Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Hiatus

Given my perceived load of the next few weeks (already up in the last week), I am announcing a hiatus from posting. I’ll be back some time after the new year.

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Handhelds

I want to buy a handheld. Ideally, I’d have a Korean-English dictionary on it. Readers, what Korean-English dictionaries do you use on your handhelds? Are there any useful Korean applications that you would recommend?

Your answers will play a role in settling the Palm/Pocket PC question.

Marketing the Meetup

Last night I dropped off a pile of Meetup cards at the Oriental Market (not the same as the Oriental Supermarket). They were kind and a bit puzzled about why I am learning Korean.

Later, so was my waitress at the Seoul Garden Restaurant. “English is a world language, and Korean is spoken by only a small number of people,” she said after answering a couple of homework questions.

I had earlier decided to change the location of future meetups from Barnes and Noble to the Seoul Garden Restaurant. I cleared it with one of the owners (I want attendees to feel comfortable just ordering drinks if they don’t want food, and I purposely selected a slow time for the restaurant), and then changed our meetup from the standard third Tuesday of the month to the second Monday of the month. (In Meetup’s earlier days, the time and date were inflexible, and only a limited number of locations were available.)

My speaking-Korean-in-front-of-other-people doom draws nearer.

The 빼빼로 challenge

Long car trips can be hard on the family, but this trip the 빼빼로 challenge broke some of the monotony. I have scrupulously avoided buying that Japanese Pocky stuff, but I read recently that Pocky is better than 빼빼로. While I instinctively bristled at the thought (why should the Japanese be better at chocolate-covered pretzel sticks? Aren’t cars and electronics enough?), a seed of doubt had been planted, so on the morning of our departure I visited the Oriental Supermarket and picked up four boxes of 빼빼로 and four boxes of Pocky. For good measure, I got one of those big boxes of almond 빼빼로.

Classic 빼빼로 lost to classic Pocky three to one, and the one wasn’t me. Children overwhelmingly preferred the classic Pocky, but given the option, they’d rather have almond 빼빼로. I’ll have to pick up some almond Pocky the next time I have a chance.

Thursday, November 25, 2004

Holiday greetings

You don’t have to be American to be grateful, and neither do you have to be American to accept my holiday greetings: 줄거운 명절 태십시오.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Korean Around Me

One of the categories I’ve been looking forward to seeing used over at 한국어 연습장 is Korean Around Me. That’s one crucial component missing from my current studies. 필립‘s got a new post.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Hitting the deer

Car-deer collisions are not uncommon in my neck of the woods, especially during mating and hunting seasons. My commute includes a long stretch of highway that bisects deer habitat: forests, orchards, and farmland. As long as I had made that commute, I periodically saw dead deer on the shoulder or in the roadway. Whenever I saw one, I thought about what hitting a deer would be like. I imagined that the impact would hurt me and my passengers (never mind the deer). Sometimes people die in such accidents, and I wasn’t too keen on dying.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Resources

Over the last day I’ve been busy moving links from the Online Resources section over to their new home in Resources.

Visitors may now comment on these resources. Members may add links to additional resources, including books and audio materials.  There’s also an RSS feed for the Resources section, if you’d like to be notified when new materials are added. Suggestions for improving this section are welcome. I’m working on the shortlist of resources I recommend, but I plan to take my leisurely time. I also plan to add a short description of each resource. Reader assistance in this area is welcome. And unless I receive wide support for the current structure on the Resources page, I’ll continue to improve its organization.

Looking back, I’ve accomplished nearly everything on my initial list. The final piece is an update to the randomizer. random//genius is making it better, and you’ll notice the change in a couple of weeks.

The tinkering has not quite ended, but I’m getting there. Each step I’ve taken has revealed a new one, and I have a few remaining ideas. 

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Repertoire

Tinkering with one’s web site must eventually come to an end, but I haven’t reached it yet. The latest development is the introduction of the Repertoire section, where I record words, phrases, proverbs, and 한자 I encounter. The Repertoire section has its own RSS feed.

The random word at the top of every page is pulled from the Repertoire section. It will shortly be modified to include images and a link to the word’s comment page.

My next goal is development of the Online Resources section to include offline resources. Visitors will be able to offer feedback on individual resources. I’ll also include a shortlist of 강미 recommendations.

Friday, November 12, 2004

오징어

오징어 먹었어요.

Not on purpose, of course (for those of you who know me).  But it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

In my area, there are three restaurants that serve Korean food. One of them advertises itself as serving Korean food. The food isn’t terrible, but it’s not Korean, either.

Another is a Japanese restaurant owned by Koreans who list a few Korean items on their menu. It’s all right, but I missed the egg in my 순두부 last week.

Today I decided it was high time to visit the Seoul Garden Restaurant ("with a licensed Korean chef"), a restaurant that opened this past summer. It serves both Korean and Japanese food. The location wasn’t promising, as it’s located in what may have been the restaurant section of a rundown motel. The menu, however, was. I had just been telling 인선 that I hadn’t eaten 돌솥 비빔밥 since I left Korea, and there it was.

Like most Korean food I’ve eaten here, it wasn’t quite what I expected. It was plain rice served with soup, a whole fish, and an abundance of 반잔. The deep-fried noodles were unfamiliar, but so was the fish staring at me, and I was eating that. Well, I was eating the deep-fried noodles, too, which were chewier than they looked, but they were good. It wasn’t until I sensed a slight fishy taste that a light began to glow, and I asked my waiter what it was. “Dried squid,” he said. “오징어?” I asked. “Yes,” he said.

I’m not a vegetarian, but there are many forms of meat that I don’t eat. These days it’s more out of force of long-standing habit and a well-developed aversion to those forms. However, in certain circumstances, I would eat almost anything put in front of me without a peep. 오징어 joins calamari and prosciutto as meats that I would not normally eat, but which I no longer fear (truthfully, prosciutto should never be feared, but embraced).

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Odds and ends

인선 wants me to write a diary in Korean. As an incentive, I promised that I would do it here. I told Blinger that I understand his reluctance to reveal more about himself in Korean, because I was figuring that was what I was going to have to do, but upon further reflection I admitted the truth to myself: I’m a little lazy. Now I have to learn how to say “I’m a little lazy” in Korean. 인선 gave me this assignment a week ago, and you can see how much progress I’ve made.

Here’s today’s diary line in Korean: 지난 월요일에 감기 걸렸어요. I’m resting comfortably now, but I left work early and cancelled this evening’s Korean lesson.

(I get twice as much typing practice in Korean because I forget to switch the keyboard over to 한글, or I use the wrong switch.)

I finally had a chance to watch the video Antti referenced. I found it to be an interesting window into a part of Korea many foreigners never see. The English subtitles are helpful but by no means complete.

Jun-Gang continues his interesting series on 동물 의성.

And finally, I’m pleased to live in the kind of small American town in which I can make a quick 빼빼로 run. 아몬드 빼빼로, anyone?

Iron sharpens iron

Blinger has a both a beautiful new blog and a great idea over at 한국언어 습득. All of you should be there, now.

빨리 해!

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

한글 keyboard labels product recommendation

The vinyl labels are superior to the aluminum foil labels. The foil stickers eventually split and peel off.

I got my latest set off eBay (shipped from Korea) for US$4.24.

Monday, November 08, 2004

Stackz

I’m told that the latest version of Stackz handles Chinese and Korean in addition to Japanese.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

The day after

How does one express “I haven’t been grateful for presidential term limits since 1988” in Korean?