Last week, we went over the number systems in Korean, learning how to say and read all the numbers. This was very basic introductory level material, but I think there was value in reviewing it. So, there are two systems of counting numbers in Korean, and they are used for different purposes most of the time. I had no idea but telling the time is actually the one exception for this. Telling the time uses a mix of both systems. I was surprised. This whole time, I’ve been saying the hours and minutes without ever realizing that I was using both systems. We use the Sino-Korean system, which originates from China, for minutes, and we use the native Korean system for the hour. I found this to be very interesting. In general though, the Sino-Korean system is typically used for the names of the months, money, measurements, phone numbers, and more. The Korean system only goes up to 99 and is used for counting people and objects and just counting in general.
We also briefly went over a few common counters, which are nouns you use along with the thing you’re counting. For examples, in English, the “slices” noun in the phrase “two slices of bread” would be the counter. In Korean though, there are counters for almost everything. Depending on the thing we’re counting, the counter we use for it and also the number system used changes. The ones we went over during the lesson were very basic, so I went ahead and reviewed some of the more harder ones to remember. Some of the ones I have trouble remembering are 채, 두름, 단. 채 is used for counting buildings, 두름 is used for counting bundled objects, and 단 is also used for counting bundled objects. For the counters, 자루 (trees), 그루 (long objects), 켤레 (shoes/socks), 권 (books), I tend to unknowingly just use the basic counter for some reason. For instance, I would just say “연필 한 개” for one pencil instead of “연필 한 자루.” I will try to use the more appropriate counter when I have to count things.
Also, there are some numbers I just never really use in my daily life, and so I always forget. The numbers I have trouble remembering for the native Korean system are the numbers, 60, 70, 80, and 90. In Korean, they are 예순, 일흔, 여든, and 아흔. I think I normally just use the Sino-Korean equivalent. Another set of numbers I have a lot of trouble with is counting very large numbers like over 100,000. I don’t know why but the separation by 10,000 instead of 1,000 always throws me off and takes me a long time to process. So, 100,000 is 십만 which is 10,0000, and 1,000,000 is 백만, which is 100,0000. Then 10,000,000 is 천만, which is 1000,0000. The 100,000,000 is 억, which is 1,0000,0000. I hear these words very frequently because the Korean bills consist of 1000, 5000, 10000, 50000, which are roughly speaking, 1, 5, 10, 50 in dollars. Since the numbers become large very easily, when I’m back home I become lazy and just ask my mom how much the amount is. I should practice becoming more familiar with extremely large numbers.
Comments
Great post Kate! I find the Korean number system really interesting because they use two different systems. I think this can get confusing. At least it was confusing for me when I was first learning it. If you aren't able to distinguish the two ways to use the two different systems, then you won't really understand.