Learn how to describe objects using honorific Korean
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: What Do You Think of this Korean Shrine? Eric here. |
| Suhyun: 안녕하세요. (Annyeonghaseyo.) I'm Suhyun. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe objects and scenery. This conversation takes place at a traditional palace. |
| Suhyun: It's between Sujin and Minho. |
| Eric: The speakers are acquaintances, so they’ll be using honorific Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 수진: 민호 씨, 종묘에 와 보니까 어때요? |
| 민호: 아주 아름다워요. 저기 조각상을 좀 봐요. |
| 수진: 네, 아주 크네요. 아, 저기에 가면 정원도 있어요. |
| 민호: (walking to the garden) 우아! 정원에 있는 꽃이 정말 예뻐요. |
| 수진: 그렇죠? 특히 이 붉은 꽃이 가장 예뻐요! |
| 민호: 거기서 제 사진을 찍어 주시겠어요? |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| 수진: 민호 씨, 종묘에 와 보니까 어때요? |
| 민호: 아주 아름다워요. 저기 조각상을 좀 봐요. |
| 수진: 네, 아주 크네요. 아, 저기에 가면 정원도 있어요. |
| 민호: (walking to the garden) 우아! 정원에 있는 꽃이 정말 예뻐요. |
| 수진: 그렇죠? 특히 이 붉은 꽃이 가장 예뻐요! |
| 민호: 거기서 제 사진을 찍어 주시겠어요? |
| Eric: Now, listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Sujin: So Minho, what do you think of Jongmyo now that you've come? |
| Minho: It's very beautiful. Just look at that sculpture over there. |
| Sujin: Yes it's very big. If we go over there, there's a garden too. |
| Minho: (walking to the garden) Wow! The flowers in the garden are so pretty. |
| Sujin: Right? The red flower especially is the most beautiful. |
| Minho: Could you take my picture over there please? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Suhyun, if you were to choose just one word to describe Korean architecture, what would it be? |
| Suhyun: Hm...maybe “balance” or in Korean 조화. |
| Eric: A great choice! I’m guessing you’d choose balance because architects in Korea typically try to construct buildings so that they blend with nature, like by matching the line of the roof with the ridge of a mountain behind it. |
| Suhyun: That’s right, Eric. But I’d also choose balance because of the long influence Buddhism has had on Korean culture. |
| Eric: That’s true. Listeners, if you’d like to see the fantastic art that is Korean architecture, try visiting some historic buildings. For example, Bulguksa temple, the oldest temple in South Korea. There you’ll see the balance between the building and nature, as well as the Buddhist influences on architecture. |
| Suhyun: The temple 불국사 is an especially great example of how Buddhism helped shape some of Korea's architecture. Don’t miss it when you visit! |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Suhyun: 와 보다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to come, to visit for the first time |
| Suhyun: 와 보다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 와 보다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 아름답다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: beautiful |
| Suhyun: 아름답다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 아름답다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 조각상 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: statue, sculpture |
| Suhyun: 조각상 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 조각상 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 크다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: big |
| Suhyun: 크다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 크다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 지도 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: map |
| Suhyun: 지도 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 지도 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 여기 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: here, this place |
| Suhyun: 여기 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 여기 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 정원 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: garden |
| Suhyun: 정원 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 정원 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 꽃 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: flowers |
| Suhyun: 꽃 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 꽃 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 붉다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: red, crimson |
| Suhyun: 붉다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 붉다 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Suhyun: 사진 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: picture, photo |
| Suhyun: 사진 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Suhyun: 사진 [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Suhyun: 붉다 |
| Eric: This word is used to refer to the colors “red”, “crimson”, “scarlet” and other shades of red. In Korean, there are actually two words that mean “red”. |
| Suhyun: Right. We have 붉다 and 빨갛다. |
| Eric: What are the differences? |
| Suhyun: 붉다 is used to refer to shades of “red” that are created naturally, for example the color of 태양 (taeyang) |
| Eric: “the sun” |
| Suhyun: or 노을 (noeul) |
| Eric: Meaning “a sunset”. What about the other one? |
| Suhyun: 빨갛다 is used for artificially created shades of red. |
| Eric: You mean something like the color of food, or the color of clothes? |
| Suhyun: That’s right. If you use these two words correctly, your Korean will sound very natural. |
| Eric: Alright Suhyun, could you give us an example using the word for sunset? |
| Suhyun: This red is created naturally, so I could say... 붉은 노을이 정말 아름다워요. |
| Eric: ..which means “The red sunset is really beautiful.” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Suhyun: 그렇죠? |
| Eric: This means something like “isn't it?” or “isn't that so?”. You can use this phrase to express agreement with what a speaker has said or to confirm some information. |
| Suhyun: For example, if someone says.. 오늘 날씨가 아주 덥지요? |
| Eric: which means “Today's weather is very hot, right?” |
| Suhyun: And you agree with that. You can simply say.. 그렇죠? |
| Eric: “Isn’t it?” Make sure to rise your intonation at the end. Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, we’ll learn how to describe objects and scenery. When traveling in Korea and hanging out with friends, you may want to express your admiration of certain things around you which you find pretty. In this case you can simply say... |
| Suhyun: 예뻐요 |
| Eric: which means “pretty”. You can use this word when talking about buildings, mountains, articles of clothing, and people as well. |
| Suhyun: Right. You can also add the word 이거 meaning “this” to 예뻐요 . Altogether, it would be 이거 예뻐요. |
| Eric: “This is pretty”. If you want to say that something is “well” or “good” you can say… |
| Suhyun: 좋아요 |
| Eric: This word simply means “good” in English. |
| Suhyun: For example, if someone asks you if you want to take a seat and you agree, you can say 좋아요 to mean “that’s good idea.” |
| Eric: Suhyun, how could we put emphasis on these words to say, for example, “really pretty” or “really good”? |
| Suhyun: That's simple. “Really” in Korean is 진짜. |
| Eric: So, “really pretty” would be… |
| Suhyun: 진짜 예뻐요 |
| Eric: and “really good” would be… |
| Suhyun: 진짜 좋아요. Remember though listeners, 진짜 sounds a bit casual, and shouldn’t be used in formal situations. |
| Eric: So what could you use in formal situations? |
| Suhyun: In formal situations, you can use the adverb 매우 (maeu) or 아주 (aju) to mean “very”. |
| Eric: For example... |
| Suhyun: 매우 좋아요. |
| Eric: “It’s very good.” |
| Suhyun: 아주 예뻐요. |
| Eric: “It’s very pretty.” And we can add these verbs as noun modifiers in Korean, right? We simply take the stem of the verb and add.. |
| Suhyun: 은 or ㄴ(니은) |
| Eric: As you already know, you need to use one or the other depending on how the verb-stem ends. |
| Suhyun: That’s right. Let’s practice with the descriptor verb 작다 which means “small.” |
| Eric: The verb-stem here ends in a consonant, right? |
| Suhyun: Yes. 작 is the verb-stem, and ends in a consonant. Thus, if you want to say “small [something]”, you can simply add 은 to the stem. That 은 will make the descriptor verb into the noun modifier. |
| Eric: So “small building” would be..? |
| Suhyun: 작은 건물. |
| Eric: “small house” would be.. |
| Suhyun: 작은 집. This pattern is the same when using the descriptor verb 좋다. which means “good.” |
| Eric: Then, “good food” would be.. |
| Suhyun: 좋은 음식. |
| Eric: What about verb-stems ending with a vowel? |
| Suhyun: In that case, you can simply add 니은 to the verb-stem. For example, 크다 is the descriptor verb meaning “big” and its verb-stem 크 ends in a vowel. To make it a noun modifier, you can simply add ㄴ and say 큰. |
| Eric: So “big building” would be.. |
| Suhyun: 큰 건물 |
| Eric: Remember listeners, you can always find more useful examples in the lesson notes, so please check them out! |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Suhyun: 안녕히 계세요. (Annyeonghi gyeseyo.) |
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