한글 파크 – The Korean Language Book Heaven

image credit: angrypolishgirl.tumblr.com

I saw about this great place on tumblr and decided to check it out today. I was so excited that I forgot that I was freezing XD. The place was small but filled with Korean related books such as language textbooks from all universities, grammar books, Korean recipe books, Korean culture and history books and so on. I felt like I was in heaven! It was my first time to be surrounded by ONLY Korean books. I seriously want them all.

There’s more books than what you see in the second photo actually.

I was checking everything that’s in there! I was also loud too ahaha couldn’t hide my excitement! I think I’ll be coming here more often! I bought the book that Allan 선생님 of Pegasus Society for Korean Studies used to teach us in 왕 Advance class on skype. I didn’t get to find it in bookstores like Kyobo and Bandi and Lunis so I was so glad I found it in Hangul Park!

When I got home and opened the book I felt like I was committing suicide by reading it XD It’s so hard! Definitely not for self-study but I’m sure I’ll get through this like my other books besides I already studied some lessons before through Allan 선생님’s blog. I think I need to buy the workbook as well.

If you’re looking for a variety of Korean books you should pay this place a visit!

How to get there:

If you get off at 신촌역, exit 1, and walk straight towards 동교동삼거리, past 현대백화점 you will find a truely magical place. On the 3rdfloor of a red-brick building (1st floor is 신도약국) is 한글파크 – a bookstore that has all the books for learning Korean. And by all I mean that they even had the shit used in 청주. They also have books on Korean culture, children’s stories and comics. They are open until 8pm on weekdays and 6pm on Saturdays. They also have a website where I think you can order online: www.hangulpark.com
주소: 서대문구 창천동 72-6
Tel: 02-364-9544, 02-561-9544

-angrypolishgirl

Again I’m on a book high..I really REALLY can’t help myself whenever I’m in a bookstore. I also bought these books this month

And yesterday I almost bought the TOPIK 150 Essential Grammar but thankfully I compared it’s contents with Intermediate College Korean! They’re very similar when it comes to grammar points so I decided not to get it. My sister thinks I’m wasting money on Korean books since I already have a bunch but it’s like an addiction which is hard to control hehe.

Giveaway Winners!

First of all I want to thank everyone who participated in my blog’s 2nd anniversary giveaway. I didn’t expect that I’ll be receiving a lot of entries and it quite touching to know that there are more Korean language learners out there! To be honest, at first I thought this giveaway would fail since I do know that I have more lurking readers than those who actually comments on my posts XD.

It’s been really hard for me to decide which entries to choose so I asked my fellow language blogger Archana to help me out. We actually picked up 3 entries and thought about our decision quite carefully. I honestly wanted to just give 3 books when I read the essays but that’s impossible for I am low on budget T^T So it broke my heart to drop one entry. I’ll be sharing some quotations from the entries that made me and Archana liked them.

My motivation to learn Korean is simple. The language is fun and interesting;
therefore it is not even like learning. Practicing this language is more like any other
hobby that I enjoy. Even when I have a full schedule, if I have to choose between
studying Korean and doing something else, I will usually choose to study.

and..

Fangirling is still an important part of my Korean learning journey as it still served its primary role of
being my motivation and source of interest throughout this whole process. But unlike before, I do it
now as part of studying the language. And as I progress on learning the language I suddenly realized
that I became less and less of a fangirl and I just grew more as a language learner. I totally fell in love
in studying Korean because of deeper reasons which is beyond that of simply the current wave of KPOP
and boybands. I fell in love with the language because of its unique and interesting nature which keeps
me going everyday. It is such a beautiful language which challenges me and keeps me wondering “how
and why” certain things related to it came to be. And it keeps the fire of my passion to learn burning.

I actually wanted to quote the whole essays but it will make this post even longer XD. So the winners are..

Melinda Childs and Kat Detros

Congratulations! Your entries appealed to me and Archana! You will be receiving one book each according to what level that you want. Please email me your full name, full address and the level of textbook you want! Please send them before this coming Wednesday for I am planning to send the books by Friday^^

To those who were not picked, I’m really sorry but please do continue on learning Korean! It takes time and a lot of patience to be fluent or at least be good at it. I do know it’s hard to find books in some countries so I recommend TTMIK and Clare You’s Intermediate College Korean, both are good for self-study.

Giveaway clarification

I think there’s been a misunderstanding about my giveaway. I won’t be giving away two books each to two winners, like that will make me so broke the whole month T^T I’m sorry. I’ll be only giving one book to  each winners because I can only afford two..like I said Yonsei textbooks are expensive.

So one book to each winners and since I’ll be picking two winners that’s two books. I’m really sorry I should have made it clearer in my post but I wrote that like 3 in the morning and I was in a rush so..ㅠㅠ Redundant post I know.

Updates on the essays, I received a lot so guys thank you soooo much for your entries and for joining!

[Audio Blog] 더듬거리며 읽었다

My first ever and horrible audio blog. In this you’ll hear me reading a passage in Korean and WARNING: EARSORE.

I stutter and got tongue-tied and you can actually hear how frustrated I was at the end *smack self*. When I was reading this I understood what I read but when I listened to it a few times I didn’t quite get a thing of what I was listening to. O.o I murdered the passage!

I really need help with my reading, the intonation, and maybe I have pronunciation problems as well since I actually mispronounced a lot of words like 걱정  became 곡정. If you have suggestions, advise and opinions please feel free to drop a comment and I will give you a big hug! *opens arms*

PS. I saw this page on TTMIKpage on Facebook about a study group and I got really interested so I messaged them and ask if I could join in. It’s a small group of foreigners learning Korean and they invite people to join in to study with them or help those who are having a hard time studying the language. So prolly next month I’ll get to join them. I was actually hoping that we have our own group, I mean with people I do know so it won’t be awkward hehe.

꼭두박물관

The highlight of our day! We discovered a museum while Shanna and I were looking for interesting things around 혜화/대학로. It’s called 꼭두박물관 (click here for more info) and the entrance fee is 6,000 for adults and I think it’s worth it!

Basically 꼭두박물관 is a part of DongSoong Art Center and display 꼭두 (figurines/puppet) as historical relics through various themes and methods accdg to the site and I the theme that is being displayed right now is about “Afterlife Guardians”. There’s another room that displays the reinterpretation of the 꼭두 which you’ll see in the following videos that we filmed.

 

Not gonna lie though the museum was awesome it gave me chills. I never thought there’s actually a museum about afterlife and hell but I guess it only shows where we’ll go if we die O.o I’m not even sure if this is a Korean myth or a cultural belief.

If you guys are visiting Korea this is a great place to see! Here’s a map from Naver.

Adventures with Shanna in 혜화동/대학로

Finally I met Shanna! I actually woke up late because I thought Shanna cancelled but it was only a dream OTL. I was panicking so everything ended up so wrong even my eyeliner gahh! I did everything in a hurry because I didn’t want Shanna to wait long but in the end I made her wait for more than an hour *slaps face* So when I got there I told her I’ll treat her lunch and we went here

We talked about so many things and we actually comfortable with each other! I think it’s because we’ve known each other for so long though it was only on the internet. We’ve known each other for 2 years already through blogging. I actually got inspired to do this blog because of Shanna and her blog^^ In the span of two years though we don’t talk as often as we could we became really close since both of us have the same love and passion for Korean language. It’s quite nice to meet her and I’m looking forward to our next adventures~^^

After lunch we went to sight-see and take pictures outside but since the rain became heavier and the wind was crazy we decided to go to a cafe, A Twosome Place.

We actually didn’t want to buy anything and just wait for the rain to stop but we got really really attracted to the cakes! So as you can there’s a cute cake and an iced chocolate above..ahem! Shanna suggested that we should try to talk in Korean and I was a bit not sure because my skills are bad but we did anyway and I felt really comfortable talking to her in Korean! She spotted a Hello Kitty Cafe while we were inside A Twosome Place ;A; 아쉬워~ We should’ve seen it earlier so we could have stayed there.

We decided to take sticker pictures here! If you’re wondering what 얼짱 is i’s derived from the words 얼굴 (face) and 짱 (good, great, best). It’s 7,000won in 명동 but it’s cheaper here it’s only 6,000won and the machines were the same with the ones in 쌈지길.

We look closer right? I really had fun taking these pictures with Shanna and I love designing them was awesome!

We went to a super cool museum about afterlife and here’s a preview of that while I’m waiting for the videos to upload..

Meeting Friends and Sight-seeing

I guess this is a year that I’ll be able to meet the bloggers I’ve been following online. Three online friends actually arrived here in Korea and L’m so excited to meet all of them! I actually met Sherry the other day and we went to 3 places in Seoul. First in 명동 where I missed Shanna who was hanging at Cafe Bene then we went to 인사동 and we were really fascinated with 쌈지길! Amazing place! And walked along 청계천 to 광화문. It was really tiring but had fun and I really really like 인사동!  The stores there are phonetically spelled in Korean like this

Insa-dong is filled with traditional stores, original art designs and modern Korean things and of course Kpop stuff. I wanted a customized stamp but it’s 30,000won ;A; I was a bit broke then so maybe next time but here are the photos..

There’s more people in 청계천 in summer than last winter..

Will post more in my tumblr so keep on checking^^

2nd year Anniversary Giveaway!

I can’t believe that this blog is 2 years old this month! This blog means a lot to me (though I don’t post much) because I met amazing bloggers with the same passion in learning Korean! Sharing the knowledge and the experiences through blogging is a good way to know how much you’ve improved and grown. I don’t know if my entries interest you guys or if they’re informative enough but thank YOU for sticking with me.

I thank Zara, a good friend of mine who I met here in Korea for pushing me to study more and for helping me with the things I’m not sure of. Woah~ and we’re stuck with each other! I miss you by the way<3.Shanna, the first blogger I met (and soon to meet in person) and for proving that self-studying can be an effective way to be fluent in one language. CreativityJapanese, for the encouragement and for the wonderful post about studying. Archana, for being a great spazzmate and a good language buddy. For every bloggers that I’ve met through this blog, THANK YOU for sharing your experiences and tips on learning Korean.

So in order to celebrate the two year anniversary of my blog, I’ve decided to do a Korean textbook giveaway. I’m going to giveaway Yonsei Korean textbooks, one book each to two winners and since they’re expensive I really want to give it to someone who’ll make the best use of it so I’ve decided to come up with a small essay contest. I know it’s too old school but I really want to know how passionate a person is to learn the language. I’ll be shipping worldwide by the way^^

Also, I’ll be giving the books depending on your level of fluency. Level 1 and 2 are for beginners, level 3 for intermediate and level 4 for advance intermediate which has no English in it. Be sure of the level you’re going to choose because I won’t be exchanging it for another level. In 400 words or less, please answer the following questions…

1. What made you (want) learn Korean?

2. What is your motivation?

3. Goals in learning Korean.

You can send your essay to lyrynne@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter for updates deadline on Sept.05 12MD KST. Good luck^^

If you have any questions just drop a comment and I’ll get to you^^

Korean Books.

Yonsei Korean 4, yonsei Korean Grammar for International Learners, 서울의 시간을 그리다, Yonsei 한국어 For International Learners Korean 4 & 5, Yonsei 주제 있는 한국어 읽기 5급

These are the book I bought so far this year, all of course connected to Korean studies. I bought 3 Korean grammar textbooks, 1 Korean grammar reference book, 1 Korean reading book and a novel about places in Seoul demonstrated through sketches. I have one book missing actually but I already posted it here. I think I won’t be able to control myself on buying books. I haven’t finish SNU 4 and 2 4급 textbooks from Yonsei that are in the photo above.

I’ve been spending more time on studying these days and I feel the contentment of having time to review and learn new things. 화이팅 to us learning Korean^^

Radio

I was streaming radio the other night and a thought came to my mind..”Why do I understand Korean radio more than dramas on tv?”

Radio programs are quite different here in Korea since they talk more than they play music which is entertaining! I swear Korean radio programs makes my night fun!  As you know Kpop idols do guests on radio shows like SBS 김희철의 Youngstreet, MBC 윤하의 별밤이나 신동 규리의 심심타파 and KBS 슈퍼주니어의 Kiss The Radio, but these are just the popular ones among Kpop fans. There are more radio shows that’s interesting as well.

I started listening to radio shows 3 years ago. I don’t know how I understood everything then. It amazes me that I can catch up, relate and understand the DJs and their guests. There are no captions to read unlike in variety shows on TV since it radio even when they’re 보라 (보이는 라디오) so you really have to listen intently. This is what I like about radio as well since you’re forced to listen to what you’re hearing. Listening is a big part of learning, everyone knows that so listening to radio every once in a while is a good practice for your comprehension skills. This is also a good way to get used to the language you’re learning in terms of pronunciation and differentiating the words and the tones you hear.

You can listen to the mentioned radio shows here:

http://www.livestream.com/yososexy

And you can download SBS radio podcasIn SBS’ site here (Thanks to CreativityJapanse’s post).