During the last couple of lessons with my language partner, we learned about a few different topics including the pronunciation of the last consonant in a syllable, drinking culture, and school life. The last consonant is called the ‘받침’ which can have one or two consonants on the bottom of the syllable. We went over the rules and exceptions that explain how to pronounce the 받침 in combination with the beginning of the following syllable. For example, the word ‘같이’ meaning ‘together’ is pronounced like katchi. But when you separate the syllables, it’s ‘kat’ and ‘i’. This concept was mostly a review because I had come across vocabulary words such as these before and knew the pronunciation. But I had never gone over the rules, so I learned some new patterns as well.
To bring in some culture and vocabulary, we studied the drinking culture as well. It is interesting because there are so many detailed customs that are a part of ‘drinking’. People don’t drink alone, it’s always in a group. Someone else pours your drink and you offer to pour others’ drinks. There is specific food that accompanies the drinks that everyone enjoys. I am fascinated by the group dynamic and how connected everyone is in the process of either going out or going to someone’s house to drink. If a superior is present, there are several other rules the younger people must follow. You offer your superior a drink first and there are certain hand positions for giving and receiving the drink. When clinking glasses, make sure your glass hits lower than your superiors and then turn away from them as you drink. Next, place your glass on the table after your superior has done so. These are all rules to show respect for elders and are especially important when drinking with someone of a higher position than you at work or with older family members. It was very interesting to learn about this as it is very different from the American drinking culture and is useful to know for whenever we visit.
In the next lesson, we practiced a conversation about school and classes. I was familiar with some words and sentence structures, but many of the sentences had more complex grammar structures. It was difficult for me to understand these, so I asked my language partner if we could go over the grammar in the conversation next lesson and practice producing sentences to better our fluency. I don’t want to only focus on receiving the language because producing takes a lot more practice to master. I think I am getting better at understanding the general meaning of sentences when presented with them, but there are several particles that add nuances that are difficult to pick up on. We will go over these in our next lesson, so I am hoping this will clear up the parts of the sentences I could not understand.
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