책에 안 나오는 상식

I always find that knowledge outside of textbook tends to be more interesting. I like our teachers to go out of textbook to talk about anything under the sun which they think are interesting or helpful to us. Here are two non-textbook knowledge, taught during our lesson, which I find interesting and to a certain extent enlightening.

"What do Koreans mean when they say 엔분의 일 하자 (let's do 1/n)?", asked our teacher. It sounded like a request to solve some mathematical problem. However, apart from the need to perform some simple calculation, the expression has nothing else to do with mathematics. The actual meaning is "let's share the bill equally" or simply - "let's go Dutch". The indeterminate number "n" is taken to mean the total number of people sharing the bill. Frankly speaking, I am very unfamiliar with the idea of going Dutch. I don't like and I feel awkward about going Dutch. In my opinion, the mere ability to pay for others means that I have "surplus" and that itself is a blessing. I am always happy paying for others. But on the other hand, I wouldn't want to be so selfish as to keep all the happiness to myself. I definitely won't mind if you are happy paying for my bill. ^^;;

"How do you pronounce 의의의?", asked our teacher again. Nobody seemed to get it right. It is quite common for Korean words to sound differently from their written forms. Take for example the common "요" which we use in the informal-but-polite speech. Perhaps it is so commonly used that we may not even be aware we are pronouncing 요 as [여]. [여] is the right pronunciation though. The reason being that [여] is easier to pronounce than [요]. Similarly, pronouncing 의의의 as [의의의] is going to be very difficult. The correct and an easier pronunciation is [의이에]. "의의" (意義) means "meaning" and the "의" that comes after "의의" is a possessive. It was sort of an "enlightenment" for me when I was taught that "의" is pronounced as [이] if it does not come out as the first letter. That explained why I was hearing 의사 as [의사] but 회의 as [회이]. (Note: "의" is pronounced as [이] when it is together with a consonant. For example, 희망 is pronounced as [히망] and 경희 as [경히].)

The points being raised here may seem too trivial to be interesting. It probably is because they aren't meant to be in the first place. What I actually found interesting was that moment when realisation struck. That point in time when my ignorance was replaced with knowledge. Then, I was probably wearing a silly smile of satisfaction on my face and whispering quietly to myself - 그렇구나~