아파트 - An apartment

치아 - A tooth

나중 - The future

이력서 - A resume

경기 - A match. 축구 경기 - A football match

흰색 - White color

트럭 - A truck

땅콩 - A peanut

장 - Counting word for things made of paper such as books

취미 - Hobby, interest

Professions | 职业

Hanja: an in-depth look

Although Chinese characters aren't used in everyday life in Korea anymore, they are still crucial to your understanding of the Korean language: with the help of Hanjas, you can easily find patterns in the way Korean words and Chinese idioms (사자성어 — generally 4 syllable sentences made of Chinese characters) are built. Moreover, it can help you with your Korean vocabulary learning, since 70-80% of Korean words have Chinese origins. This post is aimed at intermediate level Korean learners who wish to better their vocabulary skills.

Chinese characters were created thanks to a rule called 육서(六書), literally "Six Writings", which sorts Chinese characters into 6 types. Four of them are classified according to the structure of the character (called 체), meaning the way a character is built graphically. The last two are classified according to their usage (called 용).

Characters classified according to their structure 체

These are two exemples of pictograms. Can you recognize the character for "rain" (비 우), with the rain falling on the windows, and the character for "fire" (불 화), representing flames? The drawings from left to right highlight the way the same character changed throughout the centuries. The far left corresponds to the Oracle Bone Script, while the one at the top corresponds to the more simplified version we use now.

Among these, can you guess which one means "above", which one means "under" and which one means "middle"?

On the character on the left, you can see that the small horizontal line is above the long horizontal line: this character means "above", because the smaller line is above the longer line. On the other hand, on the far right character, you can see that the small line is under the long line so, you guessed it, this character means "under." The last character is made up of a square which is cut in the middle by a long line, so it is the character meaning "middle".

Examples of 회의자:

-> 사람 인 人 (person) + 입 구 口 (entrance, gate) = 가둘 수 囚 (person stuck in an enclosure = a prisoner, a convict)

-> 나무 목 木 (tree) + 나무 목 木 + 나무 목 木 = 나무빽빼할 삼 森 (three trees together = forest)

Note: 장인 공 工 means "labor, worker", so you can see the meaning of this component has nothing to do with the reason it is in the character — here, it is used purely for phonetic, not semantic, reasons.

Characters classified according to their usage 용

Hanja dictionaries

Hanja dictionaries are called 옥편. Let's take a look at the most famous, Naver Hanja Dic (네이버 한자사전):

In the search bar, you can choose to type the way a character is pronounced in Korean, but you can also copy-paste the Chinese character. Once you press enter, you will be able to see all of the Hanjas that correspond to your search.

A Hanja is always written this way : Korean equivalent to the Chinese word (which is called 훈 and corresponds to the meaning of the word) + pronounciation of the character (called 음). On the picture above, we have 사람 (the 훈, the meaning in Korean) followed by 인 (the 음, the way you pronounce the Hanja).

Bellow, you can see the key or radical (부수), which are very important to learn. Next to it, 획수 corresponds to the number of strokes needed to write the character. Right below, if you click on the small arrow-head, you can see the 획순, which is the stroke order (because stroke orders are very important when writing Chinese characters — they are not random). You might also see stroke order written as 필순.

Now, let's click on 사람 인 人. If you scroll down, you will find this: first, in what 육서 it is categorized (some characters have no 육서 written — some you can guess by yourself, others are just not categorized because we just don't know what category to put them in). Here, you can see that 사람 인 人 is a 성형자, meaning it is a drawing of a person. Then, followed by the little explanation, you can see the way its writing has evolved throughout the centuries, and the drawings they give help a lot in remembering the character.

How Hanjas Can Help Vocabulary Building

We now know that 인 人 means "person." By knowing that, can you guess the meaning of these words?

-> 인형 (with 형 形 meaning "shape, appearance")

-> 인종 (with 종 種 meaning "race")

-> 거인 (with 거 巨 meaning "large, enormous")

-> 군인 (with 군 軍 meaning "army, military")

-> 노인 (with 노 老 meaning "old")

(Answers: 인형 = doll, 인종 = human race, 거인 = giant, 군인 = soldier, 노인 = old person)

한국어, English

Pets:

Farm Animals:

Bugs:

Wild Animals:

Ocean Animals:

Other:

Korean grammar lesson 7: I am not

Masterlist // Home // Ask

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Vocab

~ 아니에요 - not to be

~4 학년  - senior

~ 3학년 - Junior

~한국 사람 - Korean (person)

~ 미국 사람 - American (person)

~선생님 - Teacher

~학생  - Student

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Ok, so this is super simple. The structure is 

N 는/은 + A + 아니에요.

_ 

Some examples

~ 저는 4학년이 아니에요. - I am not a senior

~마크 한국 사람이 아니에요. - Mark is not Korean.

~ 저는 선생님이 아니에요. - I am not a teacher.

_

How to correct someone

~저는 4학견이 아니에요. 3학년이에요. - I am not a senior. I am a junior.

~마크 한국 사람이 아니에요. 미국 사람이에요. - Mark is not Korean. He is American.

~저는 선생님이 아니에요. 학생이에요. - I am not a teacher. I am a student.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Expressions of Flavor 맛을 표현하는 한국말

BASICS:

달다 sweet, 

맵다 spicy, 

짜다 salty, 

시다 sour, 

쓰다 bitter, 

맛있다 yummy, 

맛없다 gross.

BEYOND:

단맛 

1. 감미롭다 sweet and tasty

2. 달콤하다 slightly sweet

3. 달콤새콤하다 sweet and sour

4. 달달하다 has sweet undertones

5. 달착지근하다 has a touch of sweetness

6. 들큼하다 unpleasantly sweet

7. 들척지근하다 has a touch of unpleasant sweetness

매운맛

1. 매콤하다 slightly spicy

2. 맵싸하다 spicy and pungent

3. 칼칼하다 very spicy

4. 얼큰하다 quite spicy (usually used to describe broth or soup)

5. 아리다 unpleasantly spicy

6. 얼얼하다 very spicy (lasts for a long time)

7. 화끈하다  very spicy (quickly goes away)

note: the korean language has more than 20 words to describe spiciness, these are just the more common ones. 

짠맛

1. 짭짤하다 slightly spicy 

2. 짭짜름하다 has a touch of saltiness

3. 찝찔하다 has a touch of unpleasant saltiness

4. 간간하다 pleasantly salty

신맛

1. 새콤하다 slightly sour

2. 시큼하다 unpleasantly very sour

3. 시척지근하다 unpleasantly slightly sour

4. 새콤달콤하다 sweet and sour (used more than 달콤새콤하다)

5. 시디시다 very sour

쓴맛

1. 쌉쌀하다 slightly bitter

2. 쌉싸래하다 has a touch of bitterness

3. 쓰디쓰다 very bitter

기타

1. 감칠맛이 나다 tasty (usually describes a savory dish)

2. 개운하다 refreshing

3. 고소하다 savory (usually describes grainy or nutty flavors)

4. 구수하다 hearty (stronger than 고소하다)

5. 꼬소름하다 quite savory

6. 느끼하다 fatty, greasy, oily (koreans often describe non-korean food to be 느끼하다)

7. 담백하다 light, clean flavor (the opposite of 느끼하다)

8. 덤덤하다 lacking flavor

9. 떫다 bitter & sour

10. 떠름하다 slightly bitter and sour

11. 밍밍하다 bland

12. 보들보들하다  soft, tender

13. 비리다 fishy

14. 비릿하다 slightly fishy

15. 살살 녹다 (verb) melts in one’s mouth

16. 삼삼하다 tasty and slightly salty

17. 심심하다 lacking salt *

18. 시원하다 refreshing (used more then than 개운하다)

19. 쫄깃쫄깃하다 chewy

20. 바삭바삭하다/아삭아삭하다 crunchy

21. 싱겁다 bland (used more often than 밍밍하다)

*edited

To celebrate the milestone of 1k followers on this blog, we are opening the member applications for the network!!!

— ABOUT KSN

The Korean Study Network is a studyblr network for people who are learning Korean. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or if you already know Korean, this network is for everyone who’s learning and want to study together.

— BENEFITS OF BEING PART OF KSN

— RULES FOR APPLICATION

— MORE INFO ABOUT APPLICATION

— INFORMATION FOR MEMBERS

If you are already a member of the network, please answer this form!! All members must answer it so I can know if you guys want to stay as members of the network.

Vocabluary - School

-PS: I’m taking 세계 지리 and 법과 정치, and 세계사 next year. Admin Yu is taking the four science subjects (물리, 화학, 생물, 지구과학). To shorten them, many Koreans just say 물화생지. Other subjects have shorter versions ( for example, instead of saying 세계 지리, some say 세지 to make it simple and shorter. Because in school, students talk about subjects a lot) Usually students who study science are ‘이과’ and students who study social sciences and languages are ‘문과’. 

we choose between social studies and science, and take different tests.

we all have to learn English, Korean, Math, and Korean history though (I hate math so much help) 

Anyways, I hope you study well <3

-Admin Sun

Intermediate Korean Grammar Recap

This is a summary of all the intermediate level Korean grammar points I learned this summer, as well as their respective posts (if there is one). I’ll try to make the others as soon as possible and add them as I go.

~(으)ㄹ 걸요: used when the speaker states an unconfirmed assumption or supposition about a future event or something he or she is not sure about.

~(으)ㄴ/는 반면에/~(으)ㄴ/는 데 반해: used to express the fact that two things are opposites (“on one hand…, on the other hand…”).

~는 바람에: used when the preceding clause descrives the cause or reason for the statement in the following clause (“due to…”).

~는 탓에: indicates that the preceding clause is the clause or reason why the negative event described in the following clause occured (“because of…”)

~고 해서: this expression means that the reason given in the preceding clause is just one if a number of reasons for the behavior described in the following clause (“due to … among other things”)

~다고 하던데: combination of ~는다고 하다 (citation) and 던데 (recollection), it is used when recalling or confirming something you heard somebody else say previously (“I heard that…”).

~(으)ㄹ까 하다 : this is used to indicate the speaker’s vague intention or rough plan that has yet to be finalized (“I’m thinking of doing…”).

~(으)려던 참이다: this expression is used to express the fact that not only had the speaker been intending to do the very thing the other person is suggesting, but that he or she was just about to do it at that very movement or intended to do so very soon (“I was just about to…”).

~(으)ㄹ 겸 ~(으)ㄹ 겸 (해서): this expression is used to indicste the speaker’s intention to do at least two actions or behaviors (“… as well as…”).

~지 그래요?: this expression is used to suggest that someone do somsthing, but is a much weaker and softer expression than ~도록 하다 (“Why not… ?”)

~더라고요: this expression is used to express the speaker’s recollection of something that he or she previously directly saw, heard or felt.

~아/어지다: this expression is used when the subject’s action or behavior occurs either because of an action performed by someone else or because of some other indirect action performed by some person or some thing (“He is closing the door” -> “The door was closed”).

~게 하다: this expression is used to indicate that the subject makes someone else do some behavior (“I am angry” -> “He made me angry”).

~아/어야: in this expression, the preceding clause states the condition(s) necessary to realize the situation stated in the following clause (“In order to…, you have to…”).

~거든: this expression has a meaning of “if the statement (in the preceding clause) is actually true, then…”.

~(으)ㄴ/는 데다가 or (으)ㄴ/는 데다: this expression indicated that the action or state in the following clause occurs in addition to that stated in the preceding clause (“On top of…”).

~조차: this expression is used to express “not only others but also the most primary one” and refers generally to extreme situations that the speaker did not expect or could not anticipate. (Ex: I don’t even know his name -> 그 사람 이름조차 몰라요).

~만 해도: this expression is used when providing examples to explain a situstion or statement made previously (“even just…”)

~만 하다: used with nouns denoting a size, number or amount, this expression indicates that the noun under discussion is approximately the same in size, amount or degree as the noun (“as … as” “… is worth …”).

~아무 + (이)나/아무 + 도: the word 아무 is used to express the not choosing of any specific thing in the sense of “any” (eg. anything, anyone).

~(이)나: this expression is used to indicate that although something is not really one’s first choice, it is fine as the second best option (“… or something”).

~(이)라도: this expression is used to indicate the speaker’s choosing of something that will suffice even though it is not the best option among the available choices (“at least” “even”).

~든지 ~든지: this expression is used when expression that any of the stated choices are fine (“whether it’s … or …”).

~만에: this expression is used to indicate that somthing occured a certain amount of time after a previous event occured (“in (the span of)”).

~아/어 가지고: this expression indicated the doing of the action in the following clause based on the result of completing the action in the preceding clause (“because of…”). It also expresses the speaker’s reason for a certain action or state of affairs.

~아/어다가: this expression indicates that the action in the following clause is done based on the result of first completing the action in the preceding clause (“do… then (based on that action) do…”).

~고서: this expression is used to indicate that the first action completed before the subsequent action stated (‘I did… and then…“).

~고 보니(까): this expression is used to indicate that the speaker learned something new, discovered some new piece of information, or found out something was contrary to what was previously thought after some action or even occured (“Seeing… I realized that…”).

~다(가) 보니(까): this expression is used to indicate that the speaker learned something new after doing some action or behavior continuously from some time in the past, or that a certain situation has occured as a result of that behavior (“After doing… (continuously), I realized that…”).

~다(가) 보면: this expression indicates that if the action or behavior in the previous clause continues, then the result in the following clause will occur (“If you keep…”).

~더니: this expression is used when the speaker wants to refer to something directly seen or experimented in the past when describing how that thing has subsequently changed. (“This was… but now it is…”).

~았/었더니: this expression is used to indicate that something happened as a result of something the speaker did or said previously (“Because I… [something happened]”).

~다가는: this expression is used to express the speaker’s view that if the action in the preceding clause continues, then an adverse result or state of affairs will occur in the future (“If you keep… [negative result] will occur”).

~(으)ㄴ/는 셈이다: this expression is used when the speaker, after considering a number of possible situations, concludes that something could be considered more or less the same as the topic or subject that has been mentioned (“It’s almost as though…”).

~아/어 놓다 or ~아/어 두다: these expressions are interchangeable and used to indicate either the continuation of a state after doing an action or the maintaining of a previous state of being.

~답다: it is attached to nouns and used to indicate that something has the qualities or characteristics of the noun (“…-like”).

~(이)야말로: this expression is used to strongly emphasize the meaning of the preceding noun, especially as a prime exemple among a number of other possible choices.

~고 말다: this expression refers to an unplanned event or action that continued until it was completed or thoroughly finished in a way undesired by the speaker (“[something] ended up…”).

~나 마나: this expression is used when doing the preceding action is of no value of use (“It’s of no use…”).

~아/어 봤자: this expression is used to indicate that there’s no use even trying what is stated in the preceding clause or that doing so would not live up to expectations (“It doesn’t matter if you…”).

你好！hello! so this is my first masterpost and i decided to make a masterpost on chinese since i am currently learning chinese and have been since i was around 5. i haven’t seen very many chinese masterposts here and hoped this will help every single one of you who are currently learning chinese or would like to start learning!! 

the basics:

apps:

dictionaries:

other resources:

music, movies & tv shows etc.:

tips:

other language resources: 

ok this was a huge masterpost tbh but i hope i was helpful!!

ig: acadehmic

I get this type of question a lot and I see questions like these a lot on language learning forums, but it’s very difficult to answer because ultimately language learning is a highly personal decision. Passion is required to motivate your studies, and if you aren’t in love with your language it will be very hard to put in the time you need. Thus, no language is objectively better or worse, it all comes down to factors in your life. So, I’ve put together a guide to assist your with the kind of factors you can consider when choosing a language for study.

First, address you language-learning priorities.

Think of the reasons why are you interested in learning a new language. Try ry to really articulate what draws you to languages. Keeping these reasons in mind as you begin study will help keep you focused and motivated. Here are some suggestions to help you get started, complete with wikipedia links so you can learn more:

Linguistic curiosity?

For this, I recommend looking into dead, literary or constructed languages. There are lots of cool linguistic experiments and reconstructions going on and active communities that work on them! Here’s a brief list:

Dead languages:

Older iterations of modern day languages:

Constructed:

Cultural interests?

Maybe you just want to connect to another culture. A language is often the portal to a culture and are great for broadening your horizons! The world is full of rich cultures; learning the language helps you navigate a culture and appreciate it more fully.

Here are some popular languages and what they are “famous for”:

Religious & liturgical languages:

Reconnecting with family?

If your immediate family speaks a language that you don’t or if you are a heritage speaker that has been disconnected, then the choice is obvious! If not, you might have to do some family tree digging, and maybe you might find something that makes you feel more connected to your family. Maybe you come from an immigrant community that has an associated immigration or contact language! Or maybe there is a branch of the family that speaks/spoke another language entirely.

Immigrant & Diaspora languages:

If you are Jewish, maybe look into the language of your particular diaspora community:

Finding a job?

Try looking around for what languages are in demand in your field. Most often, competency in a relevant makes you very competitive for positions. English is in demand pretty much anywhere. Here are some other suggestions based on industry (from what I know!):

Other special interests?

Learning a language just because is a perfectly valid reason as well! Maybe you are really into a piece of media that has it’s own conlang! 

Fictional:

Or if you just like to learn languages, take a look maybe at languages that have lots of speakers but not usually popular among the language-learning community:

If you have still are having trouble, consider the following:

What languages do you already speak?

How many and which languages you already speak will have a huge impact on the ease of learning. 

If you are shy about speaking with natives, you might want to look at languages with similar consonant/vowel sounds. Similarity between languages’ grammars and vocabularies can also help speed up the process. Several families are famous for this such as the Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and to a lesser extent Romanian), North Germanic languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish) or East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian). If you are a native English speaker, check out the FSI’s ranking of language difficulty for the approximate amount of hours you’ll need to put into different languages.

You could also take a look at languages’ writing systems to make things easier or for an added challenge.

Another thing to remember is that the languages you already speak will have a huge impact on what resources are available to you. This is especially true with minority languages, as resources are more frequently published in the dominant language of that area. For example, most Ainu resources are in Japanese, most Nheengatu resources are in Portuguese, and most Nahuatl resources are in Spanish.

What are your life circumstances?

Where you live with influence you language studies too! Local universities will often offer resources (or you could even enroll in classes) for specific languages, usually the “big” ones and a few region-specific languages.

Also consider if what communities area near you. Is there a vibrant Deaf community near you that offers classes? Is there a Vietnamese neighborhood you regularly interact with? Sometimes all it takes is someone to understand you in your own language to make your day! Consider what languages you could realistically use in your own day-to-day. If you don’t know where to start, try checking to see if there are any language/cultural meetups in your town!

How much time can you realistically put into your studies? Do you have a fluency goal you want to meet? If you are pressed for time, consider picking up a language similar to ones you already know or maintaining your other languages rather than taking on a new one.

Please remember when choosing a language for study to always respect the feelings and opinions of native speakers/communities, particularly with endangered or minoritized languages. Language is often closely tied to identity, and some communities are “closed” to outsiders. A notable examples are Hopi, several Romani languages, many Aboriginal Australian languages and some Jewish languages. If you are considering a minoritized language, please closely examine your motivations for doing so, as well as do a little research into what is the community consensus on outsiders learning the language. 

Useful Adverbs

Manner:

Time:

Frequency:

Place:

–Ana

Useful Adverbs

Manner:

Time:

Frequency:

Place:

–Ana

Korean Parts of Speech

English has 8 parts of speech. Korean has 9. Learning parts of speech is crucial to becoming fluent in Korean. So, Today I’m going to introduce you to all nine parts of speech.

1. Noun 명사 [Myeong-sa]

2. Pronoun 대명사 [Dae-myeong-sa]

3. Numeral, quantity indicator 수사 [su-sa]

4. Verb 동사 [dong-sa]

5. Adjective 형용사 [hyeong-yong-sa]

Adjectives shows the quality or state of something. 

6. Determiner, pre-noun 관형사 [gwan-hyeong-sa]

Determiners are a word used in front of a substantive(nouns, pronouns, and numerals) and modifies it. Compared to other Korean parts of speech, there are only a few determiners.

7. Adverb 부사 [Bu-sa]

While Determiners modify only Substantives*(체언 [cheeon]. nouns, pronouns, and numerals) Adverbs modify everything. They mostly modify verbs and adjectives, but they can modify determiners, adverbs, and even sentences. 

8. ★Post positional particle 조사 [Jo-sa]

*What’s a Post positional article?: Post positional particles are attached behind a noun, pronoun, numeral, and adverbs… They usually stick together with words that are independent. They indicate grammatical relationships or make it more specific in meaning. (particles each have different jobs) Some particles make the word it stuck to a subject (Like -은/는 or 이/가) Or some particles make the word an object (Like  을/를) There are so many particles! It’s very confusing and hard, so study extra hard on Post positional particles.

9. Exclamation, interjection 감탄사 [gam-tan-sa]

These are all nine parts of speech in Korean! To advance to harder grammar, you MUST remember all these nine parts of speech.

I will explain in detail about each part in later grammar lessons! I hope this lesson was helpful😊😊

Since I’m still pretty new to the langblr community, please tell us if we have anything to improve. Thanks!

-admin sun

Each conversation in my textbook has a section of “new words” that are divided by parts of speech. Now I can write the parts of speech in Korean!

감사합니다~