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Must-Know Korean Words from CHUNG HA - Gotta Go (청하 12시)
- 말투 it’s a way of speaking 저 사람 말투가 건방져 that person’s way of speaking is arrogant
- 아쉬워 It’s a shame 아쉽다 such a shame; such a bummer
- 어떡해 what should I do?
- 벌써 already 벌써 왔어? You came already?
- 솔직히 honestly 솔직히 나 개 싫어 Honestly I don’t like him
I went to a Korean Resturant called "Zaam" today. It's like the Korean Chipotle and it has Bibimbap, ramen and bubble tea. I really like the place because the price is reasonable and the taste is really good.
Recently, BLACKPINK released a new song called "Kill this love".
I studied the lyrics and tried to learn the song.
[Verse 1: Jennie]
천사 같은 "hi" 끝엔 악마 같은 "bye"
매번 미칠듯한 high 뒤엔 뱉어야 하는 price
이건 답이 없는 test
매번 속더라도 yes
딱한 감정의 노예
얼어 죽을 사랑해
[Verse 2: Lisa]
Here I come kickin' the door, uh
가장 독한 걸로 줘, uh
뻔하디 뻔한 그 love
더 내놔봐 give me some more
알아서 매달려 벼랑 끝에
한마디면 또 like 헤벌레 해
그 따뜻한 떨림이 새빨간 설렘이
마치 heaven 같겠지만
You might not get in it
[Pre-Chorus: Jisoo & Rosé]
Look at me, look at you
누가 더 아플까
You smart 누가 you are
두 눈에 피눈물 흐르게 된다면
So sorry 누가 you are
나 어떡해 나약한 날 견딜 수 없어
애써 두 눈을 가린 채
사랑의 숨통을 끊어야겠어
[Chorus: All, Lisa, Jennie]
Let's kill this love!
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Rum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum
Let's kill this love!
Rum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum
Given a research grant to conduct of linguistic study of Turkish, I would focus upon the (relatively) recent transition from New Ottoman Turkish into what is known as Modern Turkish. This occurred around 1928, with the President of Turkey, Atatürk, promoting a nationalistic agenda advocating a separation from traditional Arabic culture. While this change did not have an impact upon the phonetics of Turkish (with the exception that the Latin alphabet characters showed more clearly what was already being pronounced), it did have a large impact upon word choice and vocabulary. Indeed, the Turkish Language Society (founded 1932) was responsible for replacing many words of Persian or Arabic origin with those of other Turkish dialects. In some instances, new words entirely were created from old stems and roots. Investigating how these old morphemes were combined in such a way as to create new words would be an interesting aspect of my linguistic study.
Another part of my analysis may be the origin of Turkish, particularly its relationship with Arabic and Persian, especially in regard to the language reforms of the 1930’s. During this time, Atatürk and his associates advocated for the Sun-Language Theory, a historically inaccurate theory asserting that Turkish is the mother of all languages. This theory was used as an excuse to retain some of the words and phrases in Turkish (like “Merhaba”) for which it might be difficult to find a non-Arabic replacement. While the Sun-Theory is inaccurate, it will still be worthwhile to investigate the similarities in morphemes between Turkish and other languages, as well as how these shared morphemes have changed phonetically over time.
Post your first bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities
In the first two weeks of Korean, I learned vocabulary words for various personality traits and how to use them in a sentence when describing my "ideal type". I thought this activity was very fun because it not only required me to learn the vocab words, but it also challenged me to use those new words when describing people.
In one activity, we went around the room describing some people in our lives and what personality trait we associate with them. For me, I shared that my sister is extroverted (활발한), my mom as optimistic (낙천적인), and myself as creative (창의적인). We also learned that, based on the way we say the characteristic, the conjugation at the end changes. For example:
When I say that my sister is extroverted, there are two ways of saying the sentence:
1. Joy is extroverted (조이는 활발해요)
2. Joy is an extroverted person (조이는 활발한 사람이에요)
The adjective could either be accompanied with 해 if it ends in 한, or it could be accompanied with 인 if it ends in 이.
I found that it was difficult for me to go from this step to describing my ideal type. It was challenging to keep up with these changes, but also having to then form sentences was a struggle. However, I enjoyed learning about how to use many of the vocab words. It was a good problem to have.
- First Cultural Post: What are your cultural learning goals for this semester?
- Which one or two topics will you explore during the course of the semester?
- How do you expect to explore these topics?
- What do you hope to learn through your exploration of these topics?
My cultural learning goals for this semester are to grow my vocabulary and speaking knowledge.
I think it is one thing to know what a word means or how to say a phrase in Korean. However, it is another to learn how to actually use the word. The word can be conjugated to fit the sentence, and learning more of these vocab words/ phrases and how to use it naturally is one of my cultural goals. I think by knowing how to correctly use a word in a normal conversation, I will be more confident in using them regularly.
I hope to explore this topic by practicing with my learning partner: both learning the new words as well as using them in sentences. I think that it is nice that I have other students in my class because I get to also practice with them. I think that the first thing for advancing in a new language is using the language in more settings with different people. I believe that it helps build confidence and assurance that you are able to grasp the language enough to have conversations with others. In general, I am comfortable using Korean with my family and Korean elders, but I am not fully comfortable using it with people who are the same age as me/ are not Korean speakers.
I grew up always associating Korean with hierarchy, and this has led me to only use Korean when I am in Korean hierarchical settings. However, I think it will also be fun to branch out and learn more casual Korean that I could use with a friend my age.
I think that through learning more vocabulary and phrases and how to correctly use them, I will change my perception on Korean. I think that my perspective currently is that Korean is only a "sometimes" language to use based on the setting. However, I want to be more open with my language use. I want to say a Korean word and explain what it means to my non-Korean speaking friends. I want to be able to comfortably speak in Korean with other Korean speakers my age. I want to learn how to be more willing to speak the language in a larger variety of settings.
I would like to investigate the history of Korean. Most languages have very similar sister languages and clear parent languages, but Korean seems to be a language isolate. I am very interested in learning more about the way the language came about and was formed. Furthermore, I would like to learn more about the origin of imnida (입니다). Even though I am able to speak three other languages, German, English, and Spanish, I have never seen a sentence component that is used in almost every single sentence. Every language has recurring themes and words need to be conjugated which might lead to similar sentence structures, but none of the ones I have seen so far are recurring as often and are as easily spottable as imnida (입니다). Lastly, I would investigate morphemes in Korean. There have been multiple occurences of me asking my tutor whether two similar word endings were related, but they were not. Being able to spot recurring partials would help me to better understand the meaning of some words, therefore, I would like to learn more about recurring partials, especially in comparison to insignificant recurrence.
I would go about investigating all of these interesting aspects of Korean by becoming more fluent in the language. This would help me to increase my understanding of the language and the culture. I would then study old Korean artifacts that hopefully shed some light on the origin of the language and even some patterns, like imnida (입니다). Lastly, I would like to conduct in-person research by living in a Korean town, interviewing people, and learning more about the language from them.
The song ‘IDOL’ by the K-Pop band BTS was released on August 24, 2018. It features different traditional Korean instruments and is inspired by the Korean genre pansori as well as John Woo’s move Face/Off. According to Rolling Stone India, the song combines the Korean instrument “gakgung, with African rhythms, trap rap and electronica.” This leads to the global sound that is culturally rich and diverse. A lot is going in the music video, with different bright colors, animations and dancing. The official music video broke multiple records on YouTube, including the most viewed music video during the first 24 hours and the fastest music video to have 100 million views in 2018.
In this cultural post, I will discuss a bit about the Maltese National Anthem: L-Innu Malti [The Hymn of Malta]. The national anthem dates back to 1923 when it was first performed and the song was declared the Maltese national anthem in 1945. The national anthem is strongly religious, referencing the Catholic God. In a sense, it serves as a prayer uniting the people of Malta under a common faith. In English, the poem translates to:
Guard her, O Lord, as ever Thou has guarded,
This Motherland so dear whose name we bear:
Keep her in mind, whom Thou hast made so fair.
May he rules, for wisdom be regarded,
In master mercy, strength in man increase:
Confirm us all, in unity and peace.
The lyrics are written by Dun Karm Psalia, a well-known figure in Malta for a number of accomplishments. Psalia held positions as a priest, assistant director of the National Library, lexicographer for the official English-Maltese dictionary, and Commander of Order of the British Empire. Additionally, he was a distinguished writer in Italian culture. Psalia resided in Valletta, Malta from 1910 to 1936 and is also famously known for helping to establish Maltese as an official language of Malta in 1934. As I have discussed in previous reflections, Italian and English are both widely spoken on the islands, but the Maltese language represents the unique cultural blend that exists in Maltese society.
Sound Link [left column]: http://www.nationalanthems.info/mt.htm
During this period of my Maltese study, I chose to work on my ability to read full sentences and phrases with my language partner, Karen. The pronunciation of full sentences continues to be a challenge for me, but I am getting better at eliminating my English and Italian-bias in pronunciation. I am still a bit slow to recall some of the sounds, but my accuracy seems to be increasing. In order to work on this skill, I asked Karen if we could practice saying the famous poem that I previously analyzed in Cultural Post #3: Il Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro. Karen and I both looked at the text, then line by line I would repeat after her. The task was more difficult than I had anticipated because the language was written in Medieval Maltese. She told me that it is important to recognize that this text would not be an entirely good example of Maltese grammar because a lot of the style is outdated. She compared the reading of this text to a foreigner reading Shakesphere.
Although the task was really challenging, I enjoyed the practice of spending 50 full minutes reading Maltese writing. I have repeatedly mentioned that poetry has been very useful for me to pick up vocabulary and I have started to notice many central poetry themes in Maltese literature. For example, it seems as if geography and the sea play important roles in many famous pieces. Malta has a rich history of being built up by various conquerors over time and its place as an island in the Mediterranean sea has significantly shaped the development of the society. Studying poetry has been a valuable tool for understanding the perspectives of native Maltese people and accumulating vocabulary sets on relevant topics.
In addition to reading the poem, Karen and I continued to work through a chapter in my Maltese textbook. Each chapter is formatted as a new grammar topic, so we discussed some of the concepts and read through the example phrases together. Moving forward, I would like to shift my focus on practicing writing sentences in Maltese.
This cultural post focuses on Malta's role as a top film-making destination for many Hollywood movies. The historic style of the architecture and beautiful, aquamarine waters serve as an ideal backdrop to a number of famous scenes. The website Visit Malta posted a mini-podcast series highlighting landmarks and geographic features filmmakers capitalize on when traveling to the country. In this post, I will recap some of the most interesting facts I learned!
Beginning with the Island of Camino, there are three primary features that have been captured in a number of movies: The Blue Lagoon, St. Mary's Tower, and the Santa Maria cave system. During my time in Malta, I recall going on a boat tour in which I actually got to see many of these features. The Blue Lagoon, my personal favorite spot in Malta, was most notably featured in Troy (starring Brad Pitt) and Swept Away (featuring Madonna). The crystal waters and delicate, sandy beach was used to create a sense of luxury and seclusion in Swept Away and the rocky entrance to the island was used as a backdrop in Troy. Additionally, St. Mary's Tower and elaborate cave system play an important role in the 2002 film Count of Monte Cristo.
Next, the origin of Popeye Village is an extremely interesting story. In 1980, Popeye Village was constructed entirely from scratch for the film Popeye the Sailor Man featuring Robin Williams. A construction crew spent 7 months building the fictional village that included a church, tavern, post office, school, and more. The village is located in Anchor Bay, Malta, which was also perfect for shooting nautical scenes. After the filming ended, the village was preserved and redeveloped as a theme park for kids and families. Activities have been added to the village and a boat departs every hour for tourists to visit. For both domestic people and tourists, the village is an extremely popular place to go.
The third movie destination worth mentioning is Fort Ricasoli, which has been preserved incredibly well since its historic origins. Originally, the fort was built by the Knights of Malta, in order to protect the harbor against foreign naval attacks. The fort is not open to the public but is repeatedly used to build historical Greco-Roman styled movie sets. The location is ideal because it is secluded, very large, and historically-intact. In addition to utilizing The Blue Lagoon of Camino, the production of Troy primarily took place in Fort Ricasoli. The entire space served as a foundation for the 10-acre city that was built for the production. Maltese locals worked with the producers and director throughout the process to accommodate the needs of the movie. In the final scene of the movie, Troy is burnt down in a series of explosions, so Fort Ricasoli was a perfectly-contained space to carry out these effects. Similarly, the producers of Gladiator used the Fort for filming. Most notably, the Fort space was used to construct the Roman Coliseum featured in the final scene. The coliseum constructed was approximately 1/3 the size of the real one and digital animation was used to enhance the structure during editing. Two other famous movies that were shot at Fort Ricasoli include Agora, a historical drama depicting the Roman Empire's Alexandria, and Cut Throat Island which utilized the baroque-style entryway to the fort.
The podcast series details the history of 9 major film locations in Malta, although this post only highlights 3 of my favorite from the series. For anyone considering visiting Malta, I highly recommend listening to this mini-series on the Visit Malta website so that you can appreciate the attractions when you get there! Without researching the role of the film-making industry in Malta ahead of time, there is a lot that one might miss out on. Below are a couple of pictures I took of famous film locations when I traveled to Camino Island.
Podcast Link: https://www.visitmalta.com/en/podcast-movie-locations
This cultural post is dedicated to exploring the impact of global climate change on Malta. I was inspired to research the challenges Maltese locals are facing, as a result of global climate change, after reading a poem entitled Tal-ġelati. The poem was written by a well-known literature professor at the University of Malta, Adrian Grima, and published in an edition of Euro Abstracts. His poem is inspired by this central topic of the journal edition: The heat is on: the race to find innovative solutions to climate change. Some of the most critical implications of climate change in the Mediterranean include intense, frequent heat waves, coastal flooding, water scarcity, extreme weather events, and changes in biodiversity. This poem utilizes repetition of il-baħar [the sea] to emphasize the changes it is experiencing. Considering Malta is made up of islands, warming and rising sea conditions could have a devastating impact on society. Grima also creates a list of things Maltese children can no longer do because of the extreme heat. He says, mhux jgħoddsu [no diving], mhux jibnu l-kastelli u jħaffru l-passaġġi [no building castles and digging paths], and m’hawnx tal-ġelati [there is no ice cream]. Malta is most admired for its beautiful geography and Mediterranean warmth, but climate change poses an extreme threat to this critical aspect of the culture. I found the end of the poem very meaningful because it seemed to suggest to me the way in which we blame climate change on nature. The sea is described as bla ndiema [without repentance] and blah ħniena [ruthless] as if there is an outside force controlling these changes, rather than ourselves.
TAL-ĠELATI
Il-baħar qed jogħla, qed jibla’ r-ramliet,
fejn bejtu minn dejjem il-fkieren
li jieklu mill-bram bil-mijiet.
Il-baħar qed jisħon, qed jikber, u miegħu
il-bram qed jiżdied;
ifekren bla sabar fejn qabel kont tara kif folla
tinvadi bla ħniena l-bajjiet.
It-tfal mhux qed jgħumu,
mhux jgħoddsu bil-flippers,
mhux jibnu l-kastelli u jħaffru l-passaġġi
li jċedu bħas-silġ taħt in-nar;
mhux jiġu t-turisti, bil-ġilda ġa roża,
bl-umbrella tal-kiri, bit-tifel jippoża,
bis-sunblock jiddewweb
taħt xemx tarmi r-raġġ’ ultra vjola.
U m’hawnx tal-ġelati.
Qed jarma, qed jgħidu,
faċċata tal-bieb ta’ l-iskola,
Il-baħar bla ndiema,
bla ħniena,
qed jogħla.
I continued my research of the subject on the Times of Malta website. I found an article entitled Malta needs to prepare for climate change, experts say, written by Philip Leone Ganado in October 2018. The problems associated with climate change could be detrimental to Malta for a number of reasons. First, degradation to the Mediterranean ecosystem would have severe impacts on the Maltese economy, which relies heavily upon tourism and aquaculture. Decreased biodiversity in native species would have a considerable impact on Malta. Next, the domestic people of Malta face the risk of extreme heat and weather patterns. Positioned in the Mediterranean, Malta is already prone to high temperatures, so the small .5-degree movements can be devastating. Advocates for addressing the problem insist that cleaner energy (reduction in carbon emissions) is the most valuable solution.
A climatologist from the University of Malta states, "“Even if statistically our size means our impact is small, we could have a major impact in terms of influence,” he said. “If we make the changes we need, the impact is not just the emissions we release, but the image we give to the world.” Although Malta's contribution alone is not enough to alter global climate change, acknowledgement and support towards the cause can inspire larger changes in the EU, resulting in a global movement. On a local level, techniques such as green infrastructure, coastal defenses, more efficient buildings, and secured water supplies have all been considered by governmental strategists. In reality, though, Malta has missed its EU emission targets and struggled to impose change.
Sources:
In this post, I will discuss what it is like to experience Christmas in Malta. The people of Malta are primarily Roman Catholic, therefore the holiday is widely celebrated on the islands and very important to the culture. Similar to cities in Italy, the islands are streamed with Christmas lights and decorated for the holiday. There is Christmas caroling, church festivities celebrating religious events leading up to the birth of Jesus, and extravagant displays. In addition, Christmas markets have become increasingly popular during December. Malta Artisan Markets, launched in 2011, puts together one of the largest Christmas-themes venues of all the market groups who offer seasonal products from local craftspeople, small business-owners, producers. Two of the most well-known Christmas displays are located in The Pjazza Tigne Market in Sliema and Mellieħ's Popeye Village, which are both converted into beautiful winter wonderlands for the holiday. Popeye Village is a center for celebrating many Maltese holidays but is particularly known for its annual pantomime comedy at the Manoel Theater during Christmas time.
The many churches of Malta also play a critical role in celebrating Christmas in Malta. On Christmas Eve, most families choose to attend the Midnight Mass Service. Families often attend the Christmas markets and festivities together, then head over to church. Immediately following the midnight mass, it is also a tradition to enjoy an early Christmas breakfast together. The churches are decorated to honor the nativity story and strung with Christmas lights. Elaborate nativity cribs, called il-Presepju in Maltese, are featured at the church and a figure of baby Jesus is displayed at the altar during midnight mass. One of the largest ceremonies is held at St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta.
Christmas Day is a much more intimate event where families come together to enjoy a large Christmas lunch. Traditionally, Christmas lunch consisted of a casserole containing potatoes, vegetables, and a chicken. More recently, modern families have transitioned to consuming a roast, followed by many desserts. These desserts include a hot chestnut and cocoa soup [Imbuljuta tal-Qastan],date-filled pastries [imqaret], bread pudding, and Italian sweet loaf bread [panettone].
Sources:
https://www.visitmalta.com/en/christmas
https://www.maltauncovered.com/culture/christmas-new-year-malta/
Every syllable in Vietnamese is written separately. It is also mostly a monosyllabic language. There are words that are multisyllable as well where separate words are combined to make one word. For example, mắt (face) trời (sky) meaning sun. Sometimes though, a word can contain a syllable that isn't able to stand on its own. For example, the na in nết na (be well behaved) cannot occur alone. Nết on its own could mean trait. I would probably want to study these syllables with no meaning on its own to figure out its root origin and to see if these syllables actually have an obscure root meaning. I think I would probably start my research by looking up data on Sino-Vietnamese and the old writing script chữ nôm. My theory would be that the words that aren’t monosyllabic and have a syllable that isn't a word on its own are actually borrowed words. If this theory holds true than I would want to see whether the original Vietnamese words (words that weren't borrowed) are more similar to other Austroasiatic Mon-Khmer languages since there's been some debate on whether Vietnamese actually belongs in that group. Additionally, I would want to research from that whether there is one Vietnamese dialect that is closer to original Vietnamese. For example, if there's a dialect that uses less borrowed words and how that came to be. Family language would then obviously appear in my work. Other than that, disciplinary perspectives and phonetic inventory would also occur. Disciplinary perspectives in the sense that I would have to look at multiple disciplines to trace how original Vietnamese developed and phonetic inventory in how dialectal variation closely relates to original Vietnamese.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00437956.1963.11659787
I recently came across an interview of Miss International Hương Giang. After doing some research on her, I realized that she's actually Miss International for the transgender beauty pageant. She got her sex changed in Thailand before becoming a decently famous singer in Vietnam. It was fascinating for me to learn about a transgender singer who was able to make it onto the mainstream market, especially since she is known to actively promote LGBTQ rights. In her interview, she talked about her difficulties in coming out to her parents as the only son in the family since carrying on the family bloodline is traditionally very important. She also discussed how foreign the idea of homosexuality is to Vietnamese people; many people still think it's something that can be "cured" and that it is a negative product of contact with the Western world. It was fascinating to hear her take on where Vietnam, as a country, is at on the issue of LGBTQ rights.
I recently read a summary of some of the most famous Vietnamese fables. The one I found most amusing was Vietnam's creation myth. The myth states that Vietnamese people are descendants of a dragon (father) and a celestial being/goddess (mother). Since they are not of the same "species" they couldn't live together. Therefore, after giving birth, the mother took 50 of her children to live in the sky and the father took 50 children to live in the sea. This is used to explain why there are so many tribes in Vietnam (approximately 54) and how the tribes are able to live equally and peacefully until today. It was fun for me to read and compare to other creation myths I've read about. For example, Korea's is that they are descendants of a god and a bear and Japan's is that they are descendants of the sun goddess.
https://www.lalung.vn/giai-tri/cac-truyen-thuyet-hay-nhat-cua-viet-nam-1925
Before Spring break, my language partner and I agreed to continue dictation practice, but we did not discuss what else we will be doing so, my language partner and I spent a little bit of time discussing our trajectory for the rest of the semester during the first week back. We agreed to do situational practice. For example, talking to the doctor about an illness. Additionally, we decided to break the household good vocabulary into rooms. Lastly, we decided to continue with learning proverbs.
Before starting the situational practice, I expected it to be really difficult and useful. I figured that it would be good practice for changing my personal form of address, and learning vocabulary. I still find it awkward sometimes addressing myself to strangers. However, when we actually started, it was too easy and each situation only took about 2-3 minutes. I realized that this wasn't the right exercise for me. After trying 2-3 practice situations, we decided that it was best to spend the time doing something else.
Other than that, we also spent some time discussing marriage values in Vietnam and comparing it to the US. This was an interesting topic for me because during Spring break I had watched a Vietnamese talk show about marriage and found that some of the things that were said didn't match my conception of Vietnam. For example, one of the ladies said (in Vietnamese) she "decided to play a game…the single mom game." I thought this was a weird thing to say, since being a single mom is hard, especially in Asia. Divorce is still largely frowned upon and blamed on the women. Being single is also considered a bad thing for women as demonstrated by the term "leftover women." Discussing the topic with my language partner was really informative and gave me a better understanding of the thinking in Vietnam.
We haven’t started the dictation practice or learning proverbs yet. I am hoping to focus on those two things for the next two weeks. Additionally, I want to spend some time talking about my final presentation topic with my language partner.
I attached a screenshot of a playful conversation with my mother after I learned about personality words in Korean. I said in a full sentence that my mother is a stubborn person, and my mom jokingly was shocked and said my father is more stubborn. I agreed with her, and she corrected my spelling afterwards.
