gordsellar.com » (in korean) http://www.gordsellar.com Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:38:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Orcs! http://www.gordsellar.com/2009/06/28/orcs/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2009/06/28/orcs/#comments Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:13:13 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=5508 One of the fascinating things that keeps coming up in my Korean lessons is the generation gap. It’s not that I was unaware of this before, but my tutor has made a careful point of noting when she shows  me a word that older people either won’t find appropriate in speech, or which she considers a “young people” word.

One example is 찌질하다, which is a word I can’t quite translate into English. My tutor explained it as something that someone would say to a friend who is acting like goof or a geek, but at a party a few days later — literally, just a few days later — Kim Sang Hoon (the Korean translator) and Dr. Q  (ie. Kim Kyu Hyun) were explaining to me the special sense of the word in a little more detail. It’s not precisely geekiness, but rather a kind of overtly childish mode of behaviour that at once comes across as vaguely put-on or conscious but also endearing. At least, that’s what I got from it. Dr. Q said he thought it should become a regular word in English, since Americans do it all the time — and he’d know better than me, he lives in the States. Sang Hoon Kim specifically mentioned the website of a famous Korean genre author and the discussion boards there in relation to being behaving like a 지찔이.

Anyway, there are tons of examples of this, but I’ll just recount one more that is pretty surprising: 오크. At least, I think this is how it is spelled. The word is the Koreanization of “orc,” a word Iimagine was, for most Koreans aside from online gamers and dedicated fans of fantasy literature and media, mostly unknown until 2002, when the first Lord of the Rings film was released here… just as it probably was unknown or forgotten for a large number of Westerners, for that matter. (I imagine most of my non-D&D-playing friends in high school might have encountered the word at some point, but wouldn’t remember what it wqas or, at least, wouldn’t ever have used it in conversation)

Well, my tutor used the word “orc” in passing while describing a nasty incident at the subway station, in the course of illustrating her agreement that our neighborhood is rough and weird and full of unsavory characters.

This guy wants your seat on the subway.
This guy wants your seat on the subway.

I said, “오크? 오크 뭐예요?” (Orc? What’s an orc?) She smiled and said, “Young people use that word to describe people who are soooooo ugly…” and then described the Korean version of being ugly as sin, based on the specific example: dark, dark brown skin like a farmer’s; tiny, nasty little beady eyes; a broad face; nasty hair; and — this took a little dictionary consultation — pock marks in the skin as if from a long-ago bout of smallpox.

The specifics of that aside — this definition of ugly itself is probably at least somewhat generational, because while fifty or sixty or a hundred years ago, before the age of sun creams, paleness might have been a sign of beauty, nonetheless for most I imagine relatively darker skin from working in the sun would have been the norm — it’s fascinating that a word like Orc has entered the Korean vocabulary in such a way that it can be used directly, as a kind of common metaphor one can assume one’s peers will understand without explanation.

(Another one I’ve sometimes heard is Zerg. Which I think are those little doggie-like creatures in the massively popular (in Korea) computer game Starcraft.)

Not because that’s particularly surprising, mind you: English words (and other foreign words) do this all the time, in Korean. (As they do in plenty of languages.) But the fact that foreign genre-related words can carry more popular resonance in a foreign language and (youth-)culture than in the culture of its origin is surprising and fascinating. Think about it: if you were in a pub in London or Toronto, and were complaining about some ugly jerk on the subway, would you call him an “orc”? And if you did, would your friends understand what you meant immediately, and use the word themselves? I can’t  quite imagine that happening in Canada or the US, somehow… at least not outside of an SF convention.

야! 야! 반대말 하지마라, 이 미친 놈아! 아이씨~~~!
야! 야! 반대말 하지마라, 이 미친 놈아! 아이씨~~~!
This post is part of a series titled "SF in South Korea":
  1. My Thoughts on SF in Korea (How and Why They’ve Changed)
  2. It’s Not Just the Lateness of Industrialization: How and Why Korean SF Doesn’t Quite Work
  3. Why SF Has Failed to Put Down Roots in Korea, Part I: To Start With, Questions…
  4. K-Raelians plus The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World by Thomas M. Disch, and The Men Who Stare At Goats by Jon Ronson
  5. To All SF Geeks in Korea With [Patient or Interested] Korean Other Halves
  6. PiFan Book Fair: SF/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller novels and Magazines… in Korean!
  7. The KOFA 괴수 대백과
  8. Star Wars ROK Rock
  9. Reading The Host in Context, Part 1
  10. Reading The Host in Context, Part 2: How I Read The Host
  11. 2008 SF&F Festival (Seoul)?
  12. Seoul 2008 SF&F Festival Report
  13. Trope Salad and Penis Guns and Indie SF Films… No, Really.
  14. Done, Fun, Thinking Some
  15. More SF Goodness, Including a Bunch of Korean SF in Translation…
  16. The SOAO Workshop @ Sobaeksan
  17. My Research Plan Application (Argh!) and a New Korean SF Organization (Yay!)
  18. Korea Society Talk on Robo Taekwon V
  19. “SF in South Korea Today” — Article Live
  20. Guest Blog on Global SF & Translation @ Apex
  21. Orcs!
  22. Star Wars: 스타워즈 프로젝트 컴필레이션 (2008)
  23. Wackiest Korean Book I Ever Bought
  24. Boyran, a novel by World’s Youngest Fantasy Writer Wonje Song
  25. If Only I Were Part Robot…
Previous in series Next in series
]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2009/06/28/orcs/feed/ 4 Back in the [Korean Study] Saddle Again http://www.gordsellar.com/2009/06/02/back-in-the-korean-saddle/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2009/06/02/back-in-the-korean-saddle/#comments Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:21:07 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=5451 Let’s see, in my notebook there are the following new vocabulary terms:

  • 신상 정보: personal ID information
  • 생물측 정보: biometric information
  • 심리학: psychology
  • 작업 멘트: pickup line
  • 몸이 좋[지않]다: to [not] have a good body
  • 핸드폰 번호 따다: to get [someone's] phone number
  • 세계 구역기구: The WTO
  • 합병하다: to take over [something], for example, the WTO taking over the UN.
  • 세상: universe (to be used in the context of discussing baby universes)
  • 사고 | 나다: accident | occur (occur being the verb for accident)
  • 화학전쟁: biowar[fare?]
  • 증거: evidence

These words, of course, are all related to the two stories I’ve been working on for a few months — “The Bodhisattvas” and “Sarging Rasmussen: A Report (by Organic).” The latter being a story about pickup artists (sort of), which explains some of the weirder vocab there.

At about this point, when I was unable to say anything more, both I and my kindhearted tutor — a former student of mine whom everyone seems to agree is the perfect person for the job because of her patience and her imagined ability to kick my ass into shape — agreed that it was a BIG mistake to try talk about the stories I’d just finished or begun editing for submission.

Way too hard. Sort of a kind of trying to run before I can crawl, let alone walk.

Which saddens me: I used to be able to crawl kinda-sorta okay, but even stuff I used to be able to say without a second thought was a struggle last night. Pronunciation, more than vocab. I tripped on my tongue a lot. Maybe I’m just rusty. Maybe it’ll come back faster than I think.

So anyway, kinda-sorta undaunted, we moved on to discussing life with a pet (specifically cats), some politeness issues, general social chatter and gossip, and out ideas on how to proceed with the lessons. I’ll be taking a weekly lesson for the next few weeks, after which my tutor will graduate and I’ll be off for North America.  She plans on being around Seoul, but whether we’ll continue depends on a bunch of things like time, where she ends up living and what she ends up doing, and of course how the lessons go.

As for me, I haven’t decided whether I’ll be bringing a Korean textbook with me this summer. I will be spending lots of time on planes, and I bet even just that time could be usefully devoted to a little study. (I’ll have worked through my Astronomy text before going to Launch Pad, so while I’ll have it, I won’t need to review so much, I think.) My main Korean textbook will be WAY too heavy, but I have a smaller, lighter one I could do, which has better dialogs anyway. Hm. We’ll see.

Or maybe I should be trying to get a little French back, given that I’ll be in Montreal for a month. Or reading this Russian novel I’ve been putting off for ages. Or the rest of Pound’s Cantos? Hm.

Surely most people don’t sit around thinking, “What am I going to read/study while I am on vacation?” Do they?

But it feels good to be studying again. To hell with regretting that I stopped doing so. To hell with feeling embarrassed that my Korean should be better after 7.5 years. To hell with shame and all that. I’m studying now, and that’s the thing I can control, so there.

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2009/06/02/back-in-the-korean-saddle/feed/ 2 Poems on Hangeul http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/10/22/poem-on-hangeul/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/10/22/poem-on-hangeul/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2005 04:46:07 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/10/22/poem-on-hangeul/ Myung Mi Kim is a Korean-American poet, and you can hear her read poems about some of the various consonants in the Korean language. This is a link from the previously mentioned Factory School link I put up a few days ago.

I think she gets the names of a couple of consonants wrong, by the way, but I’ve only listened once. Anyone notice this?

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/10/22/poem-on-hangeul/feed/ 0 New Korean Expression http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/09/13/new-korean-expression/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/09/13/new-korean-expression/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2005 11:33:48 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/09/13/new-korean-expression/ 같? 값?면 다?치마.

It came up in conversation the other night, and Lime and her friend couldn’t explain it to me, so I asked Chullsung here at work. He explained that it was something like, “If the two skirts are the same price, I’ll take the fancy royal red one!” Something roughly like that. 다? is some kind of word for red, which I could perhaps have guessed knowing that ?차 is “red tea”.

Apparently this means something about choosing the better of two options, given that each one comes at about the same “price”: the nicer of two men, the better of two cars, the workable of two work situations. I’m not sure I’ll be able to come up with a situation in which to use it, or whether I’ll remember it if I ever do have such a situation, but it’s still neat to know.

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2005/09/13/new-korean-expression/feed/ 2 I’ve Joined Up!!! http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/11/12/ive-joined-up/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/11/12/ive-joined-up/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:37:04 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=1296 Blinger’s started up a blog for foreigners learning or working on their Korean. It’s for posting about learning, for practicing writing in Korean, and so on. Unlike Kangmi’s blog, which is a kind of personal-self-study log, this is a kind of community effort with multiple posters signed up.

I’m sure I shall be the worst poster, and perhaps (with my writing projects) the most infrequent, but I shall try do a regular post and get a few new words and points in each time. I am studying a lot nowadays, not as much as Blinger, but more than I was. Which is cool. I’m still focusing my energies on reading and writing but I’m going to try get my Korean up too, slowly.

And it’s open for you to sign up to, too. If you’re working on your Korean and want somewhere where you are welcome to post in Korean, please do come by and sign up.

Er, I would write this in Korean but apparently I should already be halfway across town, so… er, later.

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/11/12/ive-joined-up/feed/ 0 한국어 포스트 eclexys에서 왔어… http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/11/04/eclexys/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/11/04/eclexys/#comments Thu, 04 Nov 2004 07:01:26 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=1278 옛날에 한국어 블로그 있었는데 요즘 그 블로그 update 안했어. 그런데 요즘 한국어 공부를 다시 시작 했어서 까금 한국어 쓰기 연습 하고싶어서 eclexys에서 in Korean category 만들었지! (여기서 볼 수 있어요.) 그리고 엿날의 포스트들은 거기서 볼수있어요…

(I’ve recently begun studying Korean again and while I don’t have it in me to sustain regular posting in Korean as I once did on my old Korean blog page, from time to time I would like to practice my writing in Korean, so I’ll post here. I’ve imported my old Korean blog’s posts into a category on this blog, called “In Korean”, which is viewable here.)

(And yes, this means I will occasionally post something only in Korean here. I don’t intend to translate every post, as I have this one.)

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/11/04/eclexys/feed/ 2 똥침 http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/10/06/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/10/06/#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2004 12:15:12 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=1212 똥침을 알아요? 이 개임 해봐….

대희씨… 당신이 너무 무서워요… 빅 호미니드도 무서워요!

(For those wondering, just click the first link and try this messed-up flash game. The point is to shoot your fingers up someone’s bum. It’s a Korean thing. No, I’m not making that up.)

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/10/06/feed/ 3 좋은 추석 받으세요! http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/09/28/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/09/28/#comments Tue, 28 Sep 2004 04:44:16 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=1189 오늘은 추석이고 매사람에게 좋은 추석 받아고 말 하고 싶어요!

뿌린 대로 행복하게 거둬세요! 가족도 음식도 줄겨면 생활을 떠잘 평가할수있어서 추석에 깨우자!

Sorry for the bad Korean writing. Happy Chuseok, everyone! I’m spending the day trying to get over my cold. Ungh. I hope all of your Chuseoks are better than mine…

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/09/28/feed/ 0 http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/01/21/aiuu-au/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/01/21/aiuu-au/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2004 13:36:18 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=648 ȳ. ε ִ.

!

ٶ ־. Ƹٿ ƿ. ϼ̵ þ. 㿡 ! ʹ ؿ.

2 18 ѱ ſ.

̰… ð . ߵ. ȳ!

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/01/21/aiuu-au/feed/ 0 http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/01/13/aiuu-a-aoi-aoia/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/01/13/aiuu-a-aoi-aoia/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2004 19:34:17 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=629 ̰… ̴… ̺Ͽ Ѱ ! ؾߵǾ… б ϸ鼭 ! п ϰ־. ε Ѵ! , ʹ !

ε ģ ־… ģ ̸ “” “” ̿. ̴. Ѹ ־. ̸ “”̴… ̸ “” ؿ. ھ ʹ ; õ ̴. å ϰ Bush ̱ ̾߱ politics ̾߱ Ѵ. ʹ ִ ̴. ̴, ׷ ̾߱ؿ. ѱ ̴… ׷ 츮 ε ѽ Ծ.

(Delhi)ÿ Ͽ… ruins ˾Ҵ ҿ . … Ͽ upload ۰ſ.

ʹ ð̾. 2004 ð, . ̸ ٶ (Dharamsala)̴. ٶ ʹ ݴ!

Ƹ ѱϿ posting ۰ ؔUſ… λ: غ !!!

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2004/01/13/aiuu-a-aoi-aoia/feed/ 0 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/28/cnuoac-cd-behind-time/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/28/cnuoac-cd-behind-time/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2003 14:46:13 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=479 CD ? 㿡, ߰ 츮 ( Plastic People) ģ αԾ . , ģ ̾߱ ߾ Ծ.

׷ ģ Ҿ? n ? ̸ “”ξ߰. ʹ Ҿ… Ÿ ʹ ߾!!! ܸ . ڱ ָ 뷡 ϴ° ߰ ʹ 뷡 ߾. Ҿ.

㿡, “”, Ư : ѿ CD BEHIND TIME: A Memory Left at an Alley. ʹʹʹ ƿ. ѱ 뷡 ߰ ο 帣 . , Björk Ÿ ֿ̾… ʹ ٸ!

뷡 Ѱ ־: Track 3 Դϴ. (̸ “ּ Ҿ߰” ξ߰)… ѿ Ʈ ־.

Tracks: ϰ
1.
2. â
3. ּ Ҿ߰
4. ܷο ε
5. Ÿ
6. ݼ
7. Ȳ
8.
9.
10.
11.
12. ο
13.
14. Ÿ(voice)

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/28/cnuoac-cd-behind-time/feed/ 5 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/19/jeonju-deep-in/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/19/jeonju-deep-in/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2003 20:44:48 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=454 㿡 ο ģ ģ߾. 츮 ̰ ̾߰ ߾. ִ ð̿.

尡 ؾߵ… ׷ ڿ. ȳ…

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/19/jeonju-deep-in/feed/ 2 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/18/aaa-cacii-aai-ueu/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/18/aaa-cacii-aai-ueu/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2003 05:02:58 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=452 10 ʹ . Ⱑ ʹ ʹ 带 ̾ . ̾ؿ! ƿ.

ĿǸ ־.

㿡 л ڵ SMS Ž ¾. ̾߱ ־… л ߿ ູ۰ſ. ־ ູ ϰ ߾. ߾?  ٸ Ƿؿ. ° ٸ ְ ٸ ° ־.

ȭ ?پ… ;?

ٽ ߾. ϸ ϰ ϸ, ϰ ſ.

Ҽ (SF novel) ?پ.

? ?… ۰ž…

Ƿ ؿ… ̰, İ־…

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/18/aaa-cacii-aai-ueu/feed/ 0 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/04/aiss-aecau/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/04/aiss-aecau/#comments Sat, 04 Oct 2003 01:23:10 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=414 … ݿϿ, ָ ; ݿ ħ Ͼ… ? ϸ ϳ ʹ ʿ !

Ģ ߵ… ̰. ִ ָ ־?

ģ Ծ ̻ ȭ þ. ð ̻ ݿ ̿.

Ģ … ȳ!

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/04/aiss-aecau/feed/ 1 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/01/aeuu/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/01/aeuu/#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2003 14:27:49 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=409 ѱ ϰ , ٺ̴! “” ߵǿ. = in front of. ~~~ û ̴.

ݵ . Ծ… ϸ, ٽ ſ…

ߵ ۰ſ. ׸ Ҹ 忡 ſ. “Silk Road Music” ;. ׷… ھߵǿ… ȳ!

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/10/01/aeuu/feed/ 1 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/28/oi/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/28/oi/#comments Sat, 27 Sep 2003 20:59:26 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=395 ݿ Ͼ ۾?

¥ ̴… ʹ ʹ վ. ݿ 9 Ͽ ħ 5 … ̾…

Ӹ ʹ ʹ վ. ׷ ڵ û վ ħ׿ ڴ° Ⱦؿ.׷ Ƹ ѽð ߰ƴϿ. ̰…

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/28/oi/feed/ 1 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/26/aaia/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/26/aaia/#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2003 04:14:13 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=392 ູ Ƴ. ƴϾ?

̻ ؿ.

Ҽ Ѵ.

غ 񿡸 .

ؿ.

ģ ȥ ؾߵǿ.

ð ƿ. ׷ Ƹ ߿ غ° ص . ׷ ſ ־.

…?

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/26/aaia/feed/ 3 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/22/i-ca-aissa/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/22/i-ca-aissa/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2003 11:19:08 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=377 ٹ Ŭ ־ ָ ￡ .

ħ ģ ־ Ƿ ߾. ׷ 갡 . 3 “õ DZ” . ʹ Ҿ ߾ ģ Ҿ… ׷ ģ ʹ ƾ ģ̴! ձ Starbucks 츮 ʹ ʹ ̾߱ ߾. ¥ ģ ̳!!!

ģ ϴ ðԾ … 3 . ߰ ο Ծ ҿ . Ÿ̿ Ʋ ȯ ٷȾ. 1 20 n Ծ.

Ŭ . öƽ ö ߾. Plastic People ʹ ߰ ̴. 츮 ־.

ǰؼ ʿ. ߰ Ͽ ħ … Ŀ ͻ꿡 ڸ . Ծ ̾߱ ߰ ״ ͹̳ . ̼ ð ֿ . ־. ׷ ǰߴ!

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/22/i-ca-aissa/feed/ 1 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/18/ua/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/18/ua/#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2003 04:36:43 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=370 ̴…

׷ . л ݾ! ʹ ູ ߾.

л ȸ Ĵ翡 α … ׸ tracking server ־… ׸ ٽ ѱ α׿ α׿ ũ ! TypeMode.com þ!

Ƹ WIK ؾߵǿ?

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/18/ua/feed/ 2 다른 블로그에 comment이 http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/17/uy-ii-commentai/ http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/17/uy-ii-commentai/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2003 14:24:12 +0000 gordsellar http://www.gordsellar.com/?p=366 색다른 느낌

gosol.net에서 고드의 블로그를 comment있어요! 와… 고드가 행복해요. *^^*

]]> http://www.gordsellar.com/2003/09/17/uy-ii-commentai/feed/ 3