Orcs!

This entry is part 28 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

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 …

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Back in the [Korean Study] Saddle Again

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 …

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You Have Nose Star Calipers? AKA Maybe I Should Practice Korean More?

Today’s fun conversation in Korean: ME: You have a nose star calipers?1. DOLLAR STORE CLERK2.: Huh? Nose star? ME: Yeah, you know. Nose star calipers.3. DSC: You mean a nose hair trimmer? ME: Uh… maybe. Nose hair? DSC: Yeah. Like, this? [Makes snipping motion.] ME: No, no. I mean like this… [Makes a buzzing noise, and spins finger round in a circle quickly.] DSC: Oh! Yeah, right over here. ME: What’s this called? DSC: A nose hair trimmer. ME: Ah. Right. Hair. Stars are in the sky, hair is in my nose. DSC: [With a giddy laugh.] That’s right. Shall …

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Poems 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?

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New Korean Expression

같은 값이면 다홍치마. 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. 다홍 is some kind of word for red, which I could perhaps have guessed knowing that 홍차 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, …

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한국어 포스트 eclexys에서 왔어…

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 …

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좋은 추석 받으세요!

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…

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인도에 썬다…

안녕. 인도에 쓰고있다. 새해 복 많이 받으세요! 지금은 다람살라에 살고있어요. 아름다운 산이 많아요. 완순이도 많이 봤어요. 밤에 줍지! 하지만 너무 좋아 해요. 2월에 18일 한국에 갈거예요. 아이고… 시간 많이 없어요. 가야되. 안녕!

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인도에 친구를 투명 있어요

아이고… 오래간만이다… 이블록에 한개월에 못 썼어요! 일 많이 해야되었어요… 애학교에 일하면서 빠뻤어요! 하지만 요브음 방학에 나는 여행 하고있어요. 인도에 요행한다! 와, 너무 재미있지! 인도에 친구를 투명 있어요… 친구의 이름이 “리투” 와 “존” 이예요. 존씨는 리투씨의 남편이다. 리투와 존의 가족에 아이 한명 있어요. 그 아이의 이름이 “쿠시”이다… 하지만 모두 사람 그 여자의 이름은 “코코” 말해요. 코코씨 너무 귀업고 천재 여자이다. 나도 리투씨도 책 망ㅎ이 말하고 Bush와 미국 이야기 도 politics 이야기 많이 한다. 존씨도 너무 재미있는 가람이다. 존씨 음악인이다, 그래서 음악을도 이야기해요. 존씨 한국 사람이다… 그렇개 우리 인도에 때때로 한식 같이 먹었어요. 댈히(Delhi)시에 매일에간다… ruins도 잘 알았는 장소에 갔어요. 사진 많이 …

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