Learn how to say "I don't know"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Seol: 안녕하세요. 윤설입니다. |
| Keith: Keith here! I Don’t Know. Well, we’re back with another lesson and I think we got a really good one today. |
| Seol: 진짜? |
| Keith: 네. 진짜에요. |
| Seol: Okay, I’m so excited. |
| Keith: 진짜 means “really?” |
| Seol: Yes. Really? |
| Keith: Really. And… |
| Seol: Are you sure? |
| Keith: Well, I was being more polite than you were. |
| Seol: Yeah. Because I’m older than you, I had to say 진짜?without요. |
| Keith: Okay, that’s right. So because I’m younger, I have to say 요, the polite 진짜에요. |
| Seol: That is true. |
| Keith: Yeah. But you’ll definitely hear this a lot. And anyway, we’re getting pass the lesson. |
| Seol: Right. |
| Keith: We need to get to the lesson. Okay. So here, where has this conversation taken place? |
| Seol: They’re at the park. The boy’s mom is trying to find where her son is, right? |
| Keith: That’s right. She’s talking to the baby sitter. And here we’re using formal politeness level, but typically you would hear standard politeness level. For now, we’ll just going to keep with the formal politeness level and then we’ll ease you into the standard politeness level. So without further a-do, let’s get into it. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 엄마 진우는 어디에 있습니까? |
| 베이비시터 어? 저는 모릅니다. |
| 엄마 모릅니까??? 여기에 없습니까?! |
| 베이비시터 잘 모릅니다. |
| 진우 엄마!! 엄마!! |
| 베이비시터 아... 진우가 저기에 있습니다. |
| 엄마 네. 압니다. |
| Seol: 한 번 더 천천히. |
| 엄마 진우는 어디에 있습니까? |
| 베이비시터 어? 저는 모릅니다. |
| 엄마 모릅니까??? 여기에 없습니까?! |
| 베이비시터 잘 모릅니다. |
| 진우 엄마!! 엄마!! |
| 베이비시터 아... 진우가 저기에 있습니다. |
| 엄마 네. 압니다. |
| Seol: 영어로 한 번 더. |
| 엄마 진우는 어디에 있습니까? |
| Keith: Where is Jinu? |
| 베이비시터 어? 저는 모릅니다. |
| Keith: Uh, I’m not sure. |
| 엄마 모릅니까??? 여기에 없습니까?! |
| Keith: What? He's not here?! |
| 베이비시터 잘 모릅니다. |
| Keith: I'm not sure. |
| 진우 엄마!! 엄마!! |
| Keith: Mom, mom! |
| 베이비시터 아... 진우가 저기에 있습니다. |
| Keith: Oh, Jinu's over there! |
| 엄마 네. 압니다. |
| Keith: Yes, I know. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Keith: Wow, Seol, this baby sitter is not very good. |
| Seol: Yeah. He has no idea where the baby is. |
| Keith: Yeah. What do you think he’s doing? Just reading a newspaper or something? |
| Seol: Maybe…or watching a girl over there. |
| Keith: Okay. Just sitting at the park, checking out girls, not taking care of the baby. |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: But hopefully our listeners don’t have any baby sitters like this. But if you do, maybe you’ll get a conversation like this in Korean. So here let’s jump into the vocab so you know what you guys are talking about. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| First we have… |
| Seol: 어디 |
| Keith: Where. |
| Seol:어디 |
| Keith: Next is... |
| Seol: 모르다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To not know. |
| Seol: 모르다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 모르다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: And after that, we have the opposite. |
| Seol: 알다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: To know. |
| Seol: 알다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 알다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: After that we have… |
| Seol: 잘 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: The adverb “well”. |
| Seol: 잘 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 잘 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: And lastly we have… |
| Seol: 엄마 |
| Keith: Mom. |
| Seol: 엄마 |
Lesson focus |
| Keith: Okay. This last word, 엄마, is kind of like a cute way of calling your mom, right? |
| Seol: Right. |
| Keith: There’s another formal way of calling your mom,어머니, but here 엄마 is just more on intimate terms. |
| Seol: That is true. Like even though I’m an adult, I still call my mom 엄마.. |
| Keith: Yeah, me too! Because you’re close. |
| Seol: Right. |
| Keith: So if you’re ever in, like, a formal setting, let’s say like everyone’s dressed up and important people, do you still 엄마? |
| Seol: No. Then I would say 어머먼 instead of 엄마. |
| Keith: Yeah. That’s just to be formal. And it’s kind of too formal sometimes, right? |
| Seol: 어머니? |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: Most people call their moms 엄마because they’re on intimate terms. |
| Seol: But when you call your mother-in-law, you would call어머니.. |
| Keith: Because… |
| Seol: A little bit, you know. |
| Keith: They’re not always so close. |
| Seol: Not a bit close. |
| Keith: Maybe the mother and the daughter-in-law don’t always get along too well. |
| Seol: Yes. Yes. |
| Keith: So어머니.. All right. So why don’t we just into the conversation? The first line we have is… |
| Seol: 진우는 어디에 있습니까? |
| Keith: The first part is…. |
| Seol: 진우 |
| Keith: The boy’s name. |
| Seol: Jinu. |
| Keith: The boy’s name. After that is… |
| Seol: 는 |
| Keith: The topic marking particle. After that? |
| Seol: 어디 |
| Keith: Where. |
| Seol: 에 |
| Keith: At… |
| Seol: 있습니까? |
| Keith: “Exist” or in this case, “is”. So literally it’s “Jinu where at is”, “where is Jinu?” Jinu brings back memories. This is my cousin’s name. |
| Seol: Really? |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Seol: So you wrote the script? |
| Keith: Yeah, I did. Well, okay, next is 어? What is that? |
| Seol: Like you’re surprised, right? |
| Keith: Yeah, surprised, right? Like uh? What? Kind of like “huh?” |
| Seol: You didn’t even think that he’s not here. |
| Keith: Yeah. You know what I think it is? I think it’s “huh?” Like, “Huh? What happened? Surprise!” |
| Seol: Right, right. |
| Keith: So not a very good baby sitter. “Huh? What?” Okay. After that is 저는 모릅니다. The first part is… |
| Seol: 저 |
| Keith: “I” followed by… |
| Seol: 는 |
| Keith: The topic marking particle. And after that is… |
| Seol: 모릅니다. |
| Keith: “To not know.” This is in the formal politeness level. So here, it’s like “Uh…huh? I…I don’t know.” |
| Seol: What a good baby sitter. |
| Keith: Yeah, very good, right? Okay, next is.. |
| Seol: 모릅니까? |
| Keith: “To not know” but in the formal interrogative. So “don’t know?” Here, the subject is left out, but you can easily infer that the mother is talking about the baby sitter. “You don’t know?” Okay. After that is… |
| Seol: 여기에 없습니까? |
| Keith: Okay, the first part we have is… |
| Seol: 여기 |
| Keith: “Here.” After that… |
| Seol: 에 |
| Keith: Location particle which can be translated to “at”. And after that is… |
| Seol: 없습니까? |
| Keith: “To not exist.” But in this case, “not be”. So literally it’s “here at not be?” “He’s not here?” “What? You don’t know he’s not here?” Now this 엄마, she is mad. Okay. The baby sitter says 잘 모릅니다. The first word is.. |
| Seol: 잘 |
| Keith: This is the adverb “well”. After that is… |
| Seol: 모릅니다. |
| Keith: Once again, to not know in the formal politeness level. So here, it’s “Uh, I don’t know too well” or “I’m not too sure.” But this 잘, Koreans use this all the time, right? |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: I think it’s because they don’t want to say things too directly. |
| Seol: That is true It’s kind of in a modest way of explaining something or…yes, it’s really useful. You have to remember this word. |
| Keith: That’s right. So잘 모릅니다.. Also, this formal politeness level is not used very often. So Seol, can you give us the politeness level that everyone usually uses? |
| Seol: 잘 몰라요. |
| Keith: That’s right. 몰라요. This is the standard politeness level. So here, you’ll be hearing that all the time. If you’re in Korea, 잘 몰라요, you’ll hear it all the time.모릅니다, not so often, right? |
| Seol: Uh-hmm. |
| Keith: Yeah. But몰라요, you’ll hear it all the time. After that we have….Seol, can you do it for us? |
| Seol: 엄마! 엄마! |
| Keith: Excellent job. |
| Seol: Sorry. |
| Keith: No, that’s excellent. So that’s obviously just Jinu calling for his mom, right? |
| Seol: Yeah. |
| Keith: All right. And after that, the baby sitter says, 아, 진우가 저기에 있습니다.. The first part we have is…. |
| Seol: 아 |
| Keith: Yeah. This is kind of like a sound, right? |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: It’s a sound that Korean people make when they’re like “Oh!”. |
| Seol: Yeah, this is really common. When the idea just pops up from your mind, you say “Ah!”. |
| Keith: That’s right. So in this case, not an idea popped up but Jinu popped up. |
| Seol: Yeah. |
| Keith: He’s like “ah!” It’s just…. |
| Seol: Yeah. “Ah, I found him.” |
| Keith: Yeah, yeah. Okay, next we have… |
| Seol: 진우 |
| Keith: Once again, the boy’s name, Jinu. After that… |
| Seol: 가 |
| Keith: The subject marking particle. And after that is… |
| Seol: 저기 |
| Keith: “Over there” followed by… |
| Seol: 에 |
| Keith: The location particle “at”. And after that we have… |
| Seol: 있습니다. |
| Keith: “To exist.” Or in this case, “to be.” So literally we have “Oh, Jinu there at be” or “Jinu’s over there.” |
| Seol: So he finally found the boy! |
| Keith: Well, I think the baby sitter kind of thinks that he’s doing a good job. Like, “Ah, yeah, I knew it. He’s over there.” |
| Seol: Okay. |
| Keith: Well, I don’t think the mom is too happy though. I don’t think 엄마 is too happy. |
| Seol: She might be annoyed. |
| Keith: Well, let’s check out the next line. |
| Seol: Okay. |
| Keith: Next we have… |
| Seol: 네. |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Seol: 압니다. |
| Keith: “To know” in the formal politeness level. Here, literally, it’s like “Yeah, to know.” But here it’s kind of like “Yeah, I know. I know.” The mom is really annoyed. |
| Seol: Yes, yes. |
| Keith: And you know how we can tell by this? |
| Seol: She speaks in formal politeness level, right? |
| Keith: Yeah, that’s right. The formal politeness level is not used very often. Seol, can you please give us the standard politeness level? |
| Seol: 알아요. |
| Keith:알아요. You’ll be hearing this all the time. So “Yes, I know. I know.” And can you give us the intimate level? |
| Seol: 알아. |
| Keith: “Yeah. I know. Yeah.” So to review really quickly, we just want to go over two words that you’ll be hearing very often – “to not know” and “to know”. I’ll be giving you the formal politeness level and Seol will be giving you the standard and the intimate politeness level. Once again, you’ll be hearing what Seol is saying much more often than what I am saying. So “to not know.”모릅니다; that’ the formal politeness level. The standard politeness level… |
| Seol:몰라요. |
| Keith: And the intimate politeness level. |
| Seol: 몰라. |
| Keith: “To know.” The formal politeness level, 압니다 -the standard politeness level… |
| Seol: 알아요. |
| Keith: And the intimate politeness level. |
| Seol: 알아. |
Outro |
| Keith: Okay. I think that’s going to do it for today. |
| Seol: Yes. |
| Keith: I think they learned very useful words today. |
| Seol: 알아. |
| Keith: All right. So that’s going to do it for today. |
| Seol: 안녕! |
| Keith: 안녕! |
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