Learn how to say where you're from
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| Hi, everyone! My name is K-Jin. |
| 안녕하세요, 케이진입니다. (Annyeonghaseyo, K-Jin-imnida.) |
| Welcome to another Korean Whiteboard Lesson! |
| In this lesson, you will learn how to say where you are from in Korean. Please be careful with how to pronounce the city and country names in Korean. |
| Let's get started! |
| Okay, let's take a look at the vocabulary. |
| First, we have... |
| 플로리다 (Peul-lo-ri-da) |
| And, next we have… |
| 한국 (Han-guk) |
| So it's a name of "South Korea." |
| "South Korea" |
| And the full name of "South Korea" is 대한민국 (Daehan Minguk). |
| 대한민국 (Daehan Minguk) |
| But this is pretty long, right? So very often, we just say 한국 (Han-guk). |
| 한국 (Han-guk) |
| And, next we have… |
| 전주 (Jeon-ju) |
| "Jeon-ju" |
| [slowly] 전주 (Jeon-ju) |
| [normal] 전주 (Jeon-ju) |
| Do you know this city in Korea? This city is very, very popular for Korean food. So, if you want to try good Korean food, I recommend visiting 전주 (Jeon-ju). |
| 전주 (Jeon-ju) |
| And do you see here? Jeonju is located here. Yes, it’s in 전라도 (Jeolla-do) Province. |
| So, 전라도 (Jeolla-do). |
| So, 전주 (Jeon-ju). |
| 전주 (Jeon-ju) |
| And next, we have… |
| 서울 (Seo-ul) |
| "Seoul" |
| You know what is Seoul, right? It’s the capital of Korea and it’s here. It’s located in Northern South Korea. |
| “Seoul” |
| And, next we have… |
| 경주 (Gyeong-ju) |
| Do you like Korean history? Then I strongly recommend you to visit 경주 (Gyeong-ju) because this was a capital of 신라 (Silla), Silla Dynasty for 1,000 years. So you probably know Joseon Dynasty if you like Korean historical drama. Before Joseon, there was Goryeo, which the Korean name is actually from 고려 (Goryeo) Korea. And before 고려 (Goryeo), there was 신라 (Silla). And 경주 (Gyeong-ju), 경주 (Gyeong-ju) is located here and this city was capital of 신라 (Silla) for 1,000 years, so there are lots of things to see. |
| And we have this city, plus, I put some more Korean cities to introduce to you. |
| So, first… |
| 인천 (In-cheon) |
| 인천 (In-cheon) |
| Are you familiar with this city? Because if you come to Korea, very likely you’ll arrive at Incheon International Airport. |
| So 인천 (In-cheon). |
| 인천 (In-cheon) |
| It has international airport. |
| And, we also have 광주 (Gwang-ju). |
| 광주 (Gwang-ju) is also another big city located in South South Korea. |
| 광주 (Gwang-ju) |
| And 대전 (Dae-jeon) is here. |
| 대전 (Dae-jeon) is also a big city in 충청도 (Chungcheong-do) Province. |
| Chungcheong-do Province |
| 대전 (Dae-jeon) |
| 대전 (Dae-jeon) |
| And we also have another big city. |
| 대구 (Dae-gu) |
| 대구 (Dae-gu) |
| 대구 (Dae-gu) is here, very close to Busan and Gyeongju, right? |
| So, 대구 (Dae-gu) |
| 대구 (Dae-gu) |
| And now, we have 경주 (Gyeong-ju) and 부산 (Bu-san). |
| The second biggest city in Korea and it’s located near ocean, so 부산 (Bu-san). |
| 부산 (Bu-san) |
| And we also have 제주 (Je-ju) |
| Jeju Island is the biggest island located in South South Korea. |
| 제주 (Je-ju) |
| 제주 (Je-ju) |
| So, these are the common big cities in Korea you will probably hear very often, so please remember these. |
| And in the vocabulary, we have… |
| 전주 (Jeon-ju) |
| 서울 (Seo-ul) |
| 경주 (Gyeong-ju) |
| And, let’s look at some more name of the cities and countries just in case you want to use it. |
| So, are you from the United States? |
| Then you will probably say 미국 (Mi-guk) |
| 미국 (Mi-guk) |
| [slowly] (Mi-guk) |
| [normal] (Mi-guk) |
| “the United States" |
| And we have 중국 (Jung-guk). |
| 중국 (Jung-guk) |
| [slowly] 중국 (Jung-guk) |
| [normal] 중국 (Jung-guk) |
| (Jung-guk) is “China.” |
| And you probably noticed, there are a lot of 국 (guk) at the end of the name of the country, right? |
| 한국 (Han-guk) |
| 미국 (Mi-guk) |
| 중국 (Jung-guk) |
| Yes, 국 (guk) means a country, so many country’s name has 국 (guk) in Korean. But please remember that not all countries have 국 (guk) at the end, just 미국 (Mi-guk), 중국 (Jung-guk), or maybe 영국 (yeong-guk). |
| 영국 (yeong-guk), it means “the UK.” |
| Or 태국 (tae-guk). |
| 태국 (tae-guk), “Thailand.” |
| But not all country has 국 (guk) at the end. |
| For example, 브라질 (Beu-ra-jil) |
| [slowly] 브라질 (Beu-ra-jil) |
| [normal] 브라질 (Beu-ra-jil) |
| I think you can guess what this country is, right? It’s "Brazil." But in Korea, we don’t have /z/ sound. No /z/ sound, so all the /z/ sounds become just kind of like /j/ sound. It’s 브라질 (Beu-ra-ji). |
| 브라질 (Beu-ra-jil) |
| We also have “Paris.” |
| “Paris.” |
| “Paris” in Korean is not Pa-ri-su, but it’s just 파리 (Pa-ri) without /s/ at the end. |
| So, 파리 (Pa-ri) |
| [slowly] 파리 (Pa-ri) |
| [normal] 파리 (Pa-ri) |
| And now, we have "Sydney" from Australia. |
| 시드니 (Si-deu-ni) |
| 시드니 (Si-deu-ni) |
| And another quick tip, Florida is 플로리다 (Peul-lo-ri-da), right? It’s because we don’t have /f/ sound in Korean, so all the /f/ sounds is turning to /p, p, p/ like 플로리다 (Peul-lo-ri-da), not Feul-lo-ri-da. |
| 플로리다 (Peul-lo-ri-da) |
| So, with these vocabularies, now you can make a lot of different sentences. Let’s look at it. |
| Let's look at the dialogue. When I read, I want you to pay attention to the name of the cities or countries. First, |
| A: 어디에서 왔어요? |
| (Eo-di-e-seo wass-eo-yo?) |
| 어디에서 왔어요? |
| (Eo-di-e-seo wass-eo-yo?) |
| "Where are you from?" |
| And someone is answering… |
| B: 플로리다에서 왔어요. |
| (Peul-lo-ri-da-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 플로리다에서 왔어요. |
| (Peul-lo-ri-da-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| "I'm from Florida." |
| So, 어디 (eo-di) means “where” and and 에서 (e-seo), 에서 (e-seo) means “from.” |
| And 왔어요 (wass-eo-yo), it literally means “came.” |
| So, it literally means “Where from came?” and in natural English is “Where did you come from?” or “Where are you from?” |
| And next, we have, |
| 플로리다에서 왔어요. |
| (Peul-lo-ri-da-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| So, this is the sentence pattern of today. |
| So, let’s look at it… |
| 플로리다 (Peul-lo-ri-da), now you learned it, it’s “Florida,” name of the city. |
| 플로리다 (Peul-lo-ri-da) |
| 에서 (e-seo), “from,” you learned it here. |
| And 왔어요 (wass-eo-yo), “came.” |
| So, it literally means “Florida from came.” |
| “I came from Florida.” / “I’m from Florida.” |
| So, 플로리다에서 왔어요. (Peul-lo-ri-da-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| And you see the sentence patterns are exactly the same for the question and the statement, right? It’s because in Korean, making a question is super, super easy. In English, you have to change the word order, but in Korean, well, you don’t need to do anything. You only need to rise the intonation at the end of the sentence. |
| So, 어디에서 왔어요? (Eo-di-e-seo wass-eo-yo?) becomes a question. |
| 플로리다에서 왔어요. (Peul-lo-ri-da-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) becomes a statement. |
| But if you use the rising intonation here, it will be a question. |
| 플로리다에서 왔어요. (Peul-lo-ri-da-e-seo wass-eo-yo?) |
| “Are you from Florida?” |
| So be careful with the intonation. |
| Now, let's look at some speaking examples. |
| First example is… |
| 한국에서 왔어요. |
| (Han-gug-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 한국에서 왔어요. |
| (Han-gug-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 한국에서 왔어요. |
| (Han-gug-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| It means, "I'm from South Korea." |
| So you only need to put the name of the location and say (e-seo wass-eo-yo). |
| Let’s look at another example… |
| 전주에서 왔어요. |
| (Jeon-ju-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 전주에서 왔어요. |
| (Jeon-ju-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 전주에서 왔어요. |
| (Jeon-ju-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 전주 (Jeon-ju), do you remember? |
| Yes, it’s name of the city in Korea. |
| 전주 (Jeon-ju) |
| And (e-seo) “from” wass-eo-yo. |
| 전주에서 왔어요. |
| (Jeon-ju-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| "I'm from Jeonju." |
| And where are you from? You just need to say the name of your country or name of your city and say (e-seo wass-eo-yo) to say where are you from in Korea. |
| Now, let's look at the sentence pattern. This pattern will be the structure that all of our dialogues will follow… |
| So, [LOCATION] 에서 왔어요. |
| ([LOCATION]-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| ([LOCATION]-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| It’s very simple, right? It means “I’m from [LOCATION].” |
| So, you only need to put the name of the location like name of the city, name of the country here and say 에서 왔어요 (e-seo wass-eo-yo). And now, you know the meaning, right? |
| 에서 (e-seo) meaning “from,” is a direction particle. |
| And 왔어요 (wass-eo-yo), 왔어요 (wass-eo-yo) meaning “came.” |
| And the dictionary form of 왔어요 (wass-eo-yo) is 오다 (oda) meaning “to come,” but you need to use the past tense, so we say 왔다 (wassda) and after that, we change it to the spoken form because we don’t really say with 다 (da) form, so it becomes 왔어요 (wass-eo-yo). But for beginners, please don’t worry about this grammar. You will learn it in the future and for now, you only need to remember this sentence pattern. |
| [LOCATION] like the name of the city, name of the country, and say (e-seo wass-eo-yo). |
| ([LOCATION]-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| When Koreans ask a foreigner 어디에서 왔어요? (eo-di-e-seo wass-eo-yo?), they are more likely to want to know what country they are from rather than which city they are from. So, [the name of your country in Korean] + 에서 왔어요 (e-seo wass-eo-yo), will be more useful for you as a Korean learner. |
| Here are some examples: |
| 미국에서 왔어요. (Mi-gug-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| "I'm from the United States." |
| 미국(Mi-guk) is "the United States." |
| [slowly] 미국에서 왔어요. (Mi-gug-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| [normal] 미국에서 왔어요. (Mi-gug-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 중국에서 왔어요. (Jung-gug-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| "I'm from China." |
| 중국(Jung-guk) is "China." |
| [slowly] 중국에서 왔어요. (Jung-guk-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| [normal] 중국에서 왔어요. (Jung-guk-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| 브라질에서 왔어요. (Beu-ra-jir-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| "I'm from Brazil." |
| 브라질 (Beu-ra-jil) is "Brazil." |
| [slowly] 브라질에서 왔어요. (Beu-ra-jir-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
| [normal] 브라질에서 왔어요. (Beu-ra-jir-e-seo wass-eo-yo.) |
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