Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rabidcake]

Since I have been studying a bit of hanja, 漢字， I have come across a few awesome idioms.

However, it seems like none of the Koreans know any of the idioms that I bust out. Take this idiom for example:

불문가지 （不問可知）

It means "commonsense", literally meaning "not asking but knowing".

None of the Koreans I spoke to know this idiom. Can anyone direct me to some good resources for common Korean idioms that I can learn and use?

[Jack_Sarang]

Buy the book, "How Koreans Talk" by Sang-Hun Choe and Christopher Torchia.

It's available at most large bookstores such as Kyobo.

[rabidcake]

[nathanrutledge]

You will impress no one except old people with these idioms.

I have that book "How Koreans Speak" and it's a really useful resource, but in my experience, you use the phrases in their with younger folks, most won't get it and the ones that do will point out that it's something their grandparents would say.

Don't get me wrong, there are a FEW idioms in the book that could be useful - Looking for Mr. Kim in Seoul - (needle in a haystack) is a decent one, but overall, you should only learn those phrases if it's for your own personal amusement.

[rabidcake]

[nathanrutledge]

If you're studying these JUST for the hanja, then I don't think that you'd want to get How Koreans Talk. I just moved, so my copy is packed up right now, but I'm fairly sure that there are no Hanja characters in it. Not 100% positive - maybe 90% sure.

I've studied hanja - it's decent enough. Helpful when traveling to other places in Asia as you'll be able to get the general idea of lots of signs. Personally, I used Learn Hanja the Fun Way and Useful Chinese Characters for Learners of Korean. Not the most interesting books, but easy to follow, decent worksheets. No fun expressions really, but a good stepping stone.

[T-J]

I find the use of idioms in everyday Korean is waning. Students still learn some in elementary studies. However even formerly common idioms such as � 오십보백보(五十步白步) are not understood by the majority of young Koreans today.

That being said I think it's still worthwhile to study idiomatic expressions if not for conversational use, the vocabulary and underlying cultural insights will be beneficial to your overall studies.

[iRock]

i don't remember how to spell it in hangul but "don't put me on a plane" means don't flatter me.

[Lazio]

I believe it's for ladies only: "See the sky" means having sex.
"I saw the sky yesterday" means "I had sex yesterday"

[semphoon]

[rabidcake]

[nathanrutledge]

I know about 50 comfortably, and another 100-150 would be in that category of "give me a hint". . These days, I'm working on my MA, so I'm not the most studious for Hanja/Korean any more.

I will say, it definitely helps for understanding the roots of words and how Koreans form words - the mixing and blending of root words to form new, complex ideas. We have it in English to a limited extent, but Korean takes it to a whole new level.

Personally, I study Latin as well. Mainly the vocabulary, but some of the grammar too. It's been a huge boost to my English ability. Being able to recognize roots and cognates is a very useful tool for language, and Hanja will help your Korean immensely if you can make those connections.

[rabidcake]

[rabidcake]

[joesp]

Ya, about the 4-letter sayings called 고사성어 .... They are not 'idioms' which would be like

http://ezcorean.com/ezc_pager.php?from_lang=korean&switch=expr&browse_all=1

in the above list.

I have a website, http://ezcorean.com where I put up 4 categories of these 고사성어 (4-letter sayings) things ...

http://ezcorean.com/ezc_pager.php?from_lang=korean&switch=gsso&browse_all=1&level=1

the above link is for the easiest ones. There are 3 other levels, as you can see there, the very common level has 20 of them, intermediate level has 30 and then there are 700 "rare" ones. That is, normal people don't know them.

so, why worry about them?

These show up a lot on the Hanja proficiency test. They also appear on the TOPIK. In other words, they are good for tests.

The hard thing is telling which ones are popular and which are not. I have not found a book that ranks them in any way, although there are a lot of books about them.

You can learn about 200 of these 4-letter sayings for Hanja level test #5 and about 800 of them for level test #3. However, even on the 한자능력검정시험 they only count for 5 of the total of 105 or 130 points so they are not strictly required per se. My smart phone application has 2,500 of them which is way beyond the number required. When you reach that point, you can see that many of them have the same meaning they just use different Hanja to express the same idea.