제가 제일 좋아하는 곳은? 당연히 꽃이 많은 곳이죠. 제 친구도 이걸 알고 있어서 제가 방문하러 갔을 때 식물원에 데려 줬어요.
What are my favourite places? Obviously places will lots of plants and flowers. My friend knows this, so when I went to visit her she took me to a botanical garden.
Ever wonder what you did in a previous life? A Korean might just tell you. Probably because of the deep background in Buddhism, the ideology of “a previous life” has become a normal part of Korean speech. Let’s take a look:
Common phrases:
“전생에 나라를 구했나” – Literally: To have saved the country in a previous life. Meaning: To be really lucky. “과학 선생님이 복권이 당첨되셔서 학교 그만 두셨데.” “와 대박. 전생에 나라를 10번은 구한듯.” “I heard the science teacher won the lottery so he quit.” “Woah, he must have saved the country at least ten times in his previous life.”
“전생에 무슨 죄를 지었나” – Literally: To have sinned in a previous life. Meaning: To be unlucky. “나 어제 여자친구 생겼다!” “헐. 네 여자친구는 전생에 무슨 죄를 지었길래 너랑 사귀냐.” “I got a girlfriend yesterday!” “Oh gosh, what sin did she commit in her previous life to end up dating you.”
“전생에 못먹은 귀신이 들렸나/붙었나” – Literally: To be possessed by a ghost who was starved (in its previous life.) Meaning: To eat unusually fast/a lot/often. “여기 삼겹살 죽인다. 진짜 맛있어.” “내말이. 전생에 못먹은 귀신이 들렸나, 왜 이렇게 끝도 없이 들어가지? 살찌게.“ “The pork belly here is to die for. It’s amazing.” “You can say that again. Am I possessed by a starved ghost, why can I just eat this forever? I’m gonna get so fat.”
These are some well established phrases, however, the use of “your previous life” doesn’t stop there. People can get creative with these.
Example:
“넌 무슨 전생에 개였냐? 술만 먹으면 개되네.” – Literally: You must have been a dog in your previous because you always are such a dog when you’re drunk. Meaning: To have bad habits come out when drunk.
Whatever you did in your previous life may affect your life, or not, but either way it’ll help you sound more fluent. Feel free to send me some of your favorites or phrases that you’ve heard. ^^
굳이 = similar to “deliberately”, “was it really necessary (to)…” “Did you absolutely have to…”
Examples:
• 굳이 초학생들을 밀쳐가다 = Deliberately push/shove school kids (elementary students)
• 굳이 여기까지 와서 그 말을 하는 이유가 뭐야? =
Why’d (why the hell did) you come all the way here just to say that?
“What’s your reason for making the extra effort of
coming here to tell me that?”
I wrote a post about my current study schedule and materials, which you can read here! As you’ll be able to tell pretty quickly, I love using textbooks, partly because I have easy access to them living in Seoul.
However, I do utilize a few other resources that I would highly recommend to those who are past low-intermediate, and those are all authentic sources. At that level, if you want to improve, I believe it’s important to incorporate as much real Korean into your study routine as you can.
Read news, webtoons, and web novels from Naver or Daum.
Watch news clips from YTN News. They provide transcripts of the entire clip in the information section, so it’s easy to check your understanding and new vocabulary.
Honestly, the most important thing in your target language isn’t to memorize all the vocabulary or grammar bits.
It’s the ability to describe and talk your way around words you don’t know because 95% of the time you can’t pull out a dictionary mid-conversation.
I literally use this in nearly every conversation I have in my non-native languages, but particularly in French. It was totally indispensable when I first moved to France 5.5 months ago, but it’s still something I do nearly every day.
Sometimes it’s just rephrasing slightly when you don’t have the right word and sometimes it’s launching into a longish, semi-convoluted explanation of a concept or object.
It seems really hard at first because sometimes you don’t feel as if you don’t even have the words for THAT, but remember that the most important thing isn’t always using the perfect words or perfect grammar—the most important thing is getting your meaning across. And sometimes you’ll have to create odd sentences to explain what you’d normally be able to say in a single word in your native language, and that’s totally okay and it’s honestly a super important skill to work on.
For me, even when I don’t have the right word, if I can still get my meaning across without a real problem (and sometimes learn the word I was aiming for!), then I still feel more confident in my language skills and speaking doesn’t feel so scary.
Even if you’re alone and you don’t have anyone to converse with, you can start by just describing random things around you without using the actual word. Definitely my #1 most used language skill.
this is called circumlocution btw. 10/10 would recommend.
I do this all the time and also my non-English speaking friends have to do this with me all the time as well!
Even if I’m talking with someone who does English, if I am committing to practicing Korean during that conversation, I will just keep speaking Korean until the other person understands rather than switch to saying the much shorter word/phrase in English.
tumblr rolled out its “best stuff first” function and it might be affecting your feed without you knowing it. well if you’re on tumblr mobile and don’t want tumblr choosing how things show up on your feed, do this! ✩
go to your settings:
then your dashboard preferences
and turn it off!
please spread the word!
(˘◡˘)
I didnt even realise there was a new feature that means not all posts are shown the dashboard. I miss loads of posts by friends, and i have just found out it has a really negative effect on less well known artists etc. which sucks because i love seeing art on tumblr! Please know this feature has been introduced on the tumblr mobile app and you can turn it off if you want your dashboard to go back to normal.
Sutdy-Korean 