Wait we’re limited in votes?
I’ll have to stop giving out my votes without thinking much about it…
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You can always manually remove them if necessary. That, and they (should) get returned to you when the product request is closed (though sometimes that bugs out).
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I think we have 60 in total. Too many good ideas (& 
s)!
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Ok I’m probably around 10-20 or so, so not in immediate danger, but glad I know that now. I’ll definitely stop voting on things that Brandon’s already approved but haven’t been implemented yet 
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If you hover over the vote button, it should tell you how many votes you have left. 
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March 
By the end of this month, I should be about 25% through my 2024 goals. Unsurprisingly, I’m lagging behind, so I’ll just focus on the most important goals for now.
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Read 1 novel | |
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KGIU Advanced, 20 sections | |
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Read 1 novel |
Book Clubs 
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Book  Week  |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
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소리를 보는 소년 | ||||||||||
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美しい彼 아름다운 그 |
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今日からマ王! | ||||||||||
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Christmas Tina ‐泡沫冬景‐ | ||||||||||
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후궁의 까마귀 | ||||||||||
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ふしぎ駄菓子屋 銭天堂 이상한 과자 가게 전천당 |
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また、同じ夢を見ていた 또다시 같은 꿈을 꾸었어 |
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흥부전 | ||||||||||
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죽이고 싶은 아이 |
Finished This Month 
Legend
includes a written review
read along with audiobook
audiobook only
podcast
drama CD
condensed audio
re-read/watch/listen
만화경 webtoon
waiting to be added to Natively
adult content; not currently on Natively
There are a lot of items that aren’t on Natively for various reasons (unsupported language / format, not listed on Amazon / Yes24, etc). Rather than mark them individually, anything that doesn’t have a Natively link (which includes the level) can be assumed to be excluded from Natively.
Textbook · 교과서 · 教科書 · 课本 · หนังสือเรียน
Graded Reader · 수준별 독본 · 語彙制限本 · 分级读物
Children’s Book · 동화책 · 児童書 · 儿童书 · หนังสือเด็ก
Comics · 만화 · 漫画 · 漫画 · การ์ตูน
Novel · 소설 · 小説 · 小说 · นวนิยาย
Non-fiction · 논픽션 · ノンフィクション · 非小说类 · หนังสือสารคดี
Other Books · 다른 책 · 他書 · 别的书 · หนังสืออื่นๆ
TV Show · 텔레비전 프로그램 · テレビ番組 · 电视节目 · รายการโทรทัศน์
네모바지 스폰지밥 S1 | L25??
위시유 : 나의 마음속 너의 멜로디 S1 | L29??
열여덟의 순간 S1 | L29??
유메이크미댄스 S1 | L27??
플로리다반점 S1 | L29??
추억의 마니 | L25
연애혁명 S1 | L27??
안나라수마나라 S1 | L27??
Movie · 영화 · 映画 · 电影 · ภาพยนตร์
Listening · 듣기 · 聞く · 听力 · การฟัง
Visual Novel · 비주얼 노벨 · ビジュアルノベル · 视觉小说 · วิชวลโนเวล
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I just realised that I’ve already hit my goal to read 6 Korean novels this year - so what if they’re mostly short stories? I’m counting them! 
I ended up making a list of the drama comics I was talking about before:
Oddly, there seems to be a Japanese drama comic of https://learnnatively.com/tv/224819bace/ (メリは外泊中), but I can’t find a Korean version. Maybe it was just more popular in Japan? 
Psyched to be starting The History of BL Manga: 1970s Origins 🎓 BL University - I’m making notes on the first oneshot I read (don’t expect a nice essay, this is gonna be a jumble of thoughts 
). I bought the digital version, 竹宮惠子作品集 サンルームにて | L24??, but in my recent Surugaya haul I also got this 1976 collection:
Unfortuantely it doesn’t have an Amazon JP page so I can’t add it to Natively.
Contents:
サンルームにて
ほほえむ少年
20の昼と夜
スター！
ミスターの小鳥
I had a quick flick through the book and it seems like there are at least 2 other BL stories in there… 
TBH I’m sure there’s a lot more 70s BL than appears on the list, but finding them is another issue. Some info is available in English, and there’s probably a lot more in Japanese that I can’t really access until my reading ability (particularly being able to scan for relevant information) improves. But since we’re talking about media from 50 years ago, there’s a good chance that some works won’t really pop up in Japanese discussions either, and may be lost to time.
Thinking about how to find more titles, we can explore the back catalogues of well-known authors (but consider the volume above, which seems to include a few BL oneshots from one of the most well-known mangaka of the time - how many of those other titles had you heard of?). We can look at the publishers and magazines that offered the works to find similar titles, and perhaps relationships between mangakas themselves to find authors of similar works (friendships, mentors/assistants, etc).
This doesn’t even touch on doujinshi… Which brings me to another recent purchase. Well, couple of purchases: 同人誌コレクションFor GIRLS No.1 | L30?? (1992), and 同人誌ガイドブック | L30?? (1987), “THE GUIDE BOOK THAT ONLY WE HAVE THIRSTED”, according to the cover.
I also got a few volumes of Fire! (manga) - Wikipedia, which I’ve seen described as a precursor to 70s BL; another influence is 恋人たちの森 | L30?? (1961) by Mari Mori - Wikipedia, which is now on my wish list (there is a paper written on this book titled A Japanese Electra and Her Queer Progeny, but it’s behind a paywall).
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After I finished watching 열여덟의 순간 S1 | L29??, I had a look at the cast info, only to discover that the sweet and kind best friend of the main character was played by ASTRO’s 문빈, who passed away last year by suicide. I was already pretty weepy from the show, but that sent me over the edge into floods of tears. Generally, I tend to stick to upbeat and happy media because I tend to be really emotionally affected by whatever I read or watch; learning about the actor’s death also brought back memories of those I’ve known who passed away in the same manner. I think I’ll be sticking to comedies for the foreseeable future. 
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I’m replying here so that discourse doesn’t prevent you from continuing to post in this thread, @bibliothecary
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Consecutive post limits don’t apply to the creator of a thread, thankfully.
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I didn’t know that one. It’s great though, post limits are kind of annoying otherwise
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Careful, you are 1 post closer to the default 10000 reply post limit now
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안나라수마나라 
Just me fangirling over 안나라수마나라 S1 | L27?? which I finished recently - I’ve been rewatching certain scenes, listening to the soundtrack, and watching behind the scenes videos and interviews with the cast. 
Contains (hidden) spoilers!
About the title
'안나라수마나라’의 뜻은 '수리수리 마수리’처럼 마술쇼를 선보일 때 외우는 주문이라고 전해진다. 이는 아마도 마술을 소재로 한 웹툰이기 때문에 일종의 주문 같은 것을 상징하는 것이라고도 볼 수 있다. source
It seems like 안나라수마나라 is a word that was created specifically for the webtoon, and is simply a term used by 리을 when he is performing magic, like “abracadabra” in English.
'안나라수마나라’는 마술사 리을의 마술 주문이다. 뜻을 추측해보기로는 '되거나 말거나’에 가까워보인다. […] 그의 마술은 성공하기도 하고, 실패하기도 한다. source
In the show he does say the word in two parts, “안나라… 수마나라”, so perhaps it is derived from real words?
안나라 = 안 (not) + 나다 (to happen) + 라 (imperative? ending)
수마나라 = 수 (數, many) + 마 (魔, magic) + 나다 + 라
I’m not sure…
I think this is my favourite song/scene of the series, 회전목마, which takes place in episode 3. It’s a continuation of 당신 마술을 믿습니까? (it uses the same melody), now with added MAGICAL FLYING CAROUSEL HORSES!!! 
The scene of the two flying through the clouds is really magical, and reminded me of Aladdin’s A Whole New World. I guess Mary Poppins, too, since that also includes magical carousel horses that can leave the merry-go-round.
I’m interested to see how the webtoon portrays 아이 and 리을’s relationship; it seems unusual for the male and female leads in a drama to have a platonic relationship (we’ve got a long way to go, huh…), especially when there are scenes that resemble something that you would associate with romance, such as 리을 riding the carousel horse behind 아이 during this song.
It seems as though 리을 doesn’t have any romantic feelings for 아이, which is a relief since she’s a highschooler and he’s a middle aged man. 아이 does seem a little jealous when she sees a young pregnant woman bringing 리을 homemade food, but that little flicker of emotion is the only suggestion of potential romantic interest. However, there is speculation and suspicion from her classmates that 리을 is 아이’s sugar daddy, and 일등 is very obviously jealous when he sees them together, which just highlights how unusual their relationship is.
It’s really refreshing that this isn’t a romance (there is some implied romance between 아이 and 일등), but that the main male and female characters form a strong bond and help heal each other’s wounds through friendship and emotional intimacy.
Anyway, here are all the songs from the series:
And the full album including instrumentals is available as well:
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I think I’m addicted to making lists! I’ve made quite a few Korean lists recently, some of which are the winners of specific prizes.
Here’s a couple of YA award lists:
This award I though was similar to the previous two, but the books are actually written by young authors:
These are the three most prestigious awards for Korean literature (a bit above my current level, but may be useful for others):
I like the design of the Modern Literature Award winners, but the Lee Sang covers are not appealing at all…
I may have a look for other awards, because making lists is fun.
I feel like I’ve watched a lot of Korean shows this month - according to my stats, I’ve already watched 50+ hours so far, which averages a couple of hours a day. On the other hand, I haven’t been reading much - only 107 pages… 
Basically I’ve just been focusing on Korean, all the other languages are languishing by the wayside. Maybe one day I’ll master the multi shadow clone jutsu and finally be able to learn all the languages simultaneously…
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That’s the struggle of learning multiple languages at once, one of them is always going to be at the forefront at any given point, except it’s not necessarily going to be the same one. Although, with shadow clones… I might still end up focusing mostly on one language, because I have very little self control. At least my learning speed would be faster.
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Ugh, I’ve been gunning for that one for a while.
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Every time I go to Japan, since it’s a 20h+ trip between connections I fuck it up
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I’ve been watching 웰컴투 삼달리 S1 | L27??, which is set in 제주, so I’m learning a bit of 제주방어. 
It’s given me the chance to have a look through Jejueo: The Language of Korea's Jeju Island | L30, which has been sitting on my shelf untouched for a long time. 제주’s government website also has a dialect dictionary, which has been helpful.
In the 제주어 textbook, it mentions that this dialect isn’t intelligible to speakers of other dialects: an experiment was carried out where speakers of different Korean dialects listened to a recording of a story told in 제주어 and were tested on their comprehension. The 제주 participants scored around 90% correctly, those from 서울 about 10%, and those from 여수 and 부산 about 5%. The participants also took a self-evaluation of their understanding of 제주어 on a scale of 0-10, before and after the experiment: those from 제주 rated themselves 8.0 before, rising a little to 8.3 after; 서울 1.8 before, falling to 0.4 after; 여수 1.7 to 0.3; 부산 1.2 to 0.8.
I think that since the series is aimed at a general audience, they’ve included enough dialect to give the feeling of it being set in 제주, but still made it easy enough to understand for standard Korean speakers. For example, although there are words that are completely different from standard Korean, these haven’t been included; instead, there is a lot of vocabulary and grammar endings used that are slightly different from standard Korean but still recognisable within the context of the sentences.
These are some examples of the differences I’ve noticed in this particular drama; it’s not comprehensive, but hopefully it might be useful if you’re planning on watching the show (I’ll include the info when I write a review, too).
The ‘ㅇ’ (이응) sound is often added to the end of words ending in a vowel:
- 바당 (바다)
- 왕 (와, from 오다)
Familial terms are shortened, with the ‘ㅇ’ sound added:
- 할망 (할머니)
- 아방 (아버지)
Some common, short words are slightly modified:
- 무시 (무슨)
- 기 (그래)
Pronouns are sometimes slightly different:
- 느 (너)
- 야이 (이 사람)
- 가이/갸이 (그 사람)
- 자이/쟈이 (저 사람)
And the formal imperative ending is a bit different:
- 읍서 (오다)
Although the plot is just okay, learning a little dialect and seeing the beautiful 제주 scenery is making it an enjoyable watch.
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