"Do I really need to know this?" AKA: a Korean Language Primer

When I first went to Japan originally I had some basic language skills as backup. I was an exception. Most ESL teachers went blind and frankly did perfectly well. My family thought I was brave or whatever just for going to a foreign country, but I think THOSE teachers were the brave ones. Now is my chance to prove I too am brave.
Not really. It's mostly that I'm just reckless. ^o^

I snooped around online for some info and found a bunch of sites which I will post later, but I needed a BOOK since you have to have you Foreign Residents card processed and in hand to get Internet service at your residence. If Korea is anything like America -and I'm sure it is as governments everywhere thrive by dragging their collective a$ when it comes to getting things done- that could take some time.

Anyway, the book I choose was in Japanese. I know from the little searching I have done online that grammatically Korean is far more similar to Japanese then English. Pronunciation-wise closer to English so I plan to use both English and Japanese resources at my disposal. In the meantime though, since I'm starting from ZERO I went with this Japanese book on recommendation from Kinokuniya in NYC. It came with a CD and was in-stock..

I have to say it just cracks me up. After tracks of numbers, counting and basic greetings you, the learner, enter the world of daily conversation. And that's when it gets good.
"Please stop" ... OK, harmless enough.
"His conversation is most unpleasant" ... Now there's a very Japanese comment. But still in the reasonable range of things.

"The change is wrong."
"This is not what I ordered."
"This food is not cooked through."
"The glass is dirty." ... ...Home cooked meals are sounding better and better all the time.

"I'm afraid of ghosts." ... ...? OK, I do NOT recall this ever coming up in a conversation and I'm a renowned horror-film fan.

But the best parts come at the end of the book/CD. I think the authors were just sick of the whole thing by then and decided to screw with us.

It's starts off with "I have been hit by a car." and "It's not my fault." (now that's a must know in any language.) then follows up with such other useful phrases like "I am the victim" which utterly cracked me up and resulted in no sleep.

Again, do we really need to know these things?
And if so, what does this say about Korea?
All fun.

Cheers! (^_-)-☆

Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!

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