June
Korean
Reading: 1 book
- 금파
- 264 pages - 9h 28m
- A fictionalized story of the real-life person, Heo Geumpa, a pansori singer in late Joseon Era.
- (copied from my bingo post lmfao) I’d been meaning to read a historical fiction book in Korean since I really love those types of books in English, but I hadn’t found one that seemed interesting (e.g. less history lesson-y) and not too difficult.
- I was so surprised at how easy this felt to read…(((despite the hella words I had to look up LOL mostly proper nouns tho so!!))).
- Heo Geumpa is considered one of the pioneer female pansori singers, after Jin Chaesun. Honestly there don’t seem to be many records of Heo Geumpa, from my google searches lmfao and also according to the author’s note. It seems we only know the basics like her hometown, under whom she studied, and some records of her famous performances.
- The book starts with an old man, then goes back to the past to tell the story of Geumpa’s life in a mostly linear way. We do have some flashbacks here and there to fill in pieces of her story, and it ends with an epilogue jumping back to this old man, who we now recognize, and the ‘present’ world where Joseon has been annexed by Japan and pansori has fallen out of favor for more Japanese style of story operas.
- This book isn’t really that descriptive, nor detailed in the reimagining of 허금파’s life, but I somehow enjoyed the mix of history, romance, and somewhat tragic moments even if they were told a little dryly LOL.
- The author’s note was also really nice to read to see how the author interwove personal details and her own connections to pansori within the novel. This book reminded of when I was really into pansori after watching the movie Seopyeonje.
Currently reading:
- 금각사 | L36?? (another historical fiction!!! Can I…actually read books that are my taste and not just books that are easy enough for me???) a fictionalized life story of the monk who burnt down the famous Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan.
- 방과 후 | L30?? Progress on this, I’ll prob finish it this week.
- 고양이와 사막의 자매들 | L34?? Bruh I can’t believe I let a Youtuber convince me to read it, it is so not my style. Despite there being cats.
- Pausing 맨홀 | L28?? for now. Just not feeling it, I’m v confused and it’s YA anyways so I don’t have super high hopes for the storytelling.
Also back on my shit of Korean Youtube lmao I need to stop though. I need to read more! Lots of gaming channels and ‘challenge’ vids like this: https://youtu.be/MptEadE838U
I don’t track Korean listening because I don’t feel progress/gains from it, but if I did…I’d be killing it lmfao.
I continued to do some conversation classes but I’ll prob stop those.
I don’t always read on Kimchi Reader but:
Spanish
STOP EVERYTHING I ACTUALLY READ IN SPANISH!!!
Reading: 1 book (graphic novel)
- Laura Dean termina conmigo | L24??
- I did look up a bunch of stuff…but the speed at which I could go through the pages, due to it being a comic, made it feel fast to read despite that.
- Okay story! I did write a review but because of my baby Spanish I have no idea if it’s genuinely entertaining or not.
- Queer characters! Happy pride month.
- I will now try to continue Strawberry Moon. La hija de la luna (Destino. Fuera de colección) | L21 which does feel a good level for me. I will also prob go through some more graded readers and podcast transcripts, maybe before returning to Strawberry Moon.
Listening: 35.5 hours (ACTUALLY MET MY 25 HOUR GOAL!!! FOR THE SECOND MONTH IN A ROW wow I love not working)
- As always, Learn Spanish and Go, Mextalki, How to Spanish pulled me through.
- I did go through some series from SpanishBoost.
- I listened to exactly 1 (one) episode of Español Al Vuelo since many recommended it for those at Level 4 of Dreaming Spanish. It feels weird to go back to podcasts with one speaker, and to shorter episodes, but it is def comprehensible. I’ll keep listening here and there since I should be listening to more comfortable stuff haha. But seriously…why do so many podcasts not number their episodes bㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ it makes it so hard to track…
The Dreaming Spanish website tracker looks insane bc I am too lazy to track every day lmfao. June 5th is all my Mextalki time, June 16th is How to Spanish, etc.
I am unsure what goals to have for July. I would still like to have my 25 hour listening goal for Spanish. And of course, reading all the books. Buuuuut I am going to Korea in like 2.5 weeks so uh idk how far I will get LMAO
I’m gna buy so many books there heheheheheheheh.
