In this week’s korean lesson, we watched a little bit of 예능, a korean variety show, with the title kang’s restaurant (강식당) season 2. We started off with this article in order to get some context for words we are going to learn and use in normal everyday conversations. We then went on to learn (속담) which is pronounced sohk-dam. This word means proverbs in korean and I wanted to learn more about these in my learning because it gives me insight into the culture, I can learn some deeper meanings about the language, appreciate korean wisdom, and improve my korean as a whole through the interpretation of root words, cognates, and deciphering the placement and positioning of words in sentences. In addition, I am also able to improve my writing. Originally, I was only writing the korean words down and then writing the definitions in my notebook. But after the lesson, I asked the tutor Jimin to share the presentation so that I could print out the file and rewrite the words and make more personal notes on paper so that the knowledge can stick for longer and so that I may be able to utilize the proverbs regularly in the future. As an active learner, I learned from SDLC 105 that it is best for my learning and knowledge to be actively engaged and participating. That is why each lesson, I do my best to be engaged and participate regularly so that I use my Korean more and more. This helps speed up how fast my grammar, enunciation, and overall comfort with the korean language goes. For example, this prover 낮 말은 새가 듣고 밤 말은 쥐가 듣는다 literally translates to during the day birds hear what you say and in the night mice always hear what you say. But a deeper look into this short proverb is basically providing a warning to not gossip because anything heard in the day will also be heard at night. Which is more like a “what goes around comes around” kind of saying in English. I feel encouraged that I am learning these proverbs because it helps me make sense of words and feel like I am learning Korean correctly by learning different aspects of the language and words instead of just knowing how to speak it. My new strategy that I adopted of rewriting them and making personal notes to be able to make connections with has helped. In fact, it also helps with enunciation because I can slow how I pronounce words and phrases to make my enunciation more clearer and authentic to that spoken in Korea. My goal of increasing my fluency as best as possible while developing my current skills has not changed as I still want to learn more and improve. Another thing I did this week was watch the Parasite movie amidst its recent success at the Oscars as a kind of homework assignment which would increase my understanding of Korean and help me appreciate a film that has been beloved in Korea the past year and I have also kept up with a Korean drama to watch and hear people speaking Korean so that I can pick up Korean more quickly and be able to apply it in the right contexts quickly. I will also select a book soon from the link Dr. Marsh-Soloway shared. I am so excited to do this task and will narrow down which intermediate book I choose between a few options. I have already put this in my learning plan and am planning to start on this process in the upcoming week. I acknowledge that I must first do this if I would like to read some more advanced books like the Korean history which I also plan on doing to improve my Korean to the best of my ability as quickly as possible to be able to take the TOPIK exam one day hopefully within the upcoming year or two.
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Hi Tommy! I really like the show 강식당too! I’m really glad that you learned 속담s. If you enjoy 예능, I really recommend the show 신서유기! They have quizzes and the cast has to guess or finish the 속담. 속담s are difficult for Koreans as well so it’s entertaining to watch them get it wrong at times and learn from them!
Yes! 신서유기 is such an interesting show! The games where they have to guess their words with really loud music actually taught me a lot of new words.
Thank you for the recommendation, I will give that show I watch!