한국어 - WEEK 6 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. Let’s start! 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 Thirteen - 수영을 잘 해요?

We forgot a certain rule last week. It is when you add a syllable to make the verb more polite. You could add it to formal and polite conjugations to refer to someone that you revere. For example, to go which is 가다 is 갑니다in formal conjugation and 가요 in polite conjugation. Add ~시 to make them seem more polite than they already are so that they become 가십니다 and 가세요 respectively. There are changes in vowel sounds as you have seen but the ssshhh sound is ever present.

TUESDAY: Chapter Fourteen -어제 뭘 했어요?

It’s about time to learn the past tense and the only thing you have to remember is that tense SSSSSS sound to add to your stem before you attach the ending, whether it is polite or formal. Let’s take to again as an example: 갔습니다 for formal and 갔어요 for polite. For those whose stems end in consonant sounds you usually add the matching vowel sound before the SSSSS. To eat is 먹다 and you could not add the SSSS sound to the k sound of this verb’s stem ending. We don’t like consonants to clash. This is so not Russian or German. So you add a vowel sound, which match the vowel of the stem, in this case it is 먹었어요 which means “ate”.

WEDNESDAY: Chapter Fourteen – 어제 뭘 했어요?

What about those verbs that have two or more syllables and the last syllable of the stem is an 으 sound? It’s simple in that you only choose between an 아 sound or an 어sound. For first syllable stems ending with an 아 sound you end it also with that which turns 아프다 into 아파요. For everything else, end it with an 어 sound. 예쁘다 “to be beautiful” becomes 예뻐요 and 기쁘다 whose meaning I am still to discover becomes 기뻐요.

THURSDAY: Chapter Fifteen -얼마에요?

We’ve learned that ~한테 is attached to the noun to which/whom the action is done, in short, indirect object, “to whom”. What if you want to turn it around and say “from whom”? You just add one more syllable and still attach it to whomever it is you are receiving the action from. Let’s review the verbs first. “To give” is 줍니다 while “to receive” is 받습니다. “I give an apple to Lady Gaga” would be Lady Gaga한테 사과를 줍니다 while “I receive an apple from Lady Gaga” would be Lady Gaga한테서 사과를 받습니다. As long as you have the correct particles in all the right places, you will be understood... I think.

FRIDAY: Chapter Fifteen - 수영을 잘 해요?

The other grammar point is for the conjugation of some special verbs which I really don’t like to discuss because they are giving me a migraine. I am finding a way to make the conjugation stick on my mind so let us just have a grammar holiday for today, yahoo! Next week we start with chapter sixteen and we allot three days for each chapter. That means more time for in depth explanations!

For next week I would be covering lesson sixteen and two thirds of lesson seventeen. We can do this guys! AJA! The goal is to pass the lowest level of TOPIK in April 2012! =)