The Things I Have Been Doing Which May Or May Not Have Helped in Learning Korean.

(The following post is part farcical and part boring life elaborated into unnecessary lengthiness, coupled with a smidgen of sleep deprivation.)

I don’t know if I should apologize for an absence, because I don’t believe I have a readership to disappoint with untimeliness. Ha! *rebellion* So, I have been busy with various things, in which I shall explain in a whimsical manner because serious is overrated.

 

For starters, preparing itinerary for Korea and Japan! I will be going to these two places, later this year! Kansai with my kazoku (가족) and one month later to Seoul my predestined 고향 with a friend, despite having never gotten used to the spicy and sour food of Korea. I’m worried because I may be putting these two places too high up on my pedestal of expectations. And you know what about expectations? Root of heartache. But I shan’t think too much about things I can’t control, because procrastination comes first.

I’m also worried about whether to get Gardasil vaccination. It’s a vaccine to prevent 2 strains of HPV virus that may lead to cervical cancer. Which is spread through sexual activity. It’s a highly controversial drug, and I’ve read good and bad things about it. I have less than a year to decide because that’s when the government won’t subsidise it anymore, and when I stop being 26. Growing up sucks. As if figuring out life isn’t hard enough, strangers are pushing insurance and health packages down my throat ‘BEFORE YOU REGRET IT AND IT’S TOO LATE, GET THIS’. People really capitalize on fear. Fear drives people to desperate measures and fork out incredible amounts for insurance, vaccination, horror movies, haunted houses, kidnapping.. but I digress. Geez, I barely learnt how to crawl and you’re telling me to fly!

걷지도 못하면서 날려고 한다

歩きも出来ず　飛んでみる。

Trying to fly before you can even walk.               

걷다 – walk　歩く

못하다 – unable, cannot, can’t　できない

날다 – fly　飛ぶ

Next, I’m also trying to read the Hello Wedding naver novel. And hello, it isn’t easy. I feel seriously inadequate reading it because I get stuck at say, every 2 seconds. Naver is my best friend, and Daum is my older brother whom I can kinda rely on and sometimes even Google Translate when I want his irrelevant take on things. Together, we form a team of the Nerd and the Antisocial 2.0! I printed 제1화 out, carried all over to work and home, bus and train, to my 주방 dinner table and to my bed. It’s been dog earred, folded it all over, highlighted, written on it, searched a million entries (a slight exaggeration). I ignore the world and avoid eye contact all because of you, Chapter 1. I’ve pored through again and again, the text that doesn’t make sense, over and over till it does. And then the sense of feeling stupid washes over me because I had been interpreting stuff wrong. If I learnt anything, feeling stupid is critical in the process in learning something new. Feeling dumb and humiliated motivate you to move PAST the ignorant stage so you remember better.

[Language tip! Remember those embarrassing times when you said something really foolish and got laughed at, and this memory never leaves you? To remember something really well at your own expense, go out and translate something wrong and publish it to the world. When the 40th person corrects you, you’ll remember it well.]

Also I’m reading several webtoons at once. Several because I’m hardcore like that (and because it’s easier and it has large pictures). Because I have commitment issues, I prefer to do the quantity over depth thing, you know. cover more ground. I have been reading more 2011 Horror Short stories because.. it’s horror and I love it. Also I found another semi horror webtoon ‘A good day to study’ 공부하기 좋은 날. Omnibus webtoon. Have you wondered what Omnibus meant? I did. Man. I always thought it was Omniverse (lit – multiple universe). Turns out, it’s a film term, to mean several short stories, linked by a general common theme. So ombnibus-ly in this context, is a webtoon with a collection of short toons with the common theme of studying, stress, school, horrible people, and suicide. If you’re familiar with korean societal issues and recent news, you’ll see suicide of teens and students aren’t uncommon. There is another webtoon with that similar theme too, I’ve previously reviewed  – 기기귀귀 (and I STILL think it’s creaking noises. Nope, it’s 奇奇怪怪. It’s similar because our protagonist is a bullied boy who feels like Raito with his death note because he has found a way to murder others students by hanging people’s portraits. Really, that’s the gist of that story.

Thinking. Yes thinking. I think my brain is a flood gate that switches on the minute I wake up. I think about things like ‘why do I think aloud in a language all the time?’ That’s stereotypical. I mean, in films, people think aloud in their heads in their voice and accent, in the language they speak. I wonder if watching those movies someone subconsciously influence me to think in a language and in my own voice too? Wouldn’t it be equally possible to think in terms of colours, music, numbers and other languages? I try to monitor my thoughts to see if I can think of concepts without actually thinking in words, but of course, the moment I’m aware of trying to do said mental action, my brain has announced and alerted the rest of my consciousness, which renders this subconscious stealthy surveillance experiment on on my cognitive process completely futile. This is probably why people do mental experiments on others.

Rap. Oh really. it’s an activity I do. Calms me down. Doing repetitive stuff, even if your brain is familiar with it triggers some kind of a stress relief agent. Typically, I move from remembering set phrases, movie scripts, korean rap lyrics, and recite them back when I don’t want my brain to atrophy (when I’m walking, peeing, waiting for people, bathing). Currently, I’m trying to memorize this unreasonable Busan rap music ‘Eh Heh’ by the unreasonably fast Simon D. I’ve gotten the whole first chunk till the chorus down pat.

Translating. 

Pinning. I don’t pine for people, I pin for myself. Ohloldidyouspotmyreallybadpin? 헉, i mean, can you really help it if you’re addicted to aesthetics? No. Even if it’s at the cost of holding in pee for 2 hours just to pin pin pin pin pin pin pin pin pin pin..