vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4679 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German
| Message 25 of 344 18 March 2012 at 10:47pm | IP Logged |
Argh, the nightmare of pronouns, indeed. When I started studying Vietnamese (which I quickly dropped for lack of material and motivation at that time), pronouns were a real nightmare too.
당신 can be used between lovers (or only spouses?) too, in which case I believe it doesn't necessarily mean you want to keep the distance or be offensive. But I know very little about this issue in general, so I may be wrong.
Well done for the speaking, I wish I was brave enough to go out and fine people to talk to (some Koreans at my bus stop, but they don't look very engaging to me). 1h a week is really great already (and certainly infinitely better than my 0 minute.)
And thanks for the links, I really need more Korean material around me to "immerse" myself in.
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 26 of 344 27 March 2012 at 10:56pm | IP Logged |
You're right, I remember that 당신 is also used between spouses... It's confusing. According to Wiktionary both 당신 and 너 are non-polite, but 너 is also intimate (I guess that means the first one is 존댓말 and the second is 반말). Maybe that's why the Koreans told me it's distant? I have to say I don't really understand the concept of who uses 반말 and who uses 존댓말 anyway. I have a decent grasp of the theory, but it still just feels weird to me in some cases, probably because it works so differently in German.
Tuesday, 27th of March - 9th week
song: 루싸이트 토끼 - 봄봄봄 (Spring Spring Spring) totally resembles Minnie Riperton's loving you
new vocabulary from wordlist: 61
hanja studied: ---
writing: 1 diary entry
reading: 17 pages of 명절 이야기: 신나는 열두달
listening: 1 episode of Coffee Prince, 2 episodes of The King 2 Hearts , 2 episodes of Rooftop Prince, 1 Iyagi Podcast
speaking: only to myself
I'm finished with the TOPIK beginner vocabulary list. I've decided not to dive straight into the intermediate list and instead to study more vocabulary from context. I'm making Anki cards from TTMIK Iyagi sentences (with audio). I want to continue studying vocabulary related to specific Hanja - I started a book for those. I also still want to look up many words from my reading - maybe I'll do these as traditional vocabulary cards, so I'm able to study not only in front of the computer. I hope to get a good part of the list done this way, so that I only have to use it to fill the gaps.
This week most of my "studying" consisted of watching TV and trying to translate some of it. The series I'm going to continue watching (The King 2 Hearts - strange title as usual) promises to make me more familiar with some political and military vocabulary, which is great. Besides, I love the dark, farcical humor.
Edited by druckfehler on 30 March 2012 at 4:05pm
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Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5536 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese
| Message 27 of 344 29 March 2012 at 10:21pm | IP Logged |
FYI it is 존댓말, not 전대말. 존대 (respect, honor, deference) is one of those odd words that magically develops a ㅅ at the end when you attach another syllable to it. Another example of this behavior is 바다 (sea) to 바닷가 (beach).
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 28 of 344 29 March 2012 at 11:56pm | IP Logged |
Thanks! I keep forgetting to apply that rule.
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Ojorolla Diglot Groupie France Joined 4966 days ago 90 posts - 130 votes Speaks: French*, English
| Message 29 of 344 30 March 2012 at 11:56am | IP Logged |
I think 당신 is a tricky word for learners. I'd say it's almost always offensive in speech unless it's used between spouses. It's different in writing, though.
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 30 of 344 30 March 2012 at 2:52pm | IP Logged |
Thanks for the comment! I guess I'll just never say 당신 and that will solve the problem :) Or maybe not entirely... I sometimes had this problem in Korea of avoiding to ask people questions because I didn't know how to phrase them inoffensively :D (which made me feel unfriendly and impolite anyway - hence my obsession with this topic)
Also calling out to waiters at restaurants etc. proved difficult. I have this "아줌마/아저씨/저기요"-blockage; I just can't say those words, because they feel rude to me (especially 저기요). Silly, I know! Have to get rid of my cultural bias, have to get rid of my cultural bias... And next time I'd better just ask people how I should call them :)
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vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4679 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German
| Message 31 of 344 30 March 2012 at 3:24pm | IP Logged |
druckfehler wrote:
because they feel rude to me (especially 저기요). Silly, I know! Have to get rid of my cultural bias, have to get rid of my cultural bias... And next time I'd better just ask people how I should call them :) |
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Completely agree with this. It feels like saying "hep!"... I miss the "excuse me?", but well... in China, you call waiters/waitresses 服务员 which is literally "service person"... (but calling "miss" could imply "prostitute" apparently, so perhaps service person is fine).
Warp3 wrote:
존대 (respect, honor, deference) is one of those odd words that magically develops a ㅅ at the end when you attach another syllable to it. Another example of this behavior is 바다 (sea) to 바닷가 (beach). |
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Is there a rule for that? I'm not at home at the moment, but I think I've seen a rule somewhere...
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 32 of 344 30 March 2012 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
vermillon wrote:
druckfehler wrote:
because they feel rude to me (especially 저기요). Silly, I know! Have to get rid of my cultural bias, have to get rid of my cultural bias... And next time I'd better just ask people how I should call them :) |
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Completely agree with this. It feels like saying "hep!"... I miss the "excuse me?", but well... in China, you call waiters/waitresses 服务员 which is literally "service person"... (but calling "miss" could imply "prostitute" apparently, so perhaps service person is fine). |
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Or maybe totally gangster ("Yo, over there!"). It's so strange that politeness is just about reversed... What a European would find polite is offensive in Korean and what a Korean would find polite can be offensive in Europe. Really goes to show that it's all in the connotations.
vermillon wrote:
Warp3 wrote:
존대 (respect, honor, deference) is one of those odd words that magically develops a ㅅ at the end when you attach another syllable to it. Another example of this behavior is 바다 (sea) to 바닷가 (beach). |
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Is there a rule for that? I'm not at home at the moment, but I think I've seen a rule somewhere... |
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Yup, when you connect individual words that end in a vowel you add the ㅅ. In 목소리 (throat + sound) you don't need it, but in 빗소리 (rain + sound) you do.
By the way, how's the test preparation going?
Edited by druckfehler on 30 March 2012 at 3:46pm
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