Hi! What Have You Gained As An Asian Studies Major? And Do You Know What Your Next Steps Are After Graduating

Korean Webtoon Recommendations

Hey guys, I wanted to make another recommendation post for those looking for more Korean language resources. Some of these may be good for beginners but I think many intermediate learners will find these more useful. Anyways, here are some webtoons you can find on Naver Webtoon:

독립일기 This webtoon is about the trials and tribulations of the narrator trying to live on their own for the first time since graduating from college. A humorous commentary on trying to be a functioning adult– I think many of us can relate. It’s also useful to learn everyday vocabulary required to live on one’s own

드로잉 레시피 A quiet commentary on life and loss, Eunsoo travels to her late mother’s hideaway in the countryside and begins to reflect on her and her mother’s lives. Sketch-like drawings of gardens and flowers make reading pleasant and entertaining and dialogue is uncomplicated.

판타지 여동생! High schooler Eungjung begins to feel left out by her peers who all are crazy for video games. Her older brother gives her the latest MMORPG for her birthday, and on a bet, she sets out to master the game. Fun fantasy characters and video game vocab keep reading exciting.

범이올시다! One day, young Bangshil brings home a baby tiger. His grandmother forbids him from keeping it but somehow, the tiger keeps managing to find his way back into their home. While the dialogue is fairly basic, this webtoon is set in the Joseon era, so readers should be aware that some vocab and grammar is not current, but fun to learn.

정년이 Another period piece, this webtoon is set in 1956. This story is about Jeongnyeon, a young woman with nothing to her name but a singing voice. She dreams of making it big as a theater actor in Seoul. It begins in Mokpo, so those interested in Jeollanam satoori will enjoy, but for those not used to it, it can make understanding a bit more confusing. I also personally really love the artwork of this webtoon.

유미의 세포들 I have recommended this webtoon before, and I do so again, because it remains a great one. As Yumi navigates life, the audience gets a special look inside her brain at the hardworking cells that control her emotions and decisions. Dialogue is fairly uncomplicated so beginners may also find enjoyment here.

백수세끼 Lastly, 백수세끼, a fun play on words (can you guess what it is?) recalls the story of one couple’s relationship, as it starts and ends, through food. Where did it go wrong, what changed? Accompanied by delicious illustrations of food, natural conversations of young adults unfold.

I hope this was helpful! What are your favorite webtoons? Let me know!

A GUIDE TO JAPANESE PITCH ACCENT

Japanese pitch accent is something so rarely taught in Japanese language classrooms – or textbooks for that matter – that learners from beginner to advanced levels have no idea what it is. Pitch accent is called 高低（こうてい）アクセント in Japanese, and it refers to the high and low pitches placed on Japanese words in order to help distinguish them from other, similar-sounding words.

For example, let’s look at 橋 端 and 箸. All 3 of these kanji are read “はし,” but the difference is that the first はし means bridge, the second means edge, and the third means chopsticks. But how are you supposed to differentiate these words outside of context or reading their kanji?

Pitch accent.

There are a lot of Japanese natives that don’t even understand what 高低アクセント is, but it’s what makes or breaks native- versus foreign-sounding speech. While in context a native will understand that the かえる you mean is 帰る (to return) and not 蛙 (frog), one is pronounced differently, and using 蛙’s pitch accent where 帰る’s would be used is something a native will notice.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a full lesson on pitch accent, but merely an introduction and overview. At the end I’ve listed additional resources to further Japanese pitch accent study, but it’s something that takes time and effort. A single Tumblr guide will not teach you Japanese pitch accent.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction & FAQ 2. Essential Vocabulary 3. Indicating Pitch Accent 4. Golden Rules 5. Examples 6. Additional Resources 7. Conclusion

Keep reading

DIY Study Supply: Customizable Acrylic Board


Click on images for better resolution


Hey everyone! So I’ve recently been seeing acrylic board planners like this one circulating around social media, and I thought there could be a better way to implement the same thing - more customizable, more versatile, cheaper. Here’s one of the ways you can make a customizable acrylic planner for yourself! I have one of my own and it’s been a wonderful productivity tool. Hope you like it <3

Here’s a link to my printables that you can use as templates!

Hangul Lesson 4: Some 받침 Rules

여러분 안녕! Hi again everyone! I got a request recently to do a lesson about 받침 rules, so here it is! For those who don’t know, 받침 refers to the ending consonants of a Korean syllable. I recommend that if you aren’t familiar with Hangul, that you check out my other Hangul lessons on my masterlist first before reading this one! 

I made these charts because there are quite a few rules and irregularities about 받침. I also made a couple about consonant assimilation, which is basically how two or more consonants blend together/change to make a new sound. My lists are not exhaustive, but I think I included the most common rules. 

Also! I recommend that if you want a more complete list that you check out Korean Wiki Project’s page about this! You’ll also notice that a lot of the examples I used are the same as the ones that they used, so I want to give credit where credit is due! I tried to include some common words that you might hear often, and it can also be difficult to think up of irregularities sometimes, so I just wanted to let you know why it seems like I copied and pasted a lot of the examples and I don’t wanna plagiarize lol. PLEASE go check their page out – it’s super helpful!

If you’re overwhelmed by these lists and a little worried about memorizing them, don’t worry about it :) Honestly, depending on how you learn best it might be most productive to just learn as you go and to listen closely to how native Koreans speak so you can pick up on those rules rather than forcing yourself to memorize them. That said, if you want clarification on how exactly things are pronounced, I hope these charts along with Korean Wiki’s website can help!  

If you want to practice writing and reading Korean with others, join my Discord chat here and my Tumblr chat here!

Want to expand your Korean vocabulary and get closer to fluency? Get Drops Premium using my affiliate link!

If you would like to donate and support my studies, check out my Ko-Fi! Thank you for your generosity! See you next time! 다음에 봐요!

I don't wanna get a college degree

I want to get lost in a forest and marry an old god

I want to try learning Kanji and I think I want to try it your way w having a kanji and the list of vocabulary the kanji it is in. Was it a teacher or yourself that made those lists?

I made the lists! I made them based off of the jouyou kanji break down (this list is all over the internet). So I’m learning grade-by-grade, and just learning common vocabulary attached to those particular kanji. It’s possibly a more grueling process, but it’s helping me.

I also use WaniKani, which uses a slightly similar system of learning kanji in vocabulary. They do teach readings first, however.

Thursday November 7th

Hope everyone is having the best dayyy, here with some notes from the other weeks in pink as always 🩷

Using kokuyo campus notebook <3

And what about japanese? Can you recommend some accounts that study japanese?

I know there are a lot of great accounts that are learning Japanese, but I’m not familiar with a lot of them, since I’ve never studied it myself! 

@jibunstudies has a lot of great Japanese masterposts, and I think that @gloomstudy was learning Japanese at one point, but I don’t know if she still is! 

Please feel free to recommend any other blogs that study Japanese! 

types of study breaks for every situation

if you realize you’ve been studying for hours: grab a snack to refuel your body and watch a sitcom to refuel your brain. then back to the books.

if you’re feeling stressed out: take some deep breaths, text your friends, maybe stare at a wall for a few minutes. gather yourself.

if you can’t seem to focus: get moving and get outside. take out the garbage, check your mail box, maybe walk your dog. just get moving and get fresh air. it’ll help bring you back.

if there’s something else going on in your life and you can’t get it off your mind: write down what’s going through your head, sort of like a diary entry. it’ll help you work things out.

if you’re just mentally and physically exhausted: set a timer for 25-30 minutes and take a nap. any longer and you’ll hit REM and you’ll wake up feeling just as tired. once you wake up, get some caffeine in you.

if the material is boring as hell: find another way to study. see if there’s a crash course video online about it or draw out what you’re trying to learn in diagrams and pictures to make it fun.

if people around you won’t shut up: listen to some music. soundtrack and classical music is always good because they won’t absorb you as much as music with lyrics. white noise (like ocean waves, rain sounds, etc.) also works.

if you only half understand a concept: call/message a friend who’s not in the class and try to teach the material to them. this will help you mentally work through the material and will help you remember it as well.

hello! i'm only starting to learn japanese and i'm finding it hard to know where i should start with the kanji. do you really have to learn kanji separately and memorize both their pronunciations or can you just learn the kanji in the vocabulary?

omg no! don’t stress yourself out like that anon!!

okay, i’m going to be real with the japanese language learning community: you all are doing waaaaaaaay too much when it comes to kanji.

there. i said it.

learning kanji does not have to be a headache!

i spent the first 6 months of my japanese learning “career” (for lack of a better word) trying to figure out the best way to learn kanji because every website and book was like “here’s the kunyomi, here’s the onyomi, now learn them both” but the fine print of that learning method says “you’re going to f*cking struggle”

but then i started realizing that kanji i read all of the time, i didn’t even “properly” study like those articles said. i didn’t know the kunyomi and onyomi for 行 for ages, but i knew it was read いく in 行く and こう in words like 旅行 and 直行. because i learned those words in context and on their own.

a few months after i came to japan, i started asking japanese people how they learned kanji and every single one of them answered the same way: they learn through vocabulary. i once asked my boyfriend how he learned kanji in grade school, and he said that they were basically given a kanji, and then they were given a list of vocabulary that included that kanji. they then memorized the vocabulary and grew to know the kunyomi and onyomi readings.

which, spoiler: kunyomi and onyomi is not always an accurate measure. lots of compounds use the kunyomi, some of them add dakuten (as in ちゅうごく instead of ちゅうこく in 中国), and others add っ (as in ちょっこう instead of ちょこう in 直行). this really isn’t something you can just magically guess.

but it’s important to remember that everyone learns differently. i don’t learn individual kanji – i learn kanji within various vocabulary words. i make sure to get as much exposure to the various ways a single kanji can appear within a larger compound, so 高 is not just a single kanji, but it is 高い and 高校生 and 高価.

i do, however, think it’s important to understand the meaning of a kanji. this can help you decipher the meaning of a word you don’t know yet. for example, 高価 (こうか) means “high price.” 高 means high and 価 means price. knowing their meaning individually can help decipher the meaning.

in this way you can argue that yes, knowing the individual readings of these two kanji makes guessing the reading of this word easier, but 価 can also be read “ke"! you can’t guarantee an accurate reading all of the time, but with more and more exposure to individual kanji, you will be able to tell.

which brings me to my main point: learning kanji is an individual experience. i, personally, think that learning onyomi and kunyomi readings for 2,000+ jouyou kanji is a HUGE WASTE OF TIME, but there are a lot of people out there that do this methodically and know lots and lots of kanji and vocabulary. i, personally, need kanji in a larger vocabulary word in order for it to stick, and my brain just catalogues the various readings away. that’s how my brain works and learns, but it’s not how everyone else works and learns. 

it’s important to find what works for you.

that being said, if you’re just starting out i highly recommend Jakka. it’s a website meant for japanese grade school teachers and has tons of grade school kanji material broken up into their appropriate grades. japanese school children are expected to learn and master a certain amount of kanji + vocabulary each grade level, so if you’d really like to learn like a child, learn like the school children do! (the website is in japanese but fairly simple to navigate.)

i hope this helps a little anon! and remember that learning kanji isn’t a race. if it takes you awhile to learn them, don’t worry. everyone learns languages differently.