Status update

It’s 12:30 AM and I may or may not be eating Cheez-Its out of the box at this very moment.

Lots of stupidity going on in my life.  Things have been tailspinning since February and I feel like I’m falling deeper and deeper into a hole I won’t be able to climb out of.  I think I’m going to have to make a major decision soon but, for once, I’d like to have the chance to choose one way or the other, and not be forced into one direction.  I dunno if I’m going to get that chance.

Anyway, this is a little potpourri post about what I’ve been up to with regards to my Korean studies/immersion.

1)   I’m starting to regularly watch things without subtitles. It’s liberating.  I find that often I don’t even notice the lack of subtitles.  This is nice because many of the drama sites I was using in the past are shutting down (RIP Dramacrazy), and it’s much easier to find raw episodes elsewhere within hours of it airing in Korea.  The only exception I make to this is mystery-thrillers because I want to get every detail of the plot revealed in the dialogue – though subtitles don’t always help in this case because they aren’t always accurate.  That aside,

2)  I am profoundly bored with almost everything that’s airing in K-dramaland at the moment.  Except Monstar which is so precious and endearing and refreshing and basically all the positive adjectives ever.  I watch 최고다, 이순신 bracingly, with one finger poised over the FF button, but I adore every second Jo Jung-seok’s on-screen.  I tried 너의 목소리가 들려 briefly but there’s something about it that just strikes me as… contrived?  I dunno.  Maybe it’s because I don’t like any of the actors.  The first few episodes did not get me emotionally invested whatsoever.

3)  I watched 파수꾼 recently and it shook me to the core. It’s up there as one of my top 5 film of all time.  It’s everything I could want in a film.  I don’t have proper words for it.  I’ve always felt more of a connection to Japanese films than I have to Korean films, but this is the first Korean film that’s really gripped me.

4)  I switch between Korean novels a lot but currently I’m reading 바람의 화원 and translating a bit here and there.  It’s fun learning art- and geometry-related vocabulary.

5)  My most recent auditory obsession is Dynamic Duo’s 7th album ‘Lucky Numbers.’  It is F-L-A-W-L-E-S-S.  If you haven’t already, check out their new single here.  Not sure if I’ve expressed how much I love Korean hiphop (and especially Amoeba Culture) on this blog, but there it is.  I’ve been listening to a lot of old Epik High lately too.

6)  As for idol music, I don’t really know what’s going but I think a few groups (B2ST! Which, tbh, I’m extra excited because of Monstar)  that I follow are planning on making their comebacks soon.  B.A.P. kind of blew me away with their new single.  I don’t even know what to think about these boys anymore – is there any concept they can’t pull off?  Other than that… I’m still listening to a lot of SHINee.  Still super impressed with how strong they came back this year.

7)  I’ve been listening to a lot of 유인나의 볼륨을 높여요, while I’m walking to lab, on the bus, while I’m doing experiments.  It’s nice to fall asleep to too.

8)  I skype regularly with my language partner.  When we talk, on her part, it’s roughly 50% Korean, 50% English (though it varies – when she’s excited it’s like 3% English.)  On my part it’s 5% Korean, 95% English because I still struggle with having a real-time spoken conversation in Korean.  But my language partner’s good at forcing me out of my comfort zone.  She’s often like, “Okay for five minutes, let’s use Korean only!” One thing I’ve noticed about my language partner.  Personally I… I think I’m pretty decent at Korean for a self-studying, non-Korean person, but my language partner compliments me only very rarely.  It’s nice!  If I show her something I’ve written, or I say something, it’s like she acknowledges it for what it is without the label of ‘oh this is good for a non-Korean person.’  If that makes sense.  I feel like she holds me to the same standards as a native speaker, which might seem a little unfair, but then again I do the same for her in English.  That’s the best way we can improve ourselves.

9)  A couple months ago, I tried making a facebook page for this blog… and then promptly took it down.  I decided it was kind of boring and I’d rather not log in to facebook more than I need to.  Heh.  Instead, y’all can talk to me as much as you want here.

10)  THANK YOU to M and Curioser and Curiosor for nominating me for the Liebster Award – the post has been sitting in my drafts for months now and I just haven’t had the drive to finish it yet.  Someday!

Okay that’s it for now.  More coherent posts to come in the future (hopefully).