A lesson in Korean: bbang bbang!

I believe I was watching 미녀들의 수다, a program that features foreign women chatting about everyday life in Korea, when I came across the word 빵빵하다 (bbang bbang hada). I could guess what it meant based on the context and sound, but it was nowhere to be found in the dictionary, so I decided to ask a friend.

He couldn't help but laugh, but after the hilarity (or absurdity?) of my question subsided, he decided this would best be explained using visuals.



What the...?

Can you guess his name?

Um... 빵빵 Bbang Bbang?

No, but close. It's 호빵 맨 (Ho Bbang Man). Doesn't his face look like it's about to explode? So now you can imagine how we'd use this word. 엉덩이가 (butt) 빵빵하다. 가슴이 (chest) 빵빵하다.

Then I recalled CY teaching me a similar phrase (쭉쭉빵빵) months ago... why, I don't recall.

And of course there was Royce's Korean book of everything...

If I were a guy, I'm sure I wouldn't have let this slip my memory so easily! Hmmph.

Those darn acronyms

I've had more than my fair share of Korean slip-ups. I found this English one amusing. ^^ These are the types of things you'll never forget, and it's definitely beneficial to the learning process.


Speaking of which, I've started a blog in Korean, mainly to practice my writing. I've yet to update it, but the URLs can be found at cheripracticeskorean.blogspot.com and blog.naver.com/csaito. ^^

Fruit soju and lessons in Korean

I consider myself a relatively healthy person, but I'm pretty sure I've been under the weather more times in Korea than ever before. It's probably got something to do with sleep deprivation and an unbalanced diet. (I can see the rolled eyes and nods of agreement from across the interweb.) Luckily, I'm back up to 80% (and still going) thanks to a brilliant combination of generic (Canadian made) NyQuil, random Korean cold meds, way too much sleep, magic grapes, and good ol' TLC. I also think I've managed to gain a good 5 lbs or so from all that feeding (e.g. see above), even when food was the last thing on my mind - shocker! Now all I've got to work on is the emotional distress, swollen lip, and Flinstones-esque bump on my head (yes, a classic Cheri moment), and I'm good to go. So let's see, shall we. Blog attack, here we go.

There's really only one reason for this post (maybe two). You can scroll down to the last photo ("Part F") if you're the impatient kind.

Here are some photos from a place called Hue in Kangnam along with a little bit of I-have-a-head-cold commentary.

A) I still don't understand Koreans' idea of "salad." Yes, that gigantic dollop of white goo hiding under the shredded carrots is some sort of sweet I-want-to-give-you-a-heart-attack mayo concoction, and yes, those pickles have managed to recycle themselves into this dish.



B) Yogurt soju in a big bowl. This reminds me of New York, only our homemade version tasted better. (Henry, can you please explain to me again why I shouldn't order this in a restaurant? You said it's because "you know what goes into it" but I don't quite understand...)



C) "Aiyee ooh, killer tofu." This only works if you sing along with the Beets, kids. (Click here for a flashback.)



D) Clearly, I was late for the picture. Jun... demolished.



E) Here's the fun part... sojuice served in real fruit! I thought they were skimping on the alcohol but then again, that would just be silly from a financial perspective. I'm pretty sure fresh squeezed OJ is much more costly by the fluid ounce than soju.



F) At our sam cha, (which we landed at thanks to some random Koreans), I discovered the little black book full of useful Korean expressions. Let's see... what did we learn in class today?



No need to hide from the camera. ; )

No R's allowed

Fresh outta Beantown, Henry's now in Korealand and already gracing the pages of GQ.

Me: Let's take sticker pics!

H: I'll give you a Korean tip. You have to get rid of your Rs. SticKUH. Not sticKER.

As a creature of habit, I have a relatively difficult time pronouncing 외래어, or loanwords, i.e. American words adopted into everyday Korean speech. I try my best, given the fact that oftentimes, ordering in vanilla ice cream juseyo fashion will result in huh, what did you say, can you repeat that please confusion. Oh, you mean the bahneelah aiyeesoo kooreem? Why didn't you say so in the first place, silly?

Don't get me started on trying to order a chicken buh-guh (버거), using the computuh (컴퓨터), or adjusting the temperature on the eh-uh-con (에어컨). 

Stateside, this is similar to suggesting a night of karaoke to folks not accustomed to the Japanese language. Say what? Karaoke. Come again? Ohhhhhh, kaah-ree-oh-kee.

Or telling them that I used to practice karate karadee.

I suppose practice makes perfect and eventually I'll get accustomed to buh-guh's.

Nope, still a little awkward.

Korean texting and spacing

I wasn't much of a texter in the States, as I didn't have a data plan nor felt the need to upgrade to one. (I enjoyed my month-to-month billing too much to get stuck in another contract, thank you very much!) Besides, not many of my friends were really into texting anyway (or perhaps I was unknowingly excluded from the club). I like to think they were traditionalists - you know, the people who actually used a cell phone to make a phone call? And surely, if anything short, witty, and random had to be said, there was always MySpace or Facebook.

In London, I definitely texted and limited outgoing calls like it was my job. (I kid.) "Topping up" on a prepaid phone in the UK wasn't very fun at two dollars to the pound.

In Korea, I've finally come to appreciate the art of text messaging, although I'm sure I've got a long way ahead of me. A few great things about texting in Hangul, as opposed to English, are that:

1. You can say a lot more in a lot less space!
2. It's faster!
3. You can skimp on the spacing!

Here's my brief 60 second analysis. Ready?

1. You can say a lot more in a lot less space. This is especially useful for those who skillfully avoid turning an SMS into an MMS. Speaking of which, what exactly is the $ difference between the two, and other than having to wait for an MMS to download (I've noticed it can be a little slow at times), are there any other reasons people would rather send 2-3 SMS messages rather a long MMS?

Anyway, let's say you want to apologize to a friend and inform him/her that you might be running a few minutes late.

Sorry, it seems like I'll be a little late (42 characters, including spaces)
vs.
미안한데 좀 늦을 것 같아. (14 characters, including spaces)

Ok, maybe that's a bit unfair. I suppose that if we really wanted to, we might cut it down to this:

Sorry will be a little late (27 characters)
Sorry will be lil late (22 characters)
Sorry will b lil l8 (19 characters)

Numbers! We had to resort to numbers and it was still longer in English. I suppose you could get even more creative, but not without significant butchering (or a bit of thinking, trying to come up with shorter ways to get the main (similar, but not same) point across: i.e. "Sorry runnin l8!") You get the point.

2. It's faster. Well, for me anyway. ^^ But that's because my thumbs aren't fully trained English-mobile-keypad-style.

3. You can skimp on the spacing.

Let's take the same sentences and get rid of the spacing.

Sorrywillbealittlelate
Sorrywillbelillate
Sorrywillblill8
미안한데좀늦을것같아

In this case, it's easier to decipher the Korean upon first glance than the English, plus we haven't sacrificed any spelling or grammar. ^^ S'pose we could capitalize the first letter of each word to make it clearer, but that requires shifting from capital letter mode to lowercase letter mode, which means going through the 가 - a - A - 특 - 1 keys on a Korean phone multiple times - quite an effort for lazy fingers if you ask me.

However... there is a downfall!

My convenient, non-spaced text messaging habits have resulted in a bit of laziness, when it comes to recognizing how to properly space Korean words. Unfortunately, there's a little more to it than simply adding one after each word.

I recently came across this blogger's post, which lists some common misunderstandings that can occur because of spacing. For example:

오늘밤 나무 사왔어.
I bought a tree tonight.

오늘밤 나 무 사왔어.
I bought radish tonight.

오늘 밤나무 사왔어.
I bought a chestnut tree today.

Thankfully, my spacing problems aren't quite that dramatic... it's more of a 앉아있다 vs. 앉아 있다 thing (which for the record, is correct both ways apparently).

But no worries, Naver is here to save the day with their trusty Beta autospacer!

But it begs the question... Is this a problem for Koreans as well? Why else would Naver develop an autospacer? Does Google have one cooking up in their labs as too? Probably, but I'm assuming it's for code, not plain English. ^^

Korean is hard

My Korean... sucks. I was reminded of that on several occasions over the last couple days...

#1 Can you say that again?

I swung by my local Baskin Robbins to pick up some ice cream to-go on my way home, and for some reason or another, I could not for the life of me understand what the employee was trying to communicate. She even resorted to English, clearly annoyed with me, stammering, "Time! Time! Time!" And I still had no idea what she was trying to say. As my guilt started to sink in, she repeated it slowly one last time, and luckily, a little light bulb went off in my head: "Ohhh, you want to know how long it'll take for me to get home, so you can pack my ice cream accordingly? Why didn't you say that in the first place? ; )" Ding Ding Dong!

Lesson #1: Stop eating ice cream; you need to go on a diet anyway.

#2 Nash equilibrium... how do you say that in Korean again?

Flipping through notes from a friend's economics class, my mind almost instantaneously shut off as it entered shock-confused-lazy mode, begging me to cease all attempts at comprehension. Perhaps upon seeing the graphs I could have faked a conversation... "Oh, I see you're studying game theory now?" Oh, crap. I don't know how to say game theory (게임이론?) in Korean...

Lesson #2: Drop in on a summer business lecture at Yonsei. This will create even more confusion, and hopefully lead to an increase in motivation to read more articles from the piles of 매일경제 collecting at the front door.

#3 Debating... in Korean

We had a "debate" on 성형수술 (plastic surgery) today, and the gap between what I wanted to say and what I ended up saying was about as wide as... 한강? 재주도? 동해?

Lesson #3: Work on my "I'm nodding like I totally understand everything you're saying" look. I should start blogging in Korean for practice!

#4 Stop laughing at me!

There are some people that I don't normally speak in Korean with, for various reasons - i.e. we're used to speaking English to each other b/c that's what we did in the States, their English is 99.9999% fluent, and... I hate to admit this one... but I can get a bit shy. Therefore, K-E combo convos are pretty common, and I can only imagine it's at least somewhat amusing to listen to from the outside. An acquaintance recently asked about that #1 barrier...

그냥...뭐...부끄러워서...
하하하하하하!!!
왜 웃어요?!
부끄럽다고? 하하하하!
뭐가 웃겨요?
하하하하하하!!!

At this point I gave up, until his laughter subsided. Apparently, 부끄럽다 isn't used as much as 쪽팔리다 in this situation. So I asked good ol' Mom, who in turn gave me a 10 minute lecture on the appropriateness of certain vocabulary (and prefers that I don't incorporate 쪽팔리다 into my everyday speech.) Then again, I also told her I learned 그닥 (a shortening of 그다지) from my pal YS, and she said she preferred to stick with 그다지 because it sounded nicer than 그닥. Hmmm.

Coincidentally, I recall a recent conversation about Korean grandparents not understanding the lingo of today's youth (and perhaps, vice versa). Ah, times a changin!

Lesson #4 comes from Ask a Korean, who brought up a good point in his latest post:

Neither of the English editions of the two papers contained a headline that was on the front page of Dong-A Ilbo, one of the largest newspapers in Korea in circulation. The lesson: even if you keep up with the English media coming out of Korea, you will only get about half of Korean news, which sometimes miss very important news. If you wish to really understand Korea, you have to learn Korean and read the Korean media. Until English-language media in Korea becomes a lot more exhaustive, there is no alternative.

I can't speak Engrish

Me: Ooh, can I sit in on your English class?!

KH: Haha, sure... wait, how do you say that in English?

Me: Um... you know... "sit in on a class..."

KH: Isn't there a specific word for it?

Me: Yeah, there is... it's at the tip of my tongue... 

KH: Uh-huh...

Me: I'm losing my English!

KH: Hahaha.

Me: Give me one second.

KH: Your second's up!

Me: Wait, I swear I know this!

***frantically IMs Dave/Oliver in Boston***

Me: I got it! It's called "AUDITING!"

청강하다 = to audit a course/sit in on a lecture

연대 (Yonsei): The "Informative" Post : )

As you may know, I've been taking an intensive Korean language course at Yonsei University. This term, there are over 1000 students in the same program. I don't know have the stats, but it seems like a majority of these people come from Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, or the States, and I think quite a few of them are gyopos (Koreans living abroad) like me. Half of my classmates speak Japanese, the other half Mandarin, and there's one student in the US Navy, originally from Tennessee. He's pretty much fluent, I think, and yes, it's still a trip to see someone non-Asian speaking Korean... ^^ Anyway, even though other languages are "prohibited" in the building, I usually hear English in the halls during break-time, but surprisingly haven't made any American friends. Downside? Who's going to watch the Super Bowl with me?! ㅎㅎ

There are a handful of Korean language programs at universities in Seoul (i.e. Korea University, Seoul University, Sogang University, Kyunghee University) as well as a ton of language institutes, and after "researching" - i.e. scouring the web - it seemed like Yonsei was the way to go. There seems to be heavier focus on grammar, which was most important to me. I've heard that Sogang concentrates more on speaking skills, but I'm trying to practice that with my family, friends, and language buddies - also a great way to meet new people!

Korean's one of those languages that's...well...only really spoken in this country. ^^ So I was curious to find out why people are studying here, and so far, I've discovered the following reasons:

1) Gyopos' interest in learning more about their heritage and re-connecting with family

2) Work - either they're currently working here in a foreign company, will be sent to work here by their company in the near future, or are trying to get a job here 

3) Significant other is Korean

4) Simply interested in the language/culture itself

5) College - either studying abroad, or trying to transfer into a Korean college

On another note, it's so nice to be on a real "college-y" campus... BU was pretty much just a street. I loved that it was in the city, but it would have been nice to have a few more trees scattered about. Yonsei has a "FOREST!" ^^

Oh and yes, I'm learning a TON.

*Note: Despite usage of ^^, ㅠㅠ, ㅎㅎ, ㅋㅋ, peace signs, and new found fascination for the miniskirt-legging-boot combo in the winter, I have not yet been fobbitized... you know who are... *cough* STEPHANIE...SAM...G... But for the rest of you who may not know what the heck I'm typing, or for those who can't even view Korean characters on their PC (i.e. the text comes out as funky characters like question marks, or boxes)... here's a little explanation. ^^ is equivalent to a smiley face, ㅠㅠ is a sad crying face, and ㅎㅎ and ㅋㅋ are like virtual laughs. Can you feel the joy?!