Stinky Fish and Learning Korean

Today I was thinking about different ways for me to study foreign language, and considered how I have learned the majority of my best hobbies.

The thing they all have in common is that I skipped all the basic instruction when I was learning them and made my first projects were always really big ones. Most people would say they were far too advanced for a beginner. Since the sink or swim method seemed to worked for other things, I am thinking that perhaps it will also work for learning Korean.

The two most important things to me when I am learning something new are #1) Feeling like I am accomplishing something, and #2) Enjoying what I am learning. Repeating text book over and over again is boring to me, so I've decided to try just skipping that and beginning a journal in Korean.

I do not know very much vocabulary, but I think that if I can study grammar and learn the proper word order, then I can use a dictionary to find the words that I need. If I have to look words up enough times, I think I will remember them.

I think it will be slow for me to write in the beginning, but if I try to write at least something every night that I don't study in some other way I think I can become faster.

Anyway... Today I tried my first Korean writing and making sentences on my own that were not simple word substitution. An example of what I call simple substitution might be to change the country name in "I come from America."

I think I learned about 90% of my grammar this evening. I suspect there are many mistakes, no less I have Korean friends and language exchange partners who can correct me and help me to get better. I might as well post things here so I can look back at a future date to monitor my progression.

I did not write much today. I just complained about my neighbor's stinky cooking.

My first, albeit short K-Blog entry:

어떤 사람 물고기 식사를 준비하다. 물고기악취를 풍기다. 난 물고기의 냄새 싫어하다 . 그것에서 못달아나다. 살다겠다니다, 지만못즐기다.

On that note... I need sleep, good night.



Edit: [Corrections] Original - Corrected - Notes

어떤 사람 물고기 식사를 준비하다.

어떤사람 이생선 요리를 준비했다.

or

어떤사람이생선 요리를 하고있는 중이다.

- Don't forget

이

particle after noun/subject.

- General term for seafood(

이생선 요리)

is used instead of fish.

-

했 particle indicates recent past tense for action verbs... although I wanted the tense to be present... even so

었 should be used for the present.

난 물 고기의 냄새 싫어하다 .

나는 생선의 냄새를 싫어한다.

( I think I messed up when I asked for the translation - original was supposed to be the fish stinks, but I think I asked my friend for "I dislike the smell of fish." )

생선의 - Indicates fresh fish... I saw this word in my dictionary, but I chose the other because I didn't see any reason to mention the freshness since I don't know how fresh it is. I guess this is the more common term? Perhaps the other word I used references a living animal rather than something that is impending consumption... Note to self to ask.

Edit of Edit: The word I used indicates fish that are still alive, so the sentence as I wrote it would indicate that someone was cooking them while they were still swimming. While I suppose it is possible that this is in fact what occurred that night, it is not what I intended to say.

냄새 - indicates a scent... "생선의 냄새" can be combined to form one object without the need of a particle.

싫어한다. - to dislike

나는 그것에 서 달아날 수 없다.

Use 나는.

그것에서 못달아나다.

살다겠다니다, 지만못즐기다.

Ran out of time to finish notes and edits. I doubt I will continue to edit this post.