In my third class we learned about proverbs or 속담, which are sayings that often have a traditional/historical origin and are used to convey a deeper meaning. They are used very often in everyday conversation, and I had a very limited knowledge of them, so learning about them was really useful. We went over a list of frequently used proverbs, and Jimin again gave the korean interpretation/meaning behind them and then the english translation. For example, we learned the proverb 병 주고 약 준다, and the literal english translation is to give a disease and then give medicine, which still seems a bit nonsensical. However, the korean meaning behind it was that someone will hurt you and then try to help you (e.g. insulting you and then complimenting you right after). I had often heard this proverb in korean variety shows but didn't know what it meant exactly, so it was really helpful. We also learned 사자성어, which are also proverbs, but are in a four letter format because they're derived from chinese characters; this means that each letter in the four letter combination comes from a chinese character and so each letter has a specific meaning that combines together with the meanings of the other three letters to create the message of the proverb. In this class, Jimin gave us the literal korean meaning of each of the four letters and taught us what the combination was supposed to mean, and what message it was supposed to send. We then wrote down our own English interpretation/translation.
The fourth week of class was thanksgiving break so we didn't have class, but I tried to practice Korean at home with my parents both in speaking conversation and through text.
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