How's your K(a)rean??

A few weeks ago, I entered a startling situation.  My  supervisor, a thoroughbred Korean who can speak more English than he will speak, invited me to dinner... and I accepted.  Also my self-declared Korean teacher, he quickly announced that our dinner was to be "Korean only."  

Invisibly shaking, I followed him into the restaurant.  You see, although I'd been going to Korean language classes 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, for the last month, I hadn't ever tried to carry on a conversation in the language before.  Simple expressions like, "I'd like this, please" and, "Delicious!" -- oh yeah, plus the occasional jumbled words I'd uttered in attempt to communicate with the lady in the soup restaurant -- were about all I'd spoken in "live" talk up to that point.  

Fortunately, I instinctively embodied TESL motto, "Learn a little, use a lot."  Simple words like, "Yes, good!" and, "Delicious!" got me a long way.  As time went on (there were at least 3 courses...), I got brave (or was it desperate?) and did my best to make conversation (which would've been hard enough to do in English!) with a few classic questions like, "What is this?" (gesturing to a tentacle or some other strangely shaped slice of seafood) and, later, I even inquired whether or not he watched dramas.  

Of course, we did end up integrating English into our conversation before the courses stopped coming, but this experience gave me a chance to freely try the real deal. 

I found my speaking understandable, however strange (as I only knew how to speak in the most polite form of the language -- the form that is really only used with customers, in job interviews, and in the army).  I also found my understanding severely limited.  Once, I even responded, "What?" when he repeated back to me the question that I had just asked!  Regardless, such an authentic effort to bridge our communicative divide started out scary and had moments of exhaustion, but, for the most part, was just plain fun! 

As of today, I've completed two months of Korean classes, 10 hours a week.  It's a lot and it's a little.  Compared to what I knew two months ago, I am an absolute genius.  However, compared to how much more there is to learn, I am hardly an infant.   

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The Korean writing system is one of the easiest, phonetically-correct systems in the world to learn.  It was invented purposefully, and relatively recently.  Before, Koreans used Chinese characters to write their language, but around the 15th Century, the still well-loved King Sejong decided to take a stab at giving Koreans an alphabet that was more suited to their language, while also increasing the literacy rate.  

The letters are based on the shape that the mouth makes when pronouncing them.  So, although slowly, I can read and write fairly well.  However, that doesn't mean I know what I am saying! 

Speaking and listening is a different ball game.  Although I can usually make myself understood in simple exchanges, I can rarely understand others!  I'm okay with common phrases (like "I'm sorry..." and "Let's eat rice!"), but most utterances exceeding 10 seconds in length enter my ears as mumbo jumbo.  

The classic "smile-and-nod" works in most situations, but I was reminded that it's not a surefire strategy when my teacher asked, "Are you married?" in class one day, and I inadvertently agreed.  At least the class got a good laugh!  

Now you know how I'm doing, so let me try to give you a taste of what exactly all this "Korean language" business is.

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I mentioned that the Korean alphabet is based on the human mouth.  Let's check out a few cases of that declaration. 

[k] is written "ᄀ"

When you say [k], feel how the back of your tongue touches the back part of the roof of your mouth.  The back of the tongue goes up while the front stays down.  Perhaps now you can picture the vertical line in the Korean letter as your throat and the 90 degree angle as place where the back of your tongue meets the roof of your mouth. 

[m] is written "ᄆ"

When you say [m], your mouth is completely closed.  Similarly, the Korean letter for [m] is a square, closed on all sides. 

[a vowel that doesn't exist in English] is written "ᅳ"

This vowel is close to the English sound "uehhh," as in "uehhh eww, gross, disgusting!"  In order to pronounce it correctly, you must pull the corners of your lips towards your ears, so that your mouth makes a thin horizontal line, just like the letter. 

Wow!  What about speaking?  

Okay, let me tell you what I know. 

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Distinguishing Korean sounds is hard for me because there are several vowels that don't exist in English, as well as three different kinds of the English "p," "k," and "t." 

What we accept in English as one conceptual sound, "p," Koreans hear as three different sounds.  

팡 is pronounced similar to "pong" as in "ping-pong" in English.  When you say the "ᄑ"/"p," you blow a small puff of air out of your mouth.  Try holding a tissue in front of your mouth and saying "ping-pong."  The tissue will move.   Unfortunately, pronounced with the natural English "p," 팡 is not really a word in Korean.  

However, if you can stop yourself from blowing out that little puff of air, you will have said "room."   

방 sounds the same as 팡, except that the tissue should not move when you pronounce the "ᄇ"/"p."  Try it.  It sounds more similar to the English "b," but it's not quite as heavy. 

As an interesting cultural side note, 방s are everywhere in Korea.  There are PC 방s, DVD 방s, Singing 방s, and even Bathing 방s.  Since people's houses are so small, friends often meet in 방s.  Essentially, people rent a room for a few hours and do whatever it's made for -- play computer games, watch a movie, sing, bathe....  Some 방s are for private groups (like DVD 방s and Singing 방s) but others are public (like PC 방s and, yes, Bathing 방s too).  

The last version of "p" is a bit harder to explain because it is not used in English.  It is a "tensed" -- heavier, stronger -- sound, but still, there should not be a puff of air when you say it.  

I found that I can say this sound best when I close my eyes and scrunch my entire face into a tight, sour expression, then, suddenly, release.  Open your eyes, open your mouth, and release the "pong."  This time, you will have said 빵, which means "bread."  

There you have it, three significantly different versions of what most of us once believed to be one.  The "k" and "t" follow a similar pattern, with one letter including a puff of air, another not, and one more being "tensed."  This is one of a multitude of differences between Korean and English, and there's only one more that I want to exemplify at this time.  

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The word order in Korean is SOV, whereas in English, it is SVO.  It looks like a minor switch on paper, but it can sure confuse me in practicality.  Let's read a few sentences.  

(Note: The phonetic transcriptions are unofficial, non-IPA, semi-accurate scrawlings.  They should not be relied upon as a legitimate learning resource, but I hope they guide you as you grasp the idea.)

저는       카렌         입니다

[joe-neun ka-raen im-ni-da]

'I               Karen  am'          

"I'm Karen"

아프기       때문에              병원에                 갔어요 

[a-peu-ki   dae-mun-ae    pyong-uan-ae      ka-soe-yo]  

'sick          because          hospital                  went'                            

"He went to the hospital because he was sick." 

Notice also that there was no subject mentioned in that last sentence.  This is quite common when speaking Korean.  We could be talking about "him," "her," or even "me."  People often rely on the context of the conversation to know the subject.  Or, they may use a family term like "little sister," "uncle," or "grandmother" to refer to a person (even if they are in no way related).  

I think that this is the more respectful way to refer to people, but I've only glanced at the iceberg of all of the conditions for respect that are built into the language (there are even totally different words sometimes -- they mean the same thing, but simply carry a higher or lower level of respect).  I'll leave it at that for now.  Let's look at one last example.  This one, I'll break apart further for you linguists in the crowd who are dying to know just a little bit more. 

피자를                              먹으러                   식당에                      가요

[pi-ja + leul                      moek + eu-roe       shik-dang + ae         ka + yo]

'pizza + object marker     to eat + let us do     restaurant + at         go + semiformal present or suggestive form'

"Let's go to a restaurant to eat pizza."  or  "I go to restaurants to eat pizza." 

Again, the subject is absent, so this sentence can have a few different meanings.  Observe a few other peculiarities as well.  [pi-ja] sounds a lot like "pizza."  Many Western trends have spread in Korea, resulting in a huge number of nouns that Westerners simply need to say with a Korean accent in order to pronounce correctly.  Even without changing your accent, words like "pizza," "americano," and "Merry Christmas" are easily understood by most Koreans today.  

Another essential note is that, instead of using word order to determine the subject and object of a sentence (e.g. "The man hit the dog" is different from "The dog hit the man"), Korean uses subject and object markers.  A variety of suffixes are added to words to denote who is the doer and who is the receiver.  (Essentially, "The man+doer hit the dog+receiver" is the same as "The dog+receiver hit the man+doer")  Forgetting or misusing these little endings can cause confusion fast!

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As always, there are plenty of other things that we could investigate and discuss together, but this post is thorough enough for an introduction!  If any of you, linguists or otherwise, want to chat more, feel free to pop a question and I'll share what I know.  

Moreover, if any of you Koreans or Korean students want to correct my mistakes or explain my misgivings, please feel free to toss your two cents on the table.  I'd appreciate hearing what you have to say! 

More photos to come soon...

Happy Holidays! 

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Thanks for reading :)