On the 5/13/2020 (Wed) broadcast of the bayfm radio program “Tonight, Under Sakura’s Tree” (every Wednesday from 24:00 to 24:30).
IZ*ONE’s Miyawaki Sakura answered listeners’ “advice for improving your Korean” and “useful Korean phrases you can use right away”.
Miyawaki Sakura: From Tokyo, radio name “Hanamizaki”. Thank you.
Listener email: Good evening.
Miyawaki Sakura: Good evening!
Listener email: Because of the world these days, I’ve been spending all my time at home.
I want to get back to normal life soon. More than anything, I want to see Sakura soon.
But I’ll hold back for now. I think the more I hold back, the more joy I’ll feel when I see her…
I’ve been spending every day lazing around, but I thought there might be something I can do at a time like this, so I started studying Korean again. I’ve been doing it before, but foreign languages are difficult, and I give up easily. I’m sure this question has been asked before, but I’d love to hear any advice you have on how to improve your Korean that you know because you’ve improved your Korean so much.
Take care of yourself, eat lots of kimchi jjigae, and play lots of Animal Crossing.
Miyawaki Sakura: Thank you. Um… what is it?
I’ve also received a lot of messages asking me to teach useful Korean phrases that I can use right away…
Advice for improving your Korean
I think the first thing to do is to talk to local people, which is difficult… For people who find this difficult in Japan, there are easy-to-understand textbooks for sale, right?
I guess it’s important to memorize a book of them almost entirely by heart…
I think vocabulary is important when speaking a foreign language.
There isn’t that much grammar, is there? And the grammar is pretty much the same in Korean.
I think you can use textbooks to improve your vocabulary, and if there’s an artist you like, listen to their songs and look up the lyrics. Watch a drama and subtitle… There are some that have both Korean and Japanese, especially web dramas.
I think it’s a good idea to watch those and study.
Useful Korean that you can use right away
Useful Korean that you can use right away… what is it?
“Kenchanayo” and “Irokke” are the most useful.
“Kenchanayo”… means “it’s okay” or “it’s okay”, I’m sure you’ve heard it a lot, but “Irokke” is really easy to use.
“Irokke” means something like “like this”, and when you don’t know the word to express what you want to say, you can say “Ah, so… what do you say for doing it like this?” or say “like this” with body language, and it will almost always be understood, and the Korean members will teach you the correct Korean.
So even when you don’t know what to say, just say “Irokke” and you’ll be able to do it somehow (laughs).