1st Korean Class. 3rd Teacher.

Friday, October 21, 2011 Nicajoice 0 Comments

In the Elevator. On the way to my teacher's unit.hehe
My third Korean teacher is someone I've known for more than two years. I've been teaching her English since 2009. She went to Korea for a vacation last September and she just came back recently. Then I thought, why don't I ask her to teach me Korean in exchange of a free English class. She agreed right away. And so, our first language exchange class started yesterday.

Her name is Lynn. And more than being my student (now my teacher), she is my friend. I can tell her a lot of things. Language has never been a problem between us. And since we have not seen each other for quite a while, we were eager to know the latest happenings in each other's lives. Her first question was, "Do you have a boyfriend now?" She was a bit sad because she got my usual answer. Then later asked, "Why? What have you been doing, teacher?" haha. She's quite funny! In just a few minutes I was able to tell her weeks-worth of stories and she has nothing to say but, "You are really so busy." And I could only nod in agreement.
She helped me study the recent TOPIK test (you can get a copy of the test here). She asked me to read the questions aloud before answering and was very keen in correcting my pronunciation.  Here are samples of the test questions:


Korean pronunciation is really hard and there are some rules that I have to remember. Sometimes, the pronunciation is a bit different from the way a word is written. 
For example, 
the past tense of "wear" - 입었어요 (ip-eoss-eo-yo) is read as 이벗써요 (i-beot-sseo-yo). whenever a consonant is placed under a vowel, it is carried over to the next vowel, such as in the case illustrated above. 


I also learned the following expressions/sentences.
저는 어제 회사일을 마치고 집으로 갔어요.
(jeo-neun eo-je hwe-sa-ireul ma-chi-go jib-eu-ro kass-eo-yo)"Yesterday, I went home after work."

아니요, 모자를 쓰지 않아요.
(a-ni-yo, mo-ja-reul sseu=ji ahn-a-yo)"No, I don't wear a hat." [Polite sentence]


아니요, 모자를 쓰지 않습니다.
(a-ni-yo, mo-ja-reul sseu-ji ahn-seum-ni-da) "No, I don't wear a hat." [More polite. Used when talking to an older person.]
We had to end after an hour because it was her turn to study English. I actually learned a lot in that short span of time. Some I've already learned before but I just forgot. It was totally a refresher.
Lynn also got me a present from Korea.
"Creamy Latte Greentea Cleansing Foam" from Missha.
And a class won't ever be complete without food. 
The spiciest ttoppoki ever!
Can't wait for our next class! By the way, don't forget to enter the GIVE AWAY here.

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