한국어 - WEEK 8 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. The book has 35 chapters. Target end date is February 3, 2012.

Earthlings, I have decided to register for intensive elementary Korean classes at the Korean Cultural Center here in Manila. This, however, is not yet sure because the tuition is free and you only pay for the course materials, so imagine how many people would be showing up for the first day of registration. I will advise you if I get in. It starts in January, I think. If I do get it, expect the daily briefs here to be longer, which would mean that they would no longer be briefs, hahaha, because I would be including insights I get from class (Monday to Thursday 6 PM to 8 PM). That means only the Friday entry would be short, lol.

MONDAY: Chapter Seventeen –여기 순두부 둘 주세요

I feel bad for not discussing honorific words but I think I’ll leave that for later when my level is much more advanced. I am more focused now on how to function well while on vacation. I don’t think I’m making sense. Anyway, we only have one grammar point left for this chapter and that is the particle they use to mean only and is attached as a suffix ~만. If you could remember ~도 which means also you would notice that the two are opposites. You use the former if you want to emphasize just one thing and that it does not come accompanied. Alone. Solo. The only one. Let’s say you want to say: I only study Korean! This means that you are not studying any other subject or language aside from it. Use the particle. 한국어만공부합니다. What if you say한국어도공부합니다? That would mean that you are also studying Korean in addition to something else.

TUESDAY: Chapter Eighteen – 무슨 일을 하고 싶어요?

We only have two grammar points for this lesson, and we have three days. Haha. What to do on the third day? I don’t know. Whatever. Let’s discuss the first one. It is the ever reliable “to want” which in Korean is a bit complicated. You do it like this: verb stem + ~고 싶습니다/싶어요. What does this mean? It means you have to start loving the stem + ~고 construction because this won’t be the last time you would be using it. If you’ve studied Japanese before, this is their version of the Japanese stem + て. Examples! I want to go to Korea would be 한국에 가고싶어요. Let’s combine it with another verb ending. Remember stem + (으)러 가다/오다/다니다? You use this to express intention. What if you want to say I want to go to Korea to study Korean. You have to combine them. Pay attention: 한국에한국어를배우러가고싶어요. Notice the verb stems and endings? Look closely.

WEDNESDAY: Chapter Eighteen – 무슨 일을 하고 싶어요?

We have another verb construction for today which deals with “becoming” as in what you would like to become in the future or what becomes of ice when it melts under the sun. You form “to become” by attaching the subject particle 이/가 to the noun and then add ~되다 which of course you have to conjugate (“conjugate” sounds scary, eh? Sorry, can’t think of a better term). “Ice became water” (because it melted!) would be 얼음이 물이 되었어요. This one is in the past tense.

THURSDAY: Chapter Eighteen – 무슨 일을 하고 싶어요?

What if you combine it with another verb construction we learned the other day which is “to want”? It gets a bit complicated but if you analyze it well, you’ll be able to see how it is formed. “What would you want to be in the future?” is a common question for kids at school, in Korean the question is: 나중에 무엇이 되고 싶습니다? Here you added the verb construction for “to want” and attached it to the stem of the verb construction for “to become”. I know it is hard and this is one perhaps the most difficult part of learning Korean. They have a lot of verb endings to mean a lot of things. It does take time getting used to them. Be patient and diligent. You’ll eventually get the hang of it.

FRIDAY: Chapter Nineteen – 파티에 같이 가요

We’ve reached a new lesson which deals mostly about time constructions. So expect this to be filled with expressions such as “every day/week/month”, “after this, before that” and of course, the days of the week! Let’s do the days of the week now so we could use them next week in the video!!!

월요일 = Monday           화요일 = Tuesday           수요일 = Wednesday

목요일 = Thursday          금요일 = Friday             토요일 = Saturday          일요일 = Sunday

What’s common? ~일 because it means “day” if I am not mistaken.

For next week I would be covering 2/3 of lesson nineteen and lesson twenty. We can do this guys! AJA! The goal is to pass the lowest level of TOPIK in April 2012! =)