How Koreans Talk: A Collection of Expressions - Softcover

Choe Sang Hun

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8987976955 ISBN 13: 9788987976952

Publisher: EunHaeng NaMu, 2002

Synopsis

This book is written for foreigners who want to understand Korean expressions they use including useful terms, proverbs and some kind of slang. It's written in English.

About this title

About the Author

Choe Sang Hun was a member of the Associated Press team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000. He is co-author of The Bridge at No Gun Ri. He graduated from the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. <P>Christoper Torchia has been Seoul bureau chief of The Associated Press since 1999. He was previously based in Indonesia and Colombia. He is a Yale University.

From the Back Cover

If something tates good, say:
"It kills me."

If you're happy, you
"go to Hong Kong."

If a friend wins the lottery, ask:
"Did you have a pig dream last night?"

If someone tells a joke, you might
"laugh until your belly button pops out."

Koreans talk with humor and punch, and this is a book about it.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1. EAT,EAT: RICE IS EVERYTHING

Never free from the threat of hunger, traditional Korea generated many phrases that dwell on food.

001>> Have you eaten yet? [siksahaetseoyo]
A casual greeting that dates from an era of war and famine. Hunger was widespread in South Korea until the 1960s, and still is in North Korea. In the South, a man who asks the question isn't necessarily offering to take you out for lunch. Defectors from North Korea say the phrase is not a popular greeting in their country.

A common greeting in South and North Korea is, "Were you safe overnight?"[bamsae byeolgo eopseuseyo] The expressiong is also believed to have originated in a time when bad things happened overnight: bandit reids, guerrilla attacks and death from hunger and disease.

002>> When will I have a chance to eat your noodles?
[guksu eonje meokji]
When are you getting married? Noodles are a common dish at wedding banquets. Long noodles symbolize longevity, and are popular at celebratioons such as the birthdays of parents.

003>> I ate water!
[mulemokeotad]
I lost out. An office worker says this after missing a promotion or a party. So does a journalist who was scooped. The saying implies that the loser only got to drink water while others had a hearty meal.

004>> It's like slurping cold porridge. [sikeunjuk meogi]
It's a piece of cake. Also: "That's as easy as eating rice cake while lying down."

005>> You should eat even before sightseeing at Diamond Mountain. [geumgangsando sikhugyeong] Ear first, no matter what temptation or chore awaits. People often say this when they mean: "Let's stop working for a bit and eat." From ancient times, Koreans have flocked to Diamond Mountain, and its beauty has inspired poets, singers and artists. The mountain is in the southeastern corner of North Korea. Korean used this expressiong well before 1945, when their peninsula was divided in two. For North Korea, Diamond Mountain turned out to be as precious as its namesake. The country opened the mountain to South Korean tourists in 1998 and earned hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed hard currency. The venture became a symbol of South Korea's "sunshine" policy of trying to pry open North Korea through economic and other exchanges, but it ran into trouble because not enough toruists signed up for the trip.

006>> Not all corpses look the same: the person who died while eating looks healthier. [meokgo jukeun gwisinyi ttaekkali jotda] Whatever the situation, you've got to eat. Farmers consume huge amounts of rice at one sitting because it is their maing source of energy for a day of toil in the fields. Famines were frequent a long time ago, and a rotund belly was a status symbol, a sign of weath and authority.

007>> It won't fill me up with rice! [bap meokyeo juna] Let's be practical! Koreans say this when opposing an idea or project that won't do them any good.

008>> It's neither rice nor porridge. [jukdo anigo bapdo anigo] A Gray area, somewhere in between. A big project that goes nowhere. Cook rice with a lot of water, and you end up with porridge. An unskilled cook turns rice kernels into a mush that's neither rice nor porridge.

Edition details

• Publisher: EunHaeng NaMu
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 8987976955
• ISBN 13: 9788987976952
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 305