한국어 - WEEK 3 Korean 1 (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)

The book I am using is 한국어1 which is the Korean for Foreigners course book of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. This is not a Korean language learning program and I am no teacher. This is a personalized journal of my Korean language journey, and the target audience would be other students of Korean, beginners if possible. Let’s start! But before we do please watch the video after or while reading, it’s meant to complement the content of this blog article. If you watch just the video and not read, you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about. The book has 35 chapters. I only study Monday to Friday, two days each for lessons 1 - 15 and three days each for lessons 16 - 35 which means it will take us 90 days or 18 weeks to finish the whole book. Target end date is February 3, 2012.

MONDAY: Chapter Six - 실레합니다

After listening to the main dialogue what I did was go through the grammar section at once and memorize the new words. We have two grammar points today. First would be 뭐가. We learned during the first week that “What” is 무엇이 which is composed of the question word for what and the subject particle. The shortcut is shorter. Okay, that was a stupid sentence. Hahaha. We love shortcuts! 무엇 becomes 뭐 and now you could not use the subject particle 이 because the word now ends with a vowel. So, you use 가 and you end up with뭐가.

TUESDAY: Chapter Six - 실레합니다

Today was reserved mostly for exercises. I already scanned the illustrations for location words yesterday but today I got to practice them through the video and through the exercises that followed. If you have not seen the video, here is a rundown of the location words: 위 above/on, 아래 below/under, 뒤 at the back, 앞 in front, 옆 next to, 안 inside, 밖 outside, 가운데 in the middle/between, 왼쪽 left, 오른쪽 right. Are these accurate? Well, you know how location words could be vague at times so I just assumed based on the pictures. Suffice it to say that at least now I have an idea on my mind, and I would be able to use those mental images once I need to say the location of something in Korean! The exercises would have been easy had the vocabulary been indicated on the page itself, but I had to refer to the vocabulary section at the back of the book because new vocabulary has been introduced! The listening exercise was fun though because the pictures were labeled accordingly and I was able to understand most! Achievement!

WEDNESDAY: Chapter Seven -모릅니다

New lesson! The new expression is “I don’t know” (모릅니다), very handy specially when you are just starting, or if you are not in the mood to talk! Haha. I understood the dialogue. Two friends are talking and the girl is asking if the boy has brothers and sisters. He has one each, and then the girl suddenly asks if the little brother has a girlfriend, which leads the boy to say the expression in the title. Why would she even ask that? Invasion of privacy! Anyway there is one word I did not understand and it is: 고등학생 which according to the glossary means “high school student”. So there!

THURSDAY: Chapter Seven -모릅니다

There are just two grammar points for this lesson The first one has something to do with the indirect object, the recipient of the action, just add the particle -한테 to whoever it is that is the recipient of your action and you are good to go, but this is not really what the chapter says. I just learned this before. For now, what the book states as its function is to denote possession when coupled with 있다. Translation please? Just mention the person, add that particle, then the thing being talked about, and that verb in its conjugation depending if you are asking or stating a fact. Example! Barrack Obama 한테 연필 있습니까 is “Does Barrack Obama have a pencil?” 저한테 이사람 연필 있습니다 is “I have this person’s pencil.” If you translate it word per word it would sound something like “To me this person pencil there is” which sounds like Yoda speech fail but that’s how it is, guys. Our second grammar point is the particle -하고 which is used to list down a series of people or names or objects, whatever you could think of. So if you want to say “I have a pencil and a book” you attach the particle at the end of pencil and attach the subject particle at the end of book before ending it all with the verb: 저한테 연필하고 책이 있습니다.

FRIDAY: Chapter Eight - 몇 개 있습니까?

Lesson Eight is all about counting! First, let’s tackle the two new words that we could attach in front of nouns to ask questions. 몇 means “How many” and sorry but I have to correct myself, you could not attach this directly to the noun. You have to use a counter, which is common in Asian languages. The most common in Korean is 개 which is a counter for things. Anyway, the numbers one to four behave weirdly when attached to counters. 하나 becomes 한losing the 아 while the other three lose their last letters. Examples: 한 개, 두 개, 세 개, 네 개. The other one is 무슨 “what type/which” so you attach this in front of a noun if you want a clearer picture of what the noun is, in short, you are asking the other person to specify it for you. 무슨 책입니까? (Which/what type of book is it?). “It is a Korean language book” 한국어책입니다.

See you next weekend! For next week I would be covering the second half of lesson eight until lesson ten. We can do this guys! AJA! The goal is to pass the lowest level of TOPIK in April 2012! =)