For this Blog, I will assume that you know how to read 한글, the Korean writing system.
If you do not know how to read 한글, here is a great place to learn how. That's where I began four years ago.
edit -- because of that guide contest going on right now, someone made a nice, TL-friendly "how to read korean" guide here
If you do not know how to read 한글, here is a great place to learn how. That's where I began four years ago.
edit -- because of that guide contest going on right now, someone made a nice, TL-friendly "how to read korean" guide here
So when a guy first decides to learn a language in any way other than taking a formal class, the first important things you always are going to learn are the bad ones. (I say important because who cares how you say hello or goodbye? We want to know how to tell a guy to shove it... but unfortunately I still don't know how )
Fortunately for me, though, I didn't bother to learn a whole bunch of them. Just a few.
I used to play SOCOM II for the PlayStation 2 back in the early 2000's. There was a pretty active Korean community there whom I would play with in the middle of the night (I live in America, where the early morning is primetime in Korea).
So here were the ones I first learned:
개새끼 - Son of a bitch (개 means dog and a 새끼 is a baby)
시발 (sometimes written as 씨발) - Fuck
제기랄! - Shit/Damn/Crap!
As a side note right now,
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I wanted to let you know that if you want to type in Korean but don't have your Windows CD on you to install the necessary files, you can go here and type via clicking the necessary letters/characters. That is how I'm doing it here, just so you know.
From what I understand, you can use these words as interjections. In case you don't remember that word from grade school, its one of those words that you can just say alone in a sentence like so: Shit! Interjections are like the weird relative of the parts of speech. You know, they're the ones that nobody likes — everyone else in the family just doesn't mess with them or try to make them conform and be like the rest.
Anyway, that's all for now I guess. Tomorrow, I plan to write about some of the weird things I had (and still do have) a problem with in this language. I hope you guys can leave a comment or two and help me understand.
In fact, why not post some more curse words — maybe an example to go with it so I can go around yelling Korean obscenities. Maybe something I can say when I realize how spicy that 열무 김치 I ate last night was.
정말 맵다! (thanks to clazziquai for correcting this)
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[It] Really spicy is!
It would be really bitter, too, if it weren't for all that garlic and pepper. It went right through me not half an hour after I left the table. The next on my list of Korean stuff to eat is 불고기. That stuff looks a lot more promising.
Thanks for reading,
-Michael