오늘의 한국어 연습: 에 가요 🇰🇷

Use 에 with 가요 to say where someone goes:

place + 에 가요 = go to a place

• 저는 학교에 가요.
  I go to school.
• 저는 카페에 가요.
  I go to a café.

Compare:

• 카페에 가요. = I go to the café.
• 카페에서 커피를 마셔요. = I drink coffee at the café.

Use 에 for the destination and 에서 for the place where an action happens.

Your turn

Translate into Korean:

1. I go to the library.
   (도서관, 가요)
2. I go to the cinema.
   (영화관, 가요)
3. I read a book at the library.
   (도서관, 책, 읽어요)
4. I go to a café and drink coffee there. Write this as two short sentences.

Use 에 or 에서 carefully. I’ll correct your sentences and explain any changes briefly.

1.저는 도서관에 가요. 

2. 저는 영화관에 가요. 

3. 저는 도서관에서 책을 읽어요. 

4. 저는 카페에 가요. 카페에서 커피를 마셔요.

완벽해요! All four answers are correct and natural. 🌟

1. 저는 도서관에 가요. ✅
   에 marks the destination.
2. 저는 영화관에 가요. ✅
3. 저는 도서관에서 책을 읽어요. ✅
   에서 marks where the reading happens.
4. 저는 카페에 가요. 카페에서 커피를 마셔요. ✅
   First 에 = to the café
   Second 에서 = at the café

Score: 4/4 — 정말 잘했어요! 🎉

오늘의 한국어 연습: Word order 🇰🇷

In Korean, the action usually comes at the end:

person + place + object + verb

• 저는 집에서 드라마를 봐요.
  I watch a drama at home.

To make it negative, place 안 directly before the verb:

• 저는 집에서 드라마를 안 봐요.
  I don’t watch a drama at home.

Your turn

Put the words in the correct order and write complete Korean sentences:

1. 저는 / 커피를 / 카페에서 / 마셔요
2. 집에서 / 저는 / 책을 / 읽어요
3. 저는 / 영화를 / 안 / 봐요
4. Translate: I don’t study Korean at home.
   (집에서, 한국어, 공부해요, 안)

Answers

1. 1. 저는 카페에서 커피를 마셔요.
   2. 저는 집에서 책을 읽어요.
   3. 저는 영화를 안 봐요.
   4. 저는 집에서 한국어 공부를 안 해요.

Session one Korean With AI

 Here is my first session with Chatgpt and Korean.  I told it to pretend that I am a beginner. 

Session 1: “I am…” — 저는 ___예요/이에요

1. Basic structure

저는 + noun + 예요/이에요.
= I am + noun.

• 저 = I (polite)
• 는 = marks the topic
• 예요/이에요 = am/is/are

Use:

• 예요 after a vowel
• 이에요 after a consonant

2. Examples

• 저는 의사예요.
  I am a doctor.

• 저는 학생이에요.
  I am a student.

• 저는 아비르예요.
  I am Abeer.

3. Vocabulary

• 학생 = student
• 선생님 = teacher
• 회사원 = office worker
• 작가 = writer
• 한국 사람 = Korean person
• 쿠웨이트 사람 = Kuwaiti person

4. Your turn

Write these sentences in Korean:

1. I am a student.
2. I am a writer.
3. I am Abeer.
4. I am a Kuwaiti person.
5. Write one original sentence about yourself.

Send me your five Korean sentences. I’ll correct them and explain each correction briefly.

Daily Korean Practice

오늘의 한국어 연습 🇰🇷

Focus: Object particle 을/를

Use 을/를 to mark the object receiving an action.

• Use 을 after a consonant: 책을
• Use 를 after a vowel: 커피를

Basic order:

저는 + object + 을/를 + verb.

Examples

• 저는 책을 읽어요.
  I read a book.

• 저는 커피를 마셔요.
  I drink coffee.

• 저는 한국어를 공부해요.
  I study Korean.

Vocabulary

• 밥 = meal/rice
• 먹어요 = eat
• 물 = water
• 마셔요 = drink
• 영화 = movie
• 봐요 = watch
• 한국어 = Korean
• 공부해요 = study

Your turn

Translate these into Korean:

1. I eat a meal.
2. I drink water.
3. I watch a movie.
4. I study Korean.
5. Write one original sentence using 을 or 를.

Write all five sentences yourself. I’ll then correct them into natural Korean and briefly explain any changes.

I wrote out my answers and got the corrections and ways to make them better or longer. All in all my first session was a success.

AI and Studying

 Lately I've been playing with AI as a way to study Korean alongside my book. I gave Chatgpt the following prompt:

Every day, give me a focused Korean practice session toward fluency. Use grammar and sentence-building exercises, have me produce Korean, then correct my attempts into natural Korean with concise explanations. Keep the pace manageable and gradually increase complexity, especially with sentence structures and verb forms.

Tomorrow would be my first session with the AI teacher, I'll share what I get each day so you all can study with me. 

Back to the drawing board

I've decided to go back to the drawing board where Korean is concerned. I'll finish out my sessions with the teacher and stop taking classes to sound more natural since I'm beginning to get confused. Also I won't be studying for a test. I've become disembodied and feel like nothing is entering my brain. So I've decided to go back to studying my Korean books, specifically "I love Korean" books. They are made by Seoul National University. I have the whole series so I'm reviewing book 1 so that I can get the vocabulary (I've already worked through it before as well as half of book 2) then moving on until book 6 which is the last one in the series. 

From Goodreads:

"The I Love Korean Series is designed to expedite Korean language learning with a 60-hour program. Our practical activities will help learners to speak, listen, read, and write Korean faster. I Love Korean 1 is a textbook for learners who have no knowledge of Korean at all. There is a dedicated section covering how to read and write Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Each unit of this learning book provides useful vocabulary, grammar, and key expressions used in everyday life. This book is ideal 

Having studied our I Love Korean Series , you will be able to communicate with your Korean friends! *The audio files are available at the SNU Language Education Institute or SNU Press web page*"

When and if I register for the TOPIK I'll study with the plan I put together for this purpose. Right now I need to focus on getting more vocabulary and a better reading experience as well as add to my grammar studies. I find books with themes are better for this. TOPIK practice books are not conducive to the kind of study on my mind.

The alphabets

 A question that I get a lot from my friends who see me studying languages: Is it worth it to learn how to read and write or should I just focus on speech?  My answer always comes down to it depends on why you are studying the language. If you are just studying it to go visit the country and be able to ask how much something is then learning to speak is your best option.  If you are like me and want to read the literature and learn about the culture in the original language then learning to read and write is important. 

The second question that I get is which of the languages is easier to learn reading and writing wise. I've learned Korean, Japanese some chinese and currently learning Thai. By far the Korean alphabet was the easiest to learn. It took me 2 hours to learn the whole alphabet. The second easiest was Japanese, learning the Hiragana and Katakana took one afternoon. Next comes Chinese but the problem with Chinese is the shear amount of characters there is to learn. Finally, the Thai alphabet because a lot of its characters look the same.

Japanese alphabets.

Chinese doesn’t have an alphabet it has thousands of characters.