I’ve been planning to learn the Korean menu and how to order food in Korean since my friend and I visit Korean restaurants a lot. So during this spring break, I decided to learn how to pronounce Korean food names correctly and how to order in Korean. First, I listed out a couple of Korean food names that I already knew -- Bulgogi (불고기 beef barbecue), Tteokbokki (떡볶이 spicy rice cake), Kimchi (김치 fermented vegetables), Bibimbap (비빔밥 mixed rice), Sundubu-jjigae (순두부찌개 soft tofu stew) -- and practiced their right pronunciation. Aside from those, I was able to learn some new phrases from the worksheet Ms. Kim gave me --
메뉴 주세요. (meh-nyu joo-se-yo) (Please give me the menu.)
커피 한 잔 주세요? (May I have a cup of coffee please.)
사과 한 개 주세요? (May I have an apple please?)
코카콜라 두 병 주세요? (May I have two bottles of coca-cola please?)
네. 여기 있어요. (Yes. Here we go.)
I also found a couple of phrases from the daily expressions worksheet with some simple Q&As such as 이 것은 무엇입니까? 이 것은 물입니다. (What is this? This is water) and 그 것은 무엇입니까? 이 것은 커피입니다. (What is that? This is coffee) that could be useful. From online Korean learning blogs, I found more phrases on how to order. For example, when trying to get the passing waiter's attention, people could say 여기요, which means “over here.” And after choosing the items, people could say 이거 주세요 (ee-guh ju-se-yo) which means “I’ll have this please.” After finishing the meal, one could say 계산서 주세요. (geh-san-suh ju-se-yo) to ask for the check. If someone has an allergy, the person could say 저 xxx 알레르기 있어요. (juh xxx ahl-leh-leu-gi ee-ssuh-yo) which means “I’m allergic to xxx.” Some common food allergy would include things such as 땅콩 (ddang-kong) “peanuts,” 우유 (woo-yoo) “milk,” 달걀 (dal-gyal) “egg,” and 조개 (jo-gae) “shellfish.”
Learning about food names has been an interesting experience. I recognized many dishes from the Korean-teaching website and blogs. I was also able to learn to pronounce food names through YouTube videos and google translators. With the new words and phrases I learned, I would try to order food in Korean if I go to a Korean restaurant next time.
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