[Update] The Life of Bunnie Twitter Account

I finally caved in and gave this blog it’s own Twitter account!

I feel like posting these things on my personal/kpop Twitter will annoy my followers. Most them only care for Korean resources or reviews anyway, which is fine. But other languages and stuff should go somewhere else. I will continue to post my Korean relate stuff on my personal/kpop Twitter,  but everything else will go to the blog specific Twitter!

I also feel bad that if anyone follows me on my other Twitter and they don’t like kpop(because that’s literally all I talk about haha…), those people would be annoyed.

Feel free to follow~ @thelifeofbunnie

If you like kpop, then you can follow my personal Twitter if you want! @jinguistics

[Life] Change of Major

I talked about possibly changing my major in an earlier post a week or so ago and I came to a conclusion.

I have changed my major to Psychology. I plan to specialize in counseling, but I’m also thinking about the possibility of clinical psychology. My minor will still be Korean.

I’m nervous, but confident in my change. I find great joy in trying to help and encourage others. I feel like this is what I’m meant to do and I’m happy about my choice.

I have a plan in terms of graduate school, along with a back up plan just in case plan one doesn’t go well. These are the two plans that were the ones centered around psychology as I stated in my previous post.

I still love language and language will always be one of my greatest loves and hobbies. But helping others won my heart. I’m looking forward to getting my bachelors in a few years and seeing which plan goes through when graduate school comes along.

Here’s to a new major. ^^

[Languages] Babbel’s Swedish Beginners Course 1 Completion

Babbel is a really cool website to learn languages. It’s almost has the same concept of Rosetta Stone if you’re familiar with that kind of thing. I never tried Rosetta Stone before, so I can’t really compare the two, but I’ve seen many people say Babbel is better than RS, especially in terms of price. Their language selection is not too wide yet, but I believe over time more and more languages will be added.

A half a year ago, I was lucky enough to win a free year subscription to use the site. Since then, I’ve been messing around with what language I wanted to stick with. I’ve tried Portuguese, French, Dutch, Russian and Swedish, none of them I’ve fully completed yet.

I would just like to share that I’ve got my Swedish Beginners Course 1 certificate last night. This is not the first certificate I got from Babbel(I have two from Portuguese and one from French, all beginners courses), but it still makes me excited to receive this type of thing every time I complete a course!

Swedish currently has four beginner courses and I’ll be starting the second one soon. Hopefully I can stick to a language and complete all courses available before my free subscription runs out in April.

But yes, I totally recommend Babbel! You can sign up and learn the first lesson of all languages offered for free. After that, you have to pick a subscription plan to keep going(or look on their facebook for any contests on free subscriptions since that’s how I got mine).

Until next time~ hej då!

[Life] College and the Future

I haven’t used the [Life] tag yet, so I figured I’d take a break from all these language things and just say what I’ve been thinking about lately.

When I introduced myself on this blog, I said that I was perusing a degree in Linguistics and a minor in Korean. That’s actually more in the future, like a couple years later. I’m currently in community college, getting basic classes out of the way at a cheaper price and to be more focused on classes for my degree when I transfer to another university. I’m currently working towards an associate of arts in community college…and it might change.

In that introduction post, I said like both languages and helping people. I said I was getting a degree in Linguistics but also thinking about double majoring in Psychology, but was hesitant about it. Now…it feels like everything may change.

I want to help people, but, I want to help people across the world. I want to help people in other countries or in a different country in general(because I have plans to live in another country in the future), and to help people in their language, especially if they don’t know English.

Now it’s making sense to me that if I want to speak a different language but go to classes for it, I can’t study linguistics. Linguistics is the study of language and how language works. I honestly do find that interesting and I think it would be cool! But I’m more into learning different languages than learning the reason why languages work. Of course there is a little bit of linguistics when learning languages, which I love. I like thinking why do you do this and that and not this or that. It’s what makes all languages beautiful. But if I want to study languages in terms of speaking, writing, reading, etc, I’m better off getting a degree in Modern Languages than Linguistics.

I currently self-study language. I do plan on minoring(or majoring) in a language depending on what I do and where I go when I transfer to a four year university.

I’ve been stuck for a while now. Modern Languages…Psychology…Both?

Do you want to know something interesting? When I think or talk about helping people, my heart feels happy. I believe that helping others is my gift in life…but I’m still hesitant. It’s so difficult because when you love two things, you want both instead of choosing one or the other. I want to work the two together…helping people in their language. But I’m already self-studying languages and I plan on minoring in a language no matter what(or a major if I take more classes than a minor)…so…that leaves psychology. Do I want to do it? Is it my calling? Is it God’s plan for me?

I find great joy in helping people. I love making people’s day. I love giving advice. I love being kind and encouraging. I love it all. My heart enjoys it. My friends tell me I’d make a great counselor. Also, as I type this part specifically, I can feel myself smile a little bit and my heart feels glad.

It almost sounds like I answered my own question…but I still don’t know. I almost want to talk about my dilemma to someone in person and have them tell me when I light up the most when I talk about language and helping people. I want someone to tell me in person ‘it’s obvious that you love _____.’

Do I go on and study psychology, work my way to a Masters/PhD in counseling and continue to study language either on my own or taking classes at school? This question always comes up when I think about this. I have three plans in my mind…and two of them center around psychology.

I know I’m making this harder than it needs to be…I just need to follow my heart.

…

O___O

[Preview] Various Language Books #2

My latest package from Amazon!

Korean From Zero is the book version of a free online site here. This is currently the only book they have and I’m not sure if they’re planning to make a series like Japanese From Zero. Though I already have plenty of beginner Korean books, this one has caught my attention every time I go on Amazon to look for language books. I skimmed through it and I already like the variety of exercises I see(exercises is the thing that stands out to me the most when skimming through a book like this).

Japanese From Zero, probably better known as YesJapan, was around longer than Korean From Zero. YesJapan has more site content and you have to buy a membership for most of the lessons and features. I have no idea if Korean From Zero will be going the same route or not, but that’s nothing to worry about right now. Japanese From Zero currently has four books published and I, of course, bought the first one. Though I already know hiragana(and katakana, but that’s not introduced until book 2), I want to work on grammar. I don’t have a clue about Japanese grammar with the exception of 私はメロディーです(my name is Melody), so I hope this book will help me when I start my Japanese studies!

[Preview] Various Language Books # 1

I received two packages today from Gmarket and Createspace!

Gmarket is a fairly large online Korean mall you can say. Go on there and you can find basically anything(the link goes to the global site, to go to the Korean site just simply remove the ‘global.’ part of the link). Createspace is a self-publishing website owned by Amazon.

The book I ordered from Createspace is a Toki Pona book. Toki Pona is a language that only has 120 words(not including borrowed words). Toki Pona was created in 2001 and can be learned for free on this site. They recently released a book version this summer, which I only found out about a week ago! I bought it right away and I hope I can learn this little language better now.

The other three books I bought from Gmarket! What do these books all have in common? They’re written in Korean! It’s because these three books are made to be used for native Korean speakers. The reason I bought these when I’m not a native Korean speaker is for two reasons:

• To improve reading in Korean
• To learn other languages I’m interested in learning in Korean instead of English(my native language)

To start out, the orange book is a book written for Korean students who are in middle school. It’s kind of like a study book and it covers the topic of Korean Literature. I thought this book would be good to help me improve reading in Korean when I’m at a more intermediate level(or maybe upper-intermediate). I’m no where near intermediate Korean as of now, but I hope having this book waiting for me to use it will strive and motivate me to continue to work hard and study the Korean language so one day I can go ‘I can read this book! I can read a Korean middle school review book! I can understand it!’

Next, the green book looks like it has Kanji on it! Another give away is the ‘Minna no Nihongo’ on the front cover and if you know basic Japanese, you might know what this book is for. It’s to learn Japanese! When I become better in the Korean language, Japanese is one of the next languages I want to learn. I plan on learning Japanese in both Korean and English one day, and I hope this book will help me when I want to study the language in Korean.

Lastly, the blue book is for learning Chinese! As I said in my previous preview post, I would love to learn Chinese in Korean one day, and that’s exactly what I bought this book for. As of right now, when I get to Chinese I plan on learning it only in Korean, as Korean has a lot of Chinese roots that could possibly help me figure the language out. If all else fails, I can use both Korean and English.

So it seems like I can’t use the last three books until I know Korean at a more intermediate level. But that’s okay! Having these books here now can help me work hard.

As that being said, the Korean books won’t be reviewed for a long while. You guys will probably forget about them by the time I review these. OTL As for Toki Pona, I’ll be working through it here and there. ^^

I might be posting another review soon. A review that is not really a book, but something online that I think you guys might be interested in. Please anticipate!

[Preview] Korean Language Books #5

Two packages came in yesterday from twochois and amazon!

From twochois, I’ve purchased Useful Chinese Characters for Learners of Korean and 2000 Essential Korean Words for Beginners(plus the notebook as a freebie~). From amazon I got Go Billy Korean’s Korean Made Simple.

I’m most excited about the Useful Chinese Characters book because I’ve always wanted to learn Chinese, especially in terms of Korean. They say if you know Chinese, or learn Chinese/Hanja, Korean will become easier. I know that’s true because Korean has a lot of Chinese roots. I’m also excited for this book because once I become at a more intermediate level in Korean, I plan on studying Chinese next. I’ve learned basic Chinese before but for fun instead of serious study. ><

I’m sure most of my readers are language learners or lovers, so let me ask you guys this! If you’re learning a language now, are you planning on learning another language afterwards? What are you learning now and what do you plan on learning next?

If you’re not a language learner or lover, what are your interests? I personally also love to write, help others and read and learn about other various topics(such as learning about another country’s culture). ^^