온고지신

Being a repeat student has its advantage. I need not struggle to understand what are being taught in class. Instead, I can choose to pay special attention to things which I have not fully understood previously. My learning in Advanced 1 class has so far been quite fruitful. Here are just some of those interesting things which I learnt this week.

I wrote about 당근이지 not too long ago and it is a colloquial way of saying "of course" in Korean. During Tuesday lesson, our teacher spoke about the different ways of saying "of course" in Korean. Besides 물론이에요 and 당연해요, Koreans also use the expression - 당연이지. The interesting part about 당연이지 is its origin. 당연이지, which means "why not, of course!", actually originates from the Chinese words 当然可以. I was quite surprised by this connection. Immediately I conjectured that 당근이지 must have evolved from 당연이지. Perhaps 당근이지 is a cuter way of saying 당연이지. By the way, 당근 is carrot in Korean and it would be interesting to know how carrot replaces 당연. Nevertheless, I felt a natural sense of bliss when I discovered that I had reached a new level of understanding in something which I thought I knew.

There are still more reason for me to be happy. After a long time of trying to figure out what ~스럽다 means, I finally found my answer in Tuesday class. This was what I have learnt from our teacher's explanation. When a noun has 스럽다 attached to its back, it becomes an adjective. For example, 사랑(love) is a noun and 사랑스럽다 (lovely) is an adjective. When a thing is described by 사랑스럽다, it means that the thing has taken on the characteristics of love and that makes it lovely. Another example is 남성스러운 여자 (tomboy). When 남성스럽다 (like a man) is used to describe 여자(woman), it means the woman has taken on the characteristics of a man and that makes her a tomboy. The sudden realisation of the role which ~스럽다 plays in Korean grammar brought me instant happiness and I was smiling non-stop. [Note: ~스럽다 is used only for noun that ends with a consonant. When a noun ends with a vowel, ~럽다 should be used. For example, if the noun is 자유 (freedom), its adjective form shall be 자유럽다 (freely).]

Just one more new thing which I learnt during Tuesday class. It is about the usage of grammar ~(action verb)던. Since the last time I came across this grammar until this Tuesday, I did not really figure out when to use present tense and past tense for the action verb before 던. For example, I am not too sure when I should use 만나던 (만나다 in present tense) and when to use 만났던 (만나다 in past tense). I must give credit to our teacher. Her explanation was so precise that I understood immediately when each is used. This is how the explanation goes. 던 means recalling a previous experience. When I use 만나던 사람, it means that I am recalling a person whom I met regularly in the past. On the other hand, 만났던 사람 means that I am recalling a person whom I met only once in the past. Which tense to use for an action verb in ~(action verb)던 is thus dependent on the frequency of an action in the past. That's how easy it turned out to be after I have fully understood the grammar.

Learning Korean just makes me happy and I just like the feeling of happiness which is internally derived from a sense of fulfilment. This is a fulfilment from knowing that I finally know.