[Seven] 힘내세요! ^^

Hello readers,

How are you doing today? I hope you’re getting together with your families and friends and are enjoying great time together during the holidays. For those of you who are still working, I say to you hwa-ee-ting 화이팅 and him-nae-sae-yo힘내세요 (the equivalent to 加油 “add oil” in Chinese ^^ and げんきだしてください or がんばって下さい in Japanese ). If you translated 힘내세요 into English, its meaning is probably closest to “be strong”.  ^^

In the spirit of giving this season, in today’s blog entry, I would like to share with you a song that I like to listen to be encouraged these days. The music video for the song makes me want to go back to Korea this winter. Haha next year!

If you follow me on twitter (click here to follow), you may have noticed how my favourite song at the moment is “S.E.O.U.L” by 소녀시대 (Girls’ Generation, aka SNSD) & 슈퍼주니어 (Super Junior, aka Suju). For those of you who may not be familiar, 소녀시대 and 슈퍼주니어 are two of the most popular Korean pop artists. 소녀시대 is a girl group with nine girls-yes n-i-ne. That’s nothing though…슈퍼주니어 has 13 guys.

Girls' Generation

Super Junior

Anyways, I hope the song will encourage you, especially if you are working this winter and I hope you’ll be inspired to learn more about Korea and visit soon :)

Below are the lyrics with my attempted translation of the song :) (It's not a word-per-word translation. I was focusing on the meaning ^^)

Click here to watch the M/V on youtube

어느새 하루가 또 지나고 집으로 향한 나의 발걸음

A day has already passed and I am heading home

부푼 가슴에 첨 시작했던 그 맘 그대로

I am tired, but I am trying to remember why I was so excited in the beginning.

가끔은 피곤한 일상 속에 지쳐버린 내 몸을 이끌고

Even when I am tired, I can still walk

길을 따라서 숨쉬고 있는 나의 자유

and breath. I feel so free!

 

Yes 느껴봐 희망 가득한 세상

Yes-feel it, a world full of hope.

Yes 저기 높은 미랠 향해서

Yes-look to our bright future.

S.E.O.U.L함께 불러봐요 꿈이 이뤄질 아름다운 세상

S.E.O.U.L, let's sing it together for a world where dreams come true.

어디서나 즐거운 일이 넘치는 곳 사랑해

I love it here where there is always something fun happening.

S.E.O.U.L함께 외쳐봐요 어디서라도 웃을 수 있는

S.E.O.U.L, let's shout it out together-for a world where we can smile and 

행복 모두가 하나되는 세상

be full of happiness and be united.

어느새 커져버린 내 모습 후회 없이 살진 않았는지

Time goes by so quickly.I am all grown up. I wonder if I have any regrets.

부푼 희망에 첨 설레었던 그 맘 그대로

It doesn't matter. I want to go back to the time when I was excited for the future.

알 수 없는 내일이 궁금해 어렵고 험한 일이 생겨도

I don't know what's going to happen tommorow. Even if there are storms ahead,

견딜 수 있어 내게 부끄럽지 않도록

I can get through it.

Yes 느껴봐 희망 가득한 세상

Yes-feel it, a world full of hope.

Yes 저기 높은 미랠 향해서

Yes-look to our bright future.

S.E.O.U.L함께 불러봐요 꿈이 이뤄질 아름다운 세상
S.E.O.U.L, let's sing it together for a world where dreams come true.

어디서나 즐거운 일이 넘치는 곳 사랑해

I love it here where there is always something fun happening.

S.E.O.U.L함께 외쳐봐요 어디서라도 웃을 수 있는

S.E.O.U.L, let's shout it out together-for a world where we can smile and

행복 모두가 하나되는 세상 만들어요.

be full of happiness and be united.

두려운 날도 때론 힘이 들 때도 모두가 힘을 모아 꿈의 날갤 펼쳐요

In days when we are afraid or when we feel tired, we need to come together.

S.E.O.U.L 함께 불러봐요 꿈이 이뤄질 아름다운 세상

S.E.O.U.L, let's it sing together for a world where dreams come true

어디서나 즐거운 일이 넘치는 곳 사랑해

I love it here where there is always something fun happening.

S.E.O.U.L함께 외쳐봐요 어디서라도 웃을 수 있는

S.E.O.U.L, let's shout it together-for a world where we can smile

행복 모두가 하나되는 세상 만들어요.

and be full of happiness.

Bonus: pictures of Seoul, Korea ^^

(source: http://english.seoul.go.kr/gtk/about/ngc_list.php)

 

힘내세요!!

-Sunflowerchocolate-

[Six] A friend to talk with

Hello readers,

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last entry. School has been hectic and it still is. However, after reading an inspiring blog entry by Kyung Eun, I could not resist. I had to interrupt my studies and write this blog entry.

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Kyung Eun is one of the co-hosts of a Japanese podcast I listen to. I am currently learning Japanese and I listen to this Japanese podcast online at www.languagecast.net. It’s a site where you can find language podcasts for Japanese, Chinese, English, and more. The particular one I listen to is the 왕초보 일본어 레슨- the Japanese lesson for beginners. A Japanese girl named Satoko teaches the Korean girl, Kyung Eun each week with new phrases and Japanese vocabulary. The recordings are all uploaded and they have started Season II with Kyung Eun and a Japanese guy. The format is different from Season I in that Season II it is with different people and more like a conversation than a lesson.

I am going on a bit of a tangent here, but anyways. If you speak Korean and would like to learn any of the foreign languages mentioned above, you should definitely check it out. Also, if you are advanced learner in any of those languages, they also have talk show podcasts where the whole podcast is conducted in that specific language (without any Korean).

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Anyways, in Kyung Eun’s blog, she has so many recordings-from the Japanese podcasts to Korean language videos that help foreigners learn Korean (Youtube: Korean language class 101).

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She also has entries about her thoughts on life and her memories. The most recent one under the category “Podcast- 나의 이야기”is about 말동무 (mal-dong-moo) or 말벗 (mal-burrtd). My Korean-Korean YBM dictionary tells me that it means “서로 같이 이야기할 만한 사람”. Translated, it means “a conversational partner; a friend to talk with”.

Our interests may be different

We may act differently

We might have a different style

but, nevertheless

someone who can understand me:

a friend.

(credits to: Ddalki www.cyworld.com/ddalki0802)

As I was listening to Kyung Eun’s entry, I found that I could totally relate (공감) to what she was saying about a 말동무. She mentioned how sometimes we can’t share everything openly and honestly with our friends or families because they have a certain perception of who we are. We want to open up and share our deepest secrets, but we can become timid and scared that they might suddenly change their opinion about us.

“Oh, I thought she was…”

“That’s interesting… Never knew that about you.”

I guess if our friends and family really love and care for us, we should not be afraid of those things. But, nevertheless, I think it’s true that we all share those fears at times.

So if not our close ones, who can be a 말동무 for us then? Kyung Eun mentions in her blog entry that blog readers are like a 말동무 for bloggers. In many ways, I agree with that. I think one of the reasons why bloggers blog is because they can be free to write without any critics. No professors who are going to bug you about poor grammar. No one to say, “How come you were not studying and writing on this blog? “ :)

So I guess, this article is to thank my readers for being a good 말동무. Thanks for allowing me to share a bit about Korea and myself through this blog. I will try my best to be as free as I can and give you a rich understanding of Korea and Korean language.

오늘도 좋은 하루 되세요. Hope you have a nice day! :)

-sunflowerchocolate-