Language Resources

For me it's pretty hard to find decent Korean resources, as opposed to resources for French and Arabic (which I'm getting into). So far this week I've been searching for some new books because I've gotten tired of using one for Korean as of now (Living Language Korean). I bought the Berlitz Korean Concise Dictionary, along with Teach Yourself Arabic, Easy Arabic Grammar, and Teach Yourself Swahili. I've heard TY Arabic was good, TY Swahili is alright I presume, and Easy Arabic Grammar is darn amazing.

I want to buy:
Korean Grammar for International Learners published by Yonsei University
Integrated Korean (thinking about it, but I heard it's better for classroom use)
Step by Step Korean, I was referred to this one (like the others) and it looks pretty good
Teach Yourself Korean, I know it uses romanization throughout the book (bad for serious learners) but since I can already read Hangul I assume that I'll get it just to see how it compares to LL Korean.

For French I already have LL French, Berlitz 601 French verbs, and a huge french grammar review workbook and a few books my French teacher let me borrow.

Swahili, all I have for it is TY Swahili. I'm still deciding on whether or not I want to study this seriously or not. I might put it off for awhile when I start Arabic (waiting for TY Arabic to get mailed to me). Then again it has some influences from Arabic so learning them simultaneously wouldn't be a bad idea.

I bought an Oxford Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary. I plan on getting into Mandarin Chinese eventually. I was tempted to buy TY Cantonese, and I'm getting TY Mandarin soon, but I decided wait to buy Mandarin because Cantonese isn't what I planned to learn.

I love buying books/cds that will help me in any language I'm learning. The downsides though:
- Less space in my room to store stuff. I need to buy a book shelf to put in my already cramped room.
- A lot of money! Spent over $110 bucks in the last two days, money goes so fast when you're learning.

Korean Non-Polite Endings

I just learned of some NP endings for Korean, 니 & 야/이야.

니 (ni) is used when generally asking someone you're close to (friend) a question.
Examples:
어디 가니? Where are you going?
 점심먹니? Are you eating lunch?

Sounds pretty simple if you ask me.

Then comes 야 which is apparantly used if you have something to express, giving background info, or have a comment.
Examples:
여기가 짐이야 -- Here is home
저기는 꽃가게야 -- Over there is the flower shop
Oh, 야 is used after vowel sounds and 이야 after consonants.

This clears up the confusion behind when I was reading Korean online I'd see ya, iya, or ni after the verb and think ''what is that?" Though I need to practice ya/iya since these two confuse me.

Some more Korean

I get bored easily with trying to practice Korean when I don't have anyone to practice with. So I've taken to just writing down conversations between two imaginary people sometimes, or just plan out talkin' to myself, to get by. Wrote this a few minutes ago:

여점은 이리 많아!
아, 글세요. 그럼 내일은 어다 가세요?
내일은 대학관에 가고 공부가도 해요.
아, 글세요? 몃 시에부터 몃 시에까지 공부해요?
아침 여닯시 부터 열한 시까지.
수읍이 언제 끝나요? 연두 시에 수업이 끝나요.
그럼 같이 점심 먹어요! 영화도 가봐요.

If you can read it then it might seem like I've gone loko, but eh I figured it's not that bad.

I got confused w/ the particles 은/는 & 가/이 yet again, as always. I know one is the topic and the other subject particle but it gets hella hard to distinguish them once you pash basic sentences like 여기 버스가 와요 (the bus is coming here) and 내일은 바빠요? (tomorrow are you busy). Then to top it all of I get 가/이 confused w/ the object particles 을/를. So two diff. sets of confusions though I do know that the object particles are for when a verb is doing something to a specific noun in the sent (or along those lines). So it sort of helps out.

Though again, the only particles that I don't have trouble w/ are location and 로. I know there is another one but I forgot it after I saw it online, and my book only gave me that one for now (학교에 지하철로 가요). I pray that's right!

Speechless

There are many times when I know how to say something in French and /or Korean, yet I can't figure out what to say. I just sit there thinking 'what am I gonna write down or think about?' and it just feels like eternity while I'm deciding. It's like you just learned these new words, or something new about grammar but can't figure out how to use it on your own without any guidance. This is one of the downsides to having nearly no French and Korean speakers in my area, hell in my state! To sum it up, I've been left....speechless.

Korean Months/Days/Time

Okay, so just for practice, and just in case no one knows this, I plan on listing all of the Korean months, days and so on. Here we go!

First off are months, they're pretty easy for me to remember because they use sino-Korean numbers and you just add wol (월)to the end to signify months.
January-il wol 일웡
February-ee wol 이월
March-sam wol 삼월
April-sah wol 사월
May-o wol 오월
June-yu wol 유월
July-chil wol 찰월
August-pal wol 팔월
September-gu wol구월
October-shi wol 시월
November-Sihp il wol 십일월
December-sihp ee wol 십이월
------
Days, really easy as well
워요일 - Monday (wol-yo-il)
화요일 - Tuesday (hwa-yo-il)
수요일 - Wednesday (soo-yo-il)
목요일 - Thursday (moh-gyo-il:::This is how I was thought to pronounce it, it could be moh-kyo-il since ㄱ is g/k)
금요일 - Friday (kuhm-yo-il)
토요일 - Saturday (toh-yo-il)
일요일 - Sunday (il-yo-il)
-------
Time! I find telling time in Korean to be easier than telling time in French!
시 is used as the noun counter for it, and it uses Korean-Korean counting..

1:00 = 한시
2:oo = 두시
3:00 = 세시
4:00 = 네시
5:00 = 다섯 시
6:00 = 여섯 시
7:00 = 일곱 시
8:00 = 여덟 시
9:00 = 아홉 시
10:00 = 열 시
11:oo = 열한 시
12:oo = 열두 시

It's 1 o'clock would be 한시예요
It's 11 o'clock would be 열한 시예요
I'm going to meet a friend at 7: 일곱 시에 친구를 만나요.

I don't know how to say like 'it's 1:30' since I haven't memorized Korean numbers past 12 in Korean-Korean and past 1-12, 100, and 1,000 in Sino-Korean. I am using Living Language Korean and it didn't give me huge numbers at first. Guess I have to go look them up but if anyone knows that will be of help!

Quick Korean

Everytime I feel like I need to practice my Korean, or if I learn some new phrases I want to write a little something in Korean about it.It will more than likely contain errors that need fixing, though that's just apart of learning!

안녕하세요! 매일은 공부하고 꽂가게에서 바달을 해요. 일요일부터 목요일까지 일해요. 주중에 너무 바빠요! 회사에 버스를 타고 앞 시청역 내려요. 주말은에 일어나고 샤워해요 그리고 그럼 영화관에 친구를 만나요. 밤에는 살사 수읍에 가요!

내일 옷가게에 가요. 저는 바자가 시른 필요해요.

I learned most of this a while back but I was starting to think I'd forget them.

Les mots du jour

Words in French that I don't know the English translation of (Les mots dans français cet je ne sais pas le translation anglais **If it's right**):

Ou'avec
On dirai
Par (I swear it meant 'by', I don't know I'm sure I've seen it before)
Crocher
J'aurais (similar to j'aimerais?)
Aucun
Moche
M'occupier (I'm guessing to be occupy onseself?)

And the sentence of Les mots du jour:
Je lui piquerai bein son corps. (read it on Y!A France).

Help, anyone!

French reflexive pronouns D:

Well, the long daunting french reflexive pronouns/verbs that have been going through my head for about a week now are still pretty fuzzy. I ran across them in the verb book I bought called 601 French Verbs, which is published by Berlitz, and only cost around $16 dollars. I know all of them:
Me, Te, Se *for 3rd person plural as well*, Nous, and Vous. They are to French what possessive adjectives are to English. In addition to that they are placed before the conjugated verb form, though in the infinitive of a reflexive verb the reflexive pronoun precedes the infinitive (example: Je vais me laver:: I am going to wash myself)....Say whaattt?! Yep I froze confused right there.

Other than that they can also be used (according to Berlitz) to:

• Distinguish between to verbs w/ different meanings.
Example: Ma fille dort beaucoup and Ma fille s'endort à sept heurs.

Okay so I sort of get it, then we move on to the confusing part.

• To express recipricol action when the subject is plural:
Example: Les deux amis se parlent souvent--The two friends talk to each other often.

Me:........:crickets:........okay I understand point #1 but #2,yeahhhhh, no.

The most confusing part finally here!
• To express an impersonal situation in the third person:
Example: Comment ça s'écrit?; Cela ne se fait pas, both of these means How do you spell that? and That is not done.

Blehhh, French reflexive pronouns D:

I do find it helpful though how most french verbs are reflexive like:
s'endormir (to fall asleep), s'appeler (to call oneself), se munir (to provide oneself).

My question to ANYONE out there is this: Is 'se' used in all reflexive verbs even when conjugated? Like Je me laver, I'm guessing its infinitive was se laver, which means the reflexive pronoun changes when conjugated? Confusing? Haha, but hey I guess that's what I get for trying to study French on my own for now!

Me

Well my name is Earl (blehh) but a few people call me Ed, so that is what I go by here. I'm 16 and really interested in languages, traveling, and some other not important stuff. I've been thinking lately if I should start a blog because I had no clue of what I'd write about, so I took the bold step to make one today. (thumbs up to me!)
I'm studying French and Korean now, but plan on getting into Portuguese, Yoruba, Mandarin, Arabic, and other languages too (if I have the determination).

I'll update as often as I can (sooo expect a post or more a day, lol). By saying that if you're wondering yes I have a life, but just like languages...it's complicated!

So 다음에뵈요! Until next time.

P.S. I stink at taking photos, so if you're expecting good ones here then think again! The one of me above is one of the goods one I have, and a good one is like one in every 1,000.