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. ^^
Here’s a quick and easy post to ease my way back into regular updates!
Don’t make my mistake of confusing the word 독 here for “poison.” 독 is also the term used for the large earthen pots Koreans traditionally use to store kimchi and a variety of pastes. A rat with the misfortune of falling into one of these large jars would have a difficult, if not impossible, time of escaping. This expression is used to describe someone who finds themselves in a situation with little recourse or means of breaking free of a problem. The English equivalent would be “a rat in a trap.”
Examples
나는 독 안에 든 쥐처럼 아무것도 할 수 없었다. Like a rat in a trap, I couldn’t do anything.
네가 돈이 없는 한 독 안에 든 쥐야. As long as you don’t have money, you’re a rat in a trap.
경찰에게 잡힌 도둑은 독 안에 든 쥐가 됐다. The captured thief was a rat in a trap.
This time we look at phrases that come from right under our noses.. literally (excluding the face ones.) ANYWAYS.. We’ll look at some idioms that refer to our bodies. As always, these terms don’t have direct translations, so I wrote some examples down to help understand their uses.
Let’s dive into it!
얼굴이 두껍다 – Shameless, brazen 회사에서는 얼굴이두꺼워야 해. 전날 싸우고도 계속 같이 일 해야 하니까 – You have to act brazen at a company. Even if you fought the day before, you have to keep working together.
발이 넓다 – Friends in many places (large reach) 잭은 발이 넓은것 같아. 모든 나라에 친구들이 있더라고. – I guess Jack has friends in many places. He seems like he has friends in every country. (Creative, right!?)
손이 크다 – Positive: Openhanded, generous / Negative: Excessively giving, buying, or making. 폴은 사업가라 손이 크던데요? 선물용 홍삼을 몇백만원치 사더라고요. – Paul is a big spender. It seems like he bought several thousand dollars worth of ginseng.
쑤의 어머니는 손이 크셔서 집에 놀러갈때 마다 부침개를 열장씩 부쳐주셔. – Sue’s mom is so generous. Every time I visit their house she makes me ten Korean pancakes.
엉덩이가 무겁다 – Positive: Tolerant, enduring / Negative: Lazy 한국에서는 학생한테 이런 말을 많이 한데 “학생은 엉덩이가 무거워야지.” – In Korea there’s a saying that “students must endure.”
필은 부르면 한번에 안 나와. 한 열번은 불러야 나와… 내가 아는 사람중에 제일 엉덩이가 무거워. – If you call Phil once he won’t come out. You have to call him several times… He’s the laziest person I know.
간이 크다 – Courageous (can be negative or positive) 간이 큰건지, 죽고 싶은건지, 어떻게 총을 든 강도한테 덤빌 수 있어? – Are you brave, or do you want to die? How could you attack a robber with a gun?
입이 무겁다 – Tight lipped (opposite is 입이 가볍다) 제가 믿을 수 있는 사람은 송이밖에 없어요. 송이는 입이 무겁거든요. – There’s no one I trust more than Songi. She’ll never tell anyone.
귀가 얇다 – Easily persuaded 귀가 얇아도 너무 얇은거 아니야? 왜 맨날 생각이 바뀌냐? – Aren’t you a little too easy to persuade? Why do you change your opinion every day?
Hope these were interesting, and there always many more that we can dive into! So if you liked this post, please let me know ^^ More to come soon! (I promise)
Here with another book review~ Today, I want to talk about TalkToMeInKorean’s “Everyday Korean Idiomatic Expressions.”
One day I was at the book store with my boyfriend looking at all the many Korean study books available when he happened to pick this one up. I had passed over it, not really interested, but he got really excited flipping through it! He was surprised that a book like this, explaining Korean expressions, even exists, and as he flipped through it he told me that I should definitely get it! Having received the native seal of approval, I figured that this book needed to find a place in my small personal library!
As it says on the cover, this book contains one hundred expressions that Koreans use in daily life. I actually sat down with my boyfriend and asked him to mark the expressions that I should learn first—that is, the expressions that he felt were most commonly used, or that he personally used a lot. Out of the 100, he marked 47. That isn’t to say that the other 53 are useless; he just said that those are a little less common or ones that he doesn’t use as often (but can still understand). Overall, he said this book would be great for me (and for other Korean learners) to learn expressions that will lend their speech a more natural feel. Considering I am not a native speaker and don’t have the same intuition about things like expressions that he does, I’m taking his word for it.
Now, what do I think about the book? In general, it’s a really fun, helpful resource for learning some Korean that you would likely not encounter in your usual classroom setting, or even in most other study materials. Each expression is given two or three pages. Each expression is presented with a breakdown of the words that it is comprised of, the literal meaning, and the figurative meaning of the expression. A short description of the usage of the expression follows, along with example conversations that are written first in Korean and then in English. Also, some of the expressions have fun (if not slightly disturbing at times) illustrations showing their literal meanings.
Sometimes I found myself wishing that the descriptions of the usages of the expressions were a little more detailed, but for the large part, the short descriptions provided and the example dialogues will be enough to give you a decent idea of how to use them.
If you’re looking for something to help you get a more natural feel in your Korean, I would recommend checking out this book. Foreigner tested, native approved!
Means “counting chicks before they are hatched”. Assuming someone will do something good for you whilst they have no idea about it.
Comes from the old saying “떡 줄 사람은 생각도 않는데 김칫국부터 마신다,” (meaning “They’re not even thinking of giving you rice cake, but you already drunk kimchi broth.” Because you need to drink something to wash down the rice cake.)
김칫국 좀 그만 마셔. 그 상이 진짜 너한테 주어질지 누가 알아? = Don’t drink kimchi broth. Who knows whether you will really get the prize? 그 아이는 내게 관심이 없었는데 나만 먼저 김칫국부터 마시고 있었나보다 = I guess I drank kimchi broth. She wasn’t interested in me.
Sutdy-Korean 