The most I have written in my target language so far are a few words or some very simple sentences, like “My name is Feli”. I am still in the process of learning new vocabulary and grammatical rules that then allow me to form proper spoken or written sentences. We read a lot of sentences and say them, but I do not form those myself yet. I prefer to write words and sentences by hand because it helps me to better remember the spelling. However, I have a Korean keyboard on my phone to help me to write words and sentences for online assignments, like this one, and to be exposed to the language more in my daily life.
There are some important structures in Hangul, for example the usage of imnida, 입니다, and imniga, 입니까, after almost every sentence or question. Furthermore, there is a number of different particles that are used to make a noun function as a subject or an object. We practice the usage of those particles a lot with the help of pre-written sentences where we have to select the correct particle based on the meaning of the sentence and the ending of the word. Korean also uses a very different sentence structure than German and English do. Instead of saying “I am from Germany”, in Korean you say “I am German person” (저는 독일 사람 입니다). Similarly, asking “Where are you from?” is “What country person?” (어느 나라 사람 입니까). “Are you a student? - Yes, I am a student.” in Korean is “Student? - Yes, student.” (학생 입니까? - 네, 학생 입니다.)
Korean has a lot of different levels of politeness. It is important to be aware of whom one is speaking to and how polite to be. I have mainly learned the very formal version of Korean words and sentences. I believe that one utilizes the most formal version of Korean in proper written context. Therefore, it is important to know this form and to be able to properly use it in written and spoken context.
Some of the writing exercise we have done in class are the following:
1. Build the sentence based on these words 빌리 (Feli) 대학생 (university student)
빌리씨는 대학생 입니다. (Feli is a university student.)
2. Select the right particle.
저는의사 (이, 가) 아닙니다. (I am a doctor.)
Comments
Hey Felicitas! I think I've had a similar experience in adjusting to the Turkish sentence structure. Turkish is a Subject-Object-Verb language, which I think is kind of similar to Korean, and it's been hard for me to adjust from English or French. Turkish also has particles that go on the end of a sentence to make it a question, and I usually forget about them haha