I attempted to teach my grandma about the contrasting things in American versus Korean idioms. She has been in America for about 15 years, and she is relatively well-spoken in English. However, she always has trouble understanding idioms and figures of speech because they differ so much from Korean ones, and over the years, she has taught me Korean idioms. I thought it would be appropriate and long overdue for me to return the favor!
My learning plan consisted of analyzing a few Korean idioms and phrases and then translating them into English. More often than not, there was a comparable American expression. In that case, I would teach her that phrase by connecting it to what she already knew in Korean so that it could stick with her more easily.
A few common Korean idioms:
1. refers to being glutinous
2. something appearing to be better than it is
3. in a bad situation, getting worse
4. the power of being positive
5. being lied to three times
I found the parallels in those idioms with these following English phrases:
1. eyes bigger than your stomach
2. grass is always greener on the other side
3. up a creek without a paddle
4. the silver lining
5. fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me
Although these are just a few, it was INCREDIBLY difficult conveying these to her because of the figurative language. For someone who speaks English as their second language, putting new meaning to already unfamiliar words is confusing and can be silly. She was able to retain a few, but mostly she remembered the funny part of the phrases and forgot the rest. So when I ask her about the idiom referring to the bad situation getting worse, she can remember it has something to do with a paddle but not much else. It's okay, we tried!
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