Bi-weekly journal 6

[Yanran Li]

In the past two weeks in Korean class, we have learned more words and verb endings. We learned a lot of Korean words about careers. I found that many words have certain rules, just like the English words related to occupation, many words end with “er” and “or” is related to careers, like “teacher”, “doctor” and “lawyer”. This rule also exists in Korean, “의사” is doctor and “변호사” is “lawyer”, in addition to ending in “사”, many words end in “윈” are also related to careers, “소방대윈” means “fireman” and “우편집배윈” means “postman”. In my opinion, the connection and similarity between the language I am learning and the language I am familiar with can help me understand it and remember the words well, and give me a lot of motivation to learn.In the past two weeks we have learned some special verbs. First one is “이다”, which is attached to the end of a noun to make the noun function like a verb. It is used to express the identity or state of a subject, or to designate an object. Also, “이다( 입니다polite+formal/이에요/예요)” has a similar role to that of English verb “to be”, for example “그것은 물입니다”, “그것은” means “this is” and “물” means water, with “입니다” at the end, the sentence means “It is water”. This suffix can also be used to introduce oneself. Second one is “있다, 없다”, the verb “있다” has the basic meaning “to exist”, and the negative form of this verb is “없다" (not to exist). It is also attached to the end of a noun to make the noun function like a verb. Take sentence “그 영화는 재미있습니다” for example, “그 영화는” means “that movie” and “재미” means “interesting”, with “있습니다” at the end, the sentence means “That movie is interesting”. “그” is the azimuth word. Ms. Kim only explained it to us when she explained the example, but did not study it in detail. The last one is “하다”, the verb “하다” has the basic meaning “to do”. It is also attached to the end of a noun to make the noun function like a verb. Take sentence “어제는 공부했습니다” for example, “어제는” means “today” and “공부” means “study”, with “했습니다” at the end, the sentence means “I had studied yesterday”. Because words “today”, “tomorrow” and “yesterday” are often used in everyday conversation, Ms. Kim taught us the corresponding Korean words, “어제 ” means yesterday, “오늘” means today, and “내일” means tomorrow.As I learned more and more affixes, I could read the examples Ms. King gave us more easily. When looking at short sentences in Korean, I first look at the final affix, which determines the verb of the sentence, and then read the whole sentence again to understand the meaning. Because I like to watch Korean reality shows, a lot of times I pause the video when there is a prompt or explanation on the screen and read the Korean on it. Although I don't understand what it means in many cases, it can also practice my reading of Korean, and I can also learn some Korean expressions or popular words.