Korean Learning Resources

This section is no way close to being as complete as the Korean Language Resources on HANGUKDRAMA's site. But since I am only at the beginner level, I will post up whatever few sources I have used:

NAVER DICTIONARY
This online dictionary has never failed me yet. It includes any corresponding hanja and gives plenty of examples in both korean and english.

KBS WORLD LET'S LEARN KOREAN
Learning material is organized into situations such as 'at the hospital' or 'at a restaurant'. Includes audio. It doesn't have any detailed grammar explanations, but it has many useful phrases as in a phrasebook. I like how there are many phrase repetitions in the podcast. A great place to pick up vocabulary. There's also another similar set of Korean lessons which you can find at the KBS main site.

WORD SHOWERS
If you find memorizing lists of vocab words effective, this site will be perfect for you. It includes groups of words along with the audio. You can memorize a group of ten words a day and watch your vocabulary expand! Or you can use this site to test your listening skills: without looking at the word, write down what you hear.

BOOKS

Read and Speak Korean
-includes audio and plenty of exercises
-very simple layout and large font
-introductory grammar points
This was the very first book I picked out. It is the perfect first book for a beginner. You learn all the important vocab such as greetings, numbers, directions, transportation, body parts, furniture, places and more. After writing out all the vocab and example sentences in this book, I was able to get accustomed to the 한글 script. The audio is read out quite slow and clear for a beginner. I expected Korean to be super difficult, but this book eased me right into learning the language!

Elementary Korean
Rating: 10/10
-includes audio for all the dialogues, but not all the vocab
-long lists of vocabulary start out each section
-comprehensive grammar explanations
-fun and lively dialogues
The most important thing I took away from this textbook was how to conjugate verbs. It explains all the irregular types of verbs very well. It goes through the formal, pollite and honorific forms (but no intimate styles).
All in all, excellent!



Korean: a Complete Course for Beginners
I already knew mostly all the grammar points before starting this book, so I don't know how hard it is from a beginner standpoint. But I would say this is another great book for a beginner. The audio includes everything except the extra reading passages. Has lots of rich supplemental vocabulary. There were even some not so quite beginner vocab such as bank terms and computer terms (mostly cognates). This doesnt go through the process of conjugating verbs as well as Elementary Korean though. I think you should have some background on the language, before picking up this book. Although the grammar is simple, it is quite fast paced.


College Korean
The audio for the dialogues can be found at http://www.language.berkeley.edu/Korean/1/lessons.htm
This textbook does contain a plethora of grammar points, but I found it quite boring for some reason. Haha....and a thumbs down because there is no audio for the vocabulary.
But a thumbs up for the grammar points. I found it hard to memorize anything from this book (probably because of the lack of audio), but I use it as a reference. I imagine this text to be better used under the guidance of a teacher.

FUN

KBS WORLD MUSIC PLAYER
This is the radio I listen to. It plays Korean music 24/7 and is hosted in many different languages including Korean, English, Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese etc. Includes the latest hits.

K-POP CONNECTION
Also part of KBS. Includes star interviews and lyric translations.

Time Zones on your iPod

I've had my iPod for two years now, but I've just discovered the time zone clock function. Now I can quickly check what time it is across the globe.
I'm so glad! Now I don't have to do the math...'England is eight hours ahead..' etc. =D
Just thought I'd post this in case there are still people unaware of this useful function!

Drama Pet-Peeve

Help wanted in finding a drama where the main girl ends up with the NICE GUY (who was nice since the beginning), and not the rude-and-arrogant-guy-who- she later decides-is really a caring person deep inside.
I always end up feeling sorry for that NICE GUY, and half of the time wish he would end up with the girl instead.

After watching so many chinese and korean dramas, I can't even name one where the girl ends up with the NICER GUY.

Here is a list of dramas as evidence:

1. Full House
2. ISWAK (can't really remember if there was a nice guy, but I think it was that Fahrenheit member)
3. My Girl
4. Meteor Garden
5. 爱情魔法师 (from vague memory)
6. 王子变青蛙
7. Devil Beside You
8. 换换爱
9. My Lucky Star
10. 궁 Princess Hours
11. 樱野3加1
12. 不良笑话
13. Coffee Prince 커피프린스 1호점 (well this one doesnt really count, since the NICE GUY already had a girlfriend and the main girl has her morals)
14. Shining Inheritance (I haven't finished this one yet...but I'm pretty sure she ends up with the spoiled son instead *sob*)
15. Easy Fortune Happy Life 福气又安康 (I only watched 2 eps of this...but I predict she will end up with the guy who always wears a snarl **dont know if there's a nice guy competition**)

Shining Inheritance 찬란한 유산

Now that I'm on summer vacation, I finally have time to watch Korean dramas. I chose to watch Shining Inheritance (찬란한 유산). I'm on episode 7 and I absolutely love this drama.

Everyone, please watch Shining Inheritance. And please do not stop at the first episode (I found the beginning a bit boring).

Very, very short synopsis: a young lady who goes from rich to poor, and her determined climb to success.
Yes, it sounds very cliche, but I'm a sucker for these kind of dramas. In fact, this drama is not as cliche as I made it sound just now. Or maybe it is. I haven't watched that many Korean dramas to know what is considered cliche. Well, I'm happy as long as no one I like dies in the end.

And of course, what can a drama be without its accompanying OST? Shining Inheritance's OST is not as extensive as BOF, but I do like it! One of my favourites is "내 가슴에 사는 사람" by ISU 이수 M.C The Max.

I was going to put up a video with scenes of the drama, but I don't want to spoil anything!

Ack, this drama is so much fun. I love the 할머니 =D

Shanghai Restaurant

I don't particularly like Chinese food for a couple of reasons:
1)I'm bored of it
2)Too unhealthy: too much oil [or lard], salt, msg (味精)
But when I was asked to go out and try a Shanghai Chinese restaurant, I agreed for the sake of a friend gathering.




I quickly researched the restaurant and came up with one fact: it was famous for its 小龙包 Xiao Long Bao. 小龙包 is a specialty of Shanghainese food? I don't know. Even when I didnt have any high expectations going into this restaurant, I expected the 小龙包 to be nothing but amazing (since that's what tons of ratings had concluded). My conclusion: the 小龙包 was nothing special. It tasted just like any other dumpling, but worse. It had tons of fat inside, which supporters would defend as the provider of its juiciness---but sorry, I dont think I would ever order it again.


Here's the receipt if you're interested. (Click to enlarge).
The fried rice and vegetable dish were the best. Haha. Can't go wrong with those.

水果篮子 Fruits Basket Manga

The only manga I ever read is Fruits Basket, 水果篮子. After being recommended to me more times than I can count, I finally picked it up. I ordered all my books from amazon, but you can find them anywhere because they're so popular! It has romance, comedy, magic...and fighting...haha. But don't get me wrong, it's not like Sailormoon's battle against evil.

Fruits Basket was translated into Chinese a long time ago, but it has just finished being completely translated into English. Woohoo!..I only have about 15 books more to buy ;) All the characters are so adorable..but beware, once you start reading this series you won't be able to stop.

I'm not going to watch the anime cause I heard its not as good and deviates quite a bit from the original story.

My Korean

After taking my introduction to Korean class, I decided to record the result.
The notes in the transcript are from my teacher. So they should be 100% correct unless I copied them down wrong.
I tried putting it into just an audio podcast format with no video, but the instructions on installing it seemed too complicated.
So here is this really scary video of me speaking Korean:



Transcript and english translation:
어서 오세요. 몇 분이세요?
Welcome. How many people?
두명이에요.
Two people.
이쪽으로 오세요. 아무데나 앉으세요.
This way please. Please sit anywhere.
뭐로 하시겠어요?
What would you like to order?
비빔밥 하나 주세요.
Give me one 비빔밥 (rish dish) please.
음료수는 뭐로 하시겠어요?
What would you like to drink?
소주 주세요.Soju please.
죄송하지만 소주는 지금 안 되는데요.
Sorry, but we are all out of soju.
그럼, 물로 주세요.Then I'll have water instead.
네. 알겠습니다. 여기요.OK. Here you go.
물 좀 더 주세요.Pleaes give me some more water.
계산서 좀 갖다 주세요.Please bring me the bill.
많이 먹어요!Bon appetit!

Korean Joke

A friend of a friend of mine told me this joke:
But you will only find this joke funny if

A) You know how to say 'rice' in Korean

B) You have some general background on Justin Timberlake's songs

Question: What did Justin Timberlake say when he dropped rice on the floor?

Highlight between the arrows for the answer:



--------> Dirty "밥" <-----------

Korean Music

I'm going to have a section with Korean and Chinese music--my main motivation for learning these languages. But I'm still thinking what I should do with this section. So for now, I'll leave you with a nice Korean song:
에스티 하루 (St. Day) ft. 김별 (Kim Byul) - Afraid

Chinese Learning Resources

Websites:

CRIENGLISH.COM
I only have praise for this website. CRI gave me my very first introduction to Mandarin Chinese. There are tons of lessons and goodies on this site. The lessons include audio and are at a pace perfect for a beginner. There's also some inspiring interviews from Chinese learners on the site. And best of all, it's all free!

iMANDARINPOD.COM
Has interesting content and audio. I like the format as it is easily accessible to jump right into learning. It may be intimidating to the beginner though, as there are no line-by-line english translations. This website is useful in building your recognition of chinese characters as the higher level podcasts may not include the pinyin.

CSLPOD.COM
Just another excellent website to practice your Chinese listening and reading abilities.
Has lessons for all levels-elementary, intermediate, advanced. Includes news podcasts. Superb for increasing your vocabulary! The lower level podcasts include english translation. The advanced podcasts have the character mouse-over definition and pinyin function.

CHINESEPOD.COM
Chinesepod must be the best language learning site in the world! It can take you all the way from your first beginner phrase "洗手间在哪里？" to advanced vocab,idioms, and phrases like "集众家所长." (I'm not quite sure if 集众家所长 is an advanced phrase). So yes, this site will teach you things you can never, ever find in a textbook or dictionary. It can teach you the hippest slang words and you learn so much culture along the way! The price is ridiculously cheap for such a vast amount of learning materials. The forum and community are active and friendly. The podcasters are charismatic, full of energy and are very helpful. You will learn so much vocab, grammar and culture before you even know it. The lessons are so fun, it doesnt even feel like work. imosaid that a podcast here is like their cup of morning coffee.
中文播客一定会帮你对中文了如指掌。(My attempt at using the idiom. Please don't use my bad Chinese as testimony to the powers of this site ! Haha I probably just don't study as hard as I should). Take my word for it, the crew behind ChinesePod are truly miracle workers!

CHINESECLASS101.COM
This site is a relatively new site. After a quick tour, I can tell this site will be just as excellent as ChinesePod. It has podcasts for all levels-from newbie to advanced. Includes an extensive amount of exercises and drills to test your comprehension. This site has everything that ChinesePod offers. If you loved that site, you're gonna love this one too.


Online Dictionaries:

MDBG Dictionary
Absolutely the best online dictionary. Hands down.

NCIKU Online English Chinese Dictionary
Contains a writing character tool. Handy for when you know nothing about a character except how it looks like. Has ample example sentences.


Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar
Rating: 7/10
Pros:-contains pinyin, simplified and traditional forms
-exercises include answer key
-easy to open and write in
Cons: this book does not cover all the grammar you will come across. But if you are a beginner to intermediate learner, this book may come of use to you. But beginners beware, you should have at least some background knowledge before attempting this book.


What Character Is That?
Rating: 2/10
Pros:
-Contains 5000 characters
-Both traditional and simplified forms (more emphasis on traditional)
-The listing of characters grouped according to its radical may potentially be interesting to some
Cons: Although this book contains far more characters than a beginner dictionary does, the time and effort required to search for a character outweighs any of this book’s good points. It does not contain any example words related
to the character.


250 Essential Chinese Characters & Chinese In A Flash
by Philip Lee
Rating: 9/10
Pros: -gives stroke order
-shows both traditional and simplified forms (but simplified in examples)
-the collection can teach you close to 2000 common characters
-sample sentences and example compound words
-books have grids to practice writing the characters
-flashcards can be carried anywhere and effective in testing memorization with a simple flip of the wrist.
I learned one character a day (sometimes more cause it was so fun)...and before I knew it, I could easily recognize a lot!
Cons: I wish the Chinese in a Flash had more volumes to continue covering more characters.


Far East Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary
Rating: 9/10
Pros: -over 4000 characters. Considering this is almost like a pocket dictionary- but a big bigger- I would say this dictionary is rich in characters and phrases
-many idioms
-more advanced vocab than those beginner dictionaries
-organizes the words in a pinyin friendly and organized fashion
-can look up characters through either radical index or stroke count
Cons: only has traditional characters
-difficult to find in stores (I ordered mine through Amazon) since I think its not in print anymore.


Reading & Writing Chinese
Rating: 8/10
Pros: Comes in both a simplified and traditional edition, but each edition contains both forms.
-serves its purpose in letting you know which characters will appear on the HSK and at what level
-prepares you for elementary-intermediate standard
-is organized in a way where some similar looking characters are pointed out
-example compound words
-stroke order is shown
Cons: there was quite a lot of blank space for some of the main characters. More examples on its usage or interesting tidbits on how to remember the character could have been given.


FUN:

CHINESE MUSIC FORUM
If you're looking for a forum to talk about anything and everything Chinese related....or just a general forum to offer your two-cents, CMB is the place for you. There is an active and friendly community. It also has an extensive selection of Chinese songs translated into English. Afterall, learning a language from songs is both an effortless and effective way to increase your vocab.