Important Tips When You are Invited to a Korean friend’s house: Bring a thing!
In Australia, when your friend invited you to a Sunday bbq at home, it is very common that people just bring their BYO drinks. However if you do the same in Korea, people might think that you don’t have a good sense or you are just very stingy.
Here are some tips to act right when a Korean person invites you to a home dinner.
Bring a gift and don’t be stingy
If you were invited to casual home dinner, those gifts do not need to be pricey. Probably you can bring something to eat or drink.
Good items: Cakes (Koreans do not like super sweet cakes. Avoid too heavy, sweet cakes like chocolate mud cake), fruits, ice-cream (not from supermarket but from an ice-cream shops) and quality juice bottles in the box (you can buy them from Korean grocery stores for $10~15), a bottle of wine, a bunch of flowers or herb pots. Bad items: a bag of chips plus a bottle of coke (unless you are year1), a bottle of soju (it’s only $1 in Seoul ^^)
Dress to look your best
Even he/she is your very close friend, Korean people think what you wear is reflecting who you are, especially if it is a home party. It is not polite to wear smelly t-shirt and dirty socks (remember, you will take off your shoes.). A clean/ironed outfit plus well-groomed hair/ nice make-up is basic when you are invited to a Korean home party.
Well, do you think that Koreans are too picky? Don’t worry. Once you are in their living room, they will treat you like a prince/princess by awesome foods and drinks. Enjoy your Korean party!
Ashley (Korean teacher)
Korean Dining Etiquette
As you have learned in the class, politeness is the key feature of Korean culture. Hence we do have many things to be considered when you eat meals with someone. Today, let’s learn some Korean table manners.
Do not start your meal before the oldest person starts
Normally the host of the dinner will introduce you a seat. Do not sit until you are told where to seat. In addition, do not start your meal before the oldest person starts the meal. Please wait for the oldest person to lift their chopsticks and spoons first before you start eating.
Before you eat, say “잘 먹겠습니다 (jal meokket seumnida~~)”
(i.e. I am excited to eat/ will enjoy the meal from now on)
Look at the person who cooked/hosted the dinner and say “잘 먹겠습니다 (jal meokket seumnida~)” which means that I am looking forward to eat this meal/ Thanks for your hard work.
Don’t eat too slow/ fast
Always check other people’s speed and try to finish your meal as others.
While you are eating foods
Do not speak too much when you have foods in your mouth. Never blow your nose. It’s good to say compliments about the foods to encourage the person who cooked the meal.
Do not hold your Soup and rice bowls
Unlike many other Asian countries like Japan or China, Korean people do not hold their soup/rice bowls. Put your bowls down on the table and eat slowly by using both chopsticks and a spoon.
Share the Side dishes with other people
We do have many side dishes to be shared. Do not take a certain food item too much even it’s your favourite food. Side dishes are to be shared.
Alcohol
When you drink alcohol with older people, it is polite to turn your head a little bit left/right (about 45degrees).
After you finish your meal, “잘 먹었습니다 (jal meogeot seumnida)”
Don’t forget to say “잘 먹었습니다” when you finish your meal. It means “thank you very much for your food, I enjoyed it a lot”.
Ashley (Korean Teacher)
How To Conjugate Korean Adjectives and Verbs With Nouns
Every Korean verb finish with ~다 (da) which shows its identity as a verb when you look for the word from dictionaries. We call it “dictionary form of verb”. However we do not use those dictionary forms in the actual conversation which means that we need to change it into certain forms to make it naturally fit into the conversation.
When you connect adjectives to noun, you should use –ㄴ / –은 (depends on whether the adjective stem has the final consonants or not). Here are some examples,
작다small, 가방 bag 작은 가방 a small bag
예쁘다pretty, 친구 friend 예쁜 친구 a pretty friend
When you connect verbs to noun, –는 is attached to the verb stems no matter what (does not matter whether the verb stem has the final consonants or not). For example,
좋아하다 like, 색 colour 좋아하는 색 the colour that I like
싫어하다 dislike, 음식 food 싫어하는 음식 the food that I dislike
Please remember that if you could be freely use adjectives in the appropriate contexts, your Korean will be dramatically improved in no time! 한국어 공부 파이팅! :=)
Ashley (Korean teacher)
Design Your Korean Trip With Beautiful Maple Trees
“When is the best season for Korean trip?”
If you are a huge fan of skiing or snowboarding, you might like Korean winter that enables you to see unlimited snow almost every day. If you enjoy watching flowers and eating fresh fruits, you would love Korean spring.
For me, Korean autumn is quite attractive.
Did you know that approximately 70percent of South Korean mainland is mountainous terrain? As a result of the tough terrain and huge difference of minimum and maximum temperatures during autumn season, the autumn leaves in Korea are vividly colored. These beautiful maple leaves attract so many tourists to the major mountains in Korea such as mt. Seorak, Odae, Naejang and Jiri for about 1.5months from late September until mid-October (The maple season starts from northern mountains sunch as Seoral and Odae and finishes its short journey at southern mountains like mt. Jiri).
If your trip is not enough to see those faraway mountains, you still can see them in Seoul. You can go hiking to Bukansan which is the mountain in Seoul. Although it might be a bit smaller than major mountains, the vivid colours of maple tree leaves would be the same.
**you can visit KTO (Korean Tourism Organisation) website for further information regarding the timetable, maps of the major mountains and etc.
Enjoy your 단풍 구경 (maple trip)!
Ashley (Korean teacher)
Kakao Talk_ No.1 National messenger in Korea
What kind of smart phone messenger do you use?
You might have experienced that many of your Korean friends do not use What’s app and normally they don’t even have its account. Do you know why?
Many Korean people from primary school kids to elderly people use an app called ‘Kakaotalk’ instead of what’s app. Kakaotalk is a free smartphone messenger (similar to What’s app) which enables users to make group/individual calls, group chats in the common/ individual chat rooms.
When the free messenger has newly developed and released in ios/android markets, only Korean people used it. The company ‘kakao’ CEO and developers had been through huge pressures from the tele-communications companies who were upset by the fact that users did not use their texts and calls anymore because of Kakao’s free texts and call features. Furthermore, Kakao company nearly bankrupted due to the massive loans. But they did not change it to paid app which resulted in them surviving and achieving huge success to gather 90 million users worldwide now.
Kakaotalk is one of the most powerful messenger apps now and the company makes a lot of profit by kakaotalk-based games (such as anipang and cookie run)’ success and marketing campaigns liaised with major telecommunication companies in Korea.
If you are looking for something cute and convenient smartphone messengers, try Kakaotalk. Its’ creative, cute and funny animated emoticons and custom themes, smart features in multimedia sharing will make you a big fan of the app in no time.
By the way, I do not work for Kakao. I am just one of the Kakao power users. 🙂
Ashley (Korean teacher)
How to talk about symptoms in Korean when you are sick.
Hello.
Imagine you are sick during your precious Christmas holidays or business trips in Korea. You may need to visit emergency rooms in the middle of night. It is important to know some essential Korean expressions in relation to sickness.
The most common expression for this is “아프다 (a peu da)” which means ‘sick’. In the present tense sentences, it changes as “아파요 (a pa yo)” together with subject (i.e. body parts)+이 / 가. For example, “머리가 아파요 (meo ri ga a pa yo)” means ‘I have a headache’. If you want to say ‘I have a stomachache’, it would be “배가 아파요 bae ga apa yo”.
If you want to say more detailed symptoms, follow expressions can be used.
I have a cough. _ “저는 기침을 해요. Jeo neun gichimeul haeyo”
I have a runny nose. _ “**콧물이 나와요.konmuri nawayo”
(**Please note that when the final consonant of a syllable is /ㅅ/ and the following syllable begins with /ㅁ/, /ㅅ/ is pronounced as /ㄴ/, therefore when you pronounce ‘콧물’, the sound is /kon mul/ instead of /kot mul/. This is the majour phonetic assimilation/ nasalization rule is Korean.)
I have a fever. _ “열이 나요.yeori nayo”
I have a period pain. _ “생리통이 있어요.saengritongi isseoyo”
Now you know how to talk about your symptoms in Korean. Don’t be nervous even though they don’t understand your English. You can talk in Korean!!
~noun+부터 (bu teo) ~까지 (ggaji)
If you studied the level up to Korean beginners1_ week6, you may practised with your trainer regarding how to say time expressions by using “~부터 ~ 까지”. Actually, this expression is not complicated but very handy which makes your Korean speaking a lot better. Shall we try this further?
Together with time-related words such as hour, date, day, etc… ‘~부터” shows the beginning point of time, “~까지” indicates the ending point. For example, if you want to say “I worked from 9am to 5pm”, you can say that “저는 오전 아홉시부터 오후 다섯시까지 일 했어요 ( jeo neun ojeon ahopsi buteo ohoo daseot si ggaji il haesseoyo).”. In addition, you can use it for taking about days of the week. “저는 월요일부터 금요일까지 한국어를 공부해요 (jeo neun woryoil buteo geumyoil ggaji hangugeo reul gongbu haeyo) : I study Korean from Monday until Friday.”
Another handy way of saying it is when you talk about location or distance. For example, “센트럴에서 집까지 얼마나 걸려요? (central eseo jip ggaji eolmana geollyeoyo? ): How long does it take from Central to your home?”. It is useful when you try to say some time and distance expressions, but wish to limit the context.
~나 보다 ( ~na boda) _ I guess~
Korean culture is “indirect”. That is, we tend to avoid saying ‘I’m sure….’. Instead, we try to say “I guess / I assume/ I suppose” even it is the obvious context.
Hence we have several expressions regarding “I suppose”. Let’s find out what they are.
Firstly, ~나 보다 (~na boda) is used when you are talking about people other than yourself. For example, ‘I guess you don’t like Shinee : 샤이니를 안 좋아하나 봐요 (Shinee reul an joa hana bwa yo)’ or ‘I assume that you never tried it: 한 번도 안 해봤나 봐요 (han beon do an hae buanna bwa yo).’
Another common expression is ~것 같다 (~ geot gatta) which is similar to the first one but is stronger than ~ 나 보다 because ~것 같다 is based on the face or evidence. For example, “유리는 저 보다 더 키가 큰 것 같아요.” ,means that “I think Yuri is taller than me.” If you try to say “It’s a sunny day, isn’t it?”, you had better to say “오늘은 날씨가 좋은 것 같아요 (oneureun nalssiga jo eun geot gattayo)” rather than “오늘은 날씨가 좋아요 (oneureun nalssiga joayo).”.
Cooking expressions in Korean
If you have been to SLS Korean cooking/ Cultural workshop which was held earlier this year, you might have heard of some Korean expressions talking about cooking. Since Korean foods have many steps to prepare ingredients prior to main cooking session, we need to know some essential expressions regarding the preparation stage as well as the main stages of cooking.
For BBQ, 굽다 is used as ‘grill/bake’. For example, “갈비를 구워 주세요 galbi reul gu wue ju se yo” means “Please grill some Galbi (i.e. beef rib)”. For stir frying when you make some Korean side dishes, we say 볶다. If you want to say “Please stir fry this potato.”, you can say “이 감자를 볶아 주세요. I gamja reul bokka juseyo.”
Here are some important expressions regarding Korean cooking:
끓이다: to boil. When you make Korean soups.
부치다: to Pay fry. When you make Korean seafood pancakes.
삶다: to steam/ boil. When you make Korean Namul dishes.
절이다: to marinade vegetables. When you make Kimchi, it’s essential.
Ashley Jang (Korean teacher)
Comparative and Superlative in Korean
How to express comparative and superlative sentences in Korean is not demanding at all. If you want to say ‘more’ /’less’ or compare two objects in Korean, you can simply put “더 Deo” before adjectives/ verbs. For example, if you want to say “I would like to eat more”, you can simply say “더 먹고 싶어요 Deo meokgo shipeo yo”, and if It’s the opposite situation you can say “덜 먹고 싶어요. Deol meokgo shipeo yo.”
In English, the words “most” and “best” can be used both adverbs and nouns. Similarly, we say 제일 (jeil) and 가장 (gajang) to express the superlative sentences in Korean. For example,
“제일 예쁜 꽃 jeil yebbeun ggot” means the most beautiful flower, and 가장 예쁜 꽃 means the same.
Here are some examples:
1. 어떤 색깔이 가장 좋아요? Which colour is your favourite?
2. 요즘 제일 인기 있는 가수는 누구예요? Who is the most popular singer nowadays?
3. 호바트가 시드니보다 더 추워요. Hobart is colder than Sydney.
Ashley (Korean teacher)
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