한국어 구어

During Thursday Korean class, I asked my teacher two questions on colloquial Korean language. The first question is on the meaning of 아니거든요 and the application of ~거든요. The second question is about what do Koreans mean when they use the sentence ending ~고요 or 구요.

I picked up the phrase 아니거든요 after watching Le Grand Chef on Wednesday. I was taught sentence ending, ~거든요, is used when a person wants to provide a causal reason for an action or thing that happens earlier. But quite often, it doesn't seem to me that Koreans are using ~거든요 to give a casual reason. 아니거든요 is an example. My teacher explained that 아니거든요 means "no" in a defensive way. For example, someone accuses you of doing something you didn't, you can say 아니거든요. The "no" in 아니거든요 has a stronger tone than the "no" in 아니예요. But when 아니거든요 is being used in a questioning tone as in "아니거든요?", the speaker is trying to say something like you mean you didn't do it? I don't quite believe you.

I guess I was right that ~거든요 does have more uses in colloquial Korean than what I was taught in Korean class. However, when I tried to ask about its other uses, my teacher couldn't really give a good answer. Similarly for my question on the sentence ending ~고요 or 구요, she found it difficult explaining the nuance which ~고요 or 구요 gives to a sentence. The best she could afford was to say that she uses ~고요 or 구요 in a positive manner. I didn't quite understand what she meant by that but I can empathise her difficulty in trying to explain a language point which is so common and colloquial. It is just like asking me to explain the nuances of Singlish's "lah", "lor" and "leh" to foreigners. What appears simple and natural to me may actually be very difficult to explain because it never occurs to me that an explanation is ever needed.

Colloquial Korean is hardly taught in my Korean class in Singapore. Nevertheless, I am still quite interested in learning them. Sadly, I have very little success in this area. I try to recall all that I have learnt but only two words come out. 당근이지 and 그렇지 뭐. 당근이지 means "of course" and is the colloquial way of saying 물론이에요 or 당연해요. 그렇지 뭐 means "so be it" (to a suggestion) in a can't-be-bothered manner or when there is no other choice given. I hope I have explained the meaning correctly as colloquial Korean does not have dictionary's explanation.

Come to think of it, perhaps I should not allow my attention to be distracted. My Korean isn't that good yet. There is so much more thing to learn that colloquial Korean should be the least of my concern. I recall during a class gathering, one of my classmates asked our teacher where she could learn 사투리 or Korean dialects as she thought that they sounded rather interesting. For one moment, I thought she was "more distracted" than me. But then, her Korean is much better than me. Oh well, by my Korean standard, I think I better stay focus. ^^;;