Graduation from Adroit College Beginning Korean 1

박영섭

I am happy to post that I made it through my Korean presentation for our graduation ceremony at Adroit College last night! Beginning Korean 2 here I come!

Here are some pictures from the event (showing my classmates). Enjoy!

-Ron

2012 Adroit College Spring Quarter Graduation

민영 씨

태오 씨

Homemade Kimchi is Un-Freaking Believable!

Homemade kimchi from the class on Saturday, June 2, 2012

I just got a chance to open up my four day old homemade kimchi (ie, Korean spicy picked cabbage, or 김치 in Korean) from the "I Love Kimchi" class that was sponsored by Adroit College and the Republic of Korea's Consulate General. Here's what it looks like after fermenting in my kitchen.

OMG, this tastes un-freaking believably good! I am talking eyes rolling around the back of your head good. It is the best kimchi I have had this side of the Pacific, ie, not in Seoul!

By the way, I'm graduating today from my Korean 101 class at Adroit College, but when we are done I'm heading to the Korean market and buying some napa cabbage and rock salt. This stuff is that good! And then I'll throw the store bought kimchi out as soon as the homemade batch ferments.

Check out the recipe at the bottom of my "I Love Kimchi" Event post.

저는 김치를 참 좋아요! (I really like kimchi!)

"I Love Kimchi" Event

I just got back from the "I Love Kimchi" event at Daesung Presbyterian Church in Sunnyvale. It was sponsored by Adroit College and the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea.

We learned how to make the traditional cabbage 김치 (kimchi), and then we had some lunch together. Many of my 선배 from Beginning Korean 2 were there that I had met at a dinner last week. I met a lot of KPOP and K-Drama fans there as well.

Now I'm full and heading for a workout....

Korean Made Easy for Beginners

My Korean class uses the book Korean Made Easy for Beginners, and I've posted the flashcards for the chapters in the book on Quizlet. I've been using both the web based and the iPhone/iPad versions.

Here's the introduction chapter:

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study korean flash cards

Here's Chapter 1:

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study korean flash cards

Learning 한국어 vocabulary

I started out learning Korean vocabulary the traditional way, by creating flash cards with the Hangul on one side and the English definition on the other. Then the software engineer in me said "there's got to be a better way", and I searched the 'net for a solution. Low and behold, I found a good one!

Quizlet!

It's online, it's free, and there are free iPhone and iPad apps for it. So I signed up and gave it a whirl this evening. It was really good at creating a web-based, online flash card testing experience. I even downloaded the cards on my iPhone and it was great.

Here's the result:

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study korean flash cards

Give it a try if you are learning Korean!

박영섭

Adroit College Korean I Class 4

Last week's class at Adroit College was the fourth class this quarter. We worked on putting Hangul consonants and vowels together to form words. I haven't summarized the first couple of weeks because I have just started blogging, but here's a recap:

• Korean culture (한국문화). The big difference between the Milpitas class and the classes in San Leandro and Palo Alto is an extra hour every week. The extra hour focuses on Korean culture. I find this quite useful as we learned about jikji (직지), the oldest movable metal typeset book.  Here's a YouTube video about it: 

  Jikji-The Missing History of Metal Type Printed Books

   

  I had always learned in World History that the Gutenberg Bible was the first, but apparently Gutenberg was first in the western world, and second worldwide with the discovery of the jikji's publishing in 1377.  Finally, for you K-Drama fans, last week we saw a video about the Korean Wave (한류) of KPOP and drama idols.

Jikji is pictured above. This is the Korean equivalent to the Gutenberg Bible.

• Music to learn the alphabet. Professor Koo (구은희 선생님) has incorporated music with learning Korean. This is a great way to have it stick in your mind. I find myself singing the Korean Alphabet Song (yes, it is on YouTube. Think ABC song in English) during my work day almost subconsciously now. 

• Dance motions for letters. Well, we are not really dancing, but using hand, arm and body motions to remember the vowels. This is also another innovative way to learn Korean that helps it stick. 

 That's it for now. Gotta run!