Happy Birthday To Me

…Though that’s absolutely not the point of this post.

I just wanted to explain why this blog has been lacking updates lately. The day after I wrote my last post, I learned that I had a chance of getting into my dream school in Paris (basically the same thing I was doing, but in the capital city). I went for it and a month later, here I am watching the Eiffel Tower from my window (no kidding, I’ll take pictures soon)! I’m living the dream!

About Korean: of course it took me a while to find an apartment and settle, and I have to deal with classes, but I’ve still been reviewing my Anki cards daily and, albeit more slowly, learning new things.

And being in a bigger city means more opportunities, language-wise too. At the moment, I’m not contemplating joining a class, but I’ve had a few Korean-related experiences. I eavesdrop on Korean tourists’ conversations and I love hearing the language, even though I’m all the way in France! One day I even sat in the metro next to a Korean girl reading a book (I forgot the title, though). A few days ago, I went to the Japanese and Korean street with my Japanese-learning (and now officially studying Japanese, congrats Claire!) friend. Before going in a Korean grocery store, we had made a bet that I would speak in Korean to the cashier – but of course I totally chickened out. (Next time I promise, I shall go through with it…) Also, we’re going noraebanging soon, and I plan on visiting Korean libraries as soon as I get my metro card! Stay tuned!

Law School & Korean

So today was the beginning of term — I’m basically doing law, not the regular curriculum, but I’m not going to explain it here, there’s just no cultural or linguistic equivalent for this in English. Moreover it’s really not that relevant to my blog. (For possible French readers: une CPGE ENS Cachan, avec des cours en prépa et d’autres à la fac de droit.)

I’ll still be doing English and Spanish at school, but the teachers said that it was possible to manage to follow evening classes for a third language (of course they don’t offer Korean in my city, but knowing that we have time for our personal projects is relevant to my interests), and the sophomores told us that the workload was definitely bearable and would allow us to maintain extra-curricular activities. So I guess that I won’t be as overwhelmed as I thought I’d be, AND that I’ll still have some time for Korean-learning!

So I’m starting higher education as a happy and determined girl. Wish me lots of success!

Noraebang In My Own City

I just discovered an Asian-style karaoke in my city, and decided to go with my Japanese-learning friend. They have Chinese machines with songs in various languages, including Korean, and quite a few K-pop songs. The clerk, probably assuming that I couldn’t read 한글 to save my life, asked me if I was sure that I wanted to put on a Korean song (namely, Oh! that I had practiced mainly because it doesn’t have any fast rap part that I can’t keep up with). I think I scared him when I started belting out “전에 알돈 내가 아냐 BRAND NEW SOUND“. He left us with a “I see you’re doing just fine”…

Chrome Add-On: Pop-Up Dictionary

Ever since my Japanese-learning friend bragged about pop-up dictionary Rikaichan or something, I’ve been looking around for something similar for Korean, in vain… Until now. Seriously, why didn’t anyone tell me about it?

A free Chrome add-on (though I’m pretty sure that other browsers have it too) allows you to double-click on a Korean word and have its dictionary entry opened right away, in a little pop-up window. Easy-peasy, and you’re not even leaving the page you’re on.

New Theme

My new theme randomly displays headers featuring genre painting (풍속화) by 18th century Korean artist 신윤복, also known as 혜원.

Quick Picture

Of my new MacBook, ready to learn some Korean (you get a glimpse of the keyboard stickers and my Anki decks!), and my new textbook, Integrated Korean: Advanced Intermediate 1, that finally reached in the mail today!

MacBook, Textbook & Fangirling

First of all, I moved, finally got back Internet, and above all, got a sexy MacBook! (I’ll post a picture later, and you’ll see the neat 한글 keyboard stickers my penpal sent me!) I’ve never really used a Mac before, so I still don’t know how to do some very basic things, but I’m very happy and hopefully I will pick up everything quickly.

Tomorrow my Integrated Korean: Advanced Intermediate 1 will be delivered. I should have gotten it a week ago but my name wasn’t on the new mailbox so it got sent back and whatever… I can’t wait to work with it. These days I’ve mostly been learning from online dictionaries sentences (or old books, while I didn’t have Internet), but I’m welcoming the change! I hope that it won’t be too difficult nor too easy, and that I did the right thing by skipping the Intermediate 2.

Some quick fangirling: I’ve started to really, really like HoMin since 이것만은 알고가 (Before U Go), my most played song on iTunes, and I love many older songs too (including some from before they disbanded). So I’m very excited for their new Japanese songs and music videos, I Don’t Know (it seems to have already been released?) and Superstar (20th of July).
It’s such a shame that I’m not learning the language… At least, when I fangirl on Korean songs, I’m learning some vocabulary or structures and don’t feel as guilty!

And did I mention that I passed my final exams with 86.4%?