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yeppeojiwrites · 5 years

Text

beauty and a beat (unofficial chapter)//bang chan

warnings: a little bit of swearing but like twice so don’t worry

pairings: bang chan x female reader (she’s a little bit of an oc)

word count: 2,499

yo!

so this isn’t an actual chapter of beauty and a beat but it serves as a kind of informational (??is that the right word??) chapter about the relationship between the reader and chan and why chan likes her. there will be more unofficial chapters like this in the future for different characters.

(previous / next)

plain text is english

bold text is korean

bold italicized text is korean with honorifics (noona, hyung, unnie, oppa, etc.)

Chan has had feelings for you from the first time he talked to you.

In the first video call the two of you had back in May 2018, he found himself enamored of you. He found you so beautiful, with your then chin-length dark brown hair and your milk-chocolate skin and pretty eyes, and the way you talked and explained things...he knew that you would be not only a great musician to have helping his group with their next few albums but a great person for him to have a romantic relationship with.

The romantic relationship thing fell flat when he found out that you were 17 years old turning 18 while he was 19 years old turning 20. That’s fine, he figured. We can be friends.

His impression of you only grew when he found out that you were basically fluent in Korean. “Why did you learn it?” he asked in genuine interest.

“I got into K-Pop when I was 10 years old in 2011. My first song was ‘Hot Summer’ by F(X) and not too long after ‘Hot Summer’ was released, ‘Be Mine’ by Infinite came out and by then I was sold.” you started.

“Ah, I remember when those songs came out! I was 13 years old and it was my first summer in South Korea after I became a trainee,” Chan reminisced. “But continue, sorry.” You smiled and waved off his apology.

“Don’t worry about it. But as I was saying, in my tween obsession, I took it upon myself to try to learn Korean so I could understand what the artists were saying in their songs. So, I started by watching lyric videos on YouTube and writing down the Hangul and the English translations and then I watched dramas like, um, Boys Over Flowers and The Heirs. By 2015, I could understand and read Korean but my pronunciation was weird so I joined some language exchange apps where I met some really nice people, as well as some really weird older guys, but the really nice people and I exchanged information and we would video chat and after a while my grammar and my speech improved.” you said. “That was a lot, I’m sorry.” you apologized. This time he waved you off.

“Don’t worry!” he laughed. “So how did you get into music?” he asked you.

“My parents have had me in piano lessons since I was 5 years old and vocal lessons since I was 7, but I stopped after I turned 14. My dad was very involved in music production. He used to write jingles for commercials and he helped make some demos for music made by smaller artists. I think my mom told me that he proposed to her with a song he wrote himself.” you laughed.

“But when I was 14, my dad got into a really bad car accident and he was stuck in a coma and was basically brain dead, so we...you know. That was a tough time for me but music, especially K-Pop helped me through it. My dad had a small home studio set up in a room in my house and before he passed, my dad taught me how to use everything. So I would do little projects where I made songs that I wanted to hear. The first project that a company decided to use was called ‘Eclipse’ and it was something I made in October 2016 and posted on a website where producers share demos or instrumentals, and production companies can buy them to use in songs. I was contacted in January 2017 by a newer company called Blockberry Creative who wanted to know if they could use my song for their upcoming girl group and I agreed.”

“Do you know what the song is now?” Chan asked. You nodded.

“It was released in May 2017 for the debut of the Loona member Kim Lip. They decided to keep the title the same.” you tell him. “Have you heard it?” you asked him. He shook his head.

“I’ll play it for you,” you said, pulling out your phone.

“Wait, no.” he says. You look back at your laptop in confusion.

“What?” you asked.

“Sing it.” he says.

“It would be better if I played it,” you say shyly. A smile spreads across Chan’s face.

“You can’t be shy now. We’ve already started the partnership and I’m going to need to hear your voice anyways, so why not start now?” he asks. You bite your lip in hesitation before sighing.

“Fine, but only because of your dimples.” you agree which causes Chan to laugh.

“My dimples?” he asks.

“Yes, now do you want to hear me sing or not?” you ask him in a fake serious tone.

“Go ahead,” he says.

“I’ll sing the Korean version since I forgot the lyrics to the demo. Are you ready?” you ask him, a little nervous.

“I can feel your nervous energy through the screen. It’s fine, don’t worry okay!” Chan reassures you. You sighed one last time before you began.

“It begins eclipse

In the shaded shadows where you and I meet

It happened in the fate

The light which is lighted by mind of us

Come closer to me

This is eclipse

I can’t keep my eyes off, so will you be with me continually?

Unforgettable eclipse, it’s destiny.”

Chan felt himself in even more awe. You were nervous for no reason. Your voice’s timbre was beautiful and your breath control and technique had to have been professionally learned.

“How would you feel about joining JYP Entertainment as a trainee?” Chan joked which caused you to laugh.

“I’ll think about it,” you laughed.

From that night in May, you and Chan created a great friendship.

You’ve both seen each other at your worst; Chan seeing you at your worst first. Finals week sucks.

Time differences were very hard. With Seoul being 14 hours ahead of Chicago, someone was always going to bed late while someone was waking up early. Each day that you had school, you would spend a couple hours doing homework before videochatting. Both of you were fatigued for a while but when school ended for summer break, you had much more time to work.

“Hey Chan?” you asked one night while the two of you were working on “M.I.A”.

“Hmm?” he hummed as he played a beat over and over again on the computer.

“Have you heard of this rap group from SoundCloud called 3RACHA?” you asked him. He smiled a bit.

“Yeah, why?”

“They’re pretty cool and they have really good songs.” you sighed.

“Yeah, I think they’re really good too,” you said.

“They haven’t made a song since like 2017 though,” you said before groaning. “They need to comeback so they can save the South Korean rap industry again!” you exclaimed. He laughed.

“I’m sure they’ll come back soon.”

“I wonder if they’re handsome,” you tell him, leaning back in your chair.

“I think they are, especially CB97,” he said, moving a sound clip to a part of a song he was recording.

“Oh, have you met them before?” you asked, leaning forward in your chair.

“Yeah, we’re pretty close,” he said.

“I’m gonna Google them to find a photo,” you declare.

“Hm, alright,” he responds.

“Th-ree-ra-chaaaa,” you mumble as you type in the search bar. “Oh, a ‘P.A.C.E’ lyric video!” you say excitedly. Suddenly, your eyebrows begin to furrow.

“CB Ninety- Chan you motherfu-You’re the fakest person I know! You’re literally the fakest person on the planet!” you yell.

“So are we hot?” he asks, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Choke,” you say flatly, to which Chan laughs.

“Hey Chan, I got an email from this company called KQ Entertainment,” you told Chan one day via FaceTime in September.

“Oh, Ateez’s company! Changbin knows one of the members.” Chan says. “What did they email you about?”

“They want me to come to South Korea to work as a producer for Ateez’s next few albums. KQ will pay for my living expenses and everything.” you tell him. Chan’s head snaps to face you on his phone screen.

“Like...this South Korea? The one I’m in right now?” Chan asks dumbfounded.

“Uh, yeah,” you tell him.

“Have you talked to your mom about this?” Chan asks, trying to tone down his excitement in the event that you tell him that you can’t go.

“She says that I can go and my sister thinks that it’s a great idea...” you trailed off.

“Then why do you sound so sad?” Chan asked you.

“I visit my dad’s grave every two weeks. I have money saved up from birthdays, Christmas, Easter, royalties, the money from JYP for helping you guys out with I Am Who and I Am You and other odd jobs that I’ve taken up over the years and I can afford to fly to Korea but...I don’t know. I know that some people think of this as a job of a lifetime...but I just...I don’t know, Chan.” you sigh. “What should I do?” you ask him. Chan felt his heart hurt at your facial expression.

“I don’t know what I would do. If you want to come here, maybe take something of your father’s like a shirt or a photo of him,” Chan suggested. “Wouldn’t you be able to work from your house?” he asked.

“KQ feels like it would be more efficient if I lived there so I could be easily accessible and so time zones wouldn’t be an issue.”

“How badly do you want to go?” Chan asked you. You laughed slightly.

“It’s been my dream since my demo for ‘Eclipse’ was first used,” you tell him. “I hadn’t thought about it prior to my demos being used.”

“Follow your heart, (Y/N),” Chan tells you. “Do you hear me?” he asks you. You nod.

“I have to go soon, we have to start filming the music video for the title track that YOU helped me work on in SOUTH KOREA,” Chan said.

“Are you trying to influence me?” you laughed.

“Maybe a little bit,” he said. “Bang Chan, we need your for filming!” you heard a voice off-screen.

“I’ll be right there,” Chan said to the source of the voice.

“I’ll let you go, Channie. Thanks for listening.”

“Anytime, (Y/N),” he replies.

“Chan, one last thing!” you tell him.

“What?”

“You look really handsome with your curly brown hair.” you tell him.

“What what-” “See you later, Channie!” you say before hanging up.

He sighed, his cheeks reddening. Minho came up next to him. “Who were you talking to that has you so flustered?” he asked.

“No one,” Chan replied, sliding his phone into his pocket.

“Oh, it was (Y/N), wasn’t it?” Minho said, leaning closer to Chan.

“No,” Chan said unconvincingly.

“Yes, it was, you cradle robber!” Minho exclaimed.

“Are we talking about Chan having the fattest crush on Lav?” Jisung comes over, taking a sip from a bottle of water.

“No, we aren’t, and no, I don’t have a ‘fat crush’ on Lav,” Chan groans.

“Oh he totally has a crush on Lav, he’s a cradle robber.” Woojin said, standing up next to the forming group around Chan.

“I’m not a cradle robber!” Chan exclaimed.

“That’s totally something a cradle robber would say,” Jisung whispers to Minho who nods in agreement.

“I heard that,” Chan warned.

“What did (Y/N) say?” Changbin asked, coming up from behind Chan. Chan shifted a little bit, knowing his younger member’s feelings towards you.

“KQ Entertainment emailed her about coming to Korea and working on a few albums for their new boy group,” Chan said.

“So she’s coming here?” Changbin asked, excitedly. Chan relished in knowing he had the ability to change Changbin’s mood with a single phrase.

“She wants to but she isn’t sure if she can,” Chan says. Changbin’s happy mood changes into a dejected one. Jisung throws an arm around Changbin.

“Here’s the other cradle robber,” Jisung teases, poking Changbin’s cheek.

“I’m not a cradle robber,” Changbin exclaims, pushing Jisung off of him.

“That’s something a cradle robber would say,” Minho whispers.

“You guys are annoying, I’m going to go film,” Chan says, standing up from his chair.

“Make sure your scene looks nice for Lav!” Minho yells. Chan ignores him.

“Hey, Binnie, did your scene look good for Lav?” Woojin asks Changbin.

“Chan’s right, you guys are annoying,” Changbin says as he walks away in the opposite direction as Chan.

“I hope their rivalry doesn’t split us up,” Woojin says, crossing his arms as he looks between the two boys.

“Me too,” Felix agrees.

“Channie?” you say into your phone, your speech slurred from sleep. It was two in the morning after all.

“Lav? What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” Chan asked worried.

“I’m gonna go to Korea,” you tell him, your pronunciation a bit off.

“What?”

“I just had a dream that I went to Korea, and it was great and I feel like things would be just as great in Korea as they were in my dream. I’m gonna go to Korea.” you tell him.

“What about your dad?” Chan asked you. You sighed.

“I’ve gone four years without him. It’ll be tough, but I’ll be able to go four more years if I have you and the rest of the guys by my side.” you tell him. Chan smiled.

“Why are you telling me this in Korean?” Chan laughed.

“I wanted to see if I could speak Korean while half-awake and I feel like what I’m telling you is more meaningful when it’s said in Korean.” you slur.

“Go to sleep, (Y/N). We can talk later.” he says. You hum in agreement.

“Good night, Channie. I love you.” you tell him before hanging up.

“Wait Lav-” the line beeped.

“I love you too.” he whispered.

“Cradle robber!” Jisung sang as he passed the doorway to Chan’s dorm room.

“Shut up!” Chan yelled.

Chan received a text from you on November 17, 2018, at 1 PM in Seoul, before a variety show appearance.

1 new message from lav <3

lav <3: channie!!! look!!! it didn’t hurt that much!!

attached image

Chan clicked on the image and his eyes widened. You had gotten a small-ish tattoo of a stalk of lavender on your left forearm.

chan: SDKLFSJLKFJ what did you do??????

lav <3: are you blind?? i got a birthday tattoo!!! i’ve been 18 years old since the 10th!!!

chan: (y/n) it looks really nice! it complements your skin tone!

lav <3: thanks!! it stings and i’ll have to put the tattoo solve on it for a while but it’s TOTALLY worth it. i’m getting another one next month!!

chan: where?

lav <3: don’t worry about it, channie

chan: what do you mean???

lav <3: not like that!!! the odds of you being able to see it are VERY slim though

chan: ???? that doesn’t worry me any less but go ahead i suppose

author’s note:

here’s something that describes the relationship between the reader and chan and a little bit between chan and changbin!! i have yet to start working on the third part of the actual fic BUT i’m going to start tomorrow. alright homies, its 10 pm and i have school tomorrow so i’m going to dip!! see you guys in the next one!

ellie <3

(previous / next)

#stray kids #stray kids scenarios #bang chan #bang chan scenarios #chan scenarios #kpop scenarios #yeppeojiwrites

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pasteltofus · 5 years

Text

1 Year of Learning Korean

One of the most popular questions I’ve gotten since coming back from Korea is: Are you fluent in Korean now??*

*Spoilers: I am not. 🙃

Looking back, I probably would have become more conversational if I had just done a 3-month intensive program. Although, compared to just learning by myself in the Bay Area, being in Korea definitely gave me more opportunities and motivation. I was placed in the high intermediate class for orientation (switched to low intermediate), but I would say that I’m now truly at an intermediate level. I think my Korean’s more or less the same as my Japanese (which has regressed a lot, and I only took 3 semesters in college) but with very shaky foundations.

Anyways, here’s a brief timeline of what I did this grant year. Let’s go~

[Initiate lock n’ load montage]

July

Korean Intensive Program (8-12pm, 1-2pm M-F)

Because of how the program was structured, I didn’t feel like I learned very much. This is partly why my foundation is so full of holes...we skipped around here and there.

August

Korean Intensive Program

September

Korean was put on pause due to troubles adjusting to homestay

October

Occasionally did a few chapters of Billy Go’s Korean Made Simple at school

Studied some Korean vocab

November

???

December

I don’t think I studied Korean at all

January

Got a wakeup call when I spent 5 minutes trying to read the back of a sign at a smoothie shop and realized how slow I was at reading

February

Vocab grind (1000 Essential Korean Words), plan was to finish by the end of March. Two weeks of intense vocabulary cramming on Quizlet (did nothing in the end lol don’t try that)

Bought the Real Life Conversations Intermediate book

Studied Korean in Kpop lyrics

Started a side coding project to help my touch typing (K-pop lyric typing game)

March

Memorized dialogues from Real Life Conversations book with Lauren

Improved reading skills slightly by listening and following along with the audio recordings that come with the book

Read through the dialogues with the Korean literature teacher in my gyomushil

Continued to learn song lyrics

Wrote sentences with each new vocabulary word, got my co-teacher and the Korean literature teacher to check them (<-this was probably the most helpful game changer...it helped a lot with my spelling too)

Continued working on the K-pop typing game

April

Stopped learning new vocab at around Chapter 11 of Essential Words, focused on retaining old vocab through Anki flash cards

Finished the Go! Billy Korean Made Simple book that I bought ages ago (tbh it was too easy for me at this point but I was just too lazy)

Finally sat down and “learned” Korean verb conjugations (I’d just been going by gut instinct before…tbh I still kind of do 😅)

Kind of dropped the typing game after finishing the MVP 😅but I’m gonna try to finish it up now that I’m back

May

Started to panic about leaving Korea in 2.5 months but still sucking at Korean

Signed up for private lessons once a week for 90 minutes (My tutor asked me to give her a shout out. Her name is 서영심 ([email protected]). If you’re in the Cheongju/Ochang area, she comes to you! She’s very professional and you’ll get your money’s worth.)

Started at the intermediate book that focused on grammar

Learned ~5 grammar points every week

Started writing and reading a lot more and actually seeing how words are spelled. The first time I saw 여기--a super common word (yogi) that means here--written out I thought it was so strange...not that I had thought it was 요기 (also pronounced yogi) but I just didn’t have a visual of it in my head, I guess.

June

Depressed about lack of improvement

Continued with private lessons but felt like I wasn’t really retaining the grammar dump from each week

At the very least, Korean homework kept me on track and made me practice even when I didn’t want to

Started Anki again since I hadn’t actively studied vocab since April.

An old K.Will song that I hadn’t listened to for a long time came up and I realized I could suddenly understand the lyrics. That was pretty cool and one of my small win moments.

July

Feeling pretty hopeless with Korean

However, hung out with more Korean friends that only spoke Korean and felt like I was actually able to contribute to the conversation. (3 hours of Korean Listening ...🙃)

Was able to understand 70% of the conversation at my gyomushil’s final farewell lunch for me. I contributed to the gossip!

Went home and immediately lost 50% of my Korean skills upon touching U.S. soil.

So basically, after my burst of inspiration in February, my confidence and motivation in Korean just kept plummeting. Even now as I write up this post I feel an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. But I do want to highlight the progress that I’ve made since orientation.

Korean Reading

We were all supposed to be able to read Hangul before we came to Korea. Being able to recognize the alphabet is different from being able to read and also different from knowing the pronunciation rules and where to pause in your reading. During my first semester, my eyes would automatically glaze over whenever I saw Korean text. When the second semester started, I tried to force myself to read everything I came across - storefronts, street signs, advertisements on buses, etc. Even if I didn’t know what it meant, I would force myself to read it. Right now, I can navigate a Korean shopping website and read a menu semi-comfortably. I’m still waiting for the day when I’ll see English sounding hangul and be able to read it as fast as English. Although, I will say it’s really nice to be able to read the Korean titles in Kpop videos on Youtube, especially when I come across really old songs (like Super Junior’s No Other 너 같은 사람 또 없어) and realize I now know what it means.

Also, a new world that has opened up to me is...노래방!! Karaoke is such an adrenaline rush. I’d compare it to sight-reading or DDR/rhythm games where you know something is coming up and the satisfaction you get when you get it right with the beat of the music is 👌. It’s so gratifying to be able to sing along...거기 너 I FANCY YOU 아무나 원하지 않아 HEY! I love you (LOVE YA)!!

Korean Writing

Back during orientation, I couldn’t spell anything on my own. I knew words every koreaboo knew like 어떻게 and 괜찮아 but I couldn’t write it because I didn’t know how spelling worked. It’s no wonder my spelling didn’t improve since a) I didn’t write and b) I didn’t even read. Even now I still make a lot of spelling mistakes, but I pay attention to words when I see them. It’s still a very slow process, but now I can picture the hangul in my head when I think of the word.

Typing: I started orientation with around 15 wpm, then by the end of orientation I got to around 30 wpm. Currently, I’m at 60 wpm when I start cold and after I get warmed up I can go up to 80wpm. Being able to touch type is so useful, especially when I’m typing up long sentences from my textbook and I don’t have to look up.

Korean Listening

Dare I say...my Korean listening is my strongest point??? I remember when I took French listening tests in high school, I would always lament with everyone else that they spoke too fast for me to understand. But interestingly, for both Japanese and Korean, I never had that problem. If it only contains words and grammar I know, I can understand it perfectly fine even if it’s fast. I intuitively understand most Korean verb endings and exclamations so it’s not hard to know which way the conversation is flowing or when to interject with “세상에,” “맞아 맞아,” or “말도 안돼.” I used to think my poor lack of vocabulary was the number 1 thing blocking me from understanding, but then I learned more grammar and realized the things I didn’t know. I do feel like parts of the fog are being lifted...sometimes...

Korean Speaking:

I still feel pretty embarrassed when I speak Korean because there are some sounds that I can’t pronounce. Compared to orientation, I have a few more stock phrases tucked and ready to go, but I still feel unable to express myself. Every conversation will start out fine, but they’ll all stagnate to the same topics and sentences after a while.

Complications with other languages

I talked about how knowing some Japanese and Chinese was both an advantage and a disadvantage during my beginning stages, but this is true even now.

Ever since I started getting more comfortable with typing and spelling Korean, I’ve started seeing the actual Hangul in my head when I think/hear Korean. I’ve also started to associate the locations of the Hangul characters with their locations on the Korean keyboard.

One day, I was trying to text back my mom with “那是什么?” (Na Shi Shen Me/What’s that?) but was confused because those characters weren’t showing up. Then I realized I was typing “sk” instead of “na.” Some of you guys might get it....because “s” is where ㄴ(n) is and k is where ㅏ(a) is on the Korean keyboard. Clearly, my brain can’t handle it. It’s interesting because both the Japanese and Chinese keyboard uses the same alphabet placements as English.

Another time: I was watching a Talk To Me in Korean video where Hyunwoo talked about how 하다 is a very versatile verb. I immediately thought about how the Japanese equivalent is 수루 and even mentally mapped it out on the Korean keyboard...before realizing this is WRONG, WRONG, it’s する not 수루 LOUISE WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING. (They are both pronounced suru)

What’s next?

Now that I’m back in the States, it’s going to take even more determination and self-discipline to keep up with my Korean. But I really don’t want everything I’ve worked towards to just wash down the drain. I’ll aim to finish my intermediate grammar textbook and grind anki flashcards. Hopefully, I can find a language partner or a study group. We’ll see!

#language learning #studying Korean #korean #fulbright korea #sorry for the long post #but yes i am back in california #also which one of you messaged isabel about my blog #thanks for reading whoever you are!!#also shout out to my buddy #i actually have one more post to make on my school festival #and then i'll wrap up this blog #learning korean

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m2k021 · 6 years

Text

Coffee

Part 1

Summary: Kora accidentally bumped into Min Yoongi on her way home. He offers to help her write her songs and to help her Korean, since she’s a little rusty. Over time, she begins to feel things, things she doesn’t want to feel. She knows that Yoongi thinks of her as a little sister. But does he really?

Word Count: 1538

Warnings: Fluff, Flirting, Eventual Smut

A/N: Set right before the release of Cypher 4

“Ah, dammit!” I shouted, crouching down to pick up my scattered notes. A boy kneeled to help. “No, it’s alright. I’ve got it.” I said, darting my hands out to grab the notes before he could read them. “Sorry for making a scene.”

“It’s alright, I don’t mind.” he said, his hand reaching for my lyrics book, which was wide open.

“No!” I said, lunging forward to snatch the book from his grasp. “I-I’m sorry, it’s personal.” I muttered. My face burned with embarrassment.

“Um, I understand.” He said, flipping over the pages as he handed them to me. I finally looked up and re-dropped everything. He chuckled.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, feeling my face burn even brighter. “Min Yoongi.”

He grinned his usual gummy smile. I glanced around for the other members, semi-glad to find them not there. Suga is my bias. “So, you finally recognized me.” He teased.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for being such an ass.” I muttered, keeping eye contact with him.

“No, it’s okay. You weren’t an ass,” he said with a stomach fluttering smile. “What are they?” He asked, nodding to my various papers.

I hesitated. ‘Um, they’re lyrics.” I muttered, tucking the pages into my bag.

“Oh, you write?” He asked, leaning back on his heels to look at me.

“Not really, well, I mean, yeah, but um, I, uh, I…” I fumbled for my words,

He chuckled. “It’s alright, you don’t owe an explanation. But, if you would like someone to look over them, I’ll be glad to. I’ve got nothing scheduled for the next couple of hours.” He offered his hand to help me stand, which I took.

“Well, um, you don’t have to, that’s fine.” I stammered.

“No, I’d love to. I always like to read other people’s lyrics.” He said with a smile.

“Um, really?” I asked quietly, rocking back and forth on my heels.

“Yeah, come on. We can do it over coffee?” He asked, moving so I could walk first.

“The others won’t wonder where you are?” I questioned, turning around to look at him.

“No, they know not to expect me for another two hours. We’ve got plenty of time,” he said.

“Thanks, for doing this, but, why are you doing this?” I asked, turning my head to look at him.

He was quiet for a moment. “Well,” he slowly answered, “I like to help and, well, I think you’re cute and I want to help you.” He said, smiling at the ground.

My eyes widened and my face flushed a deep red. “O-oh, thanks.” I said, biting my lip to hide my smile.

“It’s no problem.” He said. “The shop is just up here. I was thinking we could grab a coffee, then go somewhere more quiet?” He asked, turning to me for approval.

“Yeah, yeah, that’d be great.” I said, nodding vigorously. We quickly approached the store and darted in. His face was obscured by his hat, and somewhere along the way he had slipped on his face mask.

“What’ll it be?” He asked, pushing his mask down under his chin. I grinned at the chance to see this sight in person.

“I’ll have a caramel macchiato,” I said with a smirk. He chuckled, his cheeks filling over the mask. He looked cute and puffy.

He approached the counter and gave the barista our orders before coming back to me. “It’ll be just a minute,” he said. “In the meantime, what’s your name? I never asked.”

“Oh! Right, I’m Kora.” I said, sticking my hand out to shake his.

“Kora, pretty.” He said with a smile. I blushed again. “You’re American?” He asked.

“Hmm, Italian, actually,” I said. “My mom was born in Florence, as was I, but we moved to America when I was a year old.” I explained.

“Oh, that’s amazing. Do you know any Italian?” He asked.

“Mmm, unfortunately, no, no I do not. I was too early for the language to stick, and my mom always spoke English after we moved to America.” I said, shaking my head. “I wish, though, that she’d teach me some Italian, but she’s very weird whenever I bring up Italy.”

“Aw, that’s shame.” He said. “So, why’d you move to South Korea?” He asked, asking me to wait when the barista called our names. When he came back, we both left the shop and continued to talk.

“Well, I moved here to get away from America. I’m sick of it there, to be completely honest. My life wasn’t all that good. I was the straight-A student, Valedictorian, then I graduated and my mom and dad wanted me to be a lawyer like them, but that’s not what I want.” I shrugged and sipped on the coffee, relishing in the caramel goodness.

“Then what do you want?” He asked, watching me over the edge of the cup as he sipped.

I considered the question before answering. “Well, I have a strong passion for music, like singing and dancing, and also for learning, That’s partially why I came here. I wanted to learn about another culture and language, and, I gotta say, I’m impressed.” I said with an approving scoff.

“How so?” Yoongi asked, swishing his drink back and forth. From the aroma, I could tell that it was the same as mine.

“Well, for one, your culture is amazing! You’re use of honorifics, it’s great. Everyone is so polite and respectful, meanwhile, over in America, you’ve got people shooting up elementary schools.” He smiled over the steam that was rising from his coffee. “Also, the language. I thought that learning spanish was hard, but, phew, Korean is ten times worse. It’s so complicated, especially with the Hangul. Like, if you guys wrote with the romanized version, it would have been slightly easier, but no. It was so difficult for me to learn, especially since I came here with no knowledge of Korea or its customs.

“So, when I got here, I knew nothing. I could only speak English and spanish. It took me nearly two years to learn Korean, and I’m still rusty. I constantly forget the honorifics, and people tend to think that I’m incredibly rude, especially when I mess them up. It’s so embarrassing.” I blushed slightly, shying away from his amused expression.

“Well, a few times during this conversation I’ve gotten lost. Who taught you Korean?” He asked.

“Myself,” I said timidly.

“Really?” He asked in surprise and amazement, stopping me.

“Yeah, I went to some classes, but I began to piece everything together after a while. I taught myself almost everything.” I said, my cheeks reddening again.

“Wow, for a second I thought I was going to have to scold someone, but you’re actually a pretty good speaker for being self-taught,” he said with a huff. “I’m impressed.”

I stood straighter, a little confused. “Wait, so I’m bad?”

“No, not bad, just….a little confused. You used some words backwards, but you’re still really good. If you want, I can also tutor you in Korean, in exchange that you teach me some English.” He said with a gummy smile.

I grinned. “Deal,” I stuck out my hand and he took it, shaking it firmly.

“Deal,” he grinned back. “But still, you’re pretty darn good, I just need to see your writing.” He said.

“Oof, that’s where I’m really bad.” I laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of my neck. Just then, a phone pinged and we both dug through our pockets to check ours. It turned out to be his, but I decided to shoot my best friend a text about who I was with.

Yoongi was busy on his phone as I screamed at my best friend, Ella, about what was happening. “Here, let me get your number, Kora. I’m so sorry, but something just came up.” He said, handing his phone to me.

“Oh, that’s no problem,” I lied. Maybe he was ready to ditch me. I quickly typed in my phone number and name, with a reminder of who I was before handing his phone back to him.

“Look, I’m not trying to ditch you, Kora-” he read my mind- “Namjoon is having an issue with some equipment, and none of the others can help. I’ll call you later tonight. Again, I’m so sorry. Enjoy the rest of your day.” He called out as he rushed across the street and got swept away by the Seoul current.

I huffed in disappointment. Maybe I jinxed myself when I told Ella. I thought, chugging the rest of my coffee before throwing it away. Not even a minute passed before my phone pinged. I thought it was Ella, but was surprised to find an unknown number. It was Yoongi. I internally screamed as I answered.

He wasn’t ditching me! I skipped along the sidewalk, giggling and humming happily as I made my way. I finally made it home and threw my bag down, giggling again as I sat down. I put my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ so Ella’s frantic texts wouldn’t come through anymore. I sighed as I flopped onto my bed, tucking my hands between my knees as I thought. Best. Day. EVER!

#bts fanfic #Yoongi fic #bts #bangtan sonyeondan #bts imagine #beyond the scene #yoongi #oc #v #jungkok #jimin #jin #namjoon #jhope #syga #agust d

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bieups · 6 years

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Reflections on language school

So it’s been over a month since I graduated and I’m finally gonna write some scattered thoughts about Sogang’s KLEC~!

Bottom line: I do think language school is worth it if you need the structure provided by being a student. It really does a lot to improve your level, but you will still need to study additional stuff outside of class, no matter if your goal is having conversations or passing topik. It’s fun to have a community to study with and I benefited from having a set routine that forced me to work on all 4 language skills. Sogang’s focus is definitely on conversation, so I wouldn’t recommend it if your main goal is to get a high topik score or attend grad school because other schools focus more on advanced writing & vocab.

(Feel free to ask questions because I know there’s lots I didn’t cover or explain well here~)

I also know that some people complain about having to speak from the beginning and would rather focus on learning first, then speaking. But for me, this method was very helpful because I already know I am a perfectionist and I’d rather just get over that and be able to talk to people in broken Korean than develop some complex about using correct grammar.

Anyway, here are some thoughts about the levels!

Level 1 starts with Hangul, then gets into the most basic grammar & vocab. The textbook follows these characters, which leads to classroom bonding because the main dude is kinda annoying, and all the readings & listening exercises involve the characters doing normal everyday things like going to school, having a birthday party, asking for directions, etc. It’s honestly stuff that I think most people could study on their own just fine. The people who struggled in my class were just not ready for immersion learning. (During my level 5 class’ debate, one girl didn’t remember the American guy’s name and called him “앤디 씨" and every single person in the room broke down in hysterical laughter)

Level 2 brings in a lot more useful grammar patterns, but you’ll still sound kinda like a robot haha The example conversations you practice in class get a little longer and more detailed. The writing assignments are slightly more interesting. You learn 반말 (informal speech) and there’s still a lot of roleplay, but you have a bit more freedom with it than you did in level 1.

Level 3 is where things start feeling really helpful. Like up until now you are stuck building the foundation and learning basics, but in level 3 there is a lot more really useful conversational grammar and the reading/listening exercises get more complicated. This is also where most of the English speakers need a lot of outside help because the grammars don’t have English equivalents and the book from Sogang does a terrible job of explaining things. The chapters all focus on useful life stuff like going to the doctor and renting an apartment, but it’s also means a lot of vocab that you won’t naturally get to use everyday, so this is also where people start falling behind if they haven’t been keeping up with studying every day. This is also when you get into written style vs. speaking style, so sometimes students become good writers (me) and others become good conversationalists (not me)...

Level 4 was a blast, but I think it was mostly because my teachers were fantastic and my classmates loved being there. Finally everyone is actually able to communicate in only Korean, so class time is more enjoyable. Students have to give a presentation and there are no more example conversations! (So long, 앤디 씨~) Listening & reading become every day classes instead of alternating days. The writing assignments were also a bit more interesting because they tended to be useful topics we’re all asked about anyway (self introduction when applying for a job, describing a place you visit often, giving advice) . You also start learning stuff like news-specific language and how to complain.

Level 5 is now into “advanced” territory. I actually enjoyed a lot of the writing assignments because they tend to be less personal and more about your culture/customs and those kinds of topics. Many of the readings are, of course, helping you learn Korean, but it’s more learning about a topic in Korean rather than just reading some kindergarten level stuff. There is a classroom debate that can be kinda awkward; the topic will be something like saving for retirement vs. supporting your kids, or whether or not the death penalty should exist. Also instead of listening class there is now a video class! You watch short (~5-10min) clips from various movies/tv programs and have a separate workbook for all that vocab and whatnot. I had an amazing video teacher who made the class super fun, even when we were stuck watching incredibly awkward/boring things (looking at you, Ahn Chul Soo & matchmaker guy!)

Level 6 had good moments & bad moments. My classmates were all nice, but my friend never even learned everyone’s names because we didn’t really mingle together much. Our homeroom teacher was wonderful, but a lot of the content was just not that interesting or relevant to my life. I wasn’t interested in the readings, and constantly getting distracted made them even more difficult to understand. It was also hard to be at a point where we were beginning to discuss social issues, but were still very much limited by our skill level and vastly different backgrounds. Like, if we have a list of typical social issues (immigration, low birth rate, unemployment, etc.) and we have to discuss which one is the biggest in our country...trying to explain that America’s immigration problem is actually a racism problem requires the listeners to first be interested in understanding. Also there were a lot of times where we were supposed to talk about our countries, but the US is too huge and narrowing it down to Texas wasn’t much better (the geography & weather of Texas...a place 7 times larger than Korea...)

The most frustrating thing was the book situation. There is a speaking textbook & a reading textbook, but the little grammar/vocab book only covers the reading textbook. This means that there was no explanation or dictionary for the grammar & vocab from the speaking textbook, which was frustrating when you were trying to review. We also only read half the readings (each chapter has 2; we’d only study the first one), which seemed odd, but studying any faster would’ve been a nightmare so I can’t imagine why they designed the books that way in the first place. Also, the little book is only available in English?? The level 5 textbook bundle includes the Korean version, but suddenly you’re supposed to go back to a translated version for level 6?

Honestly, I’m sure level 6 helped my Korean, I mean I was there in class speaking Korean every day...but I think it would’ve been more helpful for me to focus on the stuff from levels 3-5 than bother with what is taught in level 6. There is just so much advanced grammar that I will rarely get the chance to use, especially because I’m still stumbling over more basic stuff. Video class was helpful because I do want to be able to watch the news, but sooo many of the readings were kinda boring and a lot of the writing assignments were basically just dumbed-down versions of stuff I had to write in university (talk about an environmental issue & how to solve it, talk about what’s wrong with the education system & how to fix it). I did really well in writing (boyfriend said the paper I wrote about common types of housing in my hometown was great! hahah), but I actually hate writing papers and that’s not a skill I care about.

Overall, I definitely do not have the discipline to self-study to a high level, so attending class was a good choice for me. I liked ~graduating~ and getting a certificate to show, even though it’s irrelevant for my job. I think it gave me a really good foundation, I have an idea now of how to continue to improve, and I feel comfortable speaking Korean even in situations where I am 100% aware of how many mistakes I’m making. I do plan to attend more classes in the future and will probably eventually take the topik. Language learning never ends~

#sogang #klec #langblr #korea

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arabellaflynn · 7 years

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Two of my housemates are learning things on the Duolingo app right now -- I think one of them is doing French and the other Spanish, but don't quote me on that. I signed up for the free version, and currently have nine languages running, because that'll keep me from getting bored and blowing through the entire skill tree on any one of them in like three days. I've spent the past two hours poking at it, because I currently have one of those plagues that's long on extra snot and short on oxygen, and I can do nothing that takes me more than lunging distance from a box of tissues. Au début, j'ai découvert que je fais du français encore assez bien, lorsque je me suis remplie des drogues. Duolingo will give you a fluency score; it tops out around 50-60%, because Duolingo isn't life, and right now my French hovers around 53%. It would probably be higher, but I'm far enough into it that it's asking me to translate things that can be said in a number of slightly different ways, and my first guess is not always the exact one the program wants. It's an irritating variation on the Guess What Verb The Parser Knows game from the old Infocom text adventures, particularly when I know full well that if I had said it that way to an actual human, it would have worked fine. It sometimes wants precise translations and sometimes wants contextual equivalents, and sometimes it wants precise translations that are just plain ol' wrong on both counts. The French lessons, for instance, translate the pronoun on as 'we'. It is not; on is the impersonal "one", as in "One speaks French in France." Inasmuch as it is a third-person singular pronoun, it takes the same verb conjugations as he, she, and it. If you would rather translate it into the less-formal English equivalent, it almost always maps to the impersonal "you", as in "You speak French in France." Also irritating, and sometimes obstructive, is that Duolingo does not explain grammar. The sets of lessons might be captioned 'Prepositions', but it never explains what a preposition is, nor is it very good at taking into account the fact that some of them mean slightly different things depending on context, and there is not a one-to-one correspondence to prepositions in English. You get present-tense verbs without an explanation that the 'verbs' and 'is verbing' forms are the same in French/German (and not the same in Spanish or Japanese). It really plays fast and loose with the Japanese translations, where it will demand you guess the exact pronoun it wants despite the fact that this information is literally nowhere in the sentence they want you to translate -- Japanese often leaves pronouns off, and since Japanese doesn't conjugate for subject you can't reconstruct it with 100% accuracy from an out-of-context phrase. These inconsistencies are especially rage-inducing when you're doing the bonus skills, like flirting or idioms. Duolingo expects you to guess what things mean by looking at how they're used in a sentence, but because they want the equivalent idiom in English, and never give the exact translation of the French one, they're fucking up the pattern you're supposed to be picking up. Their translation of Ça va, ça vient is "On again, off again", which is not what those words say. Le monde appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt = "The early bird catches the worm." Nope! Sauve qui peut is rendered as "Run for your life!", which is often what it means, but it literally says "Save who/that which can (be saved)!" It would also be used if, say, someone tipped a pitcher of beer all over the table and wanted everyone to jump forth and rescue their own phones and wallets. The idiom they render as "You can't have your cake and eat it too," is actually, "One cannot (concurrently) have (both) the butter and the money for butter." They also at some point teach you the word for cake, and it is not beurre. The languages are also inconsistent in whether they'll let you answer in the Latin alphabet. The Esperanto lessons will take the ASCII-based x-transliterations (Esperanto requires letters like ĵ, ĝ, ŝ, and ĉ, which so far as I know are unique to that language, and require hotkeys on a QWERTY keyboard), but Russian immediately demands you go find a Russian IME or keyboard. They do not have any lessons teaching you the Cyrillic alphabet. They just throw words at you and expect you to work it out on your own. I'll bet they don't do that when they're teaching Russian kids to read. The Asian languages will only ask you to type when translating things to English; both the Japanese and Korean lessons have you build your Japanese/Korean answers by picking the words you want out of a list of options. The Japanese lessons generally use revised Hepburn romanization, which is one of the two common standards, and comes out okay; they use Revised Romanization for the Korean, and it's fucking awful. The correspondence between what the hangul block literally says, what the voice pronounces, and the Roman letters that represent it is appallingly poor, to the point where I was doing better when I turned the sound off. The vowels are fine and pretty well disambiguated, but there appears to be very little consistency to how the consonants are transcribed. The same phoneme is R at the start of syllables and L at the end; the simple final stop might be b, g, t, tt, k, or kk, and the one the romanization uses does not always reflect the actual Korean letter(s) used in the han. They also never explain what the jamo are or how you assemble them into han, which effectively means they are trying to teach you hangul by the same brute-force memorization method as hanja. There is perfectly good logic behind how you build those blocks -- which means you can disassemble them to sound words out -- so this is stupid and wrong. They don't have any Arabic lessons for speakers of anything I could stumble through a language course in. Given the state of the Korean, that might be a good thing. If anyone else is entertaining themselves with Duolingo, I'm Arabella Flynn on there. Feel free to add me as a friend. from Blogger http://ift.tt/2xfj8CR via IFTTT -------------------- Enjoy my writing? Consider becoming a Patron, subscribing via Kindle, or just toss a little something in my tip jar. Thanks!

#IFTTT #Blogger #Unsolicited Advice

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