그림의 떡이다
길러 준 개 주인 문다
누워 떡 먹기
하나를 보면 열을 안다
This week’s cultural post was a collection of idioms that are frequently used in Korea. These idioms usually have an equivalent idiom across different cultures and languages as well. I found these to be interesting because I have always heard them when I was growing up in Korea. I also chose this list of idioms since many of these idioms have an American equivalent and should be recognizable for most Americans as well. The first idiom on my list is “그림의 떡이다”. This is pronounced as “geulim ui tteog ida” and the literal translation just means “rice cake in a picture”. However, the actual metaphorical meaning of the idiom refers to something that is desirable, but you cannot have it. The “rice cake” in the picture is referring to what is desired but since it is in a picture, it is not attainable. The American equivalent of this idiom would be something like “a pie in the sky”, since it also refers to something that is desired, but it is not attainable because it is in the sky. The next idiom on my list is “길러준 개 주인 문다”. This idiom is pronounced, “gilleojun gae ju in munda”. The idiom literally means a “dog biting the owner”. The true meaning of the idiom refers to someone who antagonizes the person he or she is indebted to. The American equivalent of this idiom is also something similar which is close to “bite the hand that feeds you”, which also refers to the act of forgetting who you are indebted to. Another idiom on my list is, “누워서 떡 먹기” and is pronounced, “nuwoseo tteog meoggi”. In literal translation, this idiom means, “eating rice cakes while laying down,”. Because one can assume that eating rice cakes laying down is an easy task, you can assume that this idiom refers to a task so easy that it is similar to eating while laying around. The American equivalent of this idiom would be “a piece of cake” and is used very frequently. The last idiom I learned about was, “하나를 보면 열을 안다” and is pronounced, “hana leul bomyeon yeol eul anda”. This literally means you learn ten things from observing one. This one is pretty easy one to decipher since it is fairly literal. This idiom refers to someone who is very perceptive or intelligent since he or she can see one thing and learn ten more things from it. For this idiom, I could not think of an American equivalent idiom since it was literal enough for most people to know what they are talking about. While the majority of the idioms I picked had a popular American equivalent, it was interesting to find one that seemed unique to Koreans. Another cultural aspect I noticed was the frequent usage of a rice cake to represent something that is desired. Since rice is a staple food in East Asian cultures, it made sense that they would use rice cake in the idioms. In the American idioms however, rice cakes were replaced with things like pie or cake. It was interesting to observe cultural differences even in idioms despite having similar meanings.
Comments
Fascinating!