Korean Webtoon Rec: “A Dreaming Girl, A Dreaming Boy” by the Creator of Spirit Fingers

한경찰 작가님이 began a new webtoon, 꿈꾸는 소녀, 소년 at the end of October and has maintained both Spirit Fingers and her new webtoon to the awe of her many Korean readers. Usually the quality of one drops due to the workload, but 스핑 is going strong while her new webtoon is also a top contender, ranking fifth among series that are updated on Tuesdays.

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As always, all I want to do is rave about her artwork. This webtoon is beautiful (although I’ll always be biased toward Spirit Fingers) and it seems to be building a plot just as complex and interesting as 스핑. Currently it has only seven chapters out, so be warned if you’re the type that needs to wait until a series is finished to marathon through it; for now you’ll have to wait patiently for the update each Tuesday. But if you’re already following 스핑, it’s a great mid-week read to tide you over until you can find out what happened to that dear, amazing 우연이 (can you tell how much I want to be best friends with her).

This story involves four middle school students, each of them enduring personal struggles at home while attending school and trying to complete a group project that goes awry. One boy lives with his grandfather in poverty; another is cast down in his wealthy father’s shadow and fights to escape the life that his father wants him to live.

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Look at this. Look at this incredible art that speaks to the feelings of the boy trailing along in his father’s shadow, forced to play soccer to meet his father’s expectations. “I hate soccer…Dad…”

One of the girls constantly suffocates under her mother’s overbearing presence and intervention. The other girl, whose backstory isn’t yet revealed, tries to befriend one of the boys when she recognizes him from a soccer team they had played on several years prior, but she is angrily rebutted. Where will the story go now that they’re all fighting over the group project while dealing with inner turmoil?

It seems like there is potential for love interests to develop later on, but it’s hard to tell at this early stage. 한경찰 작가님이 does an incredible job of weaving many storylines into one plot as in 스핑, so romance or not, this is a webtoon to follow!

“Dreaming Boy, Girl” is my own translation of this new webtoon’s title, although it may pop up on translation sites as something else. As far as I know, there are not yet any English translations but I will update here if I learn of one. As always, please support the webtoon creator by reading on Naver if you can! And follow her Instagram @hedaa2002:

https://www.instagram.com/hedaa2002/

Online Korean news articles on 꿈꾸는 소녀, 소년:

읽어 주셔서 감사합니다!

지금 재생 중:

수란 is back and the world is blessed with her voice.

페북 추천: Learning Korean with Humans of Seoul

This is a bit of shameless self-promotion since I’m a translator for the Humans of Seoul page, but did you know that we also have a page dedicated to dissecting the Korean interviews and explaining intermediate-level Korean? You can find us at Learning Korean with Humans of Seoul. While I contribute, I also love reading the posts my fellows create there. There’s always something new to learn, no matter how much you already know!

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Below the dissection, you can read the entire original interview in both Korean and English (not pictured here).

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Your future is created by what you do today

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Your future is created by what you do today.

미래는 오늘 당신이 하는 걸로 만들어진다.

– Robert Kiyosaki

Mondays are rough. But you make tomorrow through what you do today. Want to improve your language skills? Putting off that quick vocab review until tomorrow isn’t going to make fluency and confidence come any quicker. Language learning and upkeep takes dedication – even a little bit, every day, has an effect that goes a long, long way into your future. 오늘도 화이팅하세요!

Translation by yours truly. All mistakes mine. 

PSA: avoid plateaus at all costs

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There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.

다 끝났다고 생각할 때가 올건데 그때는 시작이다.

– Louis L’Amour | 루이스 라모르

One of the hardest parts of language learning is getting started. The next hardest challenge is when you learn enough to get along. And that’s where it becomes easy to plateau. Easy to subsist on what you know. Easy to not study more vocabulary, not learn the harder and less common grammar points. But that is precisely where you must keep on keeping on. Don’t plateau! Keep moving on and up with your studies! 화이팅!

Translation by yours truly. All mistakes mine. 

Fly birdy fly

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The shell must break before the bird can fly.

껍질이 깨져야 새가 날아갈 수 있다.

– Tennyson | 테니슨

And you have to overcome your fear of speaking a foreign language in front of others so that you can improve. Yeah, that eggshell needs to shatter, and that can be a little traumatic (trust me: I’ve been there/sometimes regress to there). But just remember that you have everything to gain and only a few shards of pride to lose…

Translation by yours truly. All mistakes are mine. 

Can Do, Will Do

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If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

우리 모두 할 수 있는 일을 해낸다면, 우리 자신이 가장 놀라게 될 것이다.

–  Thomas Edison | 토마스 에디슨

 I wish someone would tell me this every day as I continue to flounder through mountains of assignments and projects for work and translation projects and trying to write a book and do NaNoWriMo…and improve my Korean. Always trying to improve my Korean abilities.
We’re capable, you say, Mr. Edison? Okay then. Let’s get out there and do those things.
Translation courtesy of Naver

시간을 만들어서 해라

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시간이 있어서 하나요? 시간을 만들어서 하는거죠.

Do you do things because you have time? You make time to do things.

– Humans of Seoul

I tend to complain about being to busy to do things. Am I really busy? Yes, yes I am. But there are some things that are important enough that I just have to make the time for them, one way or another. Examples, you ask? Relationships. Language learning. Relationships with foreign languages. Foreign languages in relationships. Ha! See what I did there…

Quote and original translation can be found here, at Humans of Seoul. While I translate for HoS, I did not have the honor of personally translating the original post. I took the liberty of altering the translation for the sake of clarity here, since I removed the rest of the interview and context. 

Story time: Gangnam Style Clubbing

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안녕하세요!

It’s time for round two of story-telling. Let’s get this throwback Thursday rolling. For this story, I want to take it back to fall 2014, when I went clubbing for the first and last time. It started with a persuasive conversation with people who loved clubbing and knew me too well at the time.

“We’re going clubbing – you have to come.”

“No thanks.”

“Look, Taeyang is going to perform there tonight – you know Taeyang, right? Isn’t he in that boy band you listen to?”  Continue reading

너도 상상했던 너가 될거야

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너도 상상했던 너가 될거야.

You’ll become the you that you dreamed of, too.

– lyrics from Loco’s song, You Too | 로꼬의 노래 ‘너도’ 가사

Sometimes we all just need a bit of encouragement from those who have ‘made it’ – those who have achieved their dreams already.

 

Translation credit to ilyricsbuzz

Korean Reading Practice: College Diary 대학일기 Webtoon Review

Looking for reading practice in Korean? A friend introduced me to my latest Naver webtoon obsession. 대학일기 or College Diary is an adorable, easy-to-read look at the daily life of a college student. It’s witty and poignant, clearly drawing on the writer’s personal experiences and causing readers to comment Continue reading