You Don't Have to Read This Blog Post Since It's The Weekend

I have decided that there are few things as enjoyable as having a free morning to sit by a window while a storm rumbles outside, listening to my smooth playlist and drinking tea.

Here's how I feel about TOP's singing voice: I don't actually have any words for it, because it is just so great.

I have been researching count words in Korean lately. You may not have encountered this yet, but in Korean if you're telling someone a quantity, you usually can't just say "I have three cats" or "I'd like five tomatoes". You have to also add a count word, and the count words are different depending on what item you're counting. English doesn't usually have an equivalent, but in some cases we do say things like "300 head of cattle" and "five pieces of candy" where "head" and "pieces" are count words. Here's an example:

난 고양이 3마리 있어 - I have three cats

고양이 is cat. Since the quantity is stated right afterwards, no plural is needed (I love this). In this case, 마리 is the count word. It basically means "amount of animals". So if you were to translate it more literally, it would say "I have three animals that are cats".

I thought it was pretty confusing at first since it means a whole new set of words for me to learn just to be able to state a quantity, but actually it makes pretty good sense and it eliminates the uncertainty of where to put the number since count words always come after the noun they're modifying.

5분 나를 인사했습니다 - Five people greeted me

Here, you don't even have to say "people", since 분 is a count word specifically for people. 명 is also a people count word, and it's used more often, but it's less polite and you know how I feel about being polite in Korean (I am terrified of doing anything else).

So now you know. But there are also weird count words for random things that I will probably never have cause to remember, like 통, which is for watermelons, and 자루, which is for anything with a long handle like shovels, swords, and frying pans.

Sometimes, Korean is hard, especially when it has concepts that English doesn't have. But then I remember how Korean fascinates me more than most of my other subjects put together, even though it isn't very applicable in my foreseeable future.

I feel better about moving now that I was able to pack up all my books. I didn't have a box, so I used the next best thing, which was a double-layer brown paper bag just big enough to fit them all. I am not looking forward to carrying it down to my car. I'll wait till it stops raining.

-Amy