Kurt Tomlinson's Blog

Some Good Books for Beginners Learning Korean

I started learning Korean almost a year ago. I'm still very much a beginner, but I can read Hangeul with little effort, and I'm beginning to be able to figure out what part of speech a word is based on its spelling with good accuracy. I've still got a long way to go. It was a struggle getting to this point with no formal instruction. If you're looking to learn Korean on your own, I hope that I can separate some of the good resources for learning Korean from the bad.

korea | 2015.10.18 00:00 | Kurt Tomlinson

MERS and Epidemic Curves: Followup

In a post published June 21, 2015, I said I hoped that Korea would be MERS-free by the time I arrived in Korea for my trip this August. Good news! South Korea says the MERS threat is no more. There hasn't been a new case of MERS in Korea since July 2, 25 days ago, and the incubation period for MERS is usually no longer than 14 days.

korea, science | 2015.07.28 03:11 | Kurt Tomlinson

MERS and Epidemic Curves

I'm planning a trip to Korea in about a month. An outbreak of MERS started a little over a month ago, so I became concerned that my trip might have to be cancelled. I researched the MERS outbreak in Korea, and I learned about epidemic (or epi) curves.

korea, science | 2015.06.21 00:00 | Kurt Tomlinson

Searching Korean Text

One technique I find extremely useful when writing a letter, essay, or research paper is to search through the paper for a portion of a word. Suppose I'm interested in finding a section of my paper that uses the word "converter", or maybe it was "conversion"? I don't remember, so I hit Ctrl+F and type "conver". This brings up both "converter" and "conversion".

korea | 2015.04.26 00:00 | Kurt Tomlinson

Do You Like to Eat Water Meat?

The Korean word for live fish is 물고기 (mul-go-gi). When you break that word down into its parts, you get "물" (mul = water) and "고기" (go-gi = meat). Literally translated into English, the Korean word for "fish" is "water meat". That sounds appetizing, doesn't it?

korea | 2015.04.12 00:00 | Kurt Tomlinson