Learn how to say that you can't speak a language
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| In today’s lesson, we will cover another extremely important phrase. Can you speak English? Using this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you are speaking to doesn’t understand English, at least, they will be able to understand what you are asking. It shows a lot of respect to show that you took the effort to learn even a little bit of the language and for these reasons and many more, we are going to cover this phrase. |
| In Korean, can you speak English is 영어 하세요 (yeongeo haseyo)? One time slowly, 영어 하세요 (yeongeo haseyo)? And now by syllable, 영어 하세요 (yeongeo haseyo)? The first word in the phrase is 영어 (yeongeo), which means English. So let’s listen to it slowly, 영어 (yeongeo). And now by syllable 영-어 (yeong-eo). The second part of the phrase literally translates into do as in you do, but remember, it doesn’t translate exactly. So in this case, it just means speak. The second part is, 하세요 (haseyo). One time slowly, 하세요(haseyo). And by syllable, 하-세-요 (ha-se-yo). Altogether, it’s English you do. It doesn’t really sound all that great in English but trust me, it works. So altogether, let’s do it one more time. 영어 하세요 (yeongeo haseyo)? Now-a-days, in Korea, English is studied at schools at a very, very young age, usually in nursery or maybe kindergarten. |
| So the number of speakers is increasing. However, there are still many, many people who don’t speak English but if you come across a younger person, they will probably be able to speak to some degree but to show respect, let’s learn this phrase. |
| Now, let’s go over a few more languages. Korean 한국어 (hangugeo). And now by syllable, 한-국-어 (han-gu-geo). Japanese 일본어 (il-bo-neo). One time slowly, 일본어 (ilboneo). And now by syllable, 일-본-어 (il-bo-neo). Now if you wanted to ask, can you speak Korean, just substitute Korean for English. Let’s try it out. 한국어 하세요 (hangegeo haseyo)? Notice how 하세요 (haseyo) stays the same and only the word or the language in the front changes. |
| Okay. To close our today’s lesson, we’d like for you to practice what you’ve learned. I will provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud. You will have a few seconds before I give you the answer. So 화이팅 (hwaiting)! |
| Do you speak English - 영어 하세요 (yeongeo haseyo)? |
| Do you speak Korean - 한국어 하세요? (hangugeo haseyo?) |
| All right, that’s going to do it for today. |
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