EPTFor 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
As I wrote in my Foreword, I have been learning many languages since I was very little. This entry is about all the weirdest things I've had to get past in order to be considered half-decent at doing this Korean thing.
First of all, when I started learning about the stuff, I came across
this website, which taught me that the verb always goes at the end of the sentence in Korean. Also it said that when you phrase a Korean sentence, it goes Subject-Object-Verb -- as opposed to English where it goes Subject-Verb-Object.
Naturally, being the douchebag I am, I started thinking about crazy things like, "Hey, what if I wanted to do a compound sentence, like 'I am you, and you are me' or something?". Then I looked up how you use conjunctions and to my dismay I made a shocking discovery:
+ Show Spoiler +
THERE ARE NO ,,,,,,,,,,,,,'s IN KOREAN!
Naturally I was a bit overwhelmed, but okay whatever. So for example here, if I wanted to say:
I am he and you are he and you are me and we are all together.
It would translate as:
I는 he를 be. 그리고 you는 he를 be. 그리고 you는 me를 be. 그리고 we는 all together be.
(In case you aren't familiar enough with the Beatles to see what I just did there, I changed the 'as' words to 'and'. I don't know how to say 'as' in Korean. If you know, please let tell me in the comments)
(Side note: )
+ Show Spoiler +
Yeah... 는 might be 은 and 를 might be 을 but give me a break! I'm typing all of this with this thing. Its hard!
That's pretty weird, isn't it?
Oh yeah — the whole 는 and 를 thing is necessary because in Korean you literally have to verbally label the Subject and Object of your sentences, respectively. Remember back in English class where we had to underline that shit? What a fucking joke that was, now that I look at this.
"Hey whats the subject in the sentence: 'I는 you를 be.'???"
What a waste of time!
By the way, for all of those "be" parts, you would use 이다 (not 있다). Those two verbs are different in the same way that ser is different from estar (if you're into Portuguese or Spanish), respectively.
... Which leads me to my next thing. In Korean, you don't conjugate a verb based on to whom you're referring, like you would in English, Spanish, French, German, et cetera (I am, you are, he is, ...). In Korean, you conjugate the verb based on to whom you are talking (나는 이에요, 나는 이다, 나는 입니다).
That's a whole 'nother way of thinking!
-- By the way, about that last bit I wrote for you in Korean, the "나는 이에요, 나는 이다, 저는 입니다" part, that is in increasing order of politeness. Apparently 나==저, except the second one is more polite (adding -ᄇ니다 to the end of a verb is the most respectful way you can say it, and if you're going to say it like that then its a little hypocritical to use the less polite version).
The cool part about this whole new way of conjugating the verb is that when you want to seem respectful you can literally change what you say so that no confusion arises... and the opposite applies as well.
Oh well. This entry has gone on long enough. I'll talk more about it in my next one.
... and if I made any mistakes, please correct me!
But anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this...
-Michael
