Korean Movies that Reflect Human Rights of the Disabled Posted by Flying Oyster on Aug 24, 2020
I was supposed to visit Korea to see my family and friends back in March. Unfortunately, that visit is still on hold, due to Covid-19. When the pandemic first broke out, I was severely 향수병 (hyang-soo-byung: homesick), which led me to binge watching all the Korean movies I could find on Netflix. One thing I…
A Review of Honorific Korean (Part 2) Posted by Flying Oyster on Aug 17, 2020
In general, I think the quality of customer service in Korea is excellent. Most of the sales clerks that I have ever encountered at shops were polite. Even government official clerks were well-mannered to their customers. I strongly believe using 존댓말 (jon-dat-mahl :the honorific) is one of the many reasons that most of my experiences…
A Review of Honorific Korean (Part 1) Posted by Flying Oyster on Jul 20, 2020
My husband seems to be more cautious to speak to my parents, especially my father. He thinks that he has to speak perfect honorific Korean to my parents in order to show respect. I told him many times that my father would understand even if he makes some mistakes, but he still can’t be free…
Korean Words That Phonetically Sound Like English Posted by Flying Oyster on Jul 9, 2020
About 20 years ago, I remember how startling it was when I heard a native speaker pronounce the word “chocolate” because the pronunciation of the word “chocolate” was entirely different than what I had known. There are no other Korean words for this 외래어 (wae-rae-uh: loanword, foreign word usage). Therefore, I thought that native…
Wait, Is That Korean or English? (Part 2) Posted by Flying Oyster on Jun 24, 2020
I have been collecting Korean 허위 동족어 (huh-wee-dong-jok-uh: false cognates) for a while. 허위 동족어 are pairs of words that seem to be cognates because of similar sounds and meaning, but have different etymologies. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate#:~:text=False%20cognates%20are%20pairs%20of,even%20within%20the%20same%20family.) I have more Korean false cognates that I can share with you. I hope this post helps you expand your Korean…
Wait, Is That Korean or English? (Part 1) Posted by Flying Oyster on Jun 22, 2020
As a bilingual in Korean and English, I often secretly giggle inside my head whenever I hear English words that sound like Korean. Sometimes when this happens, it just confuses me for a second. But often the result absurdly twists the entire meaning of the sentence. (https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/09/7-ways-to-fake-pronounce-any-foreign-language-from-a-linguist.html) Korean language is the one of the oldest…
Things You Want to Know When You Go To a Korean Restaurant Posted by Flying Oyster on Jun 16, 2020
After I took my in-laws to a 한국 식당 (han-gook-sik-dang: a Korean restaurant) for the first time, everybody fell in love with Korean food. However, I was surprised to find that my new American 시댁 식구 (si-daek-sik-goo: family in law) was so unfamiliar with the culture of Korean food. I certainly was not prepared to…