Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ladyandthetramp]

At Yonsei, one of the things that they teach is Proverbs (the 4-hanja kind) and Idiomatic Phrases (not daily ones, but the metaphorical kind...e.g. "�ٴ� ���� �� �� ����"). My question is for those of you who speak KOREAN well enough to know.

Do Koreans really use these expressions often? Or is it like us English speakers, we know a lot of proverbs and metaphorical idiomatic expressions but very rarely ever use them?

[shakuhachi]

[dogbert]

In my experience, they are used fairly often.

[superhal]

i use them quite often in conversation classes. it gets students to put familiar content into an unfamiliar language. what i have found, in high level classes, is that just about every proverb has a korean equivalent. lower level students usually won't try, although they also find the topic interesting.

[Gunshake]

[Universalis]

I think every Korean language learner should take a look at some different Korean proverbs and choose oe or two that appeal to you somehow and memorize them.

For example, my favorite one is "There's no gravestone without an excuse," and it's warning against making too many excuses for bad behavior.

Brian

[shakuhachi]