KoreanClass101.com Blog

Korean text input.

Insanely logical. The Korean keyboard.

Have you ever sat down and thought about how simplistic the setup is? We’re talking about a keyboard that originally housed 26 English letters but now logistically houses 한굴. Not bad at all, really

Not to mention that if I were to type in English a bunch of random letters such as “awfeiojawcneliawefiawn” the English keyboard doesn’t discern between consonant and vowel - even though in English we actually do have rules about CV order. For example, a”normal” English word cannot have three vowels back-to-back (unless of course it has a French origin or other language whose rules are different). But in Korean, there are only nine possibilities for a syllable block. But keep cool - your Korean keyboard knows this already. “마여두푲닻ㅁ음ㅇㅏㅣㅁㅊ호허ㅏㅣ” See? I can type randomness and they will neatly find themselves a place - kind of like musical chairs. Also a little like a mild case of OCD…

Cellphones are a different matter altogether though.

In order to type in Korean, one must input consonants like usual but “draw” out the vowels. Follow me. The brush strokes for the ㅐ vowel involves three lines. First a vertical, then a dot (or small dash), then a vertical.ㅣ - ㅣmakesㅐ.

So to type a simple word like 한국어, one would enter “8″ twice (first to get a ㅅ then to get aㅎ) then “1″ (to get a vertical line) then “2″ (to get a horizontal line) then “5″ (to get the ㄴ) then “4″ (for the ㄱ) then “3″ and “2″ (to get the ㅜ one must first get a ㅡ) and “3″ again and finally “0″ and “2″ and “1″. Careful not to press “1″ then “2″ in which case you’ll get aㅏ instead of aㅓ.

Confused? It catches on pretty quick. It’s pretty ingenious considering the phone can also seamlessly type in English. What I don’t know is if Korean cellphones have a form of T9 (predictable text). Anyone want to clarify this?

All things considered, I consider Korean a very logical written language. It is quite neat and organized in my honest opinion. Growing up in an English-language majority environment, Roman letter-based languages (Spanish, Italian, French, etc) don’t “scare” me. They just looked different. But with Korean, a whole new “alphabet” is used and from my perspective it looked just as daunting as other East Asian writing systems such as Chinese and Japanese. But now that I have become accustomed to Korean, I feel like I lucked out. Anyone else feeling this? Japanese and Chinese still scare me

Thoughts?

If you’ve known me for more than 15 minutes, you probably know that I really am a 13 year old fangirl at heart. This was proven last week, when Brian Joo from Fly To The Sky came here to NYC.

First, let me just say that I’ve never seen a real live kpop performance. It just didn’t happen in Nashville. So, when I moved to NYC, I was hoping to get to see someone (anyone, really) perform here. Then, my first day in the city, I saw a poster saying that Brian was coming! I immediately went online and found out how to buy a ticket.

So, the big weekend finally came. Brian was doing an autograph signing at a cafe on Saturday, and I met another non-korean kpop fan here, so we decided to go together. We got in line at about 4pm and waited until about 6:30pm before we were able to get in. By that time, the line had gotten really long! And, believe it or not, there were a lot of other random non-korean people there. I still think we may have been some of the oldest, however. Here’s the line from where we were standing:

We finally got inside, and I was so nervous! I mean, it’s just strange to meet someone you’ve watched so much on t.v. This is roughly how our conversation went:

brian: hello
me: ….hi…. (hands him my journal to sign the inside cover - someone stole his cd from my car last year)
brian: what’s your name?
me: emily… 한국으로 써주세요~ (please write in korean)
brian: you speak korean?!?
me: yeah, a little bit.. mostly from watching tv.. so i wanted to thank you for being on tv and helping me learn korean..
brian: (laughs) (probably said something else i don’t remember) (shakes my hand) it was really nice to meet you
me: ….thanks…..

…And that was the end. I was so nervous! Honestly, I hardly remember what happened. The conversation could have been longer, I’m not sure. I don’t even know if I actually looked at him the whole time. I have never been an autograph fan, and standing in line to talk to people is always awkward, but I’m glad I did it, nonetheless. Here is the result:

It says: 항상 건강하고 행복 하세요^^! (always be healthy and happy)

The next night was the performance at Club Duvet. The club didn’t open until 10:30pm, and the performance didn’t start until after 2am. Even though he only performed 3 songs, it was still worth it. He has such an amazing voice! Not to mention that now I’ve finally seen a live kpop performance! If you want to see part of that performance, go check out my youtube channel - I uploaded part of it:

My Youtube Channel

So, another Korean experience done. What is next? Any suggestions?

Electronics.

Korea is pretty much the Mecca of electronics. Samsung is here. LG is here. Both Hewlett-Packard and Energizer have Korea-based facilities. Iriver and SK Telecom are domestic-based companies that do serious sales just within Korea itself. This is one hooked up company.

So much so that Korea’s cell phone companies still use proprietary frequencies and encoding. Meaning that fancy new phone you bought in Yongsan probably won’t function in America. Japan had been the more notorious country with this problem for travelers but recently has started to integrate worldwide carriers.

Even the best VoIP software available comes at a premium for users in Korea. Skype has a pay-to-use feature that allows Skype users to call any number be it domestic, international, landline, or cell phone. Note the sad peach colored bar that represents the South Korean Won. Yep, that’s us. That’s the connection fee for each “real” number call made if you do the non-monthly plan. The price is not so good…but hey, at least the calling rates themselves aren’t too bad. Plus, regular vanilla Skype is still free!

Moving on, Korea is a country with so many proprietary gadgets and gizmos that it would make Steve Jobs blush. You thought a Mac was hard to use in a Microsoft world? It could be worse. I’ve got a sweet little electronic dictionary from IRiver that can do everything but make french fries. But all service, manuals, software, firmware updates, and GUI are all in Korean. Although I should say that many handheld products like the Sony PSP work just fine overseas; although the Nintendo DS doesn’t fare as well. Having said that, anyone on the Seoul Subway Metro will notice pastel colored Gameboys and a few PSPs but the vast majority of the electronics are utilizing DMB.

Oh, has anyone ever heard of Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)? Probably not many; and with good reason. It is a native Korean broadcast frequency essentially used to watch cable television on PDAs, mobile phones, and other handheld devices for free. High quality television channels come standard on most cell phones in the ROK. My iRiver dictionary has this feature too but keep in mind; only available in Korea. North Americans actually still use the frequency for VHF and UHF channels (think rabbit ear antennae). Although service is free and plentiful, it is harder to get a good signal out in some rural areas. So long as you are in Seoul, you’ll get great reception.

Speaking of cellphones, I was with a friend over the summer in 인사동 and she broke out her cellphone when it rang. But this wasn’t an ordinary call, it was a video call. She talked to her sister with decent fps and exceptional sound quality. Anyone else remember thinking that “Picture Phones” only existed in The Jetsons and that even if we had them that they would be crazy expensive? Her Korean cellphone ran about 400 USD and had plenty of other eye candy like an English-Korean dictionary and a travel time estimator. If we wanted to find the shortest route from 이대 to 산본 using a bus or subway, the phone would calculate transfer and travel times and present you with the option with the fewest transfers or quickest arrival. And to think I’m still figuring T9 out…

It’s amazing to me how quickly Koreans adapt to new technology. Oh sure - premium Skype features are lame here - but all things considered, the electronics here are phenomenal. It stills mildly shocks me that grandparents on the Metro are text messaging their friends and family. It just tickles me to think of my own grandmother using public transportation, texting, and watching late night TV on her cellphone in a crowded subway train. My hat goes off to you, older generation of Korea.

Thoughts?