cheri wrote:
From the kitchen came the crashing sound of either broken glass or china.
"Willy!" his mother cried from the living room, "What on earth are you doing in the kitchen?"
"Nothing," Willy said. "It's already done." (I'm not exactly sure what Willy is trying to say here... What's already done? It seems kind of random.)
This is a fun idea. ^^
Just for your discounted or marked down fun, let me add a little more.
Just like the joke above, as a beginner, you can only get the surface meaning, obvious and basic, from the language you learn.
We say, 고기는 씹어야 맛이 난다, meaning you must chew a piece of meat to get the real flavor out of it.
By the same token, 말도 씹어야 그 속 뜻을 안다, the same chewing but to get the real depth and nuance out of words spoken- this is my saying.
Now, let's take a trip a layer deeper into thoughts behind the written words.
From the kitchen came the crashing sound of either broken glass or china.
부엌에서 깨지는 유리나 접시를 째그랑하는 소리가 났다.
You say 'came the sound', we say 소리가 났다, literally, the sound arise or happened.
The base word '나다' you will hear a lot.
If you know the root meaning, you can go from there understanding other use of it in different situations, like 냄새나다, 일어 나다, 드러나다, etc.
"Willy!" his mother cried from the living room, "What on earth are you doing in the kitchen?"
"윌리!"하고 거실에서 어머니가 소리쳤다. "세상에 부엌에서 뭐하는거냐?!"
Funny thing is that you and I both use 'world' as exclamation!
Sometime we say, 세상만사, different word meaning the same.
"Nothing," Willy said. "It's already done." (I'm not exactly sure what Willy is trying to say here... What's already done? It seems kind of random.)
"아무것도 안했어." 윌리가 말했다. "벌써 끝났어."
This is the fun part you missed because of the quick and concise translation using a few words as possible.
You should translate with more words than used in the original text, like this;
지금은 아무것도 않하고 있어요. 벌써 끝났거든요.
I am NOT DOING anything right now because all activity has done and finished already.
I am a forever ESL student.
