In the last two weeks, Brenda and I did both cultural learning and academical learning. For Korean culture, we learned about the relationship between South Korea and North Korea and the language people use in North Korea. For language, we learned several verbs with the same meaning used for different nouns and verbs with the same pronunciation but different meanings.
We started our culture learning with the latest Korean drama “사랑의 불시착（Crush landing on you）”. This drama is about the love story between a wealthy woman who comes from South Korea and a soldier who comes form North Korea. This wealthy woman came to North Korea because she suffered from a hurricane, and her paraglider was blown into North Korean territory. She was found by a North Korean soldier, and this soldier protected her while she was in North Korea. Since the story takes place in North Korea, the language those actors are using and the set in the drama are all in North Korean style. Brenda and I learned about how Korean language in North Korea is different from that in South Korea. We also watched a North Korean Youtuber, who escaped from North Korea to South Korea, talking about how her life was in North Korea. It was my first time to learn about how people live in North Korea. I was shocked because life in north Korea is very simple, even backward. This also inspired me to make the difference and relationship between South Korea and North Korean as my topic for my final cultural presentation. I want to research more about this topic.
The language learning class last week was very interesting. Brenda taught me several confusing verbs and we practiced by making up sentences using those verbs. The first group we learned was “to wear” for different clothing. In Korean, we use “쓰다” for things like hats or glasses, “신다” for shoes or socks, and “입다” for coats or pants. For better memorizing, I concluded the usage of these verbs by different body parts: “쓰다” is used for things wore on head and face; “신다” is for our feet; and “입다” is for our main body. Another group is “잊다” and “잃다”. Literally, they means “to forget” and “to lose”. “잊다” is used when you forget something you knew previously but cannot recall it at the moment. “잃다” is used when you forget or lose material possession. It is also used when you are unable to find the way to go your destination. In English, sometimes we use the same verb to express this two conditions. But In both Korean and Chinese, we have to use certain verb for “to forget” and “to lose”. As a Chinese native speaker, it is relatively easy for me to distinguish these two verbs and be able to know which is the correct one in different contexts.
In the past several classes, Brenda and consciously increased the frequency of our Korean conversations. The efficiency of our Korean conversations has been gradually improved. Although sometimes I was not able to express my ideas in Korea, I still try my best to give some words I knew instead of totally using English. Brenda also speaks Korean to me. She translates only if I am confused about what she was talking about. And the way she translate is using Korean I knew first, then guiding me till I getting the meaning myself. I think this is a very good way to practice my conversational skills in Korean, since it is not to convey Korean and English translation to me, but to make myself understand by guiding in Korean.
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