After many weeks learning the Korean language, Orchid and Liz have finally reached the end of their Beginner Level 1 class. The pair sits through a revision class with 선생님 while Rooster continues to catch forty winks . During class, we went through everything we learned, focusing on Korean numbers – both pure Korean and Sino-Korean – as well as present-tense verbs. We continued to make sentences that involve time, location and verbs. Key words were given and we were required to create a proper sentence with them. For instance: Example 1:저 (jeo = I) / 밤 (bam = night)/ 12시 (12shi = 12 o’clock)/ 자요 (ja-yo = sleep) Sentence: 저는 밤 열두시에 자요. = jeo-neun bam yeo-du shi-e ja-yo (I night 12 o’clock sleep – literal translation). Example 2:미나 (Mina) / 아침 (ah-chim = morning)/ 6시 (6shi = 6 o’clock)/ 일어나요 (ireonayo = wake up) Sentence: 미나씨는 아침 여섯시에 일어나요. = Mina sshi-neun ah-chim yeo-seot-shi-e ireonayo (Mina morning six o’clock wake up – literal translation). I think many are finding the “lessons” at MYK a little too hard to follow since we learned so much more in class than what is being shared here. Sometimes during class, we’d veer

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While Rooster counts down the days to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Orchid and Liz wrestle with the larger Sino-Korean numbers. They now share with you their adventures and misadventures with the Korean language in MYK구! We’re going to do this quick so it will be less painful. You know, like ripping out a Band-Aid, you’ve just got to give it one good yank. We now deal with large numbers. Like the Indonesian Rupiah, Korean Won is counted in the thousands and even millions. That is something I find hard to grasp, and it doesn’t help that my mental arithmetic sucks. I can just imagine myself being fleeced by some crafty trader when visiting Seoul one day. Sigh. Large numbers So you’ve learned the Sino-Korean numbers of 1 (일 = il) to 10 (십 = ship). Now here’s how we count in: The hundreds100 = 백 (baek)200 = 이백 (ee baek)300 = 삼백 (sam baek)400 = 사백 (sa baek)….and so on The thousands1,000 = 천 (cheon)2,000 = 이천 (ee cheon)3,000 = 삼천 (sam cheon)4,000 = 사천 (sa cheon)…and so on The ten thousands10,000 = 만 (man)20,000 = 이만 (ee man)30,000 = 삼만 (sam man)…and so on An important note to remember:

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Orchid and Liz dig deep into their Chinese roots to get a grasp of the Chinese-based Sino-Korean numbers while Rooster happily counts sheep – in Chinese, mind you – in her sleep. They now share with you their adventures and misadventures with the Korean language in MYK8…oh, excuse me, MYK팔 (pal)! Our usually upbeat 선생님 (seon-saeng-nim = Teacher) looked refreshed and cheery after the long Lunar New Year break. She returned to Korea for the holidays and bought souvenirs for us; we each received a ball pen (볼펜 – bolpen). 선생님: I bought this at Insadong, please treasure it. It usually takes 3 – 4 hours from my hometown to reach Seoul. However, because of the Seollal holidays, my 오빠 (oppa – elder brother) and I were stuck in traffic for 10 hours!Fellow student: 선생님, flying to Korea from Malaysia takes 6 hours, you mean you took so much longer to get to Seoul from within Korea?! Ha ha ha! 한자 숫자 In this lesson, we learn Sino-Korean numbers. 선생님: It’s called 한자 숫자 (hanja sutja) and we use it when we talk about date, money, pages of a book, license plate numbers and even telephone numbers. These are the

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Since we couldn’t cram everything we’ve learned into our regular MYK series, we decided to share with you some interesting insights from class in this special MYK Tidbits entry. 1) 사이다 (saida = soda)While the rest of us know soda as any sweet drink containing carbonated water and flavouring, the Koreans typically refer soda to either 7-Up or Sprite. Apparently, if you order 사이다 at a restaurant in Korea you’ll automatically be served Sprite…or 7-Up, whichever they have. Is that true? 2) 이 분이 (i-booni) vs. 이 사람이 (i-sarami) Both words have the same meaning, which is “this person” yet they are different in the sense that the former is a more respectful and polite way to refer to the person, while the latter is the casual form of reference. For instance, you can go: 이 사람이 친구예요 (i-sarami chin-goo-ye-yo = This person is a friend).While the more polite form can be reserved for someone you respect, thus you say: 이 분이 선생님이에요 (i-booni seon-saeng-nim-i-e-yo = This person is a Teacher). 3) 감사합니다 (kam-sa-ham-ni-da), 고맙습니다 (go-map-seum-ni-da), 고마워요 (go-ma-wo-yo) All three words mean “thank you” but again, the degree of politeness is different for each word. 감사합니다 is your best (and

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Orchid and Liz learn how to talk about location in their Korean language class while Rooster, who is currently back home in Malaysia (yay!), dreams of her return trip to Beijing. They now share with you their adventures and misadventures with the language in MYK 7! Recap and role play “안녕하세요. 오랜만이에요!” (an-nyeong-ha-se-yo. O-raen-man-i-e-yo = Hello. Long time no see!), said our 선생님 after a one-week hiatus from class. To help us refresh our memories on native Korean numbers, we did a little role playing exercise. Below is a modified example: Scenario: You are at a fruit stall and want to buy some lemons and Mandarin oranges. Let’s pretend the stall owner is an elderly man so we can call him “uncle” or 아저씨 (a-jeo-sshi). Stall owner: 어서 오세요! (eo-seo o-se-yo = Welcome!)You: 아저씨, 레몬 하고 귤 있어요? (a-jeo-sshi, le-mon ha-go gyul i-sseo-yo? = Uncle, do you have lemons and Mandarin oranges?)Stall owner: 네, 있어요. (Ne, i-sseo-yo. = Yes, I do)You: 그럼, 레몬 네개 하고 귤 두개 주세요. (geu-reom, lemon ne-gae hago gyul doo-gae juseyo = Then, please give me 4 lemons and 2 Mandarin oranges.) We practiced the situation using various objects such as hamburger (함버거 = ham-beo-geo), pineapple

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안녕하세요? 어떻게 지냈어요? I hope you are feeling fine on the eve of Chinese New Year! Are you all geared up for the reunion dinner with the family? Have a great time and make sure you toss that Yee Sang sky-high to symbolise prosperity in the Year of the Rat! Since everyone’s in a festive mood, we won’t be sharing MYK7 this week and will only announce the winner of our inaugural quiz entitled The Match Up! But first up: The answers to the quiz: 1CQ: 안녕하세요? = an-nyeong-ha-se-yo? = Hello/ How are you?/ Are you at peace?A: 네, 안녕하세요. = ne, an-nyeong-ha-se-yo. = Yes, hello.Please read Origins of the phrase at Honjangnim’s Light 2JQ: 이분이 누구예요? = ibooni noo-goo-ye-yo? = Who is this person?A: 권상우씨 예요. = kwon sang oo sshi ye-yo. = He is Kwon Sang-oo. 3AQ: 이름이 뭐예요? = ireumi mwo-ye-yo? = What is your name?A: 저는 정지훈이에요. = jeo-neun jeong ji hoon-i-e-yo. = I’m Jeong Ji-hoon. 4GQ: 감사합니다. = gam-sa-ham-ni-da. = Thank you.A: 아니에요. = anieyo = Don’t mention it.5BQ: 어느 나라 사람이에요? = eo-neu na-ra sa-rami-e-yo? = Which country person?/ What is your nationality?A: 저는 필리핀 사람이에요. = jeo-neun pil-li-pin sa-rami-e-yo. = I’m Filipino. 6HQ:

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여러분 안녕하세요? (yeo-reo-boon an-nyeong-ha-se-yo? = Hello everyone.) Since there isn’t a Mind Your Korean installment today because there wasn’t any class, and taking into consideration Ladida’s suggestion, I’ve decided to come up with a quiz based on what we’ve shared so far. I hope you’ll take part in it for fun (sorry, we don’t have prizes to give away we have a prize now! Read on to find out what it is!) and if you spot errors in the structure of the quiz, 미안합니다 (mianhamnida = Sorry). I just hope I didn’t botch it up too much. Answers will be published next Wednesday (Feb 6). In the meantime, please submit your answers as a comment in this entry and no peeking! But if you really, really have to, I’ve provided a “Hint” link. Have fun!Match the question/sentence in Section I to the most appropriate response in Section II. Write your answers like so: 1J, 2G, 3D (examples only) etc. Section I 1) 안녕하세요? = an-nyeong-ha-se-yo? Hint 2) 이분이 누구예요? = ibooni noo-goo-ye-yo? Hint 3) 이름이 뭐예요? = ireumi mwo-ye-yo? Hint 4) 감사합니다. = gam-sa-ham-ni-da. Hint 5) 어느 나라 사람이에요? = eo-neu na-ra sa-rami-e-yo? Hint 6) 미안합니다. = mi-an-ham-ni-da. Hint7) 만나서

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Orchid and Liz use their fingers and toes to count in Korean – while Rooster counts sheep in her sleep – in their latest Korean language class. They now share with you their adventures and misadventures with the language in MYK6!여러분 (yeo-reo-boon = everyone), put on your Dracula costumes because we’re going to make like Count Dracula and count (what else?) in Korean (of course). In this lesson, we will be playing around with native Korean numbers (숫자 = sut-ja = numbers) and will leave the Sino-Korean ones for another day. Teacher: How do we use native Korean and Sino-Korean numbers? In reading out the pages of a book or dates we use Sino-Korean numbers. What else?Fellow student: Money!Teacher: 맞아요 (ma-ja-yo) Correct! We count money in Sino-Korean. But for age (나이 = na-i), people (사람 = saram) and objects/things (물건 = mool-geon), we use native Korean. What else?Liz: Time?Teacher: For time, it’s a mixture of both native and Sino-Korean.*pause*Liz: Bwah ha ha ha ha… Getting to know 하나, 둘, 셋… And so we delved into the world of native Korean numbers. Below is part of what we learned. According to 선생님, numbers 40-99 are rarely used, except when talking about

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Rooster takes a trip to Dreamland while Orchid and Liz learn how to converse in Korean in their language class. They now share with you their adventures and misadventures with the language in everybody’s favourite series, MYK5! Now that we’ve learnt our ABCs…sorry, I mean 가, 나, 다’s the class is ready to attempt simple conversations in Korean. Sweet! At the start of our 5th class, 선생님 went: Teacher: 안녕하세요? (annyeonghaseyo = hello)Class: 안녕하세요! (annyeonghaseyo = hello)Teacher: 어떻게 지냈어요? (eoddeokhe jinaesseoyo? = how are you?)Class: 잘 지냈어요. (jal jinaesseoyo = fine) We then launched into our self-introduction (자기 소개) exercise, with each and every person having a go at introducing him/herself to the class. (Text can be found in MYK4). After many 만나서 반갑습니다s (mannaseo bangabseumnida = Nice to meet you) and 박수s (baksoo = clapping), we moved on to the next conversation text. Negative sentences Based on the introduction practice, we learnt how to make negative sentences, one of the examples would be: Orchid: 안녕하세요? 저는 어킷이에요. 이름이 뭐예요?Annyeonghaseyo? Jeoneun Oekhishieyo. Ireumi mwoyeyo? = Hello, I’m Orchid. What’s your name?Liz: 안녕하세요. 리즈예요. 싱가포르 사람이에요?Annyeonghaseyo. Lijeuyeyo. Singgaporeu saramieyo? = Hello. I’m Liz. (Are you) Singaporean?Orchid: 아니오. 싱가포르 사람이 아니에요. 말레이시아

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