Archive for February, 2010
The Future Tense Posted by Ginny on Feb 28, 2010
We’ll be taking about the future tense today. Let’s look at the first sentence: 공부할 겁니다 = I will study. The construction ~을/를 겁니다 is what makes this future tense. 지금 먹을 겁니다 = I will eat now. This is the same construction as before, but slightly different. Here 을 겁니다 was used. When the…
Korean Paintings Posted by Ginny on Feb 25, 2010
The 조선 era (1392-1910) produced Korea’s finest painters. Let’s take a look at some of the most famous traditional Korean paintings and painters. This painting is called 인왕제색도 (仁王霽色圖) or “After the rain at Mt. Inwang”. The painter’s name is 정선. His paintings focus on capturing the majesty of the natural landscape, and are characterized by…
도 Posted by Ginny on Feb 22, 2010
There are many subtles uses of 도, which we will explore in today’s lesson. One of the uses of 도 is to use it to mean “also” or “too” 한국어도 공부했어요 (한국어 = Korean language. 도 = also. 공부했어요 = past tense of 공부하다 = to study) In English, this would mean, “I also studied Korean”. 도…
Traditional Korean Dances Posted by Ginny on Feb 19, 2010
The 검무 is a famous, traditional Korean sword dance. The dance involves a prototype of a small sword with rings attached to the sword. When the sword moves about, the rings make a sound in conjunction with the rhythm of the dance. The 검무 gets its name from a boy named 검무 who lived in…
“Only” Posted by Ginny on Feb 16, 2010
To start this lesson off, let’s take a look some sentences: (1) 술을 마셨어요. (술 = alcohol. 을 = object marking particle. 마셨어요 = past tense of 마시다 = to drink) (2) 술만 마쎴어요. (술 = alcohol. 만 = only. 마쎴어요 = drank) The first sentence can be interpreted as, “[I] drank alcohol” while the…
The Year of the Tiger Posted by Ginny on Feb 13, 2010
This February 14th will be the start of the New Year according to the lunar calendar. Every year a different animal is assigned to the new year. This year it will be the year of the tiger, but more specifically the 백호 호랑이. The 백호 호랑이 is a white colored tiger, and currently extinct in…
Cannot/Won’t Posted by Ginny on Feb 10, 2010
For today’s post we’re going to look at the construction ~지 못하다 and ~지 않다. ~지 못하다 is used when you want to say you cannot do something, while ~지 않다 is used when you won’t do something. Let’s take a look at some sample sentences: 오늘 숙제를 못 해요. (오늘 = yesterday. 숙제 = homework. 를 = object…