Visiting Korea For the First Time as an Advanced Speaker - Divjjot Singh from India

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Talk to Me in Korean podcast. I am Yanu. Thank you for tuning in. And we have a very special episode prepared for you today because we are talking to a listener, a longtime student of Talk. Before we hear that part, let's go over to today's Korean quiz. Today's quiz is about an onomatopoeia expression, a word that describes the sound of something, right? In Korean that is ui song-o, ui song-o, onatopoeia. So now

Imagine that you are hearing some knocking sounds on the door. Okay? Somebody's knocking. And I'll give you two onomatopoeia expressions in Korean, and I need you to tell me which one is a bigger sound. number one kong kong number two kong kong kong Once again, between these two Korean onomatopoeia expressions describing sounds, which one is a bigger sound generally speaking? Kung Kung Kung or Kung Kung Kung?

Please think about your answer and I'll give you the correct answer at the end of this episode.

Now we've prepared an interview today instead of the usual format where we listen to a dialogue and break it down and also introduce a Korean word of the day. We'll do that next week, but in this episode, I sat down with someone who studied really hard with Tokyo in Korean, and I remembered very specifically because he left lots of comments on our website while studying hard. He's from India and he speaks great Korean. He now lives in the UK.

And he had before this interview he had never come to Korea before, while studying Korean for almost ten years. So he reached a very high level of Korean command, Korean fluency, and had never had an opportunity to visit Korea, and he finally did, and he reached out to me, so we met up. in the talk to me Korean office in Seoul and had this conversation. Please enjoy.

Everyone, please meet my guest for today's episode, Shin Sung Hun. Anyongaseo. Anyaseo, bangita. Very nice to meet you in person. Yes, uh, it's really an honor. I never thought this will happen, but It is finally. So let's um recap a little bit how we met up today. I am on LinkedIn. You're on LinkedIn. Yes. We are Ilchon. Yes Il y a LinkedIn. The first connections are called Ilchon.

Kind of tracing back to the sibled era. So where Ilchon first connection on LinkedIn because either I added you or you added me. I added you. Yeah, back then and then I wasn't aware. Yeah. And then Um you popped up on my feed three, four days ago.

한국에 갑니다. 마지막으로 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국어로 작성한 한국

Shin Zoomun. Of course there's this singer. Yes. But then I remembered your Korean name specifically from all your comments before. Korean learning has been a really magical and life changing experience for me, I guess. I think

My journey started in two thousand and sixteen and that that is the time when I s enrolled myself in Sajang Institute, Sajang Hakta in India, New Delhi. My mother used to work in Korean Embassy that time, in the cultural department. She was a public relations officer over there. And um she used to have all the Korean colleagues working with her. Though she doesn't speak Korean, she only looks like that's it. I see. And I was doing my computer engineering. Computer kunak. And uh Amen.

Uh she is the one she saw me that I was really uh not that much interested in doing pursuing engineering. India and Korea are a really competitive nation. Everyone aims for like being a law student, engineer, medical student. Like that's it. Or they do business. And for me, I thought if I want to earn more money, I need to be an engineer. But deep inside I was really bored. So my mother said

I have a language program in my institu in my in a cultural center. So she's the one introducing you to the program. at Sejung Institute. In that year. Yes. Cool. Two thousand sixteen. She was the public public relation manager over there. And what was your first reaction? Who how was your first em experience? I was like

m why suddenly and then she hid the really spot inside me. She said, I can see you are not enjoying what you're doing right now. I I just want you to pursue this as a hobby and just think that maybe if you do well And if you mix engineering with Korean It could lead to something. Okay. And when did Talk to Me in Korean come into your life? So Talk to Me in Korean come into my life on two thousand sixteen October. I see. After Sejong Hakta?

세종학당에서 조금 배우다가 Talk to me Korean 찾은 거예요? 네 저는 2016년 7월부터 거기 세종학당에서 조고팡 비기넬 일 시작했고요. 그때 이달, like for two months, three months, I was doing all the, one month I was doing all the 근데 거기 한국어로 가르치잖아? 아, sorry, korean. korean. so i got really confused. but it was interesting. I didn't even knew that Hyundai Samsung is Korean brands. Yeah, it it was big m uh stereotypical Maybe not so much anymore. Anymore, yes. So

You started at 세종학당. 세종학당 초급반 부터 시작을 했고 Talk to me Korean으로 공부를 하니까 영국 콘텐츠 너무 많았어요 영어로 오디오 파일도 저 아직도 기억하는데요 그때 웹사이트가 지금처럼 되어있는 건 아니어서 좀 너무 달랐어요 맞아요 But the good thing was the workbook is there. And the link to the audio file was there. And when I searched on YouTube, like I'm learning Korean, your video came of some introduction about your brand. Yeah. And it was linked to me that website. I went there.

I still remember the first um uh Munbob, the grammar I learned from your website was Temune and Khodun. Ah, you're gonna Because they it's really difficult, you know? Because Kitemun is sometimes it's different situation. Kodan is different, S also is different. Yeah. So I learned that. I was like, what is this? I mean my teacher is telling me it's good. I went there

well explained four five minutes audio file in pure in pure English with with Korean pronunciation on how to use it. Yeah. I used to download them. I used to put messageong haktang book In the in right side and left side you're

PDF with a printout. Yeah. I used to read, okay, you mean this, they mean this, okay, so I need to form the sentences like this. Yeah. I'm sure a lot of people can picture themselves studying like this in the past. They can They have memories of this kind of learning experience.

similar stories. Yeah. Like their schools only or their schools policy only allows the teachers. I mean the teachers would love to help. Yes. And they they do know the local language, uh the mother tongue of the students, but the students uh or the teachers aren't allowed yeah to teach using anything but the Korean language. So a lot of people um search online 설명을 쉽게 하자 한국어를 배우는 사람들이 한국어로만 공부하면 너무 어려우니까 그렇죠

Yangoro Kuriko Shu and Yangoro. Our English explanations were also deliberately easier English as well for those uh who are not native speakers of the English, because I'm not a native speaker either. So that's what we try to do and seeing you after all those years, because I r do remember your name. in many comments. Yeah. And you are very diligent. Yes, I am. And I mean, your Korean name

being an easy name to remember. Like every Korean person probably knows that name because of this legendary singer. Yeah.

And I think that helped. Yes. And interesting thing is if you just go to Neighbor and you just write Indoshinsungun, all my blogs. All my you know, uh my my J T B C documentaries and all content which I wrote in Korean will come up. I'm gonna I'm gonna look it up. Yeah, you will you will find some good content. I like I write lots and lots of neighbor blogs. It's my passion. I love to write. You have seen my LinkedIn post, I love to write in creative. Yeah.

I think my whole career career till now, where I am sitting right now, it's all because of Korean. The the money I'm making, the reputation, the recognition, though I'm not a big influence or anything, but whatever I've earned in my life after the age of eighteen till twenty nine I think it's all of it all because of Korean. That's amazing. And from talking to you and, you know

Exchanging messages in Korean. I mean, this is the first time we're speaking to each other in English. It's it's because of this recording. Yeah. You heard me. Teach in English before. Yes, I have, yeah. And but when we were exchanging uh messages uh with each other, we were only

writing in Korean and then when we when you came into our office fifteen minutes ago. Yeah. We only spoke Korean, but this is only um message exchanges and uh conversation, I can kind of sense that um in your studies I'm sure, entirely sure that you've kept a really good balance between input and output. Yes. You don't sound like somebody who has only studied, studied, studied with books and courses. Yes. You practiced a lot by writing a lot and speaking a lot.

말을 해요 친구들이랑 그냥 말해라 친구한테 물어봐요 내가 자연스럽게 말하는지, 문법과 틀렸는지 이 단어를 더 내가 어떻게 원어민 기준으로 말할 수 있는지 그 제안을 받아요. 그때는 나는 이렇게 아 오케이 그때는 좀 자신감을 받았거든요. 왜냐면 선생님이 저한테 승은씨 발음이 너무 자연스러워요. 발음이 너무 좋다. 문법 틀려도 한국 사람들은 그런 거는 무시할 수도 있어요. 왜냐면 이 친구는 한국어 말하는 건 노력은 하고 있구나. 발음도 너무 좋다. 틀려도 우리가 굳혀줄 수 있다 나쁘게 보지는 않아요 내가 봤을 때 여정은 없이 그리고 열심이 없이 열정 없이 언어를 공부하면은 그냥 사람들이 보게 하는 사람들이 되게 많아요 그쵸 목배 없이 열정이랑 목배 없이 그래서 나는 항상 소개할 때 저는 한국에 대한 열정적인 대한 인도인 신성은이라고 합니다.

It belongs to this country because it has given me so much in my life. Okay. Then uh I have this question for you. Yeah.

Obviously you've had many Korean friends. Yes. Many Korean coworkers. You you told me briefly about your work experience before, uh when we met uh outside of our studio. And having friends in your life who are, say, in India or in the UK or wherever you go, you meet Korean people and those interactions can be deep conversations and everything. But

Actually coming to Korea, there might be some differences. Oh, I thought Koreans were like this. But then coming to Korea, actually seeing Korea for the first time. You are here for the first time, right? Yes, I am, yes. I think we forgot to mention that. Yeah. I'll have to add that back in before I introduce you.

in this podcast, but what's fascinating is that you have such a high level of Korean that you can speak, but you've never been to Korea. So I wonder, is your impression of Korea the same as what you have kind of imagined all those years. I think I did my research well for the past ten years. I worked with Korean companies, Korean clients, freelancing translations and interpretation work. I've seen different kind of people, different kind of uh clients in my life.

And I used to not only used to see the rosy picture of the fantasy like many people many Korean lenders have about Korea. I think you need to live in reality. Anywhere you go in the world, you see the positive and negatives about that nation. But what I feel is taking the most out of from the positivity and then omitting the negativity out of it. Yeah. So that's what I thought like, okay. What perception I can build for career. So I saw me saying.

Uh-huh. And when I saw me, I I the drama. I got to know how competitive and how hard Korean office work culture can be. Because I had similar situations and when I used to work for many companies. So I think that this is how people live there. But I see. Then then okay. So you've had a real life Exchanges, interactions with Korean people, experiences, um, dealing with Korean people. Yeah. I would say hundreds of them.

I think yes. To be honest, yes. So um would somebody who don't have that kind of experience um actually interacting with Korean people, working with Korean bosses? Yeah. Can somebody also form a realistic and accurate picture in their head, an accurate picture?

before visiting Korea just by watching dramas or movies. Do you think that's possible? It's really much possible. And I think if you do learn it and if you do find some opportunities to work for any Korean client, the basic thing is to you can work as an interpreter, as a Tongyoksa By searching online, do a freelancing work. Okay. You will get some professional perception about the people as a client you're working with.

Because I had some situations where I've worked with really Kadarov and Kleint. Mm-hmm. Really like Bookchap and Kleind. Like really complicated people. But at the end, when I finished the job, they used to shake hands and they used to say, What do you got uh Oh yeah. And when that happened, they used to share the person details and then we used to go outside and have food. Built into professional from professional to personal relations.

And you won't believe the lady I used to work together in Korean company in India, she used to be my Chajang and I used to be the Chuiem over there. I see. I used to r directly report into her. My working relationship with her was was really professional.

But she's the one who trained me about all the Korean work ethics. That's great. That's a good suggestion for a very useful tip for a lot of people. If you reach a certain level of fluency in the Korean language and you haven't had a lot of opportunities to Come live in Korea or work in Korea, maybe try to look for translation jobs.

I mean with AI technology, I guess there will be fewer and fewer opportunities naturally, but there will still be a lot of situations where I just got a call from a friend of mine looking for a human translator for a book. I agree. And publishers are still looking for um professional translators. So maybe you can get some uh gigs where you are needed as a human translator.

And then you can meet uh people, build connections. So that's a good suggestion. So um my final question for you are you as happy as you thought you would be visiting Korea for the first time? I think m I always get goosebumps, you know. Oh really? Still. It's been the only four days I've been here. Mm-hmm. And I when I go around on streets in Chiacha and just walking, I think I used to see this in YouTube and dramas and you know, movies. I'm literally over here seeing people

Whose language I can speak, even if I get lost, I can go to someone and just as Achogyo t to watchushikise or Kira Yrobas. And then they just really kindly Come and help and then I feel the chong, mm, the Cough Koreans. How they literally And I'm really looking forward to like Look what I can do to build some cross cultural relationship between India, Korea and UK and do something big between these countries. And that's because I owe a lot to this country for my Korea and for my growth.

Amazing. Thank you so much for your time for visiting us. Uh I messaged you back last night. Yes, yes. That I have time only at five PM tomorrow. Yeah. This whole week and uh Yeah,'cause I'm fully booked outside of those uh hours. So I'm sorry and for the short notice. Thank you for adjusting. No, no, no. It it was my manifestation. Yeah. I got my manifestation uh achieved after ten years. I couldn't I couldn't leave it.

이게 꿈이에요 그냥 잊을 수 없는 그냥 그 경험입니다 감사합니다 그리고 그때 공부하실 때 코멘트를 많이 남겨주신 게 기억에 남아서 이렇게 또 만나게 됐네요 네 맞습니다 So that's the interview. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you'd like to join this podcast like this as a guest and share your Korean learning journey or Korean learning tips, please let us know. And thank you once again to Shin Sung Hun Nim for joining us and for studying Korean so hard and being a role model potentially for many learners around the world. So now let's move on to the quiz end.

Today's quiz question was between the sounds kon and kon, which one is a bigger sound? And the answer is yes, there is a correct answer. It is kum kum kum. After a lot of natural exposure to the Korean language, you will be able to guess almost intuitively, but the general rule is that the vowel oo O represents bigger sounds or bigger motions than the vowel o because the mouth shape itself is bigger with oo than o which is smaller naturally.

And a similar pair of words is tuk and to. Can you spot the difference just by hearing them? Tuk and talk. Okay, took and talk. These are not sounds but motions. 突k is a sound or description of someone hitting something abruptly with a short contact, okay? hitting, like maybe giving a light jab. at your friend's shoulder or something like that. And talk is similar, but it's much more gentle because of this ooh and o difference.

So today's quiz answer is kung kung kung. Kung kung kung when you hear it it's several thuds on the door. Like kung kung kung like that. Somebody's really like asking you to open that door. And kung kung kung it's a cute little I guess Hopping sound on the surface, Kung Kong Kung. I can imagine a very cute stuffed toy stuffed animal jumping like this in a an in an animation or in an animated movie. Kung Kung Kung. So that's not scary at all.

And that is it for today's episode of the Talk to Me in Korean podcast. If you enjoyed it, please do me a favor and share it with your friends who will also enjoy this. And pay us a visit on our website at talktomeinkorean.com, take our level test, learning type assessment, and check out our speaking app, SEO, to practice speaking Korean. It'll be fun. I'll see you in the next episode. 감사합니다.