If you've been interested at all in what I do at work, here's a sample of what I'm working on now (it's part of that Thai-Korean relations essay I mentioned on Monday):

"On the diplomatic side, Thai government announced to guarantee the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea in October 1949, while the establishment of the diplomatic relations on October 1, 1958. On March 1, 1960, the two countries exchanged the ambassadors between them. Since then, Thailand and the Republic of Korea have increasingly enhanced their mutual relations in all sectors including trade and investment, visits by heads of states as well as academic, cultural and tourist exchanges.
"The combination of states and civil contact has had great impacts on the interests among Thai people to learn and to understand the Koreans, though a slow pace in the beginning, through time."

In no way am I making fun of the writer's abilities. I certainly cannot write this well in Korean, much less Thai. (Maybe in French, though. With a dictionary). I'm just feeling whiny.
Maybe it's a result of soaking up Korean girl culture. There's a certain characteristic of young Korean female speech (most noticeable to young males, I think), that I can only describe as... whiny.
I'm not the only one who's noticed it, I swear! We talked about it in class, because we just learned the friend-friend/adult-child speech pattern* this week, and the teacher was telling us that we were pronouncing the words fine, but lacking the intonation of real Koreans. We weren't rolling out the last vowels long enough on our suggestions/commands the way real Koreans do. To wit, here's a conversation we learned in class (condensed):
A: "What are you doing?"
B: "Nothing. Why?"
A: "Since it's the weekend, let's go out."
B: "But it looks like it's going to rain."
A: "So what if it rains? Let's go."
Sound innocuous enough, right? Now imagine that speaker A is a seven-year-old girl who has thus far in life been pampered to her every heart's desire, has just finished playing with her Malibu Barbie doll or Hogwarts broomstick or whatever it is that seven-year-old girls play with these days, and is hungry, tired, thirsty, has been made to eat brussel sprouts, and has to go to the bathroom, all at once. Got it? Now read this:
A: "What are you doooooinggggg?"
B: "Nothing. Why?"
A: "Since it's the weekend, let's go oooooouuut."
B: "But it looks like it's going to rain."
A: "So what if it rains? Let's goooooo."
That's the way that Korean girls often sound. Speech is usually accompanied with a pout, eyebrows drawn together, and a kind of chin/shoulder coordinated forward movement I can only describe as the whine roll. It's sort of like the Flirty Girl combination hair toss and giggle, a move that's instinctual and calculated at the same time. I could do it for you, but then I'd have to immediately dive into the nearest river (currently icing up) in horror and shame.
What about guys? Yeah, they do extend the vowel a bit, but not nearly to the length of the female extension.

* I should explain the speech pattern thing. Hierarchy in Korean society is reflected in the language. Thus, you use one form of speech (honorific, or jone dae mal) to persons older than you or in positions "above" you (this encompasses a wide, sometimes confusing range of personages, including your parents, boss, people who have worked longer than you at the company, people who are older than you, people who are the same age as you but married, anyone you want to show respect to). Then there's the form of speech (ban mal) you use to people "equal" to you (friends of the same age, close friends who may be older than you, children, anyone younger than you).
In general, all forms of speech except ban mal are considered polite. Within polite speech, there is formal polite speech and informal polite speech, each with different verb endings. Don't ask me to explain, because I can't -- I don't know the appropriate times to use them either. This is one of the things that makes fluency in Korean so extremely difficult to attain, and virtually impossible without understanding the culture.
Sigh.
End of note.

Didn't end up going to taekwondo last night because I didn't really want to, and was talking to Myung-soo here at the office about it when J called. I miss the J. I wish I could figure things out.