Wild Korean: Now available in bookstores near you (in Korea)

Wild Korean is now officially published! You can purchase the book on line at Kyobo bookstore's website, or in stores.

Click here to purchase online: http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/product/detailViewKor.laf?ejkGb=KOR&mallGb=KOR&barcode=9788994987057&orderClick=LAG

And, be sure to come to our publication event, please see "Classes and Events" at the top of the page.

Thursday Evening Free Korean Class

Free Thursday Korean Class
When: Sept 1st- Dec 28th; 7-8:30 (16 classes total)
Where: Garwol Welfare Center near Sookmyung Women's University in Central Seoul (Line 4)
What: First two months: study basic vocabulary for beginners. Last two months: Study "Wild Korean" to learn conversational Korean.
How to sign up and get more info: E-mail Hannah at izet_ruca (at) hotmail (dot) com. We have a maximum of 20 students, so e-mail now before it's too late!

Printing

Good news for all of you patiently waiting for the release of Wild Korean: A field guide to REAL Korean conversation. The book is being printed THIS WEEK! I hope you've all marked your calendars for the publication party on Sept. 4th in Itaewon/Noksapyeon. We have had 78 people RSVP so far, will you be number 79? Who can turn down free beer, snacks and free copies of our book?

Joke of the day: The Scariest War Ever

What is the scariest war the world has ever known?
세상에서 제일 무서운 전쟁이뭔지 알아요?
무서워 (Mu-seo-weo)

Get it? 무섭다 is the base form of the word for "scary" or "scared". As it is a "ㅂ" verb, it is irregular when conjugated, dropping the ㅂ and adding the 워. This is the 반말 (ban-mal, informal) conjugation of the verb, to say it formally, you would need to simply add 요: 무서워요.

Now, why is this funny? It's a play on the pronunciation of the word "war" in English. "워" sounds like "war" to Korean speakers (and maybe to Bostonians who like to drop their "r"s at the end of words, too). I hope you like this joke, and try it on your friends today!

숙제 Homework:
When the syllable block preceding the ㅂ in irregular ㅂ verbs has an ㅏ or ㅗ the ㅂ is dropped and a 와 is added. ex. 돕다 (to help) --> 도와요
When the syllable block preceding the ㅂ in irregular ㅂ verbs has any other vowel, the ㅂ  is dropped and a 워 is added. ex 무섭다 (scary) --> 무서워요

Conjugate the following three irregular ㅂ verbs.

쉽다 (easy)
부럽다 (jealous)
징그럽다 (gross/ disgusting)

Do you know another irregular ㅂverb? Post it in the comments with a conjugation and a translation!

*check your answer in the comments*

Wild Korean Publication Party! You're Invited!

Wild Korean Publication Party! 
When : September 4th, Sunday, 5 ~ 7 PM
Where : New Palace ( 02-796-2043), near Noksapyong subway station, line 6, Seoul
Special Event 1 : 30 free copies for the first 30 guests
Special Event 2 : After the first 30 copies, the book will be sold at a discounted price.
Special Event 3 : Free beer (Korean draft beer) and snacks !!!
Make your reservation now and find directions on our facebook event page by clicking "Attending"

Wild Korean Publication Party Facebook Event Page

If you have any questions or requests, please contact me.
Sanghyun Ahn : wildkorean1@hotmail.com

Joke of the day: King Sejong's milk

You can tell this joke in English or Korean to your Korean friends. It's fun in any language. The first thing you need to know is the word for milk in Korean: 우유 (Oo-yu). Here's the joke in English and Korean:

Did you know that King Sejong invented his own brand of milk? What did he call his milk?
세종대왕이 우유를 만들었는데 뭔지 알아요?

 아야어여오요우유! (Ah-ya-eo-yeo-o-yo-OO-YU)


Do you get it? These are the basic vowels of the Korean alphabet, hangul... which was invented by King Sejong! If you don't get it, try it on your Korean friends anyway, and after they laugh, they can explain it to you too.

A new TOPIK resource

Someone on Facebook posted his new website to study the TOPIK. He has entered in all the questions from TOPIK exam #22 and the website allows you to answer the questions in an un-timed format on-line (aka, no need to print out 50 pages of test papers to practice like usual). You can take the beginner, intermediate or advanced exams and test yourself. I hope he can enter in some older exams too, so show your support to this guy and maybe he'll expand his website!!

Check it out here: http://www.naldaramjui.com/ 

Homework

Well, I thought a little "homework" section of each post with a lesson would be a good way to help folks actually practice what they learn. So, in the last post, we learned the usage of 의 (eui) as a possessive and the phrase 머리가 좋다 and  머리가 나쁘다.  So, today's homework is to write two sentences using 의 as a possessive and one sentence using 머리가 좋다 or 나쁘다.

Just post your sentences in the comments section and we, or other readers can make corrections if needed. Don't be shy, just try your best!! Don't worry if you do this today or a year later, there's no time restrictions on these homework assignments! Also, feel free to ask questions in the comments for clarifications!

Learn to sing: 내 머리가 나빠서

For those of you who loved the series 꽃보다 남자 (Boys Before Flowers) a few years back, you may like to learn one of the main theme songs from the series called 내 머리가 나빠서. The title would translate as "Because I'm Stupid", but first, let's learn each word from this title because just understanding the basic words here isn't enough to translate this correctly. 

내- this means my, coming from 나의. 나 means I and adding 의 to a word makes it possessive. You can use 의 in many cases like 조안나의 집 or Joanna's House. The 의 acts like an 's in English. But then, where did it go in the word "내"? Well, saying 나의 is kind of a mouthful, so Koreans simplify it in a conjunction here and just say 내  for simplicity.

머리가 나빠서- 머리 means head, 가 is a subject particle (marking 머리 as the subject of this phrase) and 나빠서 comes from the base form 나쁘다. When you add 서 to a verb, it is like adding the word because.

Putting this together, one will say, "well, this song's title is 'Because My Head Is Bad'" or something like that, but the last thing to understand here is that the phrases 머리가 좋다 and 머리가 나쁘다  don't mean "good head" and "bad head" but instead mean "Smart" and "Stupid". Parents often brag about their children saying "내 아들의 머리가 좋아" meaning, my son is smart.

Anyway, on to the song!

내 머리가 나빠서 - Nae Mori-ga Nappa-seo

내 머리는 너무나 나빠서
너 하나밖에 난 모르고
다른 사람을 보고있는 넌
이런 내마음도 모르겠지
너의 하루에 나란 없겠지
또 추억조차 없겠지만
너만 바라만 보고있는 난
자꾸 눈물이 흐르고있어

너의 뒷모습을 보는것도 난 행복이야
아직 나의 마음을 몰라도
끝내 스치듯이 가도

니가 너무 보고싶은 날엔
너무 견디기 힘든 날에는
너를 사랑한다 입가에 맴돌아
혼자 다시 또 crying for you
혼자 다시 또 missing for you
Baby! I love you! I'm waiting for you!

너의 하루에 난 없겠지
또 기억조차 없겠지만
너만 바라만 보고있는 나
혼자 추억을 만들고 있어

내겐 사랑이란 아름다운 상처같아
너의 예쁜 미소를 보아도
함께 난 웃지도 못해

니가 너무 생각나는 날엔
가슴 시리고 슬픈 날에는
니가 보고싶다 입가에 맴돌아
혼자 다시 또 crying for you
혼자 다시 또 missing for you
Baby! I love you! I'm waiting for you!

Bye bye never say good bye
이렇게 잡지 못하지만
I need you 아무 말도 못해 I want you 바래도 다시 바래도

니가 너무 보고싶은 날엔
너무 견디기 힘든 날에는
너를 사랑한다 입가에 맴돌아
혼자 다시 또 crying for you
니가 너무 생각나는 날엔
가슴 시리고 슬픈 날에는
니가 보고싶다 입가에 맴돌아
혼자 다시 또crying for you
혼자 다시 또 missing for you
Baby! I love you! I'm waiting for you!

And here is a translation so to help you understand what you're singing!

Because I am a fool
The only thing I think about is you
But I know that you are thinking about somebody else
And you probably don’t even know my heart

I probably don’t exist in your daily life
And I’m sure you have no thoughts of me
But for me, I spend my days thinking about you
And my tears keep falling

Just looking at your retreating figure
Is happiness to me
Even if you don’t know my feelings
Even if you simply brush me aside

CHORUS:
In those days when I desperately want to see you
Those days that are so hard to bear
My mouth wordlessly repeats “I love you”
Alone once again I cry for you
Alone once again I’m missing you
Baby I love you
I’m waiting for you

I probably don’t exist in your daily life
And I’m sure you have no memories of me
But for me, I spend my days thinking about you
And create my own memories

For me
Love is a beautiful scar
Even when I see your beautiful smile
I cannot smile with you

CHORUS:
In those days when all I think about is you
Those days when my heart is cold and sad
My mouth wordlessly repeats “I want to see you”
Alone once again I cry for you
Alone once again I’m missing you
Baby I love you
I’m waiting for you

Bye bye never say good bye
Even though I can never have you
I need you
I can’t say a word, I want you

I keep hoping and hoping
In those days when I desperately want to see you
Those days that are so hard to bear
My mouth wordlessly repeats “I love you”
Alone once again I cry for you
In those days when all I think about is you
Those days when my heart is cold and sad
My mouth wordlessly repeats “I want to see you”
Alone once again I cry for you
Alone once again I’m missing you
Baby I love you
I’m waiting for you

Webtoon: Penguin Loves Mev

For intermediate to advanced readers of Korean, Penguin loves Mev is the perfect webtoon to improve your reading skills. Penguin, a Korean woman writes about her dating (and eventually marrage) adventures with her boyfriend Mev, a British man living with her in Korea. Foreigners can easily relate to the mistakes Mev makes and the humor is something that anyone, Korean or non-Korean can understand. It is probably particularly resonant for those in multi-cultural relationships.

You can download Naver's Webtoon application for your smartphone or ipod/ipad (search: 네이버웹툰 on your app download application, like iTunes), or if you want to read it with an English translation, you can see it on the web at http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=169080&page=1 , just be sure to start from 1화 which is the first week's webtoon as they are listed from newest to oldest.

I hope everyone gets the chance to check this out as soon as possible! Download it onto your smartphone and read it on the subway on your way to work or on your next boring bus trip!