Learning Korean: Why wouldn’t they correct my Korean?
18 May 2012 9 Comments
in Hangul, Korea, Korean Culture - Korea, Korean Culture and Language, Random Observations Tags: Hangul, Korean language, learning Korean
Unless this is your first visit to Life’s an Adventure 2 (and if so, welcome ^^), than you know I love Korea and Korean culture. It’s why I’m still writing about it – and still learning Korean – three and a half years after I returned home to Canada. And over the years I’ve written a lot about what I like or love about Korea and Korean culture. You can pretty much read any article to learn more about what I like. But if you ARE new, check out My Favourite Places, My Favourite Things, My Favourite Cosmetics, My Favourite Drinks or Review: Big Bang’s Alive (betcha were expecting another ‘favourite’ list). They will give you a good picture of why and what I love about Korea and Korean culture.
However, there were a few things that I found challenging, annoying or difficult. No place is perfect just like no one is perfect. I’ve written before about Living in Korea as a Foreigner which covers many of the challenging elements of Korean culture for a foreigner.
But there is one thing that I only noticed after coming home and taking Korean classes at the Korean Consulate in Toronto. Many Korean people (in Korea) don’t correct foreigners when we attempt to speak Korean. I didn’t realize it while I was living there. Okay, sure I noticed that many people seemed over-generous with their praise. “Cindy, your Korean is so good.” It was obvious this was wrong and way too generous of a compliment. My Korean sucked unless I was ordering food in a restaurant, water in a bar/club (I don’t drink and dance), shopping (the first thing I learned was the Korean numbers for money) or giving directions in a taxi. In those situations, I was confident in my ability to communicate in Korean. In all other situations or having a normal conversation I was like a very slow three-year old.
But people rarely corrected me when I said something wrong. So I would keep saying it wrong, not realizing it. I didn’t realize until I started taking Korean classes last year that I’d been saying my age wrong in Korean all this time. For those of you that don’t know Korean – there are two sets of numbers and one set is used for certain things while the other set is used for others and when you are telling time, you need to use both numbers. And that is just one of the reasons that Korean is one of the most difficult languages to learn. Hangul (the Korean alphabet) is easy to learn – I learned it in a bar during my first week in Korea. Korean, on the other hand, is way more complicated.
I had been using 일(il, 1), 이(ee, 2), 삼 (sam, 3) when I should have been using 하나 (hana, 1), 둘 (dul, 2), 셋 (set, 3). Basically I would say I was, say, 이십육 (ee ship yuk, 26) when I should have said 스물여섯 (seumul yeoset, 26). But no one corrected me. T.T Which makes me wonder how many Koreans thought I was an idiot for always saying my age wrong. And I’ve talked to a few other friends who taught English in Korea and we all had similar experience. Good to know I wasn’t the only idiot saying their age wrong but I do wish someone would have corrected me.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know they just didn’t want to hurt my feelings by correcting me or discourage me from speaking & learning Korean. Their heart was in the right place. But I was a teacher, I corrected my students all the time and I understand that as a beginner – I knew NO Korean when I arrived other than what I taught myself on the flight there – I would make a lot of mistakes. So correcting me wouldn’t hurt my feelings. It would help me. But people rarely did. *sigh*
However, I meet a Korean language exchange partner once a week now that I’m in Toronto and he has no problem correcting me. Neither do most of my Korean friends here (many of whom are from Korea). So I’m not sure why it rarely happened in Korea. Any thoughts on why?
It was much more common to be told how cute I was when I spoke Korean than for someone to correct me. So this is a shout out to all my Korean readers and friends – if I write or say something in Korean incorrectly, please correct me! I would greatly appreciate it and it won’t hurt my feelings. ^^
P.S. Just a heads up, I’m not blaming my poor Korean skills on people not correcting me. Nope, that’s all me. I fully admit that I never really studied Korean while I lived there (except for repeatedly watching Coffee Prince). I was so fascinated by the culture that I put most of my effort into learning as much as I could about Korean culture. So my limited vocabulary and speaking skills is all my fault but I am trying to improve and that means I need your help.
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Review: Jay Park’s FreshA!R-Breathe!T Mixtape
17 May 2012 6 Comments
in K-pop & other music, Korean Culture and Language, Reviews Tags: Jay Park, K-pop, Korean-American music, Korean-Americans, music review
I had an article all ready to go today and then yesterday Jay Park released a free – yes, FREE – mixtape download that consists of 6 fabulous hip hop/R&B songs. I listened to it at work – big mistake as it made me blush like crazy and I have my own office! Definitely not work music. But once I got home, I turned up the volume and simply enjoyed the sexual vibes flowing from the speakers. It’s like Jay Park bottled up delicious naughtiness and made it into fabulous music. And I knew the other article had to be bumped so I could bring you this review. But don’t just read it, listen to Jay’s music and let me know what you think of FreshA!R-Breathe!T.
Track by Track Review
Be With Me 2night
I quite frankly love this song! Yeah, it’s a little explicit (and not work appropriate – bad girl Cindy) but there’s something about it that I love. It makes me think naughty thoughts and would be a fabulous song to set the mood for seduction. Listening to it you can’t help but fall a little in lust… oops, I mean love… with Jay Park. As the first song on the mixtape, it certainly raises the bar for the other songs.
BODY2BODY
This song makes me want to party! Seriously, you can’t listen to this song without wanting to dance and have fun. Could you imagine if this song was about you – the confidence it would give you. I can just picture the dance floor with this girl dancing all sexy-like and Jay strutting his stuff beside her. “BODY2BODY” makes you want to be that girl. Come on, you know this song makes you want to dance with Jay!
Do What We Do
Hot damn! The smooth R&B lyrics of this song make a girl think naughty thoughts and like “Be With Me 2night,” it would be a wonderful song to set the mood. You can’t listen to this song without wondering what it would be like to follow the advice in it. I blushed like crazy listening to it!
Hopeless Love
This song is the darkest of them all and makes me sad – probably not the desired emotion but nonetheless, true. I’m a romantic so songs about love (or even like/lust) that doesn’t work out make me sad. That being said, it’s a good song and would be the perfect song to listen to after a breakup.
William Hung
Definitely more of a hip hop song and it radiates anger but in the I-don’t-give-a-damn kinda way. And yet, it’s another song that you can’t listen to without moving your body – any idea how difficult it is to dance and type at the same time. ^^ A bit explicit in the language (if it was a CD, there’d be a warning label) but catchy all the same.
You Know How We Do
Love, love, love this song. Jay Park and Dumbfoundead together rock! And like pretty much the entire mixtape, you can’t help but move your body to it. Seriously, it rocks!
FreshA!R-Breathe!T
This English-only mixtape consists of six songs – half that feel more R&B and half that feel more hip hop. They all rock in their own way. A few made me blush. But they all made me move my body and dance. Seriously, I love, love, love this mixtape and had it on repeat for about two hours while writing this review last night and never once wanted to press the stop button. On the other hand, I did stop writing a few times to dance around my living room.
Seriously, the mixtape is so good that it’s hard to pick favourites. I like them all but after the 5th or 6th listen; I think four of the six really rocked it for me. Oh wait, that’s not picking favourites… sorry, I can’t pick just one. “Be With Me 2night” and “Do What We Do” are fabulous songs that make me want to be the bad girl who I’ve never been. “BODY2BODY” and “You Know How We Do” make me dance. And “Hopeless Love” and “William Hung” have such emotion. I can’t pick just one. Can you?
If you’re a Jay Park fan and you haven’t downloaded FreshA!R-Breathe!T, why not? Do not pass go, do not collect $200 (I love monopoly) and go download it now!! Did I mention it was FREE! And it rocks. Just don’t listen to it at work. Or blame me when you start having naughty fantasies. ^^
What did you think of FreshA!R-Breathe!T?
Download it here or here or here!
Follow Jay Park on YouTube or Twitter for more wonderful things from him.
*Update*
In light of some twitter conversations and another review, I thought about my review (I reviewed it, hehe) and I stand by it. But I want to add some extra clarifying points to explain why I gave it a good review when reaction seems to be split with people either loving Jay’s mixtape or hating it.
First, let me categorically say – no, I wasn’t offended by the lyrics and yes, I’m a girl. I fail to see why being a girl would make me more likely to be offended by them than being a guy. I do take offence to being told I should be offended as if there is something wrong with me if I’m not. Do I like all the lyrics? No, I found one song’s lyrics funny. Come on, how can you take it seriously when it goes from using “bangs” to mean hair in the front of your face to using “bangs” to refer to group sex in the NEXT line? But no, I didn’t think this meant rape. While definitely not my thing, group sex does not equal rape.
Secondly, the more R&B flavoured songs brought back memories of being back in high school, playing pool and listening to songs like I Wanna Sex You Up (Color Me Badd), Sexual Healing (Marvin Gaye), and Do Me (Bell Biv Devoe). I didn’t expect the lyrics to be the next Iliad. Come on, it’s hip hop & R&B. What I did expect was music I would want to dance to and music that would move me. And they did for the most part.
Yeah, the lyrics are explicit and extremely graphic (some songs more than others) but the songs are mostly about sex. You try to write a song about wanting to have sex (not love) with someone and not be explicit. For me – and my reviews – the lyrics are just one part of what grabs me in the music. And four of the six songs did grab me. One of the ones that didn’t still had a beat that made me move even if I couldn’t really take the lyrics seriously. But overall, it’s a fun listen with songs that I want to hear again. Are all the lyrics fabulous and grammatically correct – no, but neither are most songs. I don’t expect music to be grammatically correct; it’s not a bloody essay. I expect music to entertain me and get my body moving. And Jay’s songs do!
So yeah, I stand my review. I thoroughly enjoyed four of the six songs and while they could probably use a little more polish – it is a FREE mixtape.
Want to see other reviews? I rounded up a few that I could find so you could have a more rounded review of what others think. But as always, check out FreshA!R: Breathe!T and let me know what YOU think. Did you like Jay’s mixtape?
