층 = floor, story, level

3층집 = three story house
위층 = upstairs, the floor above
아래층 = downstairs, the floor below
다음 층 = the next floor
층마다 = every floor
꼭대기층 = top floor

Are you a native speaker or did you learn in school?

I’m a native English speaker self-studying Korean over the internet. 🙂

위 = Above
아래, 밑 = Under, below
안 = Inside
밖 = Outside
앞 = In front
뒤 = Behind
옆 = Beside, next to
사이 = Between

use with ~에(서), ~(으)로, 쪽, 층, ~ㄹ/을/를, ~의 etc.

물이 우리 무릎 위로 올라왔다 = The water came above our knees.
내가 사는 아파트 위층에 사는 사람들= the people in the apartment above mine
우리는 안으로 옮겨야 했다 = We had to move inside
그 문은 안에서 잠겨 있었다 = The door was locked from the inside.
사람들이 테이블 앞에 몰려 있다 = People are crowded in front of the table
그 학교는 공원 옆에 있어 = The school is beside the park.
커튼 사이로 햇빛이 들어왔다 = The sun shone in between the curtains.
학교와 공원 사이에 있어요. = It’s between the school and the park.

Reading practice

TalkToMeInKorean Level 1 & 2 Dialogs. Really good for beginners and if you’ve taken those lessons. Audio recording and transcript for reading practice.

HowToStudyKorean intermediate short stories. Explanation of difficult grammar and phrases at the bottom. This one is free and there are 4 more available to buy.

Berkeley intermediate Korean. Possibly my favourite resource ever. Reading practice, audio, grammar and in-text vocabulary explanations.

Fresh Korean various written stories and dialogues as well as other resources.

Korean 410 short stories. Stories, English translations, vocab lists and grammar explanations.

Hey, hope your having a good day!! I’m just wondering how to decide what to use for your reading practice and if you think webtoons would be good for it?

Thank you I hope you are too! I wish I could help more but I really struggle to find things as well!! I recently started using naver news and just chose by scanning the headlines for words that I understood (basically nothing). I’m sure webtoons are good if you enjoy them I know lots of people do use them to study! I definitely like using children’s books though I’ve only been able to find a few.

I will make a post to share resources for reading practice that I’ve collected so I hope some of them are useful to you. Maybe other people have some suggestions? I’d like to find a couple of blogs or magazine websites but it’s really hard to search for in Korean..

그는 국가 공무원이다 = My husband is in government service.
공무원들만요. 우리 사무실은 출근해요 = Only for government employees. Our office is working.
공무원 시험을 준비하다 = prepare for a civil service exam

참치전 : Tuna pancakes, recipe from Maangchi

참치 = Tuna
전 = Pancake

양파 = Onion
마늘 = Garlic
참기름 = Sesame oil
후추 = Black pepper
소금 = Salt
알 = Egg
가루 = Flour

k-is4korean: 북쪽, 남쪽, 동쪽, 서쪽.

북한 = North Korea
동아풍향이 남에서 북으로 바뀌었다 = The wind changed from south to north.
아직도 북에 두고 온 친척들을 찾고 있다 = They’re still finding their relatives left in the north.
저는 북부는 한 번도 못 가봤어요 = I’ve never been up north before.

동양 = The East
동양인 = Asian
동부 = The East, Eastern part
해는 동쪽에서 떠서 서쪽으로 진다 = The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west.
일출을 보러 동해로 가다 = Go to the East Sea to watch the sunrise.

남한 = South Korea
남아메리카, 남미 = South America
어느 쪽이 남쪽이죠? = Which way is south?
그들은 프랑스 남부에 있는 빌라를 한 채 샀다 = They bought a villa in the South of France.

서양 = The West
서양인 = Westerner
서부 = The West, Western part
당신은 아직도 서부에 있는 직장을 찾고 계십니까? = Are you still looking for a job on the West Coast?
중국과 서양 사이에는 많은 거래가 이루어졌다 = There was a lot of trade between China and the West.

소아비만 예방을 위한 부모 수칙 10

1. TV 시청은 1~2시간 이내로 줄이고 식사를 하면서 TV를 보지 않도록 한다.
2. 일찍 자고 일찍 일어나는 습관을 길러준다.
3. 자녀가 생활습관을 개선했을 경우 적극적으로 칭찬해준다.
4. 인스턴트식품은 아예 구입하지 않는다.
5. 항상 음식을 약간 남기는 습관을 갖게 한다.
6. 먹을 때마다 천천히 씹어서 맛을 음미하게 한다.
7. 식사는 한곳에서만 하며 먹고 난 뒤에는 깨끗이 치운다.
8. 야식은 과식을 유발하고 아침 식사를 거르게 만들기 때문에 피한다.
9. 온 가족이 바른 식습관과 운동습관을 갖도록 한다.
10. 운동 전후에는 탄산, 이온 음료 및 음식 섭취를 제한한다.

예방 = Prevention
수칙 = Rules, practices
이내로 = Within
줄이다 = To reduce
기르다, 길러주다 = To raise, develop
자녀 = Children, sons and daughters
개선하다 = To improve
칭찬 = Praise
아예 = Never
구입(하다) = Purchase, to buy
씹다 = To chew
음미하다 = To savour
깨끗이 = Cleanly, neatly
치우다 = Tidy up/away
전후에 = Before and after
제한하다 = To limit

translatingkorea:

Korean is extremely grammatically expressive. The more I learn, the more surprised I am at how unique the grammar is in Korean. Here are 5 different ways to say “because” that our teacher went over with us yesterday. I translated the sentences into English but some of the meaning is lost in translation.

-기 때문에 because
약속이 있기 때문에 파티에 못 가요.
Because I have a prior commitment, I cannot go to the party.

-(으)ㄴ/는 덕분에 because with a positive connotation (thanks to)
장학금을 받는 덕분에 한국에서 한국어를 공부할 수 있어요.
Thankfully since I received a scholarship, I am able to study Korean in Korea.

-(으)ㄴ/는 탓에 because with a negative connotation
멕시코 음식이 몸에 안 좋은 탓에 먹고 싶지 않아요.
Because Mexican food isn’t good for your body, I don’t want to eat it.

-(으)ㄴ/는 통에 when an event is complicated or loud
룸메트는 늦게까지 음악을 듣는 통에 어젯밤 잘 못 잤어요.
Because my roommate was listening to music until late last night, I couldn’t sleep well.

-는 바람에 sudden event, slight negative connotation
비가 오는 바람에 공원에 못 가요.
Because it suddenly started to rain, I cannot go to the park.

There are also at least 5 ways to say “since” which I will post later.