The end is where we start from.
끝부터 시작한다.
– T.S. Eliot
Another quote that comes to mind goes something like, “When you come to the end, keep going.” So. It may be Monday, the semester may be ending, beginnings and endings may be everywhere we look, but just remember: the end is where we start from.
Translation and all mistakes are mine.
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.
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.
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
“Be strong, because the beginnings to great things are always the hardest.”
“강하라. 모든 위대한 것들의 시작은 항상 가장 힘드니까.”
힘내자.
Encouragement courtesy of AQuoteADay on Twitter.
Nothing will come of nothing. We must dare mighty things.
-William Shakespeare
무(無)에서는 무(無)밖에 나오지 않는다. 고로 우리는 강력한 일을감행해야 한다.
– 윌리엄 셰익스피어
Courtesy of Hwangssabu’s Twitter.
오랜만이다! 잘 지냈어요?
I haven’t written a new post in quite a long time – and it was a long time before that post that I’d last written a post. I really need to get my act together and start actively blogging again. I thought that if I ‘took a break,’ I’d be blogging again in no time – once I had more time.
And yes, college has been busy, life has been crazy, endless midterms and papers are all very awful, but it’s no excuse to ignore what I really love: writing, reading (in English) and studying Korean. And I’ve been ignoring them all far too much.
Something that has come to my attention over the past several months is what my best friend and I like to call ‘speaking in subtitles.’ Continue reading
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
목적 없는 공부는 기억에 해가 될 뿐이며, 머리 속에 들어온 어떤 것도 간직하지 못한다.
– 레오나르도 다 빈치
Leonardo da Vinci
Courtesy of Hwangssabu on Twitter.
You’re probably not surprised that this is what I’m listening to…the whole album is fantastic! Hey, did you know Seungri can speak Japanese? Yeah. In the midst of his busy schedule, he learned a language. And perhaps he needs some work on his English, but at least he’s working on it! You should get back to studying Korean now.
안녕하세요!
Well, between being sick for a week and then being extremely busy, I’ve been too swamped to post anything lately. So what could possibly drive me to write a post?
Jay Park.
Have you heard his latest single? Joah? It’s become my anthem since I bought it on iTunes last Saturday, and I have no regrets about keeping it on repeat along with K.Will’s Love Blossom and Standing Egg’s 사랑한대 ft. Windy. Jay Park’s song came just in time to herald some sunnier days and the hopefully imminent arrival of true spring – not to mention the allure of summer… Continue reading
안녕하세요!
Have you been using Google Translate to figure out if you said something correctly? Or have you been getting lazy and just typing out everything in English, checking it a couple times by translating it back and forth with Google, and then sending off a message to your language partner? Bad idea. Not an awful idea, because Google Translate is definitely helpful. But it’s also dangerous, because it throws a word back at you and you really don’t know if that word means what it’s supposed to mean in the context that you put it in. I’m speaking from experience.
My poor language partner must always feel like this when he reads my Kakaotalk message
Naver’s online dictionary is awesome. Yes, go ahead and use Google Translate to check things if you must (guilty, I use it sometimes, too) but don’t get dependent on it. There are lots of other online resources that work much, much better. Naver Dictionary is a prime example.
I love Naver Dictionary, henceforth titled as Endic (English Dictionary, which is the version I use because hey, English is my native language…although you wouldn’t think it if you actually heard me trying to talk coherently in real life – learning Japanese, Korean, and Spanish has severely messed with my ability to do the words flowing nicely together thing) for many reasons. Here are some of them.
Endic is pretty fantastic. But it is a little tricky to navigate at first, so give it some time. You’ll love it once you do.
감사합니다!
서울드림 