This website was found by my mother, of all people, and I think that she’s going to use it to learn a few words in the Korean language.

The site is called Word Showers, and their service is available for free. Their website seems specifically focused on helping you increase your vocabulary, which is the all important part of learning a foreign language.

I like what I see so far. Each vocabulary group is broken down into a simple 10 words, and the words start out very easy. Both the English and the Korean spelling of the word is provided, and MP3 files are provided for each group of 10. That, of course, allows you to hear how the word is correctly spoken (or you can listen to each word directly from the website).

The word collections are broken down into nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

They do exaggerate a bit in their self-promotion, but that’s to be expected from any service. Word Showers is a website that I’m definitely going to begin using.

Technorati Tags: Korean, Korean language, 한국어, foreign language, languages, language

I’ve been back from Korea for about a week now, and I’ve slowly got around to adjust my sleeping schedule. It’s still not quite right yet partially because of the storms that keep coming through and either keep me awake or wake me up at 2 AM. Sheesh.

Honestly though I don’t feel like typing up the long post to describe what we done. I will obviously do that at some point, but the thought of doing so at this time kind of exhausts me.

You can see my pictures as well as some of the photos that were taken by others.

The PSU Group Website – Here is the blog that everyone from the group has access to for posting images and text. It’s currently very underutilized, but I hope that others from the group get around to taking advantage of it.

Korea Flickr Photostream – This is a collection of about 260 photos that were taken while I was in South Korea. The majority of my photos are of landscapes.

Enjoy the views.

Technorati Tags: korean, 한국어, travel, photos, photography, landscapes

’sup folks, I forgot to fill everyone in on the results of the Korean language final.

There were three parts to the test.

1.) Conversation
2.) Vocabulary
3.) Translation

Each part had a subcategory. The conversation segment was a combination of a typical “Hello, how are you?” casual conversation, as well as questions about what our major is and what job we want after graduation.

Only the translation was not oral, though we did have to read it aloud (of course).

The translation part required us to write a script in English and then translate the script into Korean.

I got a perfect score on both the conversation and vocabulary. It was apparent that the instructor was proud of the results of the test.

The translation went very bad. As much as I would like to be able to say that I got a perfect score on the entire test, I think that I pretty much tanked the translation. We had to find the Korean words on our own and create the sentences with very little references. It was tough, and it took its toll on my test. Using a plethora of unfamiliar words to write a translation was rough, but as I look back on it I kind of feel like I enjoyed the challenge.

He wrote some corrections as I spoke. He didn’t always correct what I had written, but he generally did make the “No, something wrong” sound as I read off my script. lol ;D

So there you have it. I don’t think that doing poorly on one part of the test is going to seriously affect my over all score, so I should have passed the class with a comfortable grade. I hope so, anyway!

They were considering the idea of a level 3 Korean language course next semester. I’ll definitely be enrolling if it’s offered.

Hopefully this summer I will be able to continue studying other languages. I have a subscription to KoreanClass101.com, and I may pick back up my study of Japanese by using that website or MangoLanguages.com if their prices are realistic. I stopped studying Japanese for awhile, so my grasp of the language is now really poor. I only remembered enough to give the occasional surprise to my Korean instructor – hah! Just enough to get myself into trouble, ya know?

Random closing comment: I positively love Sakamoto Maaya’s voice. So soft and gentle!

Oh, I may not post again until I get back from South Korea. I should have a ton of photos to share when I do.

Later folks.

Technorati Tags: korean, korean language, 한국어, foreign language

Having good grades at a university is a really good thing. It gives you access to scholarships, which of course allows one to continue their studies.

Yet sometimes it can be very stressful. There is, of course, the fact that everyone simply begins to expect you to do good or to be able to answer questions. That’s not so bad as much as it’s occasionally irritating.

Then there are circumstances like this: This morning I learned that the letter that our language instructor handed out was a formal, yet personal invitation. To an annual awards banquet of the foreign languages department.

It starts like this:

Dear Stephen Meyer,

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures requests the honor of your presence at its annual awards banquet …”

Goodness gracious! O.O

I thought that this letter was the same for everyone in class and that it was simply a (incoming redundancy!) formal form letter. Nope, no such luck.

Am I complaining? Not necessarily. Am I stressing out? Well let’s see. Now I need to prepare for a possible speech in a foreign language, or at least an inevitable request to have a small conversation, at an honor banquet.

Yep, that’s a bit heavy doc.

(why yes, that was a reference to the 80’s.)

~Steph

Technorati Tags: languages, language, foreign language, Korean, 한국어, Korean Language