Who knew this series is already in its 5th post? Meaning that I’ve been working hard on TOPIK 😀
Keeping a record really helps. More motivation to learn Korean?
Today, I’m not exactly preparing for TOPIK because I’m using the book 국어능력시험순비서. So basically it’s like a preparation guide, not for TOPIK, but for TOKL. Some kind of Korean proficiency exam for Koreans. If you think TOPIK Level 6 is hard…. wait till you see this. Mind blown.
So why did I buy this book? No reason, I just love to challenge myself and love to remind myself that my Korean is still not good. hahaha. I’m one of those people that thrives on both compliments and criticisms. So I need some kind of motivation. And this kind of motivation is better than compliments sometimes.
Back to the topic. So I’m not exactly learning stuff tested in TOPIK today. I spent most of the day learning 고유어 (which I haven’t figure out how it fits into Korean language), proverbs and 5-6 character hanja proverbs. Not sure what they are called. The book says 한문 while another source said 고사성어.
I haven’t really figure out how they are actually used in real life. But I find them interesting. Even though I know Chinese, the hanja used here are used in a …. poetic (?) / ancient (?) way that sometimes it’s difficult for me to guess the meaning just by looking at the characters.
I bought this book back in … mmm. A year or two ago. At that point in time, I totally couldn’t understand anything and everything was like #($*)@#$) to me. Every time I picked up the book, it feels like I could understand it a little more. And this time, I am very surprised that I can actually work through it!!! 😀 A little challenging, but not impossible.
No idea what I did the last few months to warrant the improvement……. 😛
Who knows. Maybe 3 years down the road I may actually find this book very easy? HAHAHA.
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Day #6
Writing something simple in Korean now. But it’s not working out well. Maybe because I started writing it when I wasn’t in the right mood and now it turns out horrible? It’s like baking a cake when you are angry? hahaha I don’t know, I have never baked one.
5 Comments
Karla
16 January, 2013 at 11:09 AMI am in a middle of semester but all I wanna do is study Korean and prepare for TOPIK. You are so diligent Shanna.I bet you were able to juggle well studying Korean and going to Uni(doing homework and such) .How did you do it?!sorry for lame question.
iza
16 January, 2013 at 5:10 PMHi, were do you order your korean books?:-)
샤나팬
19 January, 2013 at 8:45 PM一魚混全川 (일어혼전천) – 물고기 한마리가 강 전체를 흐린다.
瓜田不納履 (과전불납리) – 참외 밭에서 신발끈을 매지마라.
나는 한국에서 태어나, 초등학교 부터 대학원까지 다니고
직장생활 10년을 했지만 이런 한문투를 들어 본적이 없다. 사회 생활 해보면 알겠지만, 사회에서는 한자를 거의 안쓴다. 이런 조잡스런 거 전혀 알 필요없다. 생활 한국어도 어려운데….., 이런 괴상한 말을 배우느라 애쓸 필요없다.
반면지분, 적수공권, 연목구어….. 이런 고사성어도 거의 안 쓴다. 몰라도 된다고 자신있게 말할수 있다. 나도 사용해 본 적 없다.
Liza
21 January, 2013 at 12:45 PMHi Shanna, I’ll be in Singapore next month. Where I can buy the Korean books in SG? Thanks.
hangukdrama
21 January, 2013 at 2:08 PMKinokuniya Ngee Ann City has the most number of books.