Thursday, September 22, 2011

A bookworm's way of learning Korean


I'm starting to develop this love hate relationship with this person i'm language exchanging with (an actual person from Korea, not that bear above in a hanbok). No. Not the 애인 love hate. It's more like the dreaded hate that you get when you have to meet up with your teacher for a one on one lesson every week. Focus. Upright seriousness. Straight to the book. Then there was tonight's skype session. My liking for the guy has shot up for what he has done with me.

See, he comes across as a bookworm to me. From his voice, down to what he says when he gives his sample sentences and just everything thus this far points to it. I'm going to say it, even if i sound rude, immature and/or ungrateful. He comes across as quite a boring guy. However, despite his lack of a huge personality i think he passed down a method of his for language learning tonight. It made me open my eyes towards him for what he has done to have attained the level of English he is at (he's pretty advanced). It's beyond my imagination on what i thought i could do. So in sync with his bookworm persona of course, this method consists of....

Friday, September 2, 2011

푸딩얼굴인식 Korean Celeb Face Match - Korean iPhone app

 Not really related to learning Korean, but anyone who has a Korean friend has probably seen this on their Facebook news feed at one stage? It's basically an app that takes your photo and matches you up to your Korean celebrity look a like.

My friend Paul has kindly allowed me to use his photo to demonstrate how to work this Korean app.
When i first met this guy, i thought he resembled my beloved Jonghyun from Shinee a little. Sorry Jonghyun. Clearly you're incomparable but for the sake of this post... Paul, you're better looking! Dies. Somebody kill me. Anyway i just discovered that an English version of this app is available. The English version seems quite buggy though. The menu and functions are the same, but it's definitely buggy in comparison to the Korean version that has been around for a while.

Click or type in the following to download the app.
 Korean version: 푸딩얼굴인식 
English version:  Korean Celeb Face Match
Read on if you're still interested in a tutorial on how to work the Korean version.
Or if you think Paul is better looking than Jonghyun....
Please leave a comment if you think this is not true =D

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Learning how to type in Korean - iPhone app

Learning how to type in Korean is a task in itself. I guess most would say that it's like starting all over again in learning how to type. I somehow wouldn't describe it that way. For starters, there are commonality between typing in Korean and typing in English. You will still have that same keyboard (thus the same layout), so therefore your fingers are centred in the same position. That already helps a whole lot with learning how to type in Korean.
Anyway, I'm not writing a post on suggesting how to learn how to type in Korean. I'm still learning myself.
I do want to share however, an iPhone app that is good for familiarising whereabouts each letters are.

The app is called 타자 연습 Type Words for iPhone Free. If you type that into iTunes you should find it with no problems, or click here. Below are some screenshots of the app.