Excuse me.
Yes!
Hello!
Are you multilingual?
Yah. I can speak Bahasa Indonesia,
Bahasa Melayu and English.
I know a little bit of Tagalog because
I was born in the Philippines.
I know 0.00001% of Korean.
I really annyeonghaseyo (hello) and that's about it.
What's a language you would like to pick up?
Oh, French!
French is like a very romantic language.
I want to learn Korean to the full extent.
I wanted to learn Korean so that I can go to Korea and...
Get a noona (older sister).
It's always easier if you watch Korean shows
and you can understand it.
So you don't have to wait for the subtitles
that comes out a week later.
On this episode of Singaporeans Try...
I'm scared.
You will have to learn the Korean language within a week!
Oh my God!
I am so afraid that I will sound like an idiot,
because their accent is so distinct.
My strategy is listen to K-pop,
to watch Korean dramas,
to go to the library and find translation books.
Either read up online or find -
how to study Korean for Dummies 101.
I want to challenge myself to fully fledged oppa-ness.
So I did ask on my Instagram for
commonly used Korean phrases that I can learn.
A very popular one that popped up was,
I'm on my way to work now so,
I will go to work and do a little more revision.
Very excited.
Let me just go to a quieter place, so that I can
download some audiobooks for my trip back home.
Login using SingPass.
Korean for beginners.
So there's this 3 minute Korean book.
It's an audiobook.
Let me download that.
Welcome to 3 Minute Korean 25 series audiobook.
There is somebody in the office who has taken Korean before,
and she's quite proficient in the language.
Hi Pearly!
Hi!
I'm suppose to be learning Korean.
Do you have any tips?
Or anything that I can use?
These are actually my notes, from when I first studied (Korean).
It will teach you everything. From how to pronounce,
to read letters.
This is not called cheating, this is called studying smart.
Suddenly my confidence level increased by 10 million.
I got this 'Learn Korean in 20 Minutes - All The Basics You Need'.
Woah. This is slightly more tough.
These are all the things people have sent me.
Thank you so much!
What does that mean?
Means 'take off your pants'.
Wow!
Who is this person?
Oh my God. Can't believe someone asked me to
ask an oppa to take off his pants.
You are very rude!
I heard you asked Pearly on how to ask a noona for her number.
Yah.
Very easy. They confirm understand.
Why?
Actually I don't care.
I have your handphone number already.
I haven't exactly been making a lot of progress.
I know the basics like -
What I intend to do is to use Google translation.
For me to get the basics first.
Annoyed.
So, we have our resident Korean.
Lesson 1, we are going to sing 4 Minute's 'What's Your Name' song first.
So it's...
I don't know why it automatically becomes a higher pitch.
모 is what.
이름 is name.
Yes!
So if you ask me...
I'll be like...
Yes!
But I don't know how to say "I'm leaving the library now".
I found out there are a couple of Korean resources,
and even study books available.
So what I'll do is come back to the library tomorrow.
Maybe spend some time studying here.
I'm actually referring to the NLB eBook that I borrowed,
which is 'Korean for Dummies'.
I'm learning on how to pronounce the words correctly.
It even has a tip here, which is amazing.
It says here...
In Korean, pronounce the letter 'A' as 'ah'.
Like 'spa'.
It's more convenient because I can have the book
right there and then if it's available.
I can literally read it from here, and put it into my notebook.
I'm here at a Korean hair salon.
The challenge now is for me to converse fully in Korean.
Erm...
Wait, what's the word?
I'm kind of regretting this hairstyle right now, because
it will literally look like I'm small Bolin.
Xiao (small) mushroom.
Becky, what is small?
Mushroom?
No. I think I will look like a small mushroom.
Small mushroom. You want.
No, I don't want!
Oh? Don't want?
I'm here to find Korean language book
that will show me the alphabets,
as well as basic vocabularies
that can help me in expressing myself.
So I will be borrowing this book for later.
But for now, I will be studying the basic Korean language first.
I will be practice writing as well.
It is after work hours,
I'm attending tuition.
Alamak, I think I brought the wrong notes.
Suddenly alamak eh!
Don't need the 어.
So you all know words like...
So what is...
- Here! - Over here!
I recently borrowed a library book.
It's called 'The Korean Skincare Bible'.
So there's a basic morning routine for beginners.
Sometimes you know in videos, they ramble on and on
and they don't give you an actual routine.
But this one, they give you an actual routine that you can follow.
It's very easy, and it's also very clean.
Today's agenda for learning Korean is -
I will be trying to sing a song.
One of the first few Korean songs that I actually listened to.
I'm going to try and follow the words.
And try to refer to the Korean lyrics at the same time.
(Zhin trying to sing, but not really happening.)
(Still trying his best to get the lyrics right.)
(Almost there, but not really.)
I found this book that encompass a bit about K-pop
culture, as well as their beauty and skincare trends.
I thought, why not try one of their makeup looks!
So I tried to do the gradient lips, as well as
the shimmery eye-shadow.
This is my final makeup look.
Actually in the light it's not bad.
Wow.
So today, I will be focusing on conversational stuff.
eBook...
Loads.
Sincerely.
Episode 13 finished already.
That was Goblin by the way.
If you haven't watch it, I recommend you to seriously watch it.
I think one of the reasons why I can actually appreciate
Korean dramas better now, is because I know certain words.
I don't have to read the subtitles to know what they are saying.
It makes it more impactful because I can actually focus on the scene itself.
I've decided to meet up with Leah and Rainier.
And, we are at a Korean restaurant!
Do you know what is name (in Korean)?
I need to open.
Name is 이름.
He ask himself how old is he!
Which is smile.
Light.
Fire!
Pancake!
I love how yours are all food.
The alphabets are actually quite easy to understand
and to read as well.
The only thing is... The pronunciation.
It's actually very fun to have conversations with
people in Korean.
Especially when you get it correct,
the amount of satisfaction that you feel is like...
I did it.
I wanted to do the Korean look.
Koreans like to part their hair in the center, so I went to...
I do a mix of audiobooks, shows as well as songs.
The audiobooks are for the real pronunciation.
But the songs are to make it a little more slang-ish.
I went to the library because I needed a place to be quiet for me to study.
If you want to learn a language,
you can go there to look for the resources and you don't need to buy.
When I asked the staffs there,
they actually offered me books that weren't available online.
If you don't know where your book is
because the library is so huge,
go and ask the staff.
Because they are very helpful.
You can actually use the app.
So all the shelves are inside (the app).
Then (the radar will be activated).
Then I just walk.
I just went to the app to search...
'Korean basic english'.
'Korean translation english'.
Then I just download.
For me it was very convenient because I can read it anywhere I want.
Plus there's audio,
so I can just click and listen to it at the same time.
But going to classes definitely is the best way to go.
- I feel. - Yup.
Yes!
Wow! The unanimous yes!
I love it!
I really will.
Because I feel that 1 week is too short.
I feel that I can do better.
So I'm going to take my time and really learn it properly.
Who knows one day I'll come to you in the office,
I'll be like "(gibberish)".
Thank you National Library Board for making this video possible!
If you guys would like to check out the books
that we borrowed to help us learn the Korean language,
you can check out the links in the description box below
and download it through the NLB mobile app!