{"id":45,"date":"2008-12-13T23:46:07","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T03:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/?p=45"},"modified":"2008-12-13T23:46:07","modified_gmt":"2008-12-14T03:46:07","slug":"proverb-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/proverb-of-the-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Proverb of the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second post on Korean proverbs in a recurring series of Korean proverbs.\u00a0 Hope no one is dying of joy!\u00a0 In Korean, we have what are four Chinese character based proverbs or words of wisdom called sa-ja-song-oh (\uc0ac\uc790\uc131\uc5b4<\/strong>).\u00a0 These four lettered proverbs can be downright strange when they’re translated literally.\u00a0 Let me show you what I mean with today’s proverb.<\/p>\n

Today’s proverb is dong-ka-hong-sang (\u540c\u50f9\u7d05\u88f3<\/strong>).\u00a0 First let’s examine the characters one by one to decipher their meaning.\u00a0 Dong (\u540c<\/strong>) is the root word for ‘same’ or ‘similar’ in Korean.\u00a0 Ka (\u50f9<\/strong>) is the root word in indicate value or price.\u00a0 Hong (\u7d05<\/strong>) is the root word for red, and sang (\u88f3<\/strong>) is the root word for dress.\u00a0 Altogether this phrase translates as ‘same priced red dress.’<\/p>\n

So…what does this phrase really mean?\u00a0 Well, to understand it we need to know a little of Korean culture and history.\u00a0 In olden days, only the rich could afford to buy colorful dresses.\u00a0 Peasants usually wore white garments.\u00a0 When you connect this to the Korean proverb dong-ka-hong-sang (\u540c\u50f9\u7d05\u88f3<\/strong>), it means that when there are two dresses that are priced the same, it’s going to be a given that one will choose the red dress.<\/p>\n

In sum, this proverb is noting the human tendency to pick the better of two choices; provided that they are under the same conditions.\u00a0 The next time someone offers you a choice between two goods of relatively equal quality or price and one of the choices is better than the other, just say dong-ka-hong-sang (\u540c\u50f9\u7d05\u88f3<\/strong>).\u00a0 You might get a confused look, but at least you’ll know what it means!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second post on Korean proverbs in a recurring series of Korean proverbs.\u00a0 Hope no one is dying of joy!\u00a0 In Korean, we have what are four Chinese character based proverbs or words of wisdom called sa-ja-song-oh (\uc0ac\uc790\uc131\uc5b4).\u00a0 These four lettered proverbs can be downright strange when they’re translated literally.\u00a0 Let me show…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2969],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-vocabulary","tag-korean-proverb"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t