I got 99 problems and teaching myself Korean is most of them – okay, that’s not really true, and I’m not actually going to list 99 different problems. I don’t want to type that much and you don’t want to read that much – but here are some problems I’ve encountered as a self-taught language learner (as well as some tips for how to deal with these issues)!
1. I have too many different resources for language study.
How do I choose just one? My textbooks from Yonsei, Ewha, and even Klear. The endless supply of webtoons online. The part of the Naver Webtoon app where people post funny snippets from manhwa. My three books of Korean poetry, two compilations of Korean short stories, six books of manhwa. Countless purchased or downloaded TTMIK resources Continue reading →
I have exciting news – I’m now one of the translators for the phenomenal Facebook page Humans of Seoul!
I’m sure you know about Humans of New York, or HONY, as people fondly refer to it. Humans of Seoul is inspired by the original, a page filled with photographs of people frozen in thoughtful moments as they talk about their lives, their dreams, their failures. Humanity is compressed into a picture and some text on millions of people’s newsfeeds, yet it is so, so much more than that. Continue reading →
Back in the summer, I decided that rather than waiting until I had a ‘firm grasp on Korean’ – whatever that means – I was going to start writing short stories and not let my ignorance of vocabulary and grammar or my fear of imperfection stop me. I bought a cute little notebook that fit into my pocket and tried to write at least one little story each day.
My cousin and I went to G-Dragon’s Peaceminusone exhibit the first week that I was back in Korea and that evening, as we sat on the second floor of a cafe near Yonsei University, we decided to create. She’s an amazing artist; I have a passion for writing. Inspired by the creativity we saw at the exhibit, we decided we wanted to not just consume but produce. I wrote, she sketched.
I got to around thirty this past summer. Thirty very short, very simple, flaw-filled stories. Most of them reached perhaps a single tiny page, and a few were scribbled across more than one page. I tried to write with varied characters and plots, and found that it was quite the challenge.
It can be hard enough to write a good story when you have time and space and fluency to wax eloquently, but when you’re confined, you have to be far more creative.
I loved it. I love my little foolish tales, for all their mistakes and awkwardness. Per the suggestion of one of my Korean friends, I made an Instagram account called Green Tea Girl in Korean to post them to, but I all but forgot about it until recently. I’ll start posting them there again, but I’m also going to share them here.
Do you see glaring errors? Little mistakes? Please do let me know. I may never do anything with them besides share them with my readers, but isn’t that all that matters – sharing what I’ve created, however small, with others. I hope you enjoy them, and I hope you feel inspired to do your own creative works.
In my mind, creating is the best way to resolve problems of the heart and mind, because you can take what constitutes the problem and reshape it into something that allows you to confront – or at least acknowledge – the problem itself.
감사합니다, and I hope you enjoy my little stories. I’ll link to them here once I begin posting them.
P.S. The formatting was lost in the Instagram post, but here’s the story titled 훌륭한 형님:
“야, 이놈아 진짜-“ 어둡고 늦은 밤에 남자들 4명이 한강의 강둑에 서 있었다. 그들의 발 밑에 의식을 잃은 남자가 누워 있었다. “이제 이 자식 숨을 쉬지, 뭐….형님, 너무 화가나지마세요.” “내가 이 자식 몇 번 말했는데도!” “형님…” 갑자기 강둑에 누워 있는 남자가 정신을 들었다. 그 형이 즉시 무릎을 꿇었다. “무슨 일이야, 이 자식아. 어디 다친 거 없어? 이 형 얼마나 걱정됐는데…” “형님…” “머-머-뭐?! 내가 뭐?” “형님 보고 싶었어요.” “이 놈아.” 그 형은 다른 남자에게 시켰다. “빨리 차 데리고 와!” “형님…” “왜.” “제가…죽을 것 같아요?” 울음을 참으면서 그 형이 대답했다. “아니. 형이 죽을 때까지 네가 죽지 못해! 알았어?” “예, 형님…” “이 자식아.”
In order to do what you like to do, you have to do ten things that you hate first.
Just because you don’t want to do it doesn’t mean you can avoid doing it – and avoiding doing it might mean you can’t do what you truly want to do. This goes for language study and life in general ㅋㅋ
Lately I’ve been looking for pages to follow that share Korean-related videos, and my favorite is currently Wootso/Goteng. Wootso is on Facebook and Goteng is the YouTube account, but they’re created by the same people. They posted far more on YouTube, but their Facebook shares short, funny clips that are great for procrastinating AND getting a bit of Korean listening practice in.
Some of my personal favorites include Zion.T going to the store…
….that subway strug-life….
….complaining about the way people use social media for birthdays…
…and definitely this video on the differences between having a conversation with a girl vs. having a conversation with a guy.
Even though Wootso joined Facebook only this year, they seem to be getting quite a substantial following. Go ahead and check them out, and procrastinate on!
It’s been a ridiculous amount of time since I posted. Where have I been since then? I went to Korea for two months and studied at Yonsei University again, and then I came back, worked, and endured a semester filled with the turmoil that, well, each new semester seems to bring.
During that time, I started writing and sharing short stories (really, really short short stories written in poor Korean) on Instagram, purchased several more books in Korean, only one of which I have succeeded in finishing (not for lack of ability but for lack of motivation), started a Korean language study club with my friends, and did some serious soul-searching (I didn’t even make a bad pun – that must tell you how serious I am) about what I want to do after I finish undergrad.
Lately, everyone wants to know different things, like
When are you going back to Korea? Wait – you don’t know? YOU SAID THIS WAS YOUR DREAM.
Why do you keep going back to Korea? (Isn’t it time you stopped listening to Gayng-naym Style and chose a real major, Jamie?)
Internship? Internship? Internship?
????????????? Your dream career?
*awkward smiles at gatherings where everyone’s got their partner* So, are you seeing anyone these days?
More ????????
Stahp just stahp 제발
I know my path hasn’t been entirely conventional. Most people wait until junior year to go abroad, and many people go during the summer rather than for a full semester, whereas I went for four months in fall 2014 and two months for summer 2015. And everybody does internships these days, and I haven’t done a single one.
I’ve tried to make sense of my varied interests. Writing, I love creative writing. I’d love to be a published author. I succeeded in finishing Nanowrimo last year WHILE studying abroad and my goal is to clean up that novel with some revisions and start beating on publisher’s doors with the manuscript (figuratively, of course).
Please let me in…
I also love making videos, even though I’m not fantastic at it. I made my high school’s graduation video, and I’ve made a couple short films for my classes while in undergrad. But I am by no means skilled.
I love studying Korean and learning about Korea. And I really love helping others learn, too. I created this blog to do that, and yet I’ve been doing an awful job lately (my last post is from May, seriously?). Time to change that.
I never wanted to make my blog personal. It was supposed to be a place of anonymity, the domain where I wrote about Korean and people who wanted to read about Korean could do so. But when I studied abroad, I opened it up, told some friends, some family. I even shared my post about the temple-stay on Facebook because I was so inspired, and that inspired other people to look into temple-stays.
Perhaps it’s time to be a bit more personal, do a bit more writing, share some videos, and invest myself. And invest in myself. Because I’m not sure what I want to do with Korean Studies, or International Studies, or the Creative Writing Minor I might be adding in my last year of undergrad. But I know what I don’t want to do, and that would be to waste my passion by doing nothing with it.
서울드림 