First off, I want everyone to know that I am feeling much better, still not 100%, but better. I even went to class today (2 different schools in one day! *cries*). And actually, the first school of the day almost brought me to tears I was so frustrated (no, I will not explain), but the second school of the day was much better and restored my natural good cheer.
I have picked up a few words in Korean, not very many. The cadence is a lot like Japanese and a very few of the words are the same (like bag, for example is "kaban" in both languages) but the crossover is rare. Like Korea itself, I would say Korean is a wacky mix of both Japanese and Chinese plus it's own unique thing all mixed together. I found Japanese to be much easier to learn because it was completely phonetic and all the sounds the in the Japanese language are also in the English language. Korean...not so much. Korean pronunciation is very tricky, kinda like Chinese, though it isn't tonal like Chinese. In Korean, "bu" and "pu" and then "gu" and "ku" and then "du" and "tu" and then "ju" and "chu" all sound very similar. For instance, the city of "Pusan" can be said either "Pusan" or "Busan" though neither is actually correct. The real sound is somewhere in between "b" and "p" so it is very difficult to pronounce things correctly. The words are also incredibly long which makes pronunciation hard too. For instance, a simple "hello" in English is "annyeonghaseyo" in Korean. Then they have weird vowels like "eo". How the heck are you supposed to pronounce "eo"!? GAH! It was driving me a little nutty but I have gotten to the acceptance stage where I just try and let the language flow into me and parrot it back instead of trying to wrestle it into submission (i.e. some form of comprehension) first. I haven't had the time to sit down and learn the written language (called hangul) but I hear it is very easy to learn, like you could do it in 2 hours or less. So at least I won't be illiterate for as long as I was in Japan (it took me awhile to catch up with all the kanji (Chinese characters) in Japan). I will be able to read things, I just won't have any idea what they mean!
I wouldn't say the language is harsher than Japanese. Like I said, the cadence is very similar between the two languages. The people, on the other hand, are a little bit harsher. As I said before, Korea is a strange mix of Japan and China, so the people here tend to be a little more abrupt (kinda like the Chinese) with you. But I think that may be because they are always in a hurry. They call it "bali bali" or "faster faster" which I think is the motto of the country and probably why they get into so many traffic accidents!
I must say that it does really annoy me when Korean people with just jabber away at me in Korean when I obviously have no idea what they are saying. It is like they think I will magically gain fluency or something. I must say that the Koreans have been remarkably helpful though, unlike the Japanese who wouldn't even bother with you unless you asked them to help you in Japanese. For instance, OMG the first night I was here (in my apartment) I blew out my power when I tried to plug in my surge protector (weird huh?). So, I went to my breaker box to try and restore power, but the breaker box was broken too! So there I was, in the dark, first night in my apartment, my landlady and her family (they live on the 1st floor) had gone away on a family trip for the weekend, and I had no phone to call anyone to help me. Despair, right? Well, I walked over to the GS25 (a convenience store) which is next to the empty field which is next to my building. I walked in and started miming calling someone then I pointed to the number my supervisor (Mr. Choi) had left me. The lady, who I think might be the owner, seemed to understand what I wanted so she put me in her car and drove me up the street. I thought we were going to a pay phone, which is what I wanted. Nope! She took me to a cell phone store! So I did the whole miming calling Mr. Choi thing again and the cell phone store people got it and called the number from a phone in their store. So finally I was able to talk to Mr. Choi and tell him my problem. Then, the lady from the convenience store put me back in her car and drove me back to the convenience store. Mr. Choi showed up soon afterwords (I was so embarrassed by the whole fiasco) and he tried to restore my power but had the same problem with the breaker box, so he called an electrician! Mind you, all of this was taking place at something like 9:00 PM!!! But! Lo and Behold! The electrician came, quick as you please, got my power running again and even got my surge protector plugged in just fine! So. as I said, the Korean people are incredibly helpful.
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