Grammar
-
Writing emails in Korean – A quick guide
Several of you have requested that I do a blog post on writing emails in Korean. So, naturally, I’m happy to accommodate your kind request. I write emails in Korean almost every day, and while that alone does not make me an expert, I do have a few tips and points that I find shareworthy.…
-
A gendered language: boy Korean or girl Korean?
Even though I’m currently in Denmark on a long vacation, I’ve brought quite a few Korean books with me. I make sure to dedicate at least an hour per day to studying Korean, and this does not include watching dramas, texting, speaking on the phone, browsing news sites and other activities that I will naturally…
-
Coming and going in Korean
In English we have separate words for coming and going but their distinction is not as strict as when these words are used in Korean. Since I’ll be leaving for Korea in a few months I can safely say in English “When I go to Korea”, or I can say “When I come to Korea” without…
-
Korean speech patterns
The more familiar I become with Korean, the more I’ve started paying attention to how spoken Korean varies from one person to another. In the beginning I didn’t hear any difference at all, Korean to me was just Korean. There was even a time when I didn’t think that the Busan dialect was different from…
-
A Korean note of caution – 주의하세요
이/가 and 을/를 confusion Even though I’ve gradually come to consider myself an experienced Korean learner, I often find that I mess up even the simplest of things. Last week I met with my new language partner for the first time, and as he corrected a short essay that I had written I realized that…
-
A helping hand for TOPIK 쓰기
My summer vacation is over, but I found this list in my draft folder, and decided to share it with you. I’ve been working on this list over the summer as a collection of useful expressions to learn and use when writing in Korean. They are not particularly advanced, but they are standard expressions, safe for using…
-
The devil is in the detail
I don’t think I will ever stop being amazed at how detailed and nuanced the Korean language really is. Yesterday I was studying how to ask favors using fairly fixed expressions in Korean such as “부탁 하나 있어요”. This lead me to the following example “가게에 가는 김에 우유 좀 사다 줄 수 있어요?”. I…
-
“뭐”라고요?
This time I’m going about my Korean drama watching in a new way. I’m currently half-way through the classic “여름향기”, my last drama with 송승헌 before I’ll be able to cross “Watch every drama 승헌 오빠 ever starred in” off my Korean learning bucket list. For those of you who may question my motives; yes, I’m doing this entirely with an educational…
-
The puzzle of the “ㅅ” 받침
The more Korean words you know, the more compound words you can make. This is of course very neat, but I’ve noticed a peculiar thing about written Korean which makes making compound words slightly more complex than we are used to with English. In English “coffee” + “shop” simply form the compound word “coffee shop”…
-
Studying Korean grammar
A while ago I bought the intermediate version of Korean Grammar in Use. I admit that this wonderful book has spent too much time just sitting in my bookshelf looking new and shiny. I therefore recently made a pact with myself to study two new grammar points every day. They’re not all “new” to me…
Sofie to Korea 