Where Dragons Roam

Many, many years ago, during one of my more diligent efforts to learn how to speak and read Korean, I was able to pick up the How to Study Korean lesson pack. 

I recall that the lessons were quite helpful and feeling like the format was laid out in a reasonable manner so I have decided to pick up the lessons once more. Unfortunately, I have forgotten much of what I once knew (other than the odd words here and there) so we are going back to the basics with Unit 1, Lesson 1. 

If you are interested in following along together, feel free to check out the link using the button above. The entire content for Unit 1 includes Unit 1 PDF, Unit 1 Workbooks, Unit 1 Vocabulary Lists, Unit 1 Audio Packages, Unit 1 Word Search, Unit 1 Conjugation Table and Unit 1 Simple List.  It is currently v $40 on sale; I’m not an affiliate or anything so no bias — it’s just the program I’ve decided to use for now.

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Today, we added a few of the Korean greetings or pleasantries, although these were not on the original vocabulary list. These appear to be primarily root words which are, in practice, conjugated according to the circumstances.

• Annyeonghaseyo (안녕하세요)
• Kamsahada (감사하다) – the final two syllables (하다) appear to change with conjugation.
• Komapda (고맙다) – the final syllable (다) appears to change with conjugation
• Jaljinaeseyo (잘지내세요) – uncommon
• Jebal (제발)

We’re just memorizing these for now. If you are interested in practicing the vocabulary, I created a Quizlet lesson with the Hangul / English where you can play games, run practice tests, etc. It includes pictures with each word which I think is a little easier. 

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The second thing we went over was the basic structure of sentences in Korean as compared to English. I historically excelled in grammar, but I am perhaps rather rusty after being out of school for so long. 😂

There are four ‘parts of speech’ that this section covered:

• The Subject (S): the person or thing that is doing the action in the sentence, (e.g., Sally is working or The weather is poor). Typically a noun (Washing Machines), a pronoun (She), or a noun phrase (The girl on the television). 
• The Verb (V): the action that is occurring in the sentence, (e.g., Sally works at home or The car died). 

A sentence, by definition, includes both a subject and a verb, but that is all that is required. Examples include: “I ran” or “Cars drive.” 

When I studied grammar back in school, we used to underline the subject once and the verb twice to help identify them. Or, when diagramming sentences, we separated the subject and verb with a vertical line instead.

Both English and Korean put the subject first and the verb second:

SUBJECT + VERB

Basic Sentence Structure

Adjectives (Adj): words or phrases that describe or provide more information identifying the noun or subject (the beautiful girl, crazy weather, vicious dog). Sometimes these come before the noun, but sometimes they come after ‘to be’ or linking verbs where the verb is defining a state of being or the condition of the noun (is happy, appears upset, remains frantic).

There are different ways to mark an adjective, but I always learned to separate then with a diagonal line in diagramming.

In both English and Korean, these ‘ending’ adjectives will still come after the verb.

SUBJECT + (VERB + ADJECTIVE)

Sentence ending in an Adjective

• The Object: the thing that the verb is acting on (e.g., Marissa learned algebra or The teacher taught Mary physics). Direct objects (DO) generally answers the question of what was ‘verbed’ (learned algebra, taught physics, jumped rope). Indirect Objects (IO) generally answers for whom, to whom the verb occurred (taught Mary, gave Justin, helped the school.

Examples:

• We (S) watched (V) television (DO) after school.

1) We ate steak for dinner.
2) Snow and ice covered the streets.
3) She gives Jacob violin lessons.
4) Everyone loves candy.
5) The teacher gave us an assignment.
6) The children are playing.
7) I brought Diane a balloon.
8) Can you send me a letter?
9) The baby needs a nap.
10) The students asked the teacher many questions.
Answers

2) Direct object: the streets
3) Direct object: violin lessons Indirect object: Jacob
4) Direct object: candy
5) Direct object: an assignment Indirect object: us
6) No direct or indirect object
7) Direct object: a balloon Indirect object: Diane
8) Direct object: a letter Indirect object: me
9) Direct object: a nap
10) Direct object: many questions Indirect object: the teacher

This is where English and Korean will diverge. In English, sentences will put the objects after the verb (taught Mary physics). In Korean, sentences put the objects before the verb (Mary physics taught). 

I am not yet experienced enough in Korean to know if they care whether the indirect object comes before or after the direct object but both come before the verb. In English, “The teacher taught Mary physics” is just as acceptable as “The teacher taught physics to Mary.”

SUBJECT + OBJECT + VERB

Sentence that Includes Direct or Indirect Objects

Because the object comes before the verb, sentences in Korean will always end in either a VERB or an ADJECTIVE. 

*I get the thing about Direct and Indirect Objects, but then where do adverbs go? They also end sentences in English; do they not in Korean? – My own question to consider

What are Your Thoughts?

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The last thing that we covered for the day were the two different ways to say the personal pronouns “I” or “me.” One is for more formal situations and the other is for informal situations; both are part of the vocabulary list so they are on my Quizlet practice set.