Annyeonghaseyo beloved users of the interweb!
I am becoming notoriously bad at keeping this blog ticking over but I have devised an ingenious incentive plan to keep myself motivated to continue feeding the masses my mindless dribble, I mean, my highly thought provoking insights into the life of an expat in Korea. I won't give too much away, but let's just say it involves the 1.8kg jar of Jelly Bellys I bought at Costco.... hmmmm sugary goodness.
In a previous episode of this amazingly splendiferous blog, I may have casually mentioned that I am studying Korean in an effort to integrate into my new culture and society. I will take the opportunity now to rant on, I mean, elaborate on the learning experience thus far.
Traditionally, I have never considered myself that great at languages. I "studied" Indonesian at primary school and early high school and, although I did quite well in the class, it never really stuck. In fact all I can remember is "my name is Leon", "how are you?" "Good" and "thank you" (nama saya Leon, apa kabar? baik baik saja and terima kasih, in case you were wondering). So for 8-9 years of study, all I can use it for is minor pleasantries with the odd Indonesian and Malaysian colleague at work. Fantastic return on investment! I also studied Japanese for roughly one semester - that was all I could manage at high school before I pulled out. I can't remember the circumstances now, but I think it may have been something to do with my teacher being mental. Either way, I lacked the discipline to stick with studying languages - I even stopped studying English after year 11 - and I was always better at science and mathematics anyway - hence why I am now an engineer and not a journalist!
Over the last few years, however, my fascination in learning new languages has slowly evolved. It all started when I spent roughly 2 months living with a Persian/Iranian family back in 2004, when I started to pick up a few words in Farsi here and there (FYI Farsi is the national dialectic of Iran). Now, growing up as a Baha'i in Adelaide meant I had a lot of Persian friends who spoke Farsi but, for whatever reason, I never bothered to pick up any Farsi until that point. I learnt a few words and I quickly learnt that a few smooth words would melt any Persian mothers heart and would take me a few extra steps towards scoring the juiciest kabob you've ever tasted - hence adding motivation for me to learn more words! Over the years since then I have picked up a few more additions to my vocabulary, but I'm not quite fluent, as I've never really created an opportunity to study it.
Spending time volunteering at the Baha'i House of Worship in 2008 sparked even more interest in languages, as I began to pick up a little bit of "functional" Hindi - by "functional" I mean that I was fluent at telling people to take their shoes off, stay off the grass, be quiet and get in line!! To this day I still say "Ek line mei aye" and "joote/chapal nikalye" in my sleep...
During my time in India however, I made a curious observation about language that never occurred to me before, an observation that I'm sure many others have made before me but, being me, I've probably never read what they had to say - engineers tend to not study books on linguistics and anthropology! I pondered on how language changed as you move across the world, and that even though it seemed like some languages, i.e. Hindi and Farsi, are polar opposites, one could see how language evolves as you move from on side of a continent to the other, in this case with Urdu (Pakistani dialect) being a hybrid of the two languages - this language gradient being one of many examples throughout the world.
Where am I going with this you wonder? Good question! I am sure I'll make a point eventually, but its an interesting subject to explore if thats your thing - you definitely see it more intensely across Europe where many languages spring from the same or similar sources and share similar words - look at English, German and French!
I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that Korean - the language is actually called Hangul - is kind of like Urdu. Like Pakistan with Persia and India, Korea sits in the middle of two former ancient kingdoms, China and Japan, who made a living of fighting with each other and had a knack for conquering neighbouring territories back and forth like it was going out of fashion - kind of like a two nations playing ping-pong but with Korea as the net. As a result, Korea's culture and, as a by-product, its language - the two are quite inextricably linked I believe - are heavily influenced by both the Japanese and Chinese. Having said that, it is definitely unique enough for any proud Korean to claim that both the Japanese and Chinese copied them (but we all know thats bollocks).
Luckily for me, its more like Japanese than it is Chinese. I say that because fortunately for Westerners living here, Hangul is phonetic, i.e. it doesn't have the multitude of tones that accompany Mandarin and the like. Thank the Lord! I really struggled with the tones when I spent 2 weeks in China last year - just when I thought I had a word or two downpat, no one had a clue what I was saying! Damn the foreign devil that I am!
Having studied Hangul for roughly two months, I am discovering that it is probably one of the easiest languages one could learn (in Asia at least). Sure it has a few strange sounds, like "eu" which is semi-entertaining to ask a Korean to pronounce for you as they pull a ridiculous face to make the noise, and that some of their letters translate to what sounds half way between two English letters, i.e. one letter sounds like a b or a p depending on what word you use it in. It takes a little while to get used to it, but it's nothing compared to getting your mouth around the hacking, cough-like sounds in Arabic/Farsi and the clicks in the native African languages.
Combined with being phonetic, Hangul as a written dialect is similar to English in that it has an alphabet which builds words in a logical manner from the defined alphabet, as opposed to having a distinct symbol for each word. It might be a slightly different form of logic, but it is logical nonetheless - in fact, with the amount of weird rules and inexplicable exceptions to aforementioned rules in the English language, one could argue that Hangul is probably more efficient and logical that English. As a result, learning to read is usually the first skill most foreigners can get their head around - it isn't a difficult task when you put your mind to it - the real trick is learning to understand what you are reading! And then putting it altogether into sentences is another level entirely - thats where having regular classes really helps, which is what I have been getting twice a week up until recently. Computer programs and books are good to help with study, but one really benefits from having people to ask questions too, practice pronunciation with and having the opportunity to actually use what you have learnt in real situations.
After a few basic lessons, one major key to becoming fluent in any language is expanding the vocabulary and then remembering it so you can use it when you need it. One technique that has been bandied around the office, usually in a somewhat entertaining fashion, has been doing "sounds like" comparisons as a memory tool - similar to the title of this post. For example, "here" in Hangul is "yeogi" and we made the comparison with a beloved cartoon character - "not Bubu! Yeogi!" - it took awhile to explain what this was about to our Korean teacher, which made it all the more hilarious!
In short, I have really been enjoying studying, learning and practicing Hangul, in spite of what I used to feel about learning languages - and there is definitely no better place to learn a new language than in its country of origin! And I didn't realise how much I enjoyed it until the other week a Persian friend here in Korea told me she was impressed with my Farsi and Hangul and said I had a talent for languages - I never, ever thought someone would say that to me! Well - there you go! What a strange and beautiful world we live in - why not learn a bunch of languages while you're at it? It only helps to build a unified world that we all long for - and a true appreciation of how language affects each of us and our various cultures will aid in developing a universal auxiliary language that will reflect the collective experience of humanity, as envisaged in the Baha'i writings. I'll leave you with this quote and bid you adieu! Peace
Today the greatest need of the world of humanity is discontinuance of the existing misunderstandings among nations. This can be accomplished through the unity of language. Unless the unity oflanguages is realized, the Most Great Peace and the oneness of the human world cannot be effectively organized and established because the function of language is to portray the mysteries and secrets of human hearts. The heart is like a box, and language is the key. Only by using the key can we open the box and observe the gems it contains. - Abdu'l-Baha
I am becoming notoriously bad at keeping this blog ticking over but I have devised an ingenious incentive plan to keep myself motivated to continue feeding the masses my mindless dribble, I mean, my highly thought provoking insights into the life of an expat in Korea. I won't give too much away, but let's just say it involves the 1.8kg jar of Jelly Bellys I bought at Costco.... hmmmm sugary goodness.
In a previous episode of this amazingly splendiferous blog, I may have casually mentioned that I am studying Korean in an effort to integrate into my new culture and society. I will take the opportunity now to rant on, I mean, elaborate on the learning experience thus far.
Traditionally, I have never considered myself that great at languages. I "studied" Indonesian at primary school and early high school and, although I did quite well in the class, it never really stuck. In fact all I can remember is "my name is Leon", "how are you?" "Good" and "thank you" (nama saya Leon, apa kabar? baik baik saja and terima kasih, in case you were wondering). So for 8-9 years of study, all I can use it for is minor pleasantries with the odd Indonesian and Malaysian colleague at work. Fantastic return on investment! I also studied Japanese for roughly one semester - that was all I could manage at high school before I pulled out. I can't remember the circumstances now, but I think it may have been something to do with my teacher being mental. Either way, I lacked the discipline to stick with studying languages - I even stopped studying English after year 11 - and I was always better at science and mathematics anyway - hence why I am now an engineer and not a journalist!
Over the last few years, however, my fascination in learning new languages has slowly evolved. It all started when I spent roughly 2 months living with a Persian/Iranian family back in 2004, when I started to pick up a few words in Farsi here and there (FYI Farsi is the national dialectic of Iran). Now, growing up as a Baha'i in Adelaide meant I had a lot of Persian friends who spoke Farsi but, for whatever reason, I never bothered to pick up any Farsi until that point. I learnt a few words and I quickly learnt that a few smooth words would melt any Persian mothers heart and would take me a few extra steps towards scoring the juiciest kabob you've ever tasted - hence adding motivation for me to learn more words! Over the years since then I have picked up a few more additions to my vocabulary, but I'm not quite fluent, as I've never really created an opportunity to study it.
 |
| Kkhh ghhh khh *hack* - actually in Arabic, not Farsi, but when you can produce something as beautiful as this with your script, you know you're onto something good - no wonder it has been described as one of the most beautiful and poetic languages in the world |
During my time in India however, I made a curious observation about language that never occurred to me before, an observation that I'm sure many others have made before me but, being me, I've probably never read what they had to say - engineers tend to not study books on linguistics and anthropology! I pondered on how language changed as you move across the world, and that even though it seemed like some languages, i.e. Hindi and Farsi, are polar opposites, one could see how language evolves as you move from on side of a continent to the other, in this case with Urdu (Pakistani dialect) being a hybrid of the two languages - this language gradient being one of many examples throughout the world.
 |
| Hindi? English? Nepali? Gujarati? Urdu? Bangala? Malayalam? Tamil? Too many languages in India! |
Where am I going with this you wonder? Good question! I am sure I'll make a point eventually, but its an interesting subject to explore if thats your thing - you definitely see it more intensely across Europe where many languages spring from the same or similar sources and share similar words - look at English, German and French!
I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that Korean - the language is actually called Hangul - is kind of like Urdu. Like Pakistan with Persia and India, Korea sits in the middle of two former ancient kingdoms, China and Japan, who made a living of fighting with each other and had a knack for conquering neighbouring territories back and forth like it was going out of fashion - kind of like a two nations playing ping-pong but with Korea as the net. As a result, Korea's culture and, as a by-product, its language - the two are quite inextricably linked I believe - are heavily influenced by both the Japanese and Chinese. Having said that, it is definitely unique enough for any proud Korean to claim that both the Japanese and Chinese copied them (but we all know thats bollocks).
 |
| So different yet sooo similar - like all of humanity really |
Luckily for me, its more like Japanese than it is Chinese. I say that because fortunately for Westerners living here, Hangul is phonetic, i.e. it doesn't have the multitude of tones that accompany Mandarin and the like. Thank the Lord! I really struggled with the tones when I spent 2 weeks in China last year - just when I thought I had a word or two downpat, no one had a clue what I was saying! Damn the foreign devil that I am!
Having studied Hangul for roughly two months, I am discovering that it is probably one of the easiest languages one could learn (in Asia at least). Sure it has a few strange sounds, like "eu" which is semi-entertaining to ask a Korean to pronounce for you as they pull a ridiculous face to make the noise, and that some of their letters translate to what sounds half way between two English letters, i.e. one letter sounds like a b or a p depending on what word you use it in. It takes a little while to get used to it, but it's nothing compared to getting your mouth around the hacking, cough-like sounds in Arabic/Farsi and the clicks in the native African languages.
Combined with being phonetic, Hangul as a written dialect is similar to English in that it has an alphabet which builds words in a logical manner from the defined alphabet, as opposed to having a distinct symbol for each word. It might be a slightly different form of logic, but it is logical nonetheless - in fact, with the amount of weird rules and inexplicable exceptions to aforementioned rules in the English language, one could argue that Hangul is probably more efficient and logical that English. As a result, learning to read is usually the first skill most foreigners can get their head around - it isn't a difficult task when you put your mind to it - the real trick is learning to understand what you are reading! And then putting it altogether into sentences is another level entirely - thats where having regular classes really helps, which is what I have been getting twice a week up until recently. Computer programs and books are good to help with study, but one really benefits from having people to ask questions too, practice pronunciation with and having the opportunity to actually use what you have learnt in real situations.
 |
| The basic vowels in Korean - the combination ones are fun, so is "eu" |
After a few basic lessons, one major key to becoming fluent in any language is expanding the vocabulary and then remembering it so you can use it when you need it. One technique that has been bandied around the office, usually in a somewhat entertaining fashion, has been doing "sounds like" comparisons as a memory tool - similar to the title of this post. For example, "here" in Hangul is "yeogi" and we made the comparison with a beloved cartoon character - "not Bubu! Yeogi!" - it took awhile to explain what this was about to our Korean teacher, which made it all the more hilarious!
 |
| Yogi and Bubu are yeogi! Where's the picnic basket? Yeogi? Annyo - jeogi! |
Today the greatest need of the world of humanity is discontinuance of the existing misunderstandings among nations. This can be accomplished through the unity of language. Unless the unity oflanguages is realized, the Most Great Peace and the oneness of the human world cannot be effectively organized and established because the function of language is to portray the mysteries and secrets of human hearts. The heart is like a box, and language is the key. Only by using the key can we open the box and observe the gems it contains. - Abdu'l-Baha
