I don’t know if it’s just me or if my readers experience it too but every time I visit my blog I feel that there’s too much clutter in my sidebar that I don’t get to fully experience the benefits of it. Aside from the very long side bar I also have an outdated Detour page. So while I’m online, I’ll be doing some spring cleaning for my blog for the ease of navigation and also avoid eye strain.

My Detour page is now organized and updated. Sadly though, I had to remove seven people from my list of Korean learners since their blogs are either down or don’t have any Korean contents anymore which defeats the purpose of this list. So now were down to 21 Korean learners. If you happen to have a blog and would like to be listed here as well, please leave a comment. It pleases me to meet new friends.

I also decided to put down My Lexicon page as it doesn’t serve anything anymore. I haven’t updated it for several years now and it only lists down really simple words which you can easily look up in a dictionary. So goodbye My Lexicon. Let’s meet again when I find some good use for you.

The sidebar has been customized for each page as well. Try clicking on each page and see the differences.

Let me know what you think.

I have made it known in the About page that I do own more than a dozen Korean learning books but I know that won’t do anything if I don’t try and flip a page. So as of April of last year I decided to start all over again. It’s kind of painful and exhausting, I know, since I would be reading the same contents all over again but I’m realizing that I’m learning more things now. I’m also noticing minute details mostly about things I haven’t noticed before but have now.

This is a brand new start of my journey in Korean language learning. I haven’t closed down anything. I haven’t given up. I just want to start fresh with everything and move forward without doubts in my mind. I want to love Korean all over again. Just fall in love like I did before.

I received a newsletter from Visit Seoul for the month of July about two weeks ago. And there’s good news for fans of Seoul in the newsletter. There’s a sweepstakes this month for a chance to win a free trip to Seoul.

That’s right a FREE TRIP TO SEOUL!!!

Every month, Visit Seoul will be giving free trip to Seoul and other great Prizes. This month they will be giving a round-trip flight to Seoul (1 winner),  Seoul wireless mouse (5 winners), Bean bag neck pillow + aromatic eye mask set (10 winners) and Seoul stationery set (20 winners).

To view the details on how to join, click the photo above or visit this page.

PS. There’s also a Free Seoul Postcard Delivery Service in the site. I hope there’s a kind person out there in Seoul who would gladly send me one.

If you’re not familiar with Korean you would see this post’s title as a code of some kind. Let me breakdown the code for you:

문자 (munja) means message or letter, 왔 (watt) is the past tense of 오다 (oda) which means to come. So if we combine them, it would mean message came or message received.

문자왔숑 (munjawassyong) is a cute version of 문자왔어 (munjawasseo). From what I noticed, younger generations usually add the ㅇ at the end of the sentence when they type messages or when they act all cutesy or what Korean’s call 애교 (aegyo).

Yesterday, out of the blue, I decided to search on how to add ringtones to iPhone. I found several post suggesting to jailbreak my phone just so I can upload ringtones. I really don’t want to change anything inside my phone’s software so I just gave up in my search. I then remembered one of my co-workers told me I can download ringtones online without jailbreaking my phone.

If you would ask me what I first looked for, I searched for anything related to Korean.

I’ve watched Secret Garden and one of the things that reminds me of this drama is the ringtone used by the main female character. The title of the said ringtone is 문자왔숑.

Listen and Download

This next ringtone is used in 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant (내사랑 싸가지) and City Hunter (시티헌터). I’m not sure if this ringtone was used in another drama or movie. Its title is 전화왔다메세진데속았지.

Listen and Download

Aren’t they cute? Do you know any other cute Korean ringtones?

So during the time of my absence, I was visiting sites here and there. Reading random stuff that might interest me in some way. I happen to find this series of videos made as commercial for EF International Language Centers. They were pretty amazing and fun so I thought to share it with my readers.

This is my favorite video, I guess. For the sole reason that I can understand most of it.

I like this video because of Paris and also for the hint of love story in the end.

I like this next one because of the lovely strokes of Chinese calligraphy.

The rest, well um, just English.

Okay, so that was a lot I think. Do you have a similar video to share? Post a comment down below and share.

Naver Webtoon (네이버 웹툰) by NHN Corp.

This app makes it easy to view daily manhwa (만화) from naver. You can view manhwas by day (요일별), by genre (장르별), or you can view your recent read via the 마이웹툰 button. You can also search your favorite manhwa by title via the search button.

My favorite manhwa would be Orange Marmalade (오렌지 마말레이드). It’s not like I’ve read every chapter in Korean; if I did I’d probably pull my hair every single time.

*Internet connection via Wi-fi or 3G required to search through manhwas.

Naver (네이버) by NHN Corp.

This app is really handy for Korean learners. I use this app whenever I get stuck with a Korean word while reading or studying Korean. It has an English-Korean dictionary (영어사전), Japanese-Korean dictionary (일어사전) and Hanja dictionary (한자사전).

Actually this app has other features besides being a dictionary. It has a QR code scanner, voice command search and music search. The Music search (음악) acts like the SoundHound app.  Isn’t it cool?

This app has a lot more but basically I use this as a dictionary.

*Internet connection via Wi-fi or 3G required.

Daum (다음) by Daum Communications Corp.

This app is somewhat similar to Naver app. It also has the dictionary function, QR code scanner, voice command search and music search, among many others.

Though Daum app and Naver app have the same functions, I prefer Naver more.

*Internet connection via Wi-fi or 3G required.

Dongsa Korean Verb Conjugator by Max Christian

The title says it all. This app helps in conjugating Korean verbs.

What I like about this app is that it does not only show one tense, it shows all the tenses. It also shows formal and informal forms. Click on the conjugated form and you will be sent to a more detailed explanation. At times, the etymology of the word is also included. It also explains how the conjugation was done using the rules.

You can also check out the online version here.

Let’s Learn Korean with KBS by KBS

This app is composed of 20 lessons in different situations in airport, taxi, hotel, etc. It has a vocab list, sample dialogue and audio recordings in 10 languages.

It also has an online version here.

Korean Cuisine by KBS

I haven’t tried any Korean dish yet, but the photos in this app are real tempting. Just like the Let’s Learn Korean app, it also has a language selection. It features 52 popular Korean dishes. The summary tab shows a brief description of the dish and some other interesting bits. The recipe tab shows the steps with accompanying photo. You can search dish by type, ingredients and season. There is also a ‘How to eat’ tab for tips and tricks on how to eat Korean food.

Korean Study Buddy by Ronald Bell

This app tests your Korean vocabulary skills. It has 2 modes: Test mode and Study mode. What this app lacks is the audio for the vocab. I think this app is nice for memory drills only. It doesn’t test your pronunciation or listening skills.

Korean Essentials by AccelaStudy

This app is way better than Korean Study Buddy. It has the audio for the words. Yay! It has study mode, flashcards, spaced repetition, quiz and audio quiz. The words are categorized: children and babies; colors; condiments; days, months and seasons; numbers and counting; shopping and weather. You can also make study sets so you can study your own vocabulary. Pretty neat.

Learn Korean Vocabulary -  Free Gengo Wordpower by by Innovative Language Learning, LLC

This app is from the same company as KC101. It sends a word every day at 12 midnight. Each word has an audio, sample sentences and phrases. You can also record your voice to see if you sound like a native Korean. You can save words in the wordbank and use the flashcards to study. I haven’t really tried using the wordbank yet. The study mode is sufficient for me right now.

That’s it for now. I’m still trying to expand my list of apps to use and share. How about you, what apps do you use in learning Korean? I also want to know.

If you are also a Korean learner who is using iPhone but still doesn’t know how to type in Korean, today is your lucky day. There are 2 ways to activate the Korean Keyboard in your iPhone:

#1: Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboards > Add New Keyboard… > Choose Korean.

#2: Go to Settings > General > International > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard… > Choose Korean.

After doing the above steps you will see this on your screen:

Easy isn’t it? So how do I start typing in Korean?

Go to messages or notes or anywhere you can type in a message. Here’s a comparison of before and after activating the Korean keyboard.

Before activating the Korean keyboard

After activating the Korean keyboard

See the added globe button? You need to press the globe button between the 123 key and space bar to switch to the Korean keyboard. Your keyboard will look like this:

I also tried using the keyboard when typing SMS, @twitter and at facebook (not shown below).

Note: To switch back to Roman alphabet just press the globe button again. You can also add another keyboard if you want.

Ang Pag-aaral ng Isang Wika

Ang pag-aaral ng isang wika ay madali sa ilang tao at napakahirap sa iba.  Sino ang nahihirapan at sino ang nadadalian?

Ang nahihirapan ay mga taong mahiyain at mahina ang loob.  Ayaw nilang magbukas ng bibig dahil natatakot magkamali.  Ayaw nilang mapintasan ang maling pagbigkas o maling pagsasamasama ng salita.  Hindi sila magsasalita hangga’t sa palagay nila ay tamang-tama na ang sasabihin nila.

Ang nadadalian ay ang hindi nahihiyang magkamali.  Kahi’t balu-baluktot, pinipilit nilang magsalita.  Malakas ang kanilang loob.

Madali ring matuto ang mga taong mahilig makipagkaibigan.  Dahil gusto nilang makipagkaibigan sa mga mamamayan ng bayang kanilang binibisita, nagsasalita sila sa salitang banyaga.  Kahit a la “ako Tarzan, ikaw Jane.”

Anong uri ng mag-aaral kayo?

Here’s my rough translation in English:

Learning a Language

Learning a language is easy for some people and difficult for others. Who is having difficulty and who is at ease?

Those who find difficulties are those who are timid and faint-hearted. They refuse to open their mouths for fear of making mistakes. They don’t want their wrong pronunciation or wrong construction of words criticized. They will not speak unless they are sure that what they are about to say are completely right.

Those who find it easy are not ashamed of making mistakes. Though [their words are] crooked, they strive to speak. They are strong-willed.

Those who like making friends also learn easily. Because they want to make friends with people from the country they are visiting, they speak using a foreign language. Even if they sound “I Tarzan, you Jane.”

What kind of student are you?

This essay struck me for it clearly pointed out what type of language learner I am. It also used the right words to describe me as a person. I have always been this way even while I was learning English. I remember when our teacher would ask us to give sample sentences, most of my classmates would raise their hands and give out short simple sentences. I, on the other hand, would think of a longer one but would later dismiss it, thinking that it’s full of errors. I know this type of attitude would surely bring me nowhere but I continue to have this kind of thinking.

As of the moment, I’m trying my best to change. This change may not be seen in my Korean learning as of yet but I noticed that in some way I’m improving my English speaking skills. I noticed that I’m not stuttering that much at work now. I try to converse more in English even with my Filipino co-workers. I also try not to mentally correct myself when I speak in English for it distracts me more. Having confidence in myself is a plus too. (Do I even have to mention that? )

Let me ask you this before I go, what kind of language learner are you?

So let me tell you how:

1. First be sure that you are using Korean IME as your main keyboard input. To install Korean IME in your computer check this post. To check if you are currently using Korean IME, you should see this icon at the bottom right screen of your computer.

2. Let’s say you are typing in MS word (or any preferred program). Type in the ㅁ character. If you’re not sure how to type this character check out this post.

3. Highlight the ㅁcharacter and press the Hanja Convert found at the bottom right section.

4. This should appear in your monitor.

5. Press the double right arrow to view all the characters available under ㅁ.

6. Pick your desired special character.

7. You can also use the other Korean consonants (ㅂ, ㅈ, ㄷ, ㄱ, ㅅ, ㄴ, ㅇ, ㄹ, ㅎ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅊ, ㅍ, ㅃ, ㄸ, ㄲ, ㅆ) to view other special characters.

By the way, one of my readers (Johnathan) mentioned something about special characters. I’m not sure if the special characters he’s asking are the ones I showed here. Hope I’m correct.

[Hey, Kat here! I'll be doing the concert recap for the JYP tour, since my sister nagged me into doing so hehehehe I wanted to do it. I apologize in advance for too much LOL and spazz in this fan account—I tried to keep it as clean and, er, professional-sounding as possible. =D]

May 23, 2010—The LA leg of the 2010 JYP Bad Party US Tour commenced. Sarah/owbEe was able to get tickets through the contest Soompi was holding for that event, so we were able to go to our first k-pop concert! We weren’t exactly JYP fans; I only knew one song of Park Jin Young, and it wasn’t exactly my kind of song, you know? But I was a casual 2AM fan (and a more-than-casual Seulong fan, I have to admit) and I was excited over the prospect of seeing them sing live.

zoomed in picture taken from the balcony seats

view from the orchestra seats

We were seated in the very front row of the $150 seats (thank you, Soompi!), seats that were comfortably close but not too close that we had to strain our necks to look up—I don’t think the VIP ticket holders minded much, though, seeing as they were in a position to get really good pictures. Professional cameras weren’t allowed, although I did see one lady in the VIP section holding one very professional-looking camera. There were only a few non-Koreans such as my sister and I in the crowd, so at first I felt kind of out of place. But we were there to enjoy ourselves, so I just shrugged that feeling off.

2AM

Seulong (squeeee!!!)

fab Jo Kwon

And enjoy ourselves we did. 2AM kicked off the concert with their debut song, 이노래, continued off with 친구의 고백, and the songs from their new album, 죽어도 못 보내 and 잘못했어. (Watch 2AM’s performance here. Do note that you need to follow owbEe on twitter before you can watch the video.) I have to say, 2AM looks so much better in person. I don’t dig the long-hair-ponytail look on Jinwoon, but it kinda worked. Changmin looked excellent in person and he sang really well. Jo Kwon was fabulous and although we weren’t really that close to the stage, his face still looked so smooth and without any trace of blemish at all—and his legs are super thin I was a bit jealous. As for Seulong *ahem* let me just say that I’m embarrassed to be caught in a video screaming my guts out, squealing his name over and over again like a mad(wo)man (I know, it was only my voice that was recorded, but it was still very embarrassing). Seeing him is just…there are no words to ever describe my feeling. I wonder how I would react if/when I see 2PM’s Wooyoung who will become my future husband LOLOLOLOLOLOL I KID I KID, but I digress.

When 2AM waved their goodbyes (with Jo Kwon doing a little Abracadabra dance, making me want to see BEG over at the MYX Mash concert in San Francisco, which happened just the day before the JYP concert), I was a bit sad that they only sang four songs. Granted they were the songs they released and therefore the songs everyone who weren’t crazed 2AM fanatics knew or at least heard of, but I was hoping they’d sing some of their other awesome songs, like 웃어 줄 수가 없어서 미안하다, which is my ultimate favorite song off their mini album. *sigh* You can’t have ‘em all, I guess.

So when they were finished, I was thinking, can we stop and go now? LOLOLOLOLOL I’m kidding—I’m not that rude, and I was also hoping to enjoy the concert to the fullest, so we stayed for the rest of the show. I did say that I’m not a fan of JYP and I only know one song of his, so I apologize if I can’t say all the titles of songs he sang or if I missed anything or if this isn’t in order. OTL

JYP sang a lot of songs, so for that I applaud him. 날 떠나지마 was really upbeat and fun to sing—thank God for the video background which showed the lyrics, or I wouldn’t have had the ability to sing along with the crowd. 너의 뒤에서  was a slow ballad, and the lady who was sitting beside me was singing along, as well as most of the people in the theater. He also sang the oh-so-familiar Honey (with a Billie Jean cover inserted as a song mash-up), which I knew as the song he sang in the music video for Wonder Girls’ Nobody. Apart from his latest song, No Love No More, Honey was the only one I knew of, which made the statement in this post earlier (that I only knew one song of his) false—not only that, but I have heard of 너의 뒤에서 before, perhaps from the time when I was scouring the entire YouTube archives for each and every video of Sung Si Kyung, who, by the way, has finished his military duties YAYAYAYAYAYYYY!!!

*ahem* Anyway, JYP did one lip-synch, that of his song Swing Baby. I was amused because he asked the audience if it was alright for him to lip-synch just one song so he can dance his ass off (or something to that effect XD), and everyone just screamed in affirmation.

He also sang 니가 사는 그집, but he started out with it slower and sadder than the original arrangement, since he was singing it according to how it would feel when he really sees an ex-lover already settled down. He also had a duet with a blonde Korean girl (with excellent vocal skills, may I add), and it was the song  대낮에 한 이별, which was originally a duet with Wonder Girls’ Leader Sunye. JYP also gave a performance of his song 청혼가, as well as his latest song, No Love No More. The music video for that song was also shown before he sang the song live, perhaps for him to catch his breath or drink tons more water, since he did perform all the songs—save one—live (with a band in the sidelines and not just taped music, may I add). Earlier on the concert, he also sang covers of songs he made for other artists, such as 2AM’s 이노래 and 2PM’s Again and Again, which earned loud screams of exhilaration from the crowd.

I know I may be missing a lot of other songs, given as I’m not fluent in Korean and can only catch snippets of lyrics that I can understand. Fortunately JYP did talk mostly in English, and he really can communicate well using the language. He thanked his fans for coming to watch him not as a manager or composer, but as an artist, a singer and a dancer (quoting the man himself, “You might know me as Wonder Girls’ JYP or manager of 2PM JYP or composer of 2AM JYP, but I’m here today as the singer and dancer JYP”). He also asked the crowd to support him in his journey to make an Asian artist big on US soil, since no one has been successful in that area so far.

For his goodbyes, JYP was accompanied by his awesome dancers and the 2AM boys—YAY SEULONG CAME BACK ONSTAGE!!!!—*ahem* and they bowed and thanked the audience. After the stage became black, everyone was chanting for an encore performance, and JYP gave in, singing his favorite song from his seventh album, Back to Stage, which might be (might being the operative word) 사실은, but I could be ultimately wrong. D: He sang his encore song while sitting down, so everyone from the VIP was up from their seats and tried taking photos and videos of him up close.

It wasn’t what you could call the best and most excellent concert ever, certainly—there were times when JYP would almost be off tune, or his voice would crack from overexertion, but it was definitely much more enjoyable and better than I thought it would be (and boy, can the man dance!) I can tell from the concert that JYP isn’t only passionate about the artists he produce but also about his own music—he gives a lot of effort into what he does and it  definitely shows. I’m absolutely glad we got the opportunity to watch the JYP concert, because if we hadn’t, then I wouldn’t have known about the awesomeness of Park Jin Young as an all-around entertainer. =D

(As you might have noticed, I did some research and looked through YouTube and Naver for the songs JYP sang. XD I don’t think I caught all of the songs, but I did well, didn’t I? XD All pictures courtesy of My Linguistics’ very own Sarah/owbEe; the 2AM fancam video—and most of the squealing—was by me. Concert tickets courtesy of Soompi and Powerhouse—THANKYOUSOMUCH! 너무 너무 감사합니다!)