This month I focused on my Korean writing skills, which is an area I struggle the most with. Using one of the sources that were recommended by Yonsei University, called 서강한국어 쓰기 1, I used it as a reference to learn different types of Korean writing styles, the spacings, and new vocabulary terms that are relevant to my daily life. This book contains a lot of relevant vocabulary terms related to college life such as the library, campus, and school activities.
Spacing is very confusing in Korean because it could totally change the meaning of a word or sentence.
For example, the sentence “한나가 방에 들어간다” means “Hannah is going in the room” while “한나 가방에 들어간다” means “Hannah is going in the bag.” With the difference of one spacing mistake, the entire purpose of the sentence changes.
There were three significant rules that highly improved my spacing. The first rule was to always separate the words. This really required me to figure out whether the letter was a morpheme or a word that could stand alone. The second rule was to always connect the preposition or postposition with the noun. These two should not be separated as the morpheme of prepositions would not make sense standing alone. Finally, the third rule was to always separate the morpheme that signified the numerical amount of the word.
Relating to this topic, the book really helped me address one of the differences between 은 and 는, which are morphemes that directing the verb. I also learned that there are other versions of these propositions, which are 을, 던, and 이었던. The difference between 은 and 는 depended on the tenses. 은 was used to direct the verb when it was in the past while 는 was used for what is currently happening. I am still working on using these directing morphemes that depend on the vocabulary, tense, and lexical category.
Another aspect of writing that I focused on was how to transcribe references of other people. Since my major is business, a lot of my work contains interviewing respondents and transcribing them to find the trends and themes. Not only that, we also have to do a lot of research and provide references. When transcribing these interviews, I always have to use the 문어체 style which is a formal way of writing. After a quote, the typical follow-up is “라고 답했다.” With these new rules, I am able to transcribe any interviews. After or before mentioning the quote, I would write my analysis. This skill will be very useful if I have to provide strategic insights to the company and they require evidential proof of consumers.
Apart from writing, I am still watching a lot of videos, reading the news, and having discussions with Vivian. I think it is really nice to watch something Vivian has recommended, as we are able to talk about it during our meetings. Like how we would normally talk about an American show, having discussions in Korean really improves my fluency in casual conversations.
Comments
I also find addressing the difference amongst similar morphemes to be tricky at times, and I found your spacing example interesting. I guess in English, if you were to insert a space in-between a word, most of the time it'd be nonsensical, so that kind of shows a trait of Korean. Also, I've been meaning to find some form of literature/textbook to further improve my Korean. This 서강한국어 쓰기 1 seems very resourceful, and I'll have to check it out.