Learn a commonly-used pattern in Korean for expressing one action that occurs before another action
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Minkyong: 안녕하세요. 민경이에요. |
| Keith: Keith here. Save Me From My Mom Part #1. |
| Minkyong: It’s like the movie title. |
| Keith: The sequel of a bad horror movie. Save me from my mom, yeah. Sounds like a bad sequel. So to recap really quickly, what’s going on? What happened in our last lesson? |
| Minkyong: 현석 came late at home and his mom was really, really angry. |
| Keith: Yeah so she is mad and now he has no freedom, can’t do anything. |
| Minkyong: Yeah. |
| Keith: And maybe this sounds familiar to you? |
| Minkyong: Yes. Still I have no freedom. I am just kidding. |
| Keith: Well okay real quickly, what are Korean moms like? |
| Minkyong: For example, my mom, she is very strict and she is very loud and she is scary and she still calls me once a day, I don’t know. I have no freedom. |
| Keith: Well that’s okay. They love you that’s why. Your mom loves you whatever. You are giving me that look, the whatever look. Well 현석’s mom has not been so forgiving for him coming home late. So what’s going on in this conversation? |
| Minkyong: 현석 wants to watch TV but his mom doesn’t let him. |
| Keith: And the politeness levels they are going to be using? |
| Minkyong: So 현석 is using 존댓말 because he did something wrong. |
| Keith: Polite language. |
| Minkyong: And mom is using 반말. |
| Keith: Casual language and pretty much 100% of the time, parents will use 반말 casual language to their children. What’s our grammar point today? |
| Minkyong: 기 전에 |
| Keith: And what’s – couple of examples so that our listeners can listen for this. |
| Minkyong: 밥 먹기 전에 손 씻어. |
| Keith: Before you eat, wash your hands. Okay so let’s listen it. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 아들: 엄마. 텔레비전 볼래요. |
| 엄마: 텔레비전 보기 전에 숙제 해! |
| 아들: 네... |
| 아들: (숙제를 하고) 엄마! 숙제 했어요. 텔레비전 볼래요. |
| 엄마: 텔레비전 보기 전에 밥 먹어. |
| 아들: 네... |
| 아들: (밥을 먹고) 엄마! 텔레비전 볼래요. |
| 엄마: 텔레비전 보기 전에 샤워 해. |
| 아들: 네... |
| Minkyong: 영어로 한 번 더. |
| 아들: 엄마. 텔레비전 볼래요. |
| Keith: Mom, I want to watch TV. |
| 엄마: 텔레비전 보기 전에 숙제 해! |
| Keith: Do your homework before you watch TV. |
| 아들: 네... |
| Keith: Ok. |
| 아들: (숙제를 하고) 엄마! 숙제 했어요. 텔레비전 볼래요. |
| Keith: Mom, I did all my homework. I want to watch TV. |
| 엄마: 텔레비전 보기 전에 밥 먹어. |
| Keith: Eat something before you watch TV. |
| 아들: 네... |
| Keith: Ok. |
| 아들: (밥을 먹고) 엄마! 텔레비전 볼래요. |
| Keith: Mom, I want to watch TV. |
| 엄마: 텔레비전 보기 전에 샤워 해. |
| Keith: Take a shower before you watch TV. |
| 아들: 네... |
| Keith: Ok. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Keith: 현석 is like a real obedient kid. |
| Minkyong: He is a nice boy. |
| Keith: Always says this 네, 네, 네, 네. Okay all right. |
| Minkyong: I mean that’s because he did something wrong. He is probably usually not like this but… |
| Keith: Why are you so pessimistic? This character can be a good person. |
| Minkyong: You are right. I am sorry. |
| Keith: Just because you are not like that. |
| Minkyong: What do you mean? I am a very, very positive person. |
| Keith: Positive and obedient. |
| Minkyong: Yes. You see? 네. |
| Keith: Okay. All right before we get into the vocabulary, I want to remind our listeners to stop by KoreanClass101.com and listen to our line by line feature. If this dialogue was too fast for you, in the premium learning center, we have line by line dialogue which is broken down one line at a time. All right let’s move on. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Keith: What’s our first word? |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전 |
| Keith: Television. |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 텔레비전 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Next we have |
| Minkyong: 보다 |
| Keith: To see, to watch. |
| Minkyong: 보다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 보다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And next we have |
| Minkyong: 샤워하다 |
| Keith: To shower. |
| Minkyong: 샤워하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 샤워하다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: And finally we have |
| Minkyong: 숙제 |
| Keith: Homework. |
| Minkyong: 숙제 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 숙제 [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Keith: I want to talk about the word 보다 a little bit. Now this is the verb to see, to look, to watch. In English, there is different nuances between those three but in Korean, that’s all inclusive. |
| Minkyong: Yeah it’s all same 보다. |
| Keith: So let’s have a couple of sample sentences. In English, I would say, to watch television. |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전을 보다. |
| Keith: Look over there. |
| Minkyong: 저기 봐. |
| Keith: And did you see a movie? |
| Minkyong: 영화 봤어? |
| Keith: And if you noticed over there, it’s 봤어 and this is a contraction between the verb stem 보 and the 아 from 아/어/여 conjugation. So it’s 보아 and it contracts into one. |
| Minkyong: 봐 |
| Keith: In our example sentence and also in our dialogue, 뭐를 봤어요? |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전을 봤어요. |
| Keith: So that word is |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전 |
| Keith: Television but there is also a couple of different words for television as well |
| Minkyong: 티비 |
| Keith: TV very simple. That’s it? |
| Minkyong: Yeah that’s it. |
| Keith: TV, television, yeah that’s it. No but the standard is television and TV is more colloquial I guess. |
| Minkyong: Yeah. |
| Keith: You wouldn’t see the word TV in news or anything like that, you would see television. |
| Minkyong: 네 맞아요. |
| Keith: All right. Let’s move on. Our next word is |
| Minkyong: 샤워하다 |
| Keith: To shower. Just to go into a little more cultural detail real quickly 샤워하다 to take a shower, pretty straightforward. It’s an English word shower but there is also a couple of other verbs in Korean to express that you are washing yourself. |
| Minkyong: 씻다 |
| Keith: And this is the verb to wash your hands, to wash your face, not really in the shower, kind of. |
| Minkyong: No it’s not. |
| Keith: It’s supposed to be a sink verb I think right? |
| Minkyong: Yeah, yeah you are right like to wash your face and… |
| Keith: And your feet maybe, it’s.. |
| Minkyong: Yeah oh yeah, yeah. |
| Keith: Okay and what’s another verb? |
| Minkyong: 목욕하다 |
| Keith: And this is referring to a bath. Taking a bath or… |
| Minkyong: Like going into a tub 목욕하다. |
| Keith: Yeah and just to go into a little cultural detail real quick, there is a thing in Korea called |
| Minkyong: 목욕탕 |
| Keith: Yeah and this is a community bath. A lot of countries have something similar to this, a community bath but I think a lot of people in America at least – I am not too sure, maybe about England or Australia, but in America, you know, it’s not so common to go into a bath with other people. |
| Minkyong: Yeah. It’s really common to go to 목욕탕 in Korea and what we do in 목욕탕 is just like, there is a big top and we go in… |
| Keith: It’s just a big party. |
| Minkyong: Almost, almost kind of but… |
| Keith: But it’s a lot of fun for maybe like family members. You get together. It’s like all right, let’s all go take a bath in this huge bathtub. |
| Minkyong: Yeah and there is also 사우나. |
| Keith: Yeah it’s like the Korean version of a health spa maybe. |
| Minkyong: Yeah, yeah. |
| Keith: Sort of, not exactly the same but it’s very common to go with your family members or even with your friends as well. All right and as a Korean, just really quick before we move on to the grammar. So as a Korean, what do you usually do? Do you usually take a shower or a bath at home? |
| Minkyong: I usually take a shower. I don’t take a bath at home. |
| Keith: Yeah I think maybe in the last 20 years or 30 years or so, showers have become the main way people bathe in Korea, wash themselves but 목욕탕 taking a bath has been more communal. |
| Minkyong: 네 맞아요. We don’t take a bath at home that often. |
| Keith: All right, let’s move on to the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Keith: What's our grammar point again? |
| Minkyong: 기 전에 |
| Keith: Now, this is "before you" something, something. Something after that, right? |
| Minkyong: Yeah. |
| Keith: So in today's conversation, how did it come out? |
| Keith: Hyunseok wanted to watch TV. 엄마. 텔레비전 볼래요. I want to watch TV. |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전 보기 전에 숙제 해! |
| Keith: Before you watch TV, do your homework. So we have one clause in front of 기 전에, and then a second clause after that. So let's break down what came out in today's conversation. |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전 보기 전에 |
| Keith: Before you watch TV. |
| Minkyong: 숙제 해 |
| Keith: Do your homework. So to go over the construction really quickly, let's take the verb 보다, "to see". You take the verb stem. |
| Minkyong: 보 |
| Keith: And you just add? |
| Minkyong: 기 전에 |
| Keith: Watch before. Before you watch. |
| Minkyong: 보기 전에 |
| Keith: And after that, the second clause, it can be whatever you want. 보기 전에. The imperative, do your homework. And how else did it come out in this conversation? |
| M1: Mom, I finished my homework. 엄마! 숙제 했어요. 텔레비전 볼래요. I want to watch TV. |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전 보기 전에 밥 먹어. |
| Keith: Before you watch TV, eat food. And the last one? Mom, come on. I ate food. I did my homework. 엄마! 텔레비전 볼래요. I want to watch TV. |
| Minkyong: 텔레비전 보기 전에 샤워 해. |
| Keith: Before you watch TV, take a shower. So let's go over a couple examples real quick where maybe our listeners can hear this on a regular basis. |
| Minkyong: 가기 전에 연락 해. |
| Keith: Before you go, give me a call. Before you go, contact me. |
| Minkyong: 놀기 전에 공부 해. |
| Keith: Before you hang out, study. So besides the mom telling the kids, "Before you do this, do this. Before you do this, do this," where else can you find this type of grammar. |
| Minkyong: You can just use it in a general sentence. |
| Keith: Yeah. Kind of like "Before I came here, I watched a movie." |
| Minkyong: 여기 오기 전에 영화 봤어. |
| Keith: Before I watched a movie, I ate breakfast. |
| Minkyong: 영화 보기 전에 아침 먹었어. |
| Keith: So, it can be used with the imperative that second clause 기 전에 imperative or it can also be used in general simple sentence. So before I did this, I did this and that second clause 기 전에 second clause, we need a past tense of course. |
| Minkyong: Yeah because |
| Keith: Because it’s a grammatical structure. It’s I did this. |
| Minkyong: 맞아요. |
Outro |
| Keith: All right. So that’s going to do it. Remember to stop by KoreanClass101.com, practice your Korean with us. We will see you there. |
| Minkyong: Bye. |
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