Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Drew345]

Darn, happened again just before class. I'm in the elevator with a Japanese student from another class. She looks at me and says "키가 커요!". She was tall for a Japanese girl, so I wanted to say, "You are tall too." But I was just left standing there thinking "Darn, there's that "you" word again".
So the right (beginner) thing to say would be "도 키가 커요!" (and point?)

[billybrobby]

도 never appears by itself. You've really just got to learn her name. That's part of why it's considered polite. It's a terrible thing for people like me who never remember names.

[komtengi]

[Drew345]

She was tall for a Japanese girl anyway.
I study at Ganada
http://www.gkli.co.kr/en/main.htm

They offer each sublevel month by month, so they get mostly Japanese coming over for a month or two to study. I think only 2 westerners in the whole building. Nice thing is almost no English in the classroom.

I guess what I learned from this thread is to just not fight it and use the persons name or title (doesn't work if I never saw them before), or just omit "you" altogether (and follow 누구? with a finger point). OK, I accept it (almost).

[PeteJB]

In that situation you would never say 'you'. What you would say is 뭐뭐 씨도 키가 커요. You address always by name. Formalities are not relevant to this particular question, but if your interested give me a bell. If you don't know the persons name, then use what you learned in this thread. To me it always seems a bit strange to speak that way when I don't know someone, I tend to play those kind of statements down by nature.

[skindleshanks]

I know forthe possessive "your" one can say "네" or "너의," but I often hear (and say) "자기(의)" which, I think, means, "oneself's" and can be used instead of "my" or"your" (or even "his" or "hers") as long as the subject is understood.

The lack of a good second person pronoun drove me crazy for years, but I think practising the proper verb endings comes in handy to indicate who you're talking to or about, especially if you're using honorifics.

[Juregen]

[Drew345]

Seems funny that I can't get through a day without needing to use the word "you"; but in 2000 years, hundreds of millions of Koreans have never had a need to speak this word. Fundamentally different ways of thinking?

Today I took my scooter to the shop, and there were a few people there for service. When I got my turn I wanted to mention how busy he was today. I said "오늘 바빠 요." Then I realized, wait, did I just say he was busy or I am busy. He didn't pay much attention anyway.

[blackjack]

[Thiuda]

Korean is a pro-drop language.

[i4NI]

[blackjack]

[nobbyken]

[komtengi]

[i4NI]