한문학
So I am on holiday now until something like the 28th of July. I am not sure what to do but doing nothing is feeling quite good. I have been reading 공지영's novel 즐거운 나의 집 (My Pleasant Home) again. I never really found much time to read it during the semester but now with time off maybe I can get through it. It is slow going. some paragraphs are no problem, but some I have to look up a lot of words and carefully parse sentences to understand them. It is frustrating because I want to glide across the crests of the words, to feel the nuance of what the author is saying, the way I can in English. Nevertheless, there are moments when something is just expressed so precisely that even in Korean I can feel the beauty and power of such a perfect sentence. (But I wonder if I am the only one who appreciates those moments; in English they loose their perfection and native Korean speakers seem to miss what is special about them.) Reading so slowly changes the reading experience. I read English novels at a rate of about 20+ pages an hour, but in Korean 4 pages an hour is about my maximum. There is an upside, though. Reading that slowly and that carefully makes the novel more intense. Because I fight to understand every paragraph, when I realize what is being said, it is like a powerful and memorable epiphany. I am able to remember everything I have read in incredible detail and the pathos is exaggerated so much that I have been almost moved to tears at times. On the other hand though, it is hard to maintain the level of concentration required for long periods and it makes reading a much less relaxing experience.
If I only learn Korean well enough to read novels like this, if I am never able to speak well or understand what most people say, the years of study will still be worth it.
If I only learn Korean well enough to read novels like this, if I am never able to speak well or understand what most people say, the years of study will still be worth it.