Posts under "Korean Language"

Hey Fox!

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Jun 30 2011

There is a very well known Korean children’s song that is called 여우야 여우야. The song title roughly translates to “Hey Fox, Hey Fox”. It’s a cute little song about asking a fox what he’s doing. What the song does is teach children that the three basic motions that are essensial to carry on in life are sleeping, being hygienic and eating. The interesting part of the song is that there’s a line where they ask whether the frog is alive or dead. The frog is alive, which implies that the fox didn’t get to eat. My guess is that they didn’t want to scare the kids by talking about survival in the wild and predator/prey relations. Before I present the song I just want to point out that there will be a couple of lines in the song that have a phrase before the tilde (~). That’s the part of the responder to the original question. The phrase that comes after the tilde will be the commentary of the questioner. So for example the part that says 잠잔다, which is before the tilde, is the response to the question 여우야 여우야. The part that says 잠꾸러기 is the commentary of the questioner, which in this case happens to be “[you] sleepyhead”.

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여우야, 여우야 뭐하니 (yuhooya yuhooya mohani)

Hey fox, hey fox what are you doing?

잠잔다~ 잠꾸러기 (jamjanda~ jamgooruhgi)

I’m sleeping~ sleepyhead

여우야, 여우야 뭐하니 (yuhooya yuhooya mohani)

Hey fox, hey fox what are you doing?

세수한다~ 멋쟁이 (sehsoohanda~ mutjengi)

I’m washing [my face]~ Cool guy/dandy guy

여우야, 여우야 뭐하니(yuhooya yuhooya mohani)

Hey fox, hey fox what are you doing?

밥먹는다~ 무슨반찬~ 개구리 반찬 (bapmuhknunda~ moosunbanchan~ gehgoori banchan)

I’m eating~ What’s the side dish?~ frog side dish

죽었니, 살았니 살았다~~ (jookuhtni, saratni saratda)

Is it dead, alive; It’s alive

여우야, 여우야 뭐하니 (yuhooya yuhooya mohani)

Hey fox, hey fox what are you doing?

잠잔다~ 잠꾸러기 (jamjanda~ jamgooruhgi)

I’m sleeping~ sleepyhead

여우야, 여우야 뭐하니 (yuhooya yuhooya mohani)

Hey fox, hey fox what are you doing?

세수한다~ 멋쟁이 (sehsoohanda~ mutjengi)

I’m washing [my face]~ Cool guy/dandy guy

여우야, 여우야 뭐하니(yuhooya yuhooya mohani)

Hey fox, hey fox what are you doing?

밥먹는다~ 무슨반찬~ 개구리 반찬 (bapmuhknunda~ moosunbanchan~ gehgoori banchan)

I’m eating~ What’s the side dish?~ frog side dish

죽었니, 살았니 살았다~~ (jookuhtni, saratni saratda)

Is it dead, alive; It’s alive

 

Korean Onomatopoeia

Posted by Ginny 1 Comment
Jun 21 2011

Korean is a language with a lot of onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates or suggests the sounds that they describe. Have you heard of the following onomatopoeia?

1. 빵!

2. 톡톡

3. 두근두근

4. 빵빵

5. 쾅!

6. 쿨쿨

7. 꿀꿀

8. 띵동

9. 엉엉

10. 멍멍

11. 똑똑

12. 훨훨

13. 쿵

14. 개굴개굴

15. 빤짝빤짝

1. Bang! (Ex: when gun is being fired)

2. Tap tap (Ex: tapping something out of a can)

3. Thump thump (Ex: sound of heart throbbing)

4. Honk honk (Ex: sound of horn honking)

5. (Ex: sound of door slam)

6. Zzz…(Ex: snoring sound)

7. Oink oink (sound pigs make)

8. ding dong (sound of doorbell)

9. Boo hoo (sound of crying)

10. Wolf wolf (sound that dogs make)

11. Knock knock (knocking on door sound)

12. Flap flap (wings flapping [like that of a butterfly])

13. Thud! (sound of heavy thing falling)

14. Ribit ribit (sound of frog croaking)

15. Twinkle twinkle (sound of something sparkling/glittering [like a star])

 

 

Why did you come to our house?

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Jun 15 2011

There is a popular Korean children’s song that can be heard in preschools all over Korea. Take a listen:

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우리 집에 왜 왔니 왜 왔니 왜 왔니

(oori jibeh weh watni weh watni weh watni)

Why did you come, why did you come, why did you come to our house?

꽃 찾으러 왔단다 왔단다 왔단다

(ggot chajuruh watdanda watdanda watdanda)

He said he came, came, came to look for flowers

무슨 꽃을 찾으러 왔느냐 왔느냐

(moosun ggotul chajuruh watnunya watnunya)

What kind of flowers did he come, come to find?

예지 꽃을 찾으러 왔단다 왔단다

(yeji ggoul chajuruh watdanda watdanda)

He said he came, came to look for yeji flowers

우리 집에 왜 왔니 왜 왔니 왜 왔니

(oori jibeh weh watni weh watni weh watni)

Why did you come, why did you come, why did you come to our house?

꽃 찾으러 왔단다 왔단다 왔단다

(ggot chajuruh watdanda watdanda watdanda)

He said he came, came, came to look for flowers

무슨 꽃을 찾으러 왔느냐 왔느냐

(moosun ggotul chajuruh watnunya watnunya)

What kind of flowers did he come, come to find?

예지 꽃을 찾으러 왔단다 왔단다

(yeji ggoul chajuruh watdanda watdanda)

He said he came, came to look for yeji flowers

Just so you know, there are variations of this song. This song uses the 예지 flower, but other songs use the name of other flowers. Here are some other flower names that have been used in this song:

장미 rose

국화 chrysanthemum

제비 violets

튤립 tulip

백합 lily

In my opinion, the song sounds better if the flower has a two-syllable name. It just flows into the song more naturally with a two-syllable name.

 

Korean Internet Slang

Posted by Ginny No Comments
May 21 2011

You might have noticed from looking around Korean forums and chat rooms that a lot of words are contracted or shortened in form. Some of the words are slangy to start off with, and are further contracted for convenience. Have you seen any of these forms below? A lot of these words and symbols are frequently used online. If you don’t know what they mean, take a look at the lower part of the list:

(1)    ㅎㅎㅎ

(2)    ㅋㅋㅋ

(3)    ㅇㅇ

(4)    ㄴㄴ

(5)    ㅎㅇ

(6)    ㅂㅇ

(7)    ㅂ2

(8)    ㅇㅋ

(9)    ㅜㅜ or ㅠㅠ

(10)  ㅇㅜㄴ

Answers:

(1)    hahaha

(2)    kkk (noise of laughter)

(3)    short for 응, which is an informal way to say “yes”.

(4)    Means “no, no”. The Hangul letter ㄴ makes an “n” sound and so this letter is used to represent a shorter way of saying the word “no”, which begins with an “n” sound as well.

(5)    Means “hi”. It comes from the word 하이, where the first letter from each syllable is used to make ㅎㅇ.

(6)    Means “bye”. It comes from the word 바이.

(7)    Also means “bye”. The Hangul letter ㅂ begins with a  “b” sound and so does the word “bye”. Hence that’s why ㅂ is used. The second part of this contracted word is the numeral 2, which in Sino-Korean numbers is pronounced as 이.

(8)    Means “okay”. The ㅇ part of the ㅇㅋ looks like the English letter “o” and the letter ㅋ represents the “k” sound in okay.

(9)    Indicates crying or tears. The horizontal line in that looks like this ㅡ in ㅜ or ㅠ symbolizes the person’s face. The vertical line(s) are the tears streaming down the person’s face.

(10)  Means “disappointment” or “discouragement”. The ㅇ  is the person’s head and ㅜ  is the person’s body. The ㄴ is the person’s knees on the floor. All together it represents someone with their hands and knees on the floor in frustration or disappointment.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of Korean internet slang, but it’s a start!

 

Hey Toad

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Apr 25 2011

There is a Korean children’s song about a 두꺼비. A 두꺼비 is a toad. Here’s a video you can sing along to:

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두껍아 두껍아 헌집 줄게 새집 다오 

(dugguhba dugguhba huhnjip julge sehjip dao)

[Hey toad, hey toad, I’ll give you an old house, you give me a new house]

두껍아 두껍아 헌집 줄게 새집 다오 

(dugguhba dugguhba huhnjip julge sehjip dao)

[Hey toad, hey toad, I’ll give you an old house, you give me a new house]

두껍아 두껍아 네집 지어줄게 내집 지어다오

(dugguhba dugguhba nejip jiuhjulge nejip jiuhdao)

[Hey toad, hey toad, I’ll build your house, build me a house]

두껍아 두껍아 네집 지어줄게 내집 지어다오

(dugguhba dugguhba nejip jiuhjulge nejip jiuhdao)

[Hey toad, hey toad, I’ll build your house, build me a house]

In the song, 두꺼비 became 두껍아 because 두꺼비 was being addressed in an informal manner. It’s hard to sing to the words 두껍비아 두껍비아, so 두껍비아 was contracted to 두껍아. If you’ve analyzed the lyrics, you’ve have noticed that it’s a bit of a strange song. There are some theories as to what the meaning of this song might be. One interpretation is that this song is figurative, not literal. For example the mention of the 헌집 may refer to a mother, while the 새집 refers to the mother’s child. 헌집 literally means “old house”, but the metaphor for the ‘old house’ is a mother who is presumably older. In converse, the 새집 literally means ‘new house’, which is symbolic of a newborn.

Moreover, some toads are known to carry a poison that can harm both animals and humans. This song is a tale about a mother pleading with the toad to taker her life (헌집) in exchange for her child’s life (새집). So if you were to look at the phrase of the song that goes “헌집 줄게 새집 다오”, the mother is addressing the toad and saying “I’ll give you myself, now give me my child”.

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