hungry

Je crève la dalle: I’m haven’t eaten anything in two years

On se les caille: it’s freezing

On crève de froid: we’re dying of cold

Crevard: despicable person

Glander: to procrastinate / to do nothing / to lay around

Avoir la flemme: not wanting to do anything

Rien branler (~to jerk off nothing): to do nothing

Défoncé: stoned

Gerber: to throw up

C’est à gerber: it’s so ugly / horrible I’m going to throw up

C’est de la merde: it’s shit

Bouffer: to eat

Bagnole/ caisse: car

Baraque: house

Bled: 1/ godforsaken place, 2/ where you’re born

Clebs / clébard: dog

Oseille / blé / fric: money

Chais pas (je sais pas): I don’t know

Va te faire foutre: go fuck yourself

Se foutre de quelqu’un: to make fun of someone

(Je) m’en fous: I don’t care

J’en ai rien à battre: I don’t care

Je m’en bas les couilles (I’m slapping my balls): I don’t care

Je m’emmerde / je me fais chier: I’m bored

C’est chiant: it’s boring

Demmerde toi: Deal with this without me / manage to do something

Je galère: I’m struggling

Quelle galère (galley) / merde: What a pain 

Genre: 1/ like, 2/ as if, 3/ seriously ? or no way !

Bahut: high school

Fais pas genre: stop lying / pretending

Fais genre: pretend

Chelou: weird / shady / suspicious

balais: years (ex: il a 50 balais = he’s 50)

briques: € (ex: I bought this shit for 20 briques) though it can also means 10 € (ex: i bought this shit for 20 briques = 200 €)

C’est pas possible: it’s not possible. To use anytime, anywhere. Can’t find keys ? C’est pas possible. Traffic ? C’est pas possible. School ? C’est pas possible.

Qu’est ce que tu fous: what the fuck are you doing

Mais il est pas possible ce gosse: that person is annoying / unsufferable / immature / stupid

Mioche: baby or young child

Gamin(e) / gosse: kid / brat

Brailler: to scream annoyingly, usually said of a baby crying

Gueuler: to scream

Ferme la / ferme ta gueule / ta gueule: shut up 

Se casser la gueule: to fall

Hein ?: 1/ what ? 2/ at the end of a sentence: right ?

Euh: “- did you do your homework ? - eeeeeeuh” or “-where is boulevard Voltaire ? -eeeeeeuh this way”

Ouf: 1/ phew, 2/ crazy (it’s the verlan for “fou”)(not very used anymore)

Sauvé (saved): phew, we’re saved

Pareil: same (ex: -I’m tired -pareil)

Idem: ditto

C’est quoi ce bordel (what’s this brothel) / qu’est ce que c’est que ce bordel: What the fuck is this

C’est une blague ?: is this a joke ?

Tu te fous de moi ?: are you kidding me ?

Rôh là: noise of annoyance, can also just be a breathy guttural noise (hrrhhfhhrfhr)

Taré: insane

Perso (euh): personally

Tiens: 1/ ‘here’ or ‘hold this’, 2/ reminds me (ex: tiens, remember when you were in a band ?) 

C’est cadeau: it’s free

Dégueulasse / dégueu: disgusting

Se faire baiser (to get fucked): to have a really bad time (ex: I rushed the presentation and I got roasted by the teacher who’s going to call my parents, je vais me faire baiser)

C’est bon là: that’s enough

Non mais oh: to express shock or disgust

Tu te crois où ?: where do you think you are ?

J’avoue: you’re right

Connard / connasse: cunt, not very vulgar tho

Chien: passive, disloyal and kiss people’s ass

Chienne / pute: whore

Pétasse: cunt

Putain: a classic

Bordel: another classic

Hey! Here are the things I’d recommend:

a backpack - the best solution for carrying around a lot of things! I tried going with a shoulder bag on my first day of university and it was the worst thing ever!!!! Never again will I do that to myself! Get yourself a sturdy backpack with strong straps! You, your back and your shoulders will thank me later! I use a 13″ laptop version Fjallraven Kanken, it is really awesome. Very practical, comfy and waterproof. My only dislike is how the zips go so far around the whole bag. I always get nervous that someone behind me will unzip it and steal my purse or whatever it sitting at the bottom.

a 4 ring binder (and plastic sleeves) - any brand will do really! I would recommend getting one per subjects since it saves running out of space if you try to fit things into one. It is also sometimes cheaper to purchase several at once! This stay at home though.

notebooks - I use a single Arc Notebook for all my subjects and love it. I find it easier to have a single notebook with dividers, rather than carrying several individual books. However, any notebook(s) would be fine. You can decide if you’d like spiral, A4 or A5, etc.

OR a tablet for digital notetaking - this depends on how you plan to do your notes but I’ve recently been using our family iPad Pro for university and absolutely love it. It is so convenient, easy to use, and fun! Writing with the pencil is so smooth. I can change colours, mistakes, placement so fast. I think it has helped me be much more productive than any other semester! Here are some digital things I have on my Etsy!

planner - this can be any you like or even digital version! I tend to go for smaller planner if I’m actually taking it to uni. Here is are some recommendations. Here is a review on the Mossery Co planner. Here is my 2017 bullet journal. Here is a detailed pros and cons list of a planner vs bullet journal. There is also my printable or digital 2018 student planner or 2018 weekly planner :-)

pens - I would recommend getting a pack with a selection of colours. I usually recommend the Staedtler 432 pens since they’re well priced, easily accessible, come in packs and don’t smudge. I don’t see the point in buying huuuuge packs with a million pens but 10 to 12 is more than enough. I really like the Zebra Sarasa though - they’re so nice but are gel pens! Other pens I like are the Pilot G2 and Juice, Staedtler Triplus Fineliners, Muji Gel Pens. Obviously, you don’t need a million different packs! To be super simple, I’d say the Zebra Sarasa are a great start. Here is a more detailed comparison though!

highlighters - I use the cool, warm and light packs of the Zebra Mildliners. I’ve used the Stabilo Swing Cool in the past and they were good! I think having a selection that matches your pens is so helpful when you’ve organised a colour code.

pencil case - I only take a few pens to uni so my pencil is only small. I don’t think it’s necessary to take a huge pencil case so just any will be okay! I have one from Muji and one from Emma Bridgewater. The Muji one irritates me though because when it’s not full, it makes so much noise..

etc - this goes for post-it notes, page flags, etc! I love to-do list pads and post-it notes to help keep me organised!

Additionally, here are a few printables that might help you get/stay organised:

2018 student planner - includes loads of student-related printables (study, finance, etc) and undated daily, weekly and monthly planners.

ultimate student organiser - 47 pages of printables to organise your upcoming semester! Covers things like your individual classes, reading schedule, essay planner, etc.

college packing list - not necessary if you’re still living at home, but if you’re moving into a dorm this might be beneficial for making sure you remember everything!

curve of forgetting planner - a simple way to mark off topics in each subject and make sure you’re revising them regularly.

grade and assessment planner - it is always important to track how your grades are doing and this is a quick way to do so. Also, should make find problem areas relatively simple!!

student financial planner - an easy way to monitor your spending, set a budget and reach savings goals!

student reading journal - great if you have a lot of required readings each week!

there are loads more though! I also have lots of things for GoodNotes is you do have an iPad.

Here are some additional links that could help:

advice for the first day

things (personal, academic, etc) to do every week

10 small ways to improve your productivity

10 small ways to improve your motivation to study

dealing with stress

how to improve your sleep schedule

how to improve group assessments/projects

dealing with competitive people

how I stay motivated

how to study during the semester

most nouns with these endings are masculine (except from nouns in brackets) - ISME (no exceptions) - AGE ( une cage, une page, une plage, une image, une nage) - EAU (une eau, une peau) - ÈME (la crème) - ER (une cuillier, la mer) - MENT (la jument)

So instead of studying today, I went through a bunch of websites to find some links for free parallel reading. Give these a go:

https://www.grimmstories.com/

http://www.childrensbooksforever.com/index.html

https://www.lonweb.org/

http://bilinguis.com/

!!!! http://paralleltext.io/

To avoid harshness or directness of questions or statements in Korean, there is a lot of grammar used to soften language. One piece of grammar that I could never quite grasp was 뭐뭐~(ㄴ/는)걸. This is actually a conjunction (but), so generally the first sentence is assumed. So lets compare it to a few other easier bits of grammar.

~네 – Direct statement / question 맛있네? - “But this is tasty?**’ 맛있네 -  “This is tasty.”

~(ㄴ/는)데 – Contrasting statement / question 맛있는데? – “But this is delicious?**” 맛있는데 – “This is delicious, but~”

** - These are rhetorical answers that provide a passive form of contradiction

~(ㄴ/는)걸 – Indirect supposition 맛있는걸? – “It tastes better than I expected.”

Basic Conversation: A: 벌써 11시네? B: 피곤하네 ㅠㅠ A: 그래도 졸리진 않은데? B: 피곤한데 더 놀고 싶어 … 놀고싶은데 피곤한걸 A: 그럼 너 이제 자야겠는걸?

A: It’s already 11 o’clock? B: I’m tired ㅠㅠ A: Still, are you not sleepy? B: I’m tired, but I want to hang out more. … I want to hang out, but I’m more tired than I expected. A: Then you should probably get some sleep now?

So as you can see, a lot of the meaning comes from the intonation of the speaker. (ㄴ/는)데 can be positive or negative depending on the inflection in the person’s voice or following comments. However, (ㄴ/는)걸 is an indirect way to speak (as if you’re speaking to yourself) to soften unexpected negative answers.

Ex. “먹을래? (Want to eat?)” “이미 먹었는걸?” This may seem like you’re saying “But I already ate?” but is really an indirect way to say “Sorry, I already ate.” As a native English speaker this may seem weird, but these are the nuances that help us truly become fluent. :) This form is very informal so use it among friends.

1. 이름이 뭐예요? whats your name? - 제 이름은 name이에요/예요   or   저는 name이에요/예요

~이에요 if ur name ends with a consonnant ~예요 if it ends with a vowel

♡

2. 어디에서 왔어요? where are you from? - country 사람이에요

examples : 프랑스 사람이에요 ; i am french 프랑스 ; france 사람 ; person

중국 사람이에요 ; i am chinese etc..

♡

3. 몇살이에요? how old are you? - age살이에요

examples : 17살이에요 ; i’m 17 years old 24살이에요, 14살이에요…

♡

4. 취미가 뭐예요? what are ur hobbies? - 노래하는 것을 좋아해요 i like singing

verb+는 것을 좋아해요

요리하는 것을 좋아해요 ; i like cooking 읽는 것을 좋아해요 ; i like reading 춤 추는 것을 좋아해요 ; i like dancing

♡

5. 학생+이에요 ; i am a student 고등학생 ; high schooler 대학생이에요 ; university student

OR

occupation이에요/예요 의사예요 ; im a doctor 선생이에요 ; im a teacher

♡

6. language를 공부해요 i study…. 프랑스어를 공부해요 ; i study french 영어를 공부해요 ; i study english

language를 배우고 있어요 i am learning…. 한국어를 배우고 있어요 ; i am learning korean 일본어를 배우고 있어요 ; i am learning japanese

碰 (pèng) - to knock, bump

仰 (yǎng) - to raise the head to look

饮料 (yǐng liào) - drink, beverage

尽 (jìn, jǐn) - to exhaust, use up, deplete

尽量 (jìn liàng) - as much as possible, to the greatest extent

尽快 (jìn kuài) - as quickly as possible, as soon as possible

唤 (huàn) - to call

呼唤 (hū huàn) - to call out, shout

服务 (fú wù) - service, to serve

燃 (rán) - to burn, light fire, ignite

枝 (zhī) - branches, limbs

烟 (yān) - smoke, cigarettes

抽烟 (chōu yān) - to smoke cigarettes

烟囱 (yān cōng) - chimney

肥皂 (féi zào) - soap

感冒 (gǎn mào) - to catch cold

来得及 (lái de jí) - there’s still time, to be able to do something in time

咽 (yàn) - throat, to swallow

- the app Memrise (free for ios, I don’t know about andriod).

- the book “Korean for Beginners” by Park and Amen (My brother got the book for me as a gift so I can’t attest to it’s price, but it’s good for grammar rules etc.) comes with a cd of a gazillion native pronounciations for vocab and a lot of culture notes!

- if you follow the Tumblr tag ‘random korean vocab’ you’ll get a lot of new words nearly every time you open tumblr. I pick a few a week on top of my regular study just to get some extra words to use.

YouTube channels:

- JOLLY. the premise is a somewhat native speaker (who lived in korea for an extended period of time / got married to a korean lady) teaches his friend the language etc. very comedic and not too fast paced. I like to follow the lesson and make notes of my own, as things are usually repeated several times and it really feels like you’re being taught one on one.

- 영국남자. mostly food, not gonna lie. but very interesting. run by the same people as JOLLY. will make you cry laughing 10/10 times. (plus both channels include subtitles for English and Korean. (It really helps me personally to see the Hangul while hearing it.)

tumblrs: @study-korean @studiousbees @koreangrumblings @koreanstudybuddy @nocturnalinseoul @learninghangukeo @hansuuki @thekimchibear @thekoreanexp @cassarilla @tiffani-warren @hwanghon @rinkodesu @hannah-dulset @mykoreanstudy @su-eop

books/pdfs: korean grammar in use beginners (great rec), 연세대학교: 외국인을 위한 한국어 생활 어휘 (daily korean vocab for foreigners)

~find these books as pdfs and more at @hannah-dulset ’s masterpost of korean resources!!!**

youtubes: sweetandtastyTV (KWOW series), korean unnie 한국언니, 데이브 world of dave, solfa, 린디 lindie botes

I’m really excited to bring you guys another app review today!

Lingodeer is a brand new app that is designed by actual language teachers/native speakers for specifically learning the three main East Asian languages: Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. And it’s totally free! If you haven’t heard of them before, you can check them out here: https://www.lingodeer.com/

I’ve actually been wanting to review this app for a while, but the iOS version wasn’t available until just the other day (and I only own Apple devices!).

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this review, the (iOS version) app is currently build 1.0, so any of the following may or may not change going forward as updates are applied.

Unlike for my review of the Duolingo Korean course, I did not complete the entire available skill tree that Lingodeer’s app offers. I found going through the lessons that there wasn’t any need to complete the tree in the vain hopes that the course might magically get better. Lingodeer is very good right out of the gate.

Your first stop on the app is the “alphabet” section, as it should be. Like Duolingo, Lingodeer unfortunately uses a form of romanization to teach the letters (see my Duolingo review for an explanation about why that’s bad) but that’s where the similarities stop. Lingodeer presents the Hangul letters in an order that actually makes sense, and in a way where learners can understand they are actually using letters to build sounds and eventually, words. Also, stroke order! That was a delightful and welcome surprise, which will come in handy for users actually wanting to learn to write the letters properly.

Heading into the first set of lessons (the “Nationality” section of the above screenshot) the user is greeted with a list of the lessons contained in the section, and to the left side, a menu labeled “Learning Tips”. When I selected the first lesson, I was initially disappointed to see that the romanization followed me but I quickly found that there is a setting the user can toggle to switch between Hangul and romanization, Hangul only, and romanization only.

Jumping right into the lesson, the user begins learning words and grammar that are pertinent for beginners to know, which is again, something Duolingo fails at. Additionally, all the audio is voiced by a native Korean speaker, and the quality is very clear and easy to understand.

The exercises in the lessons are fairly standard for apps of this nature (match a picture to a word/sound, unscramble sentences, listen to a bit of audio and enter the answer, choose the word/grammar bit that doesn’t belong, etc) and are on the whole unremarkable. However there was a conspicuous lack of explanations about why the grammar works the way it does, why the lesson kept trying to drill -은/는 into my brain with no indication about why it was important… Until I accidentally brushed part of the screen with one of my fingers on my way to the “next” button and a small window popped up to explain the word and grammar I had unintentionally poked at! There is no indication on any of the exercises or lesson screens that the user can press the words or grammar points for tips, instead of just blindly clicking through the lesson and guessing.

Upon completing the first two lessons, I decided to check out the “Learning Tips” menu from the lesson selection screen, and found the in depth answers for all my previous questions and more were contained there. I feel like the app and users would benefit from somehow marking very clearly that this is the location to find all that information, instead of hiding it behind an ambiguous “tips” label, especially when the tips in the lessons themselves exist (invisible though they are). In my opinion this section should be required reading, especially as this app is directed towards total beginners, however even something like “grammar explanations” would be a big step up from “tips”. Putting an indicator somewhere on the lesson screen to draw attention to the fact tips are available there too would be a good idea as well.

The app also contains a review section, where the user can practice and review both vocabulary and grammar that they have covered in completed lessons, which negates the need for a separate SRS app at the very beginning stages of learning (though I do recommend it at higher levels).

And a bonus that does not pertain to the Korean section of the app itself: I encountered a bug while using the app and sent off a support email. I received a very prompt and polite response regarding it, and assurances they were working on fixing the issue. :) Lovely people over there at Lingodeer.

That all said, there are a couple things I don’t like about the app and it’s claims. First and foremost, there is no option to test out of skills or individual lessons. The app is designed for absolute beginners with no prior knowledge, yes, but being unable to test out of parts of the skill tree is discouraging for not-exactly-absolute-beginner users. Instead of having to spend the time to complete a whole bunch of lessons to get to one or two they might need, not-quite-newbies are better off just looking up the information online for a quicker answer.

Second, the listing on the app store claims that by using the app you will be at the “intermediate” level of knowledge, and the official website claims that if you complete all the lessons you will speak your target language. I find both of these claims laughable–the contents of the lessons will get the user to a mid-high beginner at best (late A2 on the CEFR scale) and the app doesn’t have any speaking exercises at all. Speaking recall can be very difficult if the learner is not actively practicing it. Remember: No one app, book series, website, or lesson set will be enough to get you anywhere near fluency alone.

But ultimately, the Lingodeer app is a very, very big step in the right direction and is everything Duolingo should have been but wasn’t. I would definitely recommend using Lingodeer along side a good set of grammar textbooks or when taking a class.

Check out the official Lingodeer site for links to the app/play store to give it a download! https://www.lingodeer.com/

- 景音乐 jǐng yīnyuè - background music

- 实习 shíxí - to practice (students or trainees)

- 贿赂 huìlù - to bribe

- 当电灯泡 dāng diàndēngpào - being a third wheel around the couples in love (friends)

- 开玩笑 kāiwánxiào - to joke

- 情侣装 qínglǚ zhuāng - matching couple outfits

- 反正 fǎnzhèng - anyway, in any case

- 没事干 méishì gān - to have nothing to do

- 游戏 yóuxì - game

- 手游 shǒu yóu - mobile game

- 做测试 zuò cèshì - to do testing 

-  称呼 chēnghu - to call, to address

- 免疫 miǎnyì - immunity from disease

- 黑社会 hēishèhuì - the underworld, the gang land

- 好色 hàosè - be fond of women

- 自制 zìzhì - self-control

- 江湖 jiānghú - rivers and lakes (in Chinese drama it is used to refer the wide world)

- 小白脸 xiǎobáiliǎn - attactive young man, pretty boy 

- 幻灭 huànmiè - to vanish into thin air

- 欺负 qīfù - to bully

- 被…欺负 bèi … qīfù - being bullied by someone

- 名花有主 míng huā yǒu zhǔ - the girl is already taken (idiom)

- 小事 xiǎoshì - petty things, minor matter

- 瞧不起 qiáobùqǐ - to look down

- 内奸 nèijiān - hidden traitor

- 代码 dàimǎ - code

- 聚餐 jùcān - to dine together