Recently my Korean language teacher has been expanding the font size of her word, in particular the font size of "을/를". Normally after correcting our homework, our seon saeng nim will consolidate our individual homework into a single file and e-mail it back to us. For normal mistakes, we should see only red wordings but if our mistakes have anything to do with "을/를", the font size will change depending on the number of times we make the same mistake.
First-time mistake, the red "을/를" remains at font size 12. Second-time mistake, font size increases to 24. Third-time mistake, font size 36. Fourth-time mistake, font size 72. By the way, she will stop at font size 72 because that is the biggest font size pre-determined by Office Words. Our seon saeng nim is especially upset when advanced level students like us are still making mistakes in the use of particles like "이/가" and "을/를". She always reminded us that those are level 1 mistakes. She told us repeatedly that she want to "vomit blood" whenever she sees the same mistake.
For those who doesn't know why my teacher is so upset but know a bit of Korean, I shall try to explain the importance of "이/가/을/를" in a typical Korean sentence. "이/가" is known as the subject case marker. When you see "이/가" after a noun, it means the noun is the subject you want to talk about. "을/를" is known as the object case marker. When you see "을/를" after a noun, it means that the noun is the object to which some action will be carried out.
Example: 선생님이 학생들을 가르쳐요 [Teacher teaches the students.]
In the above example 선생님 or teacher is the subject marked by "이". 학생들 or students is the object marked by "을". The action verb is 가르치다 or to teach. If I now switch the position of 이 and 을, the sentence "선생님을 학생들이 가르쳐요" will mean the students teach the teacher - something quite illogical. So you see, wrong use of 이 and 을 can give very different meaning to a sentence.
In summary, a typical Korean sentence structure is something like [Subject(이/가) + Object(을/를) + action verb(sentence ending)].
Personally, I thought that the font-size 72 red "을" has made an impact on me. I am now more careful with my use of particles. Anyway, language is all about conveying my thought correctly. I definitely want to mean what I think and not the reverse. Hope that my teacher is feeling better now since she is no longer teaching our class.
First-time mistake, the red "을/를" remains at font size 12. Second-time mistake, font size increases to 24. Third-time mistake, font size 36. Fourth-time mistake, font size 72. By the way, she will stop at font size 72 because that is the biggest font size pre-determined by Office Words. Our seon saeng nim is especially upset when advanced level students like us are still making mistakes in the use of particles like "이/가" and "을/를". She always reminded us that those are level 1 mistakes. She told us repeatedly that she want to "vomit blood" whenever she sees the same mistake.
For those who doesn't know why my teacher is so upset but know a bit of Korean, I shall try to explain the importance of "이/가/을/를" in a typical Korean sentence. "이/가" is known as the subject case marker. When you see "이/가" after a noun, it means the noun is the subject you want to talk about. "을/를" is known as the object case marker. When you see "을/를" after a noun, it means that the noun is the object to which some action will be carried out.
Example: 선생님이 학생들을 가르쳐요 [Teacher teaches the students.]
In the above example 선생님 or teacher is the subject marked by "이". 학생들 or students is the object marked by "을". The action verb is 가르치다 or to teach. If I now switch the position of 이 and 을, the sentence "선생님을 학생들이 가르쳐요" will mean the students teach the teacher - something quite illogical. So you see, wrong use of 이 and 을 can give very different meaning to a sentence.
In summary, a typical Korean sentence structure is something like [Subject(이/가) + Object(을/를) + action verb(sentence ending)].
Personally, I thought that the font-size 72 red "을" has made an impact on me. I am now more careful with my use of particles. Anyway, language is all about conveying my thought correctly. I definitely want to mean what I think and not the reverse. Hope that my teacher is feeling better now since she is no longer teaching our class.
When i first saw these red fonts getting bigger upon receiving our corrected homework, my first reaction was to laugh. I can imagine seon saeng nim sighing and shaking her head while correcting our homework. On second thot, it makes me more careful not to make "level 1" mistakes. Oh yes, these font-size 72 "이/가/을/를" in red really make an impact on me!!
ReplyDeleteOh....I am definitely clearer now :p Hmmm....I can imagine the 72 font size 히히
ReplyDeleteSpicebears, I find those big red fonts amusing too. Must give it to our teacher for inventing such an amusing and effective method of teaching.
ReplyDeleteYesmaru, it seems that you can only imagine but not feel the full impact of the 72 font-size. This leads me to imagine teacher chasing after you, "왜 숙제 안 했어요?" Hehe...
I miss classes. I dun mind taking all the 72 fonts.
ReplyDelete섭섭해...
Aini, with your Korean standard, I dun think the font-size 72 is meant for you. ^^
ReplyDeleteDo come back for class when you are free.