Hey everyone! (new guy)

[Enkiae]

Hey everyone! I'm glad to have found this site. Actually I've been subscribed for a while but didn't have the opportunity to make use of the site until recently I really love the audio podcasts and it's great to have a community of dedicated Korean learners to talk to ^^

I'm really terrible at self introductions...My name is Yousef. I'm originally from Montreal (Canada) and have been living and working in Seoul for just about a year now. I speak English, French and Arabic and am currently learning Korean and Japanese, so I hope to make use of this site and the Japanese classes in the near future.

서툴리지만 한국으로 자기소개 하볼까요
전 유세프(yousef)라고입니다. 지금 서울 살고있어 영어 강사 일하고있어요. 서울 사는게 너무 좋아해서 한국어 좀더 공부해야겠어요 외국어 관심 갖시는분들 사귀고싶어서 앞으러 잘 부탁들입니다 ^^;

Nice to meet everyone and I hope to be able to chat with everyone, especially those living in the Seoul area! Please add me to MSN, Facebook, Skype...whatever

[Bouks]

Welcome, Yousef! (Ahlan wa sahlan!)

Cheom boepgesseumnida You are obviously an advanced student. I am very much a newbie. I speak French and some Arabic as well (husband is Algerian), and have learned some Japanese in the past. Glad to see you making use of your subscription!

What is your impression of Seoul, as a Canadian?

Bouks

[Enkiae]

Ahlayn . I didn't expect to meet another person who knew some Arabic here!! On dirait qu'ona plusiers langues en commun lol

Thats so cool! Have you lived in or visited Algeria? I remember you saying in your self introduction thread you had an 8 year old daughter. I'm a child of Western-Arab marriage as well (mother is French Canadian and father is Emarati, from Dubai)

Seoul is a pretty vibrant, energetic city. There's so much to do, whether you're by yourself or with other people. It can get a little lonely if you can't speak Korean very well, but I'm working on that

Very service oriented too. You get all sorts of free things out of the blue. Example: a month ago I was in a family owned fried chicken restaurant waiting for my order when suddenly the owner of a neighboring seafood restaurant came in and gave us all free sashimi

[Bouks]

I visited Algeria once, but I got sick (didn't take all of the correct precautions for travellers) and so I didn't get to see much. I plan to go this summer, and this time get loads of shots and things beforehand.

Wow, I wonder how restaurants in the States would react if neighboring restaurants started giving away free food in their place - might start some fights

Now we need frenchpod101.com and arabicpod101.com! Are you ready to take them over with me? We have another fluent French speaker here, it's Hyunwoo-ssi, KoreanClass101.com superstar. He seems to have studied many languages as well.

Actually my Arabic isn't very fluent, I can read fuss7a but can't really converse properly. I can I make fun of my husband's dialect - good thing he thinks that's hilarious I can also speak some Persian, but it's been a while. Korean doesn't seem as difficult as people say it is - maybe that's because Arabic is the hardest language!

[Enkiae]

re: freebies from other restaurants. Not just that, but even in the restaurants/bars themselves...if you hang out long enough, you'll probably get a free soup/stew as "service". In contrast to back home where hanging out for too long could get you a "you're STILL HERE??" silent stare from the waiters.

lol I'd be glad to help with a frenchpod, but I speak with a slight Quebecois accent so it might sound different to those who only learned Parisian French

My fuss7a actually isn't as good as it should be. I mean, we learn it in schools, but I never used it outside of school (talking to family or friends in fuss7a would sound awkward and stilted) ^^; I speak 5aleeji mostly, but know a little Lebanese and Egyptian. Most of the North African dialects (Algerian included) are a little difficult for me to follow. I'd be interested in hearing it from someone who learned Arabic later on....would you say it's one of the hardest languages really?

[Bouks]

Heh heh, I lived in Marseille, they've got a funny accent there as well. I will admit, though, that I hardly understand a word Canadians say! Maybe that can be a "regional focus" for frenchpod101.com

I really do think that Arabic is one of the hardest languages, if not the hardest. I have studied several languages, including Latin and Japanese, both of which are difficult for different reasons. But in Arabic, it's the complexity of the grammar that gets me, as well as the variation in the dialects. You either have to limit yourself to hanging out with Egyptians only to get the most "standard" dialect, or just be content with fuss7a. My husband always tells me not to bother with his dialect, which he affectionately calls "couscous Arabic" But I've picked some up over time.

Japanese is difficult because of the writing system, but I found the grammar moderate to easy. I think Korean is about the same difficulty level grammatically (I can see some similarities), and hooray, the writing is easier! At least it is so far. I hear they still use kanji characters, though, is this true? I'm in trouble then.

[austinfd]

...and hooray, the writing is easier! At least it is so far. I hear they still use kanji characters, though, is this true? I'm in trouble then.

I can confidently say that you will be 100% OK if you never learn to write 漢字. It won't hurt to learn to read them, but writing can be undertaken just for fun!

[hyunwoo]

I agree with Austin

Learning 한자 will be very very very very helpful, but it doesn't hurt if you don't

[Enkiae]

Bouks Ahaha...grammar classes in high school were an absolute NIGHTMARE The basics aren't that bad, but they expect you to analyze and justify *every* *single* *word* in a sentence....^^;;;;

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to classify the different Arabic regional dialects as different languages, like they do with Chinese. I suppose that Egyptian or Lebanese would be the two most well known dialects, since most TV shows and famous music artists come from those places. Compared to most of the more modernized dialects, my own 5aleeji sounds kinda old fashioned and hick-ish

As for hanja...personally, in my opinion it depends on how far you want to take your knowledge of Korean. If what you're aiming at is complete fluency, then I think hanja will be pretty important. Specifically, knowing the meaning and reading of Chinese characters will help you in learning the more technical vocabulary (kind of like English prefixes and suffixes, except it applies to the *whole* language). In everyday writing, they're very rarely used though....sometimes in newspapers or signs for stylistic effect, shorthand, or to clear up any of ambiguities (since Korean has so many homonyms).

On the plus side, Korean hanja have only one or two readings per character, as opposed to Japanese with the insane 4-10 different ways of saying the same letter.

Hyunwoo I gotta say it's an honor to meet you I really admire your dedication to learn languages. And your blog entries + language talk audioposts have helped improve my Korean reading and listening immensely ^^

[Bouks]

Enkiae, haha! Actually I'm enough of a geek to love all of that stuff, but understanding all of that grammar in Arabic is an intense exercise. Not for sissies.

Aww, khaleeji doesn't sound "hickish", it sounds classic! Whereas the Algerian dialect hardly resembles Arabic at all (don't tell my husband I said that )

I like the idea of learning hanja to enrich my knowledge. I just probably won't tackle it for a long time. I love the idea of getting a brush and inkstone and learning to write them nicely, but I don't think I could get help with that around my area. So I'll probably just watch them do it on Dae Jang Geum again.

[hyunwoo]

On the plus side, Korean hanja have only one or two readings per character, as opposed to Japanese with the insane 4-10 different ways of saying the same letter.

Yeah, that's what makes Korean so much easier to speak than Japanese at times. It took me a long time before I was able to say '1 minute' and '3 minutes' and '5 minutes' correctly in Japanese even though the character for 'minute(分)' is still the same thing.

Hyunwoo I gotta say it's an honor to meet you I really admire your dedication to learn languages. And your blog entries + language talk audioposts have helped improve my Korean reading and listening immensely ^^

Enkiae, thank you sooo much! I really want to learn more and working with KC101 to help more people study Korean better gives me even more energy and enthusiasm to study other languages harder, mainly because of everybody's dedication to learn the Korean language, so I should thank YOU all!

[the_haunted_boy]

I really like your name, I have always liked Middle Eastern names.

[steved]

Welcome Enkiae! On my recent trip to 서울 I had a couple of very different language related experiences. One, at a hotel the housekeeping person was delivering some extra bedding but she had brought it to the wrong room so I explained to her what room she needed to bring it to. She was very non-plussed by my Korean and everything went very smoothly. Perhaps she was used to dealing with foreign speakers but I had similar experiences in general with speaking Korean around 서울. However, in one store I went in to inquire about a 벼루 that I thought was interesting, the 주인 couldn't understand a word I said. He was only hearing English coming out of my mouth even though the words were clearly Korean, to me anyway.

In general I find that Koreans are very surprised when they hear a foreigner speaking Korean and one of the first things they may say is, "wow, you really speak Korean well."

[austinfd]

steved,

I'm sure you were speaking reasonable Korean. I have this problem alot... especially when asking for water. Last night I said the sentence about 3 times, before one of my new co-workers finally understood. Then he mumbled something in Korean that sound like... I'm still not used to hearing foreigners speak Korean, so I was expecting English...and so when you spoke Korean, I couldn't hear it.

And yes, even uttering one word will usually elicit a very enthusiastic:

"오와! 우리말 찐자(정말, 되게) 잘 하시네요!!"

It certainly is nice to be appreciated and encouraged, but I simply saying "안녕하세요" should hardly qualify me as being a good Korean speaker!

[austinfd]

steved,

I'm sure you were speaking reasonable Korean. I have this problem alot... especially when asking for water. Last night I said the sentence about 3 times, before one of my new co-workers finally understood. Then he mumbled something in Korean that sound like... I'm still not used to hearing foreigners speak Korean, so I was expecting English...and so when you spoke Korean, I couldn't hear it.

And yes, even uttering one word will usually elicit a very enthusiastic:

"오와! 우리말 찐자(정말, 되게) 잘 하시네요!!"

It certainly is nice to be appreciated and encouraged, but I simply saying "안녕하세요" should hardly qualify me as being a good Korean speaker!