These past two weeks I learn a lot more about sentence structure in the Korean language with my language partner. It was familiar to me because the sentence structure was very similar to the Japanese sentence structure.
“My dog and cat-like playing with toys” In this sentence, the structure is subject, verb, object. In Korean, the sentence would be “제 강아지랑 고양이는 장난감 가지고 노는걸 좋아해요”. The sentence structure is subject, object, verb. I practiced Korean sentence structure with basic conversational phrases I had already learned. My name is Sam in Korean is “제 이름은 샘입니다”. The sentence structure is subject, object, verb, so in English, it would be My name Sam is.
I also learned common vocabulary, such as 빨리 which means hurry up. I used the double ㅂ in this word, which is ㅃ and makes a strong B close to P sound when compared to English. I also learned how to speak in a restaurant setting. To call the waiter, I would say 저기요 (ju gee yo) which is shorthand for excuse me. If something is good, I would respond and say 맛있어 (ma shi suh) which means it is yummy. I learned how I could better read words in Korean. For example, in 맛있어 the ㅅ which makes as sound carries over to the ㅇ which is like a blank card and doesn’t have a sound. The same would go for the ㅆ. The double s sound would carry over to the 어. If I were to read the word how it is spelled, I would say mat it suh, but because of the carrying overrule, I read it as ma shee suh. I found that a lot of the words are casually said like this in the Korean language because it is too difficult to actually pronounce the words as written.
Because of the coronavirus which is very serious in China and Korea, we talked about the cultural differences and similarities. I watched a news clip in Korean with my language partner regarding a cult in Korea. I learned that the religious cult is responsible for many cases of coronavirus in a city called 대구 (Daegu). They would have services where people would be very close to each other and they would not wear masks or take preventative measures. Therefore, they spread the virus very easily. One major difference is that in China, this activity would not be allowed, but in Korea, in this instance, they took advantage of the freedom of religion. We also talked about the similarity of people using face masks. I realized in America, not many people wear face masks. If someone is wearing a face mask, the person is viewed as a patient. In China and Korea, many people wear masks, and it is viewed as not respectful of other people to not wear a mask. A mask is viewed as a preventative measure and most people wear it to avoid particulate matter as well.
Replies
That is good to hear that you understand the sentence structure of Korean. Similarly to your learning path, I know Spanish, and it has the same structure as my target language of Portuguese. Very helpful! That is great that you are learning about the current happenings in Korea, even though COVID-19 does not always have positive news.