Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

How can we explain the difference between "bored" and "boring"?
The dictionary lists both words as 지루한.

[albazalba]

This is a tough one. I've never been able to do it without long explanations and charades.

Basically, bored can pretty much only be applied to people. I'm bored, you're bored etc... and usually i hear Koreans directly translate this as 심심하다.

Boring, while it can be applied to people, are things that are dull, such as this movie is boring and is most often associated with 지루하다.

Hope that helps.

[reactionary]

bored is the feeling. same with excited, exhausted, etc.
I feel bored.

boring causes the feeling. same with exciting, other ings.

The movie is boring - it makes me bored.

I am boring (I make other people feel bored). I am bored (something is boring)

[Ya-ta Boy]

I find these words difficult to teach because the students want to use them but often don't have the vocabulary to understand the explanation.

the 'ed' ones: excited, interested, frustrated, bored refer to our feelings.

the 'ing' ones refer to a quality/characteristic something has. That part I find difficult to get across.

This movie is boring. = I am bored by this movie. I feel bored by this movie. This movie makes me feel bored.

I give a lot of examples with 'feel' + ed so they get the connection.

I avoid saying, "I feel (think/believe) this movie is boring." --it would just confuse the students.

It gets confusing when we give that characteristic to a person. He's a boring teacher.

I usually use 'excited/exciting' when trying to explain this problem.

[VirginIslander]

I'm actually writing a lesson now that focuses on this.

Bored, Boring

Scared, Scary

Exicted, Exciting

Interested, Interesting,

and

Fun, Funny

(Do you have anymore?)

You should include a bunch of flashcards when teaching these. Koreans understand the rules! Dont assume that they dont. The problem is not knowing the rule, the problem is its application. They need to frequently practice it in order to speak it. Understanding is easy. Speaking is difficult.

For example, get a picture of a monster, a shark, a big dog and a mother in law in order to demonstrate scared and scary.

Hold up a picture of a monster and ask is he scared or scary. Repeat with all the scary flashcards.

Then, show a picture of person who looks scared and is in a new flash card with the monster.

Ask: Is he scared or scary. Do this for all of them.

Ask: Why is he scared?

Write on the board: The boy is___________________ because the monster is _______________.

Lastly, have them write short paragrapsh for each Scared/Scary example.

"Yesterday, I saw an enormous and ugly monster. He was scary. I was very scared. I was very scared because he was so scary."

"Yesterday, I went swimming. I saw Jaws. He was so scary. I was so scared becasue he was so scary."

"Tommorow, I'm going to go to my Mother in Law's house. I don't like her. She is mean and a little scary. I'm a little scared of her."

The same can be done for bored and boring.

[some waygug-in]

This is one of those things that you can explain a hundred times and they will still do it wrong every time.

So what to do?

Try this...


Draw a picture of a teacher in front of a class.

In the picture have the teacher yattering away and looking at the ceiling
and saying something like "When I was a child...we knew what tough was"

Have the students in the picture falling over on their desks, half-asleep or sleeping. (lots of zzzzzzzzzzzzzz's going on)

Then ask -

Who is bored?

Who is boring?

I'm not saying this will help them remember the difference, but I've found that long-winded explanations usually don't.

[tomato]

bored students
students who are not bored
teacher who is not boring
bored students
bored student
boring speaker at business meeting

I found these pictures in a Google search,
but I can't find a picture of a boring teacher talking to a class full of sleeping students.
Does anyone on this thread have enough artistic skills to draw one?

[some waygug-in]

A simpler one:


Draw a guy watching TV. On the TV draw a news cast.

Draw the guy half asleep.


Ask:

What is boring?

Who is bored?


It's a similar idea, perhaps easier to draw.

Hope this helps

[mateomiguel]

Its like radiation. Waves of boredom radiate from the boring thing and make people bored.

The thing that causes boredom and makes people bored is boring.

[PeteJB]

I'll take a few guesses here.

심심해 (I'm bored..)
지루해 (It's tedious!)

심심한 사람 (Boring person)
지루한 사람
심심한 것을 (Boring thing..)
지루한 공부 (Tedious study..)

심심해 죽겠어 (I'm dying of boredom!)
심심하니까 같이 놀자 (Because it's so boring, let's go play)

그래, 공부를 지루하지만 열심히 하세요! (Yes, I know study is boring, but you must work hard)

재미없어서 일찍 잤어요 (I was having no fun at all, so I slept early)

[MissSeoul]

[ajuma]

Bored is what YOU are.

Boring is what the OTHER person is.

Edit:

For the fun/funny confusion: If it's funny, you laugh. If it's fun, you're having a good time. I go around the room and ask about different situations: Gag-show (funny)
Going out with your friends (fun)
Jokes (funny)
Amusement parks (fun)
Drinking with friends (fun)
Drunk friends (funny)


and a bunch of others tailored to your age group.

[Letiz7]

Fun is an uncountable noun.

Funny is an adjective.

Yep, gonna tackle the old bored/boring thing soon. Good ideas peeps.

[mrsquirrel]

I thought you were unemployed

[shetan]

I think Korean people often use: 너 재미없어 for 'your boring'..

I guess 'your no fun' would be close translation...

also just 재미없어 for boring things like TV shows, my English class etc etc

Correct me if Im wrong