MOVED D:

더러/보고 are used similarly to 한테/에게 when dealing with indirect speech.

친구한테 내일 집에 오라고 했다. / 친구에게 내일 집에 오라고 했다. / 친구보고 내일 집에 오라고 했다. / 친구더러 내일 집에 오라고 했다 all share an identical meaning: I told my friend to come over to my place tomorrow.

There are some subtle differences between the grammar points.  As you know, -에게 is reserved for written Korean while  -한테 is used in spoken Korean. 

-더러 and -보고 are also only used in spoken Korean. Although the two can be used interchangeably, -더러 sounds more natural when used to relay commands while -보고 is used to relay both simple facts and commands.

힘들면 친구더러 도와 달라고 해. If it’s too difficult, ask your friend to help.

동생더러 조카를 데리고 가라고 하세요. Please tell your younger sibling to take their nephew.

나보고 그걸 혼자 다 하라고요? You’re telling me to do it all by myself?

보다 (더) – more than

emphasis (very, a lot, a bit, etc.)

present tense forms

future tense forms

imperative form

위해(서) – in order to

~(으)려고/~(으)러 – in order to

워해(서) vs. (으)러

~지 말다 – to not do

말고/아니고 – instead of

age

~을 때 – when

~지만/~는데 – however

~ㄴ/은/는데 – giving context

좋겠다 – it’d be nice if

제일/가장 – best/most

~ㄴ지 – since

~에 대해(서) – about

~아/어 드리다 – to do for

때문에 – because of

~(으)니까 – because

~거든요 – because

것 같다 – seems like/I think

~잖다 – you know

가져가다 vs. 가져오다 – take with/bring with

알다/모르다 – to know (how to)

편이다 – rather/sort of

만큼 – as much as

일단/만약/처음 – once/first

particles

~(으)로 – with/by means of

은/는 vs. 이/가

~(이)나 – good enough

수학 – basic math

~에 따라서 – according to

~자니(까)/~(으)려고 하니(까) – intended to, but

이다 vs. 있다

받침 pronunciation rules

Korean sentence structure (SOV)

any / every / some / none

안 vs. ~지 않다 – negatives

Particles come after the part of speech they’re indicating. Some of them (such as 은/는 or 이/가 or 의) are dropped when speaking in 반말, but they must be used when speaking in 존댓말.

은/는 – indicates the subject (who is doing the verb, what/who specifically are you talking about). Can also be used for comparison or emphasis.

오늘은 날씨가 아주 좋네요. – The weather’s so nice today. (compared to recent/other days)

을/를 – indicates the direct object (what is being acted upon).

난 아까 김밥을 먹었어요. – Earlier I ate kimbap.

이/가 – indicates the topic (clarifies the who/which/what). *Used in negative sentences!

커피가 좋은데 난 마시면 머리가 좀 앞아요. – Coffee is nice/good but if I drink it my head hurts. 저는 미국 사람이 아니라 캐나다 사람이야. – I’m not American, I’m Canadian.

도 – ‘also,’ ‘even though.’ Can also be used for emphasis.

난 대학생이에요. 오빠도 대학생이죠. – I’m a college student. You’re also a college student, right? 아직도 안 시작했어? – You still haven’t started? 매워도, 엄청 맛있네. – Even though it’s spicy it’s really delicious.

께서 – honorific topic; can replace 은/는 or 이/가.

선생님께서 왔어요. – The teacher came.

에 – at/to (time or place); per (time).

학교에 가야 되지. – I have to go to school. 오후 3시에 집으로 돌아갈게. – I’ll return home at 3pm. 이 약을 하루에 2번 먹어요. – Take this medicine twice a day.

에서 – at (where the action happens); from.

미국에서 왔어. – I came from America. 인천공항에서 만나자. – Let’s meet at Incheon Airport.

부터 – from (time or place).

이비행기는 부산부터 제주도까지 가고 있어요. – This plane is going from Busan to Jeju Island. 오후 4시부터 공부했어. – I’ve been studying since 4pm. 그 학생은 나를 처음부터 싫어했어요. – That student hated me from the beginning.

까지 – all the way up to (time or place).

삶이 힘들어도 끝까지 보기 마세요. – Even though life is hard, don’t give up until the end. 머리부터 발끝까지 예뻐. – You’re pretty from head to toe. 4시까지 기다릴게. – I’ll wait until 4pm.

의 – possession. my, her, his, etc. *저 + 의 = 제,  나 + 의 = 내

그 학생의 가방은 멋있지. – That student’s bag is awesome. 오바마께서는 미국의 대통령이에요. – Obama is America’s president.

들 – plural.

여러분들 (everyone), 학생들 (students), 그들 (them), 애들 (kids)

만 – only (usually replaces 을/를).

어제 공부만 했어. – Yesterday all I did was study. 난 아침에 우유만 마셔요. – In the morning I only drink milk.

하고 / (이)랑 / 와/과 – and/with (between two nouns). (*와/과 is formal, 하고 is more informal, (이)랑 is more conversational)

저는 지난 주에 친구와 해변으로 갈 겁니다. – Next week I’m going to the beach with my friend. 엄마랑 셀카를 찍었어. – I took a selfie with mom. 김치하고 고추장을 사야 돼. – I have to buy kimchi and pepper paste.

(으)로 – by means of; in the direction of; asking for a favor.

인터넷으로 찾는 중이에요. – I’m looking on the internet. 산으로 갑시다. – Let’s go to the mountain. 그건 영어로 말해도 돼요? – May I say that in English? 창가 자리로 예약해 주실 수 있어요? – Can you reserve a window seat for me?

에게 / 한테 / 께 – to. (*에게 is polite, 한테 is more conversational, 께 is very respectful)

아버지는 언니한테 돈을 줬어. – Dad gave my sister money. 선생님에게 다 이야기해요. – I tell everything to the teacher.

에게서 / 한테서 / (으)로부터 – from. (*에게서 is polite, 한테서 is more conversational)

오늘은 내 생일인데 남자친구한테서 꽃다발을 받았어. – Today is my birthday and I got a bouquet from my boyfriend. 선생님에게서 많이 배웠어요. – I learned a lot from my teacher.

(이)나 – gives the impression of “good enough.” Replaces 이/가 or 을/를.

Both of these verbs means “to live” but there is a slight nuance in meaning.

住む「すむ」simply means to live somewhere, the act of of you residing in a house, apartment, etc

暮らす「くらす」means to live but focuses on the 生活 (daily life) and interactions with the place you live

例えば：

僕は東京に住んでいる。This sentence simply means that I live in Tokyo, that I existence and take residence in Tokyo.

僕は東京に暮らしている。This sentence means that I not only reside in Tokyo, but my daily life and interactions are in Tokyo. May imply that I also work there, my whole life is in Tokyo, more than just a place of existence. 

片付(かたづ)けなさいね。[Make sure you] clean up. 洗濯物(せんたくもの)たまっちゃったなあ。 I have a lot of laundry to do. 洗濯物(せんたくもの)を畳(たた)むのを手伝(てつだ)って。 I need some help folding the laundry. シャツがしわだらけ。アイロンかけなくちゃ。 My shirt is too creased. I’ll need to iron it. 帰(かえ)りにクリーニング屋(や)さんに寄(よ)ってくれる？ Could you stop by the dry cleaners on your way home? ゴミ出(だ)ししてくれる？ Could you take out the trash? しばらく掃除(そうじ)してなかったな。 I haven’t cleaned in awhile. 窓(まど)を全部開(ぜんぶあ)けて、新鮮(しんせん)な空気(くうき)を入れて。 Open all the windows and let in some fresh air.

Important vocab: 片付ける：to clean (a more juvenile way of saying it) 掃除する：to clean, as in to clean a room or the house 洗濯する：to wash clothes

The issue with many internet tests is that they don’t test your speaking ability. Also they may test you on vocabulary that is unrelated to what you have been studying so far. Nevertheless, it can be immensely helpful to find out what your level is, even if it’s only a rough approximation. Below is a list of tests that are free to take online.

Lengalia Placement Test

Advantage: Your ‘grade/score’ will be one of the 6 levels in the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR). As this framework is internationally recognized and used, once you have a rough idea of what your level is, you will be able to compare your level with those of Spanish courses offered all over Europe.

Transparent Proficiency Test

You have to submit your email to the website to receive your full score breakdown an view which answers you got wrong/correct answers (it only takes 20 secs). You cannot save your progress. You will be classed as either beginner/intermediate/advanced. Advantage: Unlike many tests, the reading comprehension section does not ask you to read one large chunk of test but rather four short passages and some are only a few lines. Disadvantages: The text in the reading section is very academic. I’m sure that there are some native speakers who would struggle to comprhend the Don Quixote passage included, for example. This tests vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension ability only. The grammar section tests a good range of concepts but the vocabulary section is too short to be thorough in my opinion, The test takes about 45 minutes to do  (the reading comprehension part will probably take you 20 of those minutes).

Don Quijote Test

“The test consists of 50 questions divided into 6 levels from beginner to advanced.The questions are primarily based on grammar competency. We understand that this is not the only parameter to count when we evaluate language proficiency, but to have a written or oral test in this format is not possible.There is also an explanation given for the sentences that are incorrect.”

Cervantes Spanish Language Test

The Cervantes Spanish language test has 53 questions (all multiple choice) divided into 5 levels from the Common European Framework of Languages, from beginners (A1) to advanced (C1).

American National Spanish Examinations

Practice exercises for reading and listening

Past Papers for grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening

These are the most widely used tests of Spanish in the United States. In the spring of 2015, a total of 157,702 students participated in the online version of the exam.There are six levels and a set of clear grammar targets accompanies each one. Reading through these specifications and comparing them to your own knowledge could be another way of assessing your ability.  

Centro Virtual Cervantes Test

As I am a new studyblr/langblr, I wish my first post will really be of a great help to you guys ^^

Online Resources:

Talk To Me In Korean 

 How to Study Korean 

Learn to Read Korean in 15 Minutes 

Sogang Online Program 

More Online Resources:

Topik Guide

Easy Korean

More flashcards!!

Dom & Hyo

Grammar Masterpost and Particles Masterpost! by learninghangukeo

Naver

zKorean

A HUGE RESOURCE POST and RECOMMENDED APPS BY HANGUKDRAMA (who is actually also super cool!)

ALSO AN AWESOME HUGE RESOURCE POST!! from hanguk-eo

They’re basically the best, especially the ones in bold, since their lessons are well-paced and thoroughly explained. At the same time, these resources are packed with information. 

You could also watch Youtubers like: 

seemile 

koreanclass101

GoBillyKorean

sweetandtasty

SeoulisticVideos

korea fever

motivate korean

They are great teachers that can be very helpful and instrumental in your studies, as they can teach grammar, vocabulary and culture lessons altogether.

Tumblrs:

letstteok-korean

randomhangul

kasiany

learning-hangeul

learninghangukeo

hoonsena

k-is4korean

cassarilla 

let-learn-korean 

hanguk-eo

onestopkorean

emilylearnskorean

marksonchill

Books:

Ewha

Yonsei

Talk To Me In Korean

SNU

Other books

Personally, I would recommend Ewha. I literally cannot stress how helpful they’ve been. Recently, their textbooks have been already augmented with a workbook and study guide to follow, which is like a godsend for those who are self-studying. I would say that TwoChois is the sure place where you can get almost all reading material and textbooks.

good luck in your studies!! 

Why is Kanji Necessary?

So many people in my class keep saying “why do I need to learn Kanji when I can just write in hiragana?” There are soooo many reasons why, but here are just a few of my favorites:

Makes it easier to read Japanese sentences. OK you might be thinking “how does it make it easier to read? It’s more confusing!” but please bear with me. I’m going to write two different sentences, and you see which one is easier to read: 昨日、お菓子を食べたり、ゲームをしたり、単語を勉強したりしました。 OR きのう、おかしをたべたり、ゲームをしたり、たんごをべんきょうしたりしました。The first one, right? Using Kanji makes it easier to differentiate words apart from each other while hiragana leaves you guessing where one word ends and where another begins.

You can always guess the meaning of a word by it’s Kanji. Each Kanji has a different meaning, when you put different Kanji together, the meanings of those Kanji can give you a gist of what the word means! Hiragana doesn’t do this. Let’s say for example you don’t know what 昨日 means. You can gather “context clues” from the fact that the first character means “previous” and that the second character means “day”. You can guess from those two that the word means “yesterday”.

Kanji is everywhere. If you’ve seen any photos of Japan (namely the cities), you’ll see Kanji everywhere. Might as well learn it. Not only that, but it’s also found in books and in writing everywhere, not only signs.

Tips & Tricks

Don’t study just the meaning, Kun-yomi, and On-yomi. I made this mistake for the first few Kanji quizzes I ever took and it kicked my ass. It made me second guess everything I was writing and I would just get extremely frustrated.

Instead, study example words using that Kanji. In my experience, it is so much easier to study different words that use that Kanji. Say your character has 3 different sayings; learn those words and when the Kanji comes up, go through those words and find the best saying for it! 

Learn the radicals. Radicals are pretty much just smaller characters that make up the bigger character! Often times, when you see a Kanji you don’t know, you can depict the meaning from the radical. You can use this list to guide you in learning the radicals.

Use the radicals and make up stories. This is something that my first Japanese teacher told us to do. She told us to, after we learn the radicals, think of a story to help us remember that kanji. For example, the Kanji for “day of the week” is 曜. My teacher would tell us “during the week, a feathered(羽) bird(隹) would fly over the sun(日)”. Now whenver I write it, I think about the radicals for “sun”, “feather”, and “small bird”.

Keep learning Japanese fun! I can’t stress this one enough! If you don’t love the language you’re learning and you dread learning it, you’re not going to learn it to the best of your ability. So keep it fun! Don’t stress yourself out with Kanji, it can take years to learn a good amount of them, so don’t stress yourself out if you can’t find the time to do 10 a day! 

Keep a Learning Journal: Keeping a journal is a great thing to do when you’re learning anything. It’ll help  you keep track of your studies and, if you’re ever feeling down in the dumps, show you how far you’ve come and motivate you to continue learning! 

Methods

Obviously, to learn Kanji, you’re not going to get much use out of using a Mind map to study them. There’s simply too many characters and you’ll end up drowning in paper. Instead, try one of the following methods:

Flashcards: There are multiple ways that you can make flashcards out of Kanji. My personal favorite is to put the Kanji character on the front and the meaning and readings on the back. Quiz yourself daily for 5-10 (or longer if you’re up to it) while switching off. I like to use a piece of scratch paper and quiz myself on the writing as well. This method also works well with Memrise or Anki.

Read: Reading articles online will get you exposed to not only Kanji, but new vocabulary words, and will help you get a better feel for the language. Children’s books, magazines, and newspapers will also have furigana attached to difficult Kanji so they’re easily readable (One website that I use is News Web Easy). I also practice my writing by writing down the article in a notebook and highlight the words I do and don’t know (you can see an example of one of my notebooks here)

Write: Write the Kanji over and over and over until you get it! I usually like to do this while saying the Kun-yomi and On-yomi as well as the meaning. I find that pronouncing them works better than saying them in your head, so if you’re in a position that you can do so, please do! Writing a single Kanji 10 times a day will really help you remember it for later on.

Use Apps: Use apps on the app store or google play store to study up on Kanji! I currently use Obenkyo.

My personal favorite method? Writing. I spend a good hour or so every day studying Kanji by writing out example paragraphs and sentences using Kanji characters that I know. Not only does it help me with vocabulary, but it also allows me learn the different sounds a particular Kanji makes. For Example, the Kanji 食 means "eat” or “food”. You can pronounce it with any of the following sounds: く、た、は、ショク、or ジキ. Now, I could just learn the sounds and not have to spend x hours a day working on example sentences. However, if I know that I can make the following words with this specific Kanji, then I know that that Kanji can also be pronounced with any of those sounds: く：食う、た：食べ物、は：食む、ショク：食堂、ジキ：断食. Now that is a lot easier than learning the sounds only.

I really hope that this helps those of you struggling with Kanji. If you have noticed any mistakes in this or would like you add your own, please feel free to do so! 

Other Links for More Tips & Tricks

You can’t “learn” Kanji!! by Guide to Japanese

How to learn 2,000 Kanji in 3 Months by Fluent in 3 Months

The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning Kanji by Tofugu

12 DAYS OF HANGUL ~ MASTERPOST

Are you beginning to learn Korean? Then you need to learn Hangul! It’s the ingenious Korean alphabet system. Click on the lessons below to get started and learn how to master a new script.

HANGUL LESSONS

[Day 1 ~ Consonants]   Learn the 14 consonants and their sounds. [Day 2 ~ Vowels] Learn the 8 Korean vowels and their sounds. [Day 3 ~ Double Consonants] 5 more consonants to learn. [Day 4 ~ Y Vowels] 6 unique vowels to round out the alphabet. [Day 5 ~ Characters] How to create Korean characters/syllables. [Day 6 ~ W Sound] How to form the W sound in Korean. [Day 7 ~ Sh Sound] How to form the Sh sound in Korean. [Day 8 ~ Orientation] Learn two ways to write with Hangul. [Day 9 ~ Batchims] How to read final consonants in syllable blocks. [Day 10 ~ Linking Sounds] Linking batchim sounds with proceeding vowels. [Day 11 ~ English] How to write English words using Hangul. [Day 12 ~ Review] Test your knowledge with this short review.

HANGUL DOWNLOADS

Over the last few years I’ve dipped in and out of learning lots of different languages, using mostly apps and a few books to teach myself intermediate Polish and GCSE French and know the beginnings of others like Japanese, Italian and Swedish. So, I made this post to recommend some helpful apps and websites. (I’ll put half of it under a cut so I don’t take up everyone’s blogs).

 HelloTalk  This is an app that is like a language exchange chat, kinda similar to kik or whatsapp, where you can put in the language you’re learning and the level of knowledge you have and find natives and other people who speak it and are also looking to learn your native language. It also includes features like a translator and grammar correction on your messages and there is also the option of voice to text messages. It’s really good for improving your confidence in your target languages and means you get to use and practice a lot more with natives, which is useful for learning the more casual and colloquial terms used in everyday life that you don’t get from textbooks. What better way to improve your language skills than by talking to natives?

Memrise Memrise is probably one of the best websites I’ve come across for learning new words and is designed to help you learn and remember them through repetition. I have used it as a starting point for pretty much every language I learn as there’s beginner courses for pretty much EVERY language (I’ve done things like Hawaiian on there which is very hard to find elsewhere online). However, whilst the majority of course are good quality some may be not as good because they’re all user made, and many do not teach grammar so it’s harder to use only memrise for learning.