For The Love Of Language
Language is a powerful tool. It's a wonderful skill. It's a communication essential.
The origins of the world's first languages can be traced back to thousands of years ago, to the time when men were building the Tower of Babel. So, language has its origins found written in the word of God, the bible.
The more fluent you are in the number of languages you can speak and write in, the more you are able to communicate with ppl. And we're talking about millions more :) Some ppl can speak and write 3 or 5 or even more languages and they are equally good at each one. Makes you wonder whether they were born with dat ability or talent.. or maybe they are just very blessed with this special gift. Haha, well i'd like to think dat i have a abit of dat kinda talent~
Language has always interests me~ I love deconstructing language right down to its bare essentials, scrutinise its structure, grammar and wat not. It's been said dat communication is largely non-verbal. While i agree dat dat is true to an extent, however, it doesnt dismiss the fact dat direct communication and interaction is achieved through the exchange of words, i.e through language. To prove the point, you can try communicating with someone while keeping silent the whole time and i can guarantee dat both of you will know nothing about each other's thoughts or feelings by the end of the day.
Well anyway, for the past many number of days, i've been poring through my korean language books and i've gained knowledge of a lot of things regarding the language~ So many different types of expressions, nuances in the language etc. It's really enjoyable~ I would say dat it's not dat much difficult than japanese which i studied for sometime. Seems dat finding a good korean language school in singapore is harder than finding a good japanese language school.
I think it's because of my background with the chinese and japanese language, dat i find korean easier to learn on my own. Korean shares alot of similarities with the chinese language. For example, the word for 'library' is 'tu shu guan' in chinese and in korean it's called 'toh saw guan'. Many of the words can be attributed to its origin in the chinese language. So, for us who know chinese, it's easy to relate to many of the words used in the korean language especially when it comes translations of the meanings of korean words and sentences.
With japanese, i'd say the largest similarity is in the sentence structure. Both languages have particles, use the same grammatical structure, use honorifics etc. Both languages also use a system of alphabets to write the language and even chinese ideographic script or 'han zi' which is the equivalent of korean 'hanja' and japanese 'kanji'. See the similarities in the term used? Having studied japanese for quite a while, it is alot easier to understand korean because of the similarities.
Let me draw another example. The japanese have a phrase they use quite often called 'Ogenki desu ka' which literally means 'Are you in good health?'. This phrase has quite a broad meaning depending on wat context it is used in. The korean equivalent will be 'An-nyeong haseyo?' which literally means 'Are you in good health?'. This phrase of course has lots of meanings as well, depending on the context. Both phrases are used in the english expression 'How are you?'. So, there are some meanings which cannot be fully expressed in english but it's fully understood when you derive the chinese or japanese meanings of the phrase.
Dat's just some of the interesting similarities~ Other than dat, it's the technical aspects of the language which really interest me. All the different expressions of tense, object marker, subject marker, topic marker, conjunctions, particles, sentence endings, colloquails, honorifics, post positions etc etc. These things keep my mind constantly occupied with more thoughts and questions which i'd like to answer someday soon :D
I was seriously contemplating whether i should pursue some sort of language certificate in Korean. Was wondering whether they had some sort of language proficiency examination like the japanese JLPT examinations.. I asked my younger sis if she wanted to join me since she's quite interested too.. Yeah, i think i would do so, and i think i'd do pretty well in it :D Dat i'm sure of~ Haha!
Hmm.. i was thinking of those times when my cg had visitors from korea. If only i knew the language better, i think it'd be really good fun communicating with them :D Who knows? I could even translate the sermon haha! Yeah, that'll be reaaally cool :D Yeah, just thinking.. well, i don't see why i cant learn it well eh?
The origins of the world's first languages can be traced back to thousands of years ago, to the time when men were building the Tower of Babel. So, language has its origins found written in the word of God, the bible.
The more fluent you are in the number of languages you can speak and write in, the more you are able to communicate with ppl. And we're talking about millions more :) Some ppl can speak and write 3 or 5 or even more languages and they are equally good at each one. Makes you wonder whether they were born with dat ability or talent.. or maybe they are just very blessed with this special gift. Haha, well i'd like to think dat i have a abit of dat kinda talent~
Language has always interests me~ I love deconstructing language right down to its bare essentials, scrutinise its structure, grammar and wat not. It's been said dat communication is largely non-verbal. While i agree dat dat is true to an extent, however, it doesnt dismiss the fact dat direct communication and interaction is achieved through the exchange of words, i.e through language. To prove the point, you can try communicating with someone while keeping silent the whole time and i can guarantee dat both of you will know nothing about each other's thoughts or feelings by the end of the day.
Well anyway, for the past many number of days, i've been poring through my korean language books and i've gained knowledge of a lot of things regarding the language~ So many different types of expressions, nuances in the language etc. It's really enjoyable~ I would say dat it's not dat much difficult than japanese which i studied for sometime. Seems dat finding a good korean language school in singapore is harder than finding a good japanese language school.
I think it's because of my background with the chinese and japanese language, dat i find korean easier to learn on my own. Korean shares alot of similarities with the chinese language. For example, the word for 'library' is 'tu shu guan' in chinese and in korean it's called 'toh saw guan'. Many of the words can be attributed to its origin in the chinese language. So, for us who know chinese, it's easy to relate to many of the words used in the korean language especially when it comes translations of the meanings of korean words and sentences.
With japanese, i'd say the largest similarity is in the sentence structure. Both languages have particles, use the same grammatical structure, use honorifics etc. Both languages also use a system of alphabets to write the language and even chinese ideographic script or 'han zi' which is the equivalent of korean 'hanja' and japanese 'kanji'. See the similarities in the term used? Having studied japanese for quite a while, it is alot easier to understand korean because of the similarities.
Let me draw another example. The japanese have a phrase they use quite often called 'Ogenki desu ka' which literally means 'Are you in good health?'. This phrase has quite a broad meaning depending on wat context it is used in. The korean equivalent will be 'An-nyeong haseyo?' which literally means 'Are you in good health?'. This phrase of course has lots of meanings as well, depending on the context. Both phrases are used in the english expression 'How are you?'. So, there are some meanings which cannot be fully expressed in english but it's fully understood when you derive the chinese or japanese meanings of the phrase.
Dat's just some of the interesting similarities~ Other than dat, it's the technical aspects of the language which really interest me. All the different expressions of tense, object marker, subject marker, topic marker, conjunctions, particles, sentence endings, colloquails, honorifics, post positions etc etc. These things keep my mind constantly occupied with more thoughts and questions which i'd like to answer someday soon :D
I was seriously contemplating whether i should pursue some sort of language certificate in Korean. Was wondering whether they had some sort of language proficiency examination like the japanese JLPT examinations.. I asked my younger sis if she wanted to join me since she's quite interested too.. Yeah, i think i would do so, and i think i'd do pretty well in it :D Dat i'm sure of~ Haha!
Hmm.. i was thinking of those times when my cg had visitors from korea. If only i knew the language better, i think it'd be really good fun communicating with them :D Who knows? I could even translate the sermon haha! Yeah, that'll be reaaally cool :D Yeah, just thinking.. well, i don't see why i cant learn it well eh?
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home