Koreanspeakers KoreansPeakers

the meaning of a sentenceare completelyforeign to the l(orean learner, breaking up a text may be mistaken for paragraphing,which is only and require concentratedattention to be perceivedor produced. usedin uery formal documentsin conventionalKorean' To the Korean ear,the English native speakerspeaking his or her own language sounds histrionic. Conversely,the Korean learner speaking English often sounds monotonous, bored, and therefore boring, to the Grammar Englishear. This can make KoreanEnglish difficult to understan-J. Korean intonation does share sorne characteristicswith English Sentencestructure intonation, however, in that it is conditioned by grammar,with falling intonation being characteristically used for statementsand questions unlike the subject--objectword order pattern of many languages, other than yes/no questions,and rising intonation for yes/noquestions including English, Korean word order (along with Japanese,Turkish, and requests.It can also add an emotionaldimension - thoughit does Persianind Jth"rs; is subject-object-verb.However, this order should so far lessoften than in English. not be taken too strictlY. Becauseof the agglutinativestructure of the language,the pauseis as important in defininggrammatical structure to facilitate comprehension 4 Orthographyand writing -r( of ipoken Koreanas the spaceis in written Korean'

Korean letters are phoneric symbols, nor ideograms. The individual letter has an independentform and phonetic valueswhich dependupon its position in a word, its associationwith other letters,and whether or not it is doubled.Two or more lettersare written togetheras syllables, There are no auxiliary verbs in Korean. The I(orean verb is always but forming clusters,rather than rows, on the page. expressedby one (See'Questions and answers',below') Further- Korean is transliteratedinto the Latin alphabetby meansof the so- more, the verb is -ori.a more indepindent entity than in English,and as in every verb calledMcCune-Reischauer system. This is not usedin Koreanpublica- Japanese,because of the complex system of suffixation, tions (except those written for foreigners),but is seenall over South lo.pt for the verbto exist canbe a sentencein itself' Korea on signs and advertisingbillboards, so the Latin alphabetis Korean verbs are divided into Action verbs, which usually have an familiar to Koreans, and they have little or no difficulty in b..o-,ng equivalent English verb, and Adjectivat (Descriptive) verbs, which accustomedto its use in English. obviously children need to be taught describethe s-tateor characteristicsof things, and sometimes the English handwriting, but this comes relatively easily to them, though speaker'sor iistener's feelings, and have no English equivalent. For variations on the style that ail south Koreansare taught rnight initialy exampre: presentcomprehension difficulties - a point of which teachersshould be aware.

Punctuation A studentis going to school. Studentto schoolgoing-be. learning-be The Koreancharacter cannot be capitalised. I am learningEnglish. English The use of question marks, exclamation marks, full stops and quotationmarks is more or lessthe sameas in English.The useof the Adjectivalverbs comma, semi-colon and colon can present difficulties, however: English although the comma exists in Korean, it is rarely used. Generallythe spacesbetween words fulfil all of thesefunctions in Korean. There are There are a lot of flowers here. Hereflower many-be' no possessiveapostrophes in Korean, the equivalentbeing a noun suffix. This roseis beautiful. Thisrose beautiful-be. potteryremarkable? Koreanpottery be-remarkable? _ Brevity is favoured in writing, and the Korean writer is encouragedto Don't you findKorean have no more than two consecutivelines of characters.This wav of

328 Koreanspeakers Koreanspeakers It will be observedthat Korean learners often omit the verb to be when French,and du and Siein German), but also by different lexical verbs using adjectivesin English. This is becausethe rrrrr.iio' of the and different verb endings,so Koreansmay be pleasantlysurprised by verb to be doesnot exisr in Korean. The adjectivai uerb is in effect an thecomparative simplicity of the Englishverb system. adjectivewith the senseof to be incorporated into it. For this reasonit is The suffix may, like that of an Englishverb, indicatetense or aspect, impossibleto form a verb {rom an adiective in I(orean. The transforma_ and show whether the subject is singular or plural, but it does not tion of weak into the English verb weaker, fo, ,r^^lti-i, ,urpririrrg conjugateaccording to person,resulting in frequentKorean omissionin onefor I(oreans.(See ,Sulfixes'.) " Englishof the third person -s. It can, however,nominalise the verb, fulfilling comparablefunctions to verb stem + -ing, -ation, -al, -ageor -mentit English. To be; there is and it is

The other senseof to be in.Fngrish- to exist- is found in Korean,bur Tenseand aspect there is no form corresponding"to there is/are,or to the empty rr subject as in It will be hot tomorro*, to that the Korean learner *iil proa".. Bothtense and the progressiveaspect are conveyedby meansof suffixes. sentencessuch as " Many foreignersexist in Seoul. "Tomorrow will hot. Aspect there anything frr,.i: corresponding to the anticipatory it as in the There is no perfect aspect in Korean, and Korean learnersshare the n1s]r9n It's a pleasuri to do businesiwith you. Th"'K;;J"; equivarenr difficultiesother nationalities experiencein learning to use this form. of this corresponds to.something rike with'you at u"rl)"*- i prrorurr. Thus, whiie the narrative use of the past simple in English, especially of.wlth you is giu.r' pro-ine,rc. by being with a past time indicator (last summer,in 1997)presents no problems placed):::rt*,,.:l:-,.:yqt.nt tn tnttial position with an emphasis-markrngsuffix, rather than for Koreans,difficulties arise in distinguishingbetween the use of the at the end of the ientenceas in English. past perfect and presentperfect, and betweenthe presentperfect and Th: verb correspondingto the English verbto exist arsoperforms simplepast and presentforms. tunction. the of to haue: The progressiveaspect is conveyedin Korean by a combinationof the " In my bousedog exist. (for I hauea dog.) progressivesuffix (which differs in the present,past and future tenses) with the word for exist, andcan oniy be usedwith action (asopposed to adjectival)verbs. (See above.) In Korean this form is also usedin the Complex verbs presentto indicate repetitive actions or habits - where the present simpleis usedin English.In contrast,the useof the progressiveform in Complex Englishto indicate,for example that an action is rather than verbs are by.combininqtyo verbs.These ,porrman_ , temporary teau' verbs, which !:y9 active permanent,or (in combination with a future time reference)to refer to ,b. or ad'jectival,sometime, irpr.r, u meaningwhich i' English-1I theplanned future is alien to a Korean. wourd requireseverar *orar, ror"e*ample,1 goL,up. in English, 1'd, ' ' ' is expressedin onesuch verb in Korearr,as rs to be blackand blue. It hasbeen raining sinceyesterday. From yesterdayto now rain coming,

Conjugation of verbs Tense Koreany:rb:, like regularEnglish ,verb verbs,consist of a srem,and a Koreanthus has six tense/aspectforms: future simple and progressive, 'verbending', and the ,t.-,t"y, th" ,"-., while the enJig."r;rg"r.r. presentsimple and progressive,past simple and piogressive,but they The two levels of formality and politen"r, i.r Kor""n Eirri.rguished arenot necessarilyused in the sameway as in English. not only by different forms of "r. aidr.s, (comparableto tu anduous tn If used with adverbs associatedwith a future time reference,the 330 all I{orean speakers I(oreansPeakers

many present form in l(orean often indicates a future evenr(alrhough the modalverbs must be assimilated.Korean learnersthus sharewith future form may also be used). othernationalities the problems of distinguishingamong the full range of Englishmodal verbs.

I am going to Pusan tomorrow. Tomorrow [I] to Pusango. Tomorrow is my birthday. Tomorrow my birthday exists. Passives

passivein I(orean is expressedby a suffix, tather than by an Note that both of the above sentencestranslate with little alterationinto The auxiliary verb + past participl" in English. HlvinS grasped this English, thus facilitating a Korean learner'sunderstanding of the useof -learnirs "t principle, Korean have little difficulty with_ simple passives, presentverb forms for the scbeduledfuture. All the orhei-forms o{ the are inclined to use tathet than by, for example' future in English are expressedin Korean by the use of the samefuture from "lrtroughtth.y Dr Brown. suffix, and the reacherwill find that I(oreans, like orher narionalities, "I am taughtfrom casesdo presentproblems, however'. have difficulty in distinguishing rhe useso{ the various structuresthai Thefollowing form doesnot exist in Korean, leading Englishdeploys ro refer ro the future, and usethem indiscriminately. 1. The to hauesomething doni to sucherrors as: "Haueyou cut your hair? (fot Haueyow had your hair.cut?) found Conditionals 2. A verb + preposititn' as comparedwith a transitive verb, is difficult to manage,producing errors such as: oTbesecbopsticks difficuh to eat' There are only two conditional forms in Korean, expressingunrealiry sincethe perfectiveaspect does not exist in Korean, it is not and possibility respectively,so l(oreans have the customarypioblems in 3. Also, 'view that passivesemploying this form, e'g' The wind.ow has discriminating arnong those in English, especially in of the ,rrrpiiring difficulties' In other cases,even when the importance of the perfect form (as in I would baue been brin brJk"n, fresent late\. whichis is no guarantee non-existentin Korean. availablegrammatical forms are comparable,there that the ,a"m.forms will be usedin the samecontexts. A Korean will havedifficulty in learningrhe conventionalresponse Tbank you, L'm simply because, Direct and indirect speech being serued (when offered assistancein a shop), althoughthe passivemay haveprogressive aspect in Korean, it is not 'word-for-word in this case. reporting of what somebodysays is indicatedin Korean employed with two objects,hke giue, areespecially problematic by quotation marks and a verb of sayi'g (answering,tbinking, shouting, 4. Finally,verbs passive,and will be avoidedif possible. etc.). Indirect speecirdoes nor give as precise t.trditiott of the originii in the ^ as is possible in English; it is best undersrood as giving the gist o1 an utterance in that certain information contained in ihe original is inevitably lost. As in English, in indirect speech,the subjeci of the Questions and answers quoted sentenceand tirne and place referenies are changedfrom the formed as original to the current speaker'spoint of view. There is no changeof Thereare no auxiliary verbs in Korean' so questionsare not to tense,however, so for example when I saw ber, she.saidshituas in English.There ho*.rr.r, sevenquestion words corresponding is "r., hout, when, who' and there is an loppy usually rendered as she said she is hoppy by a Korean the E"nglishwhat, where, why, learner. interrofative verb suffix. Once the basic questionforms in. English ar:e such embeddedquestion forms as I wonder wbere loln ls going-"r,.rJd,or i asked.him what hi was doing / what to do areunderstandably Modal verbs stiil found difficult. of Note that like Japaneseand Turkish speakers,and unlike sp_eakers agree I(orean has.o'ly three modal auxiliary verbs:the equivalentsof can, English,Koreans negativequestions with 'Yes' when they "nr-.t must, and should, to which, in translation, the whole range of English wiii, the speaker,and 'No' when they disagree,leading to sucherrors as:

332 333 Korean speakers Koreanspeakers

'Don't you like mushrooms?' Teacher:''What do I do if my jeansare too long?' "'Yes,'- when the speakerdoesn't like mushrooms. Pupils:'Take them up!' o'No.' - when the speakerdoes like mushrooms. The possibilitiesof misunderstandingare immediatelyapparent! Relative clauses

Tag questions and reply questions The English-speakinglearner of Korean will look in vain in a for this heading. The following literal translationswill give Korean has two verblessforms which are used to prompt agreement someidea of how thesefunctions are fulfilled in Korean. Note that the with affirmative and negative statementsrespectivel% and are used in modifierprecedes what is modi6ed. both the tag question and reply questioncontexts. Thus isn't lti in both English Korean 'It's a nice day, isn't it?' and 'lt's a nice day!' 'Isn't lll' would be translated by the samewords in Korean, as would hasn't he?,wouldn't The dog, which was chainedup, Chained-updog barked. she?,don't they?, and so on. Similarly, there is one Korean expression barked. correspondingto has he?, would she?,do they? and so on. Like other Studentswho study in the library as Library-in-study-student+ plural suffix nationalities, Korean speakers are therefore bewildered by the tag well asin classdo better. class-in-student+ plural suffix betterdo. question in English as a grammatical form. They usually understandits import, but avoid producing it whenever possible,not only becauseof An awarenessof this major differencewill help the teacherto graspthe its formal complexity, but also becausethe Korean equivalentsuggests a adjustmentthat a Korean learnerhas to make in becomingaccustomed lack of confidencein the addressee.(It is often usedby teacherschecking to the 'right-branching'structure of English.\fhile Korean learnersmay that small children understandsomething, for example!) appearto masterthese forms in the context of clearlyfocused grammat- ical exercises,their unfamiliarity typically inhibits the spontaneoususe of them in both speechand writing. Short answers

Theseare also found difficult. Here, too, there is a very limited rangeof Nouns verblesspossibilities in Korean. (Compare lch auch! in German, Mol aussi! in French, Jag ocks&! in Swedish,and watasimoin Japaneseas Koreannouns are not precededby articles,have no grammaticalgender, translationsof the various English expressionsSo do I!, So am I!, So can and do not normally have plural forms. Although nouns can be made I, So haue1, etc.) plural by adding the suffix dril, this may be omitted when the meaning of plurality is obvious. Thus the word yunpil,for example,may mean pen, the pen, a pen, sorne pens or the pens, This sense of the Phrasal verbs 'irrelevance'of the plural ending is so deeply ingrained that Korean learnersof English not only omit the plural -s in their own speechand Phrasalverbs do not exist in Korean, and are in principle very difficult writing, but also frequently fail to pronounce it when reading aloud. for Korean learnerswho, like those of other nationalities,find it hard to Termssuch as blue ieans and high heels,which have beenincorporated distinguish between prepositional verbs like He turned on met and into Korean, are usedwithout the -s by Koreans. phrasal verbs like He turns me on. This leadsto suchfamiliar errors as: Koreans share with many other nationalities difficulty with the "If I don't know a word, I look up it. Englishascription of the conceptof uncountabilityto e.g. news,aduice, However, the Korean familiarity with rote learning and repetition may information, furniture and luggage. be exploited to make available to learners paradigms that will make Two or more nouns are frequently combined in Korean to form a phrasalverbs more acceptable: separatecompound noun: a-chim-bab= morning + meal = breakfast; Teacher:''What do I do if I don't know a word?' chaek-sang= book + table = desk;mul-gae = water + dog = dolphin. Pupils:'Look it up!' Korean studentsmay be encouragedto discoverthat such compound

5J+ 335 KoreansPea{ers Koreanspealzers that spokenKorean doesnot nouns are also found in English (breakfast itself being an example, For the sake of emphasis(remembering joes) may, however,be,used in albeitof a verb + noun combination).The Englishdistinction between a .-ploy stressas English a-prott-oott in sentencessuch as: compdny director and a company's director is usually not a problem. il;; which is redrirdant in Engliih, resulting Knowing when to use of rather than either a compound noun or the 's "'Valerie,she is mY teacher' imperson"i prorro,,tt correspondingto it ot they: demon- genitiveis, so that such errors as "females'number for the number of There are no insteadi Korean demonstrativesmay correspondnot females and only one sex's cbildren for children of only one sex (i.e. all ,tr"tiu", or.i "r" also, in the absenceof a copula' to boys or all girls) are common. ."li r. tilt, that, th"r" or those,but the- Englishadverbs bere or ouer there' pronounsare ih."t.^.her should also be aware that Englishpersonal For example' teachersmay Suffixes after nouns frequentlyrepresented in Korean as nouns' hnd'th.-r.lves beingaddressed as teacher rather thanyou: yet? Korean has no prefixes - only suffixes. There are many of these,but "'Has teachercorrected homework' their functions are usually very different from those of English suffixes. The only functions that English and I(orean suffixes have in common are those of making the singular plural, and of indicating a numerical Adjectives approximation (for example, 'How old is he?' 'l couldn't say exactly: a noun or another adjective as in thirtyisb.') The latter function is a formal one, usedin both speechand Korean^E;;ilil, adjectiveseither precede behavelike a verb. (See'Verbs', writing in Korean, however. follo* the subject.and "lifr.y betweengradable and non- Students have problems with English suffixes which do not have neithercase is theretire distinction "U3"..1'ir so that a-Korean is likely to equivalents in Korean: notably those used for negation (colourfull sradableadiectives that obtainsin English, inappropriately,lor example: colourless,for example), and for forming adjectivesand adverbs.The ise adverbsof degreeand emphasis I *I concept of the 'word family' is quite alien to a Korean, but once amuerYexbausted. .J * grasped,is found very helpful as a way of organisingthe acquisitionof 1 It's a bit imPossible. Englishvocabulary. ,l

l Adverbials 1 Pronouns i which causesthe I The differencebetween Korean and Englishadverbials that Korean adverbs(unlike Pronouns in Korean are divided into four types: personal, possessive Korean learner most difficulty is the {act of adjectives.Otherwise (formed by the addition of a suffix to the personal pronoun), demon- Ia many Englishones) afe not foimed on the basis i with English ones._Thusthe strative and . Personal pronouns in Korean have three I id;;"; show many similarities { "?r;rbials the adverbials in Korean as different ievels of honorific forms - self-effacing,plain and honorific. I Kor.", schoolchild learns to classify placeand degree' These reflect the seniority of the people invoived and the degreeof adverbsof time, frequency,manner' . immediately before the word respectto be shown. The much simpler Englishpronoun systempresents at Adverbials ar. usnally positioned sentencethat is modified' few difficultiesto I(orean learners,although they will needreminding to (whatever the part oi tir..i.ht, cla.irsgor can thereforelead to incorrect use them in contexts in which the verb alone would be su{ficient in 1 beneralisationiro- Korean to English example: I(orean. The English word Agreel, for example,has been incorporated oositioninsof adverbialsin English,for i * into modern Korean, completewith suffix, to expressagreement - but is 1 I iery well sPeakEnglisb' I has something_verysimilar to usedwithout a subjectpronoun. i It should b. ,rot"d, iro*"ur.]that Korean exceptthat what is modified The possessivepronoun is not usedin Korean where the subjecto{ 1 ;ffi;ltrh adverb + adjectivestruc_ture - l as,in: the sentencemakes it clear to whom somethingbelongs. This resultsin in the Jaseof Korean may be not only an adjective, J Extremely beawtiful bloom in tbat garden' Englishsentences such as: i flowers '?I must uash hair tonight. but also an adjectivalverb, for example: hot (was)' "'He wds carrying briefcaseand had raincoat ouer arm. i " Friday extraordinarily I 337 336 I Koreanspeakers , KoreansPeakers

The Korean verbs correspondingto look, sound, smell, feel and taste close(for closed) are invariably followed by adverbs, not adjectives,leading to such electricstdnder (standard lamP) errors as: fine play (fair play) " Shelooks sadly. form (an affectedmanner) 'r That uiolin soundswonderfully. gag(man)(used for comedian) 'r Thesesdusdges taste deliciously. giue and tah.e(for to go Dutch) health centre(used for a healthfarm, or fitnesscentre) highway (neithermotoruay r'ot freeuay is usedin Korean) Vocabulary liier (tsedfor the lining of a coat, but not of any other_garment) long leg and short teg (ior a long-leggedor short"leggedperson) Korean has a large vocabulary most of which finds an equivalent in opiner" (used for all kinds of op.r"*, such as corkscrewsand English, although often what is one part of speechin English will be can-openers) another in Korean. (For example, the range of words describinghow ouer-eat(vomit) water runs, flows, etc. is expressedby adverb + the adjectivalverb runs politic (for politics) in Korean,) This often makes vocabulary learning difficuit for Koreans, rent cd.r(for a hired car) who should be alerted from the outset to the importance of recording sailingboat(yacht) new vocabulary with an example showing how it functions grammati- srgn(used for a signature) cally. (Schoolvocabulary learning inclinesKorean students,like thoseof stainless(for stainlesssteel) many other countries, to the context-free Korean/Englishword list.) tube (for any kind of swimmingfloat) Korean-English dictionaries are sometimes unreliable, and students should be encouraged to supplement them with English learners' dictionariesat the appropriate level. Honorific vocabulary Korean has an abundanceof onomatopoeicand exclamatorywords, and most Korean students take pleasure in discovering comparable Korean is rich in vocabulary used to convey respecton the one hand words in English. and self-effacementon the other. Korean learners wi|l, at first, be Both teachersand beginning learnerswill be pleasantlysurprised to embarrassedor confusedas they try to find equivalentforms in English' find that there are a large number of Englishwords in Korean, many of They are typically interestedin and sensitiveto a functional approachto which are today used with a recognisably English pronunciation. social interaction and questionsof register.As in English, the speech Indeed, allowing for the absenceof syllabic stress,the pronunciation of level in Korean is determinedby the relationshipsbetween the speaker thesewords is becomingmore native-speaker-likewith eachgeneration, and the listener and the subject being discussed,.but the grammatical English as more Koreans learn English, and are, to some extent, exposedto consequencesin Korean far'exceed ihose in English._As the English languagemedia. In view of the many grammatical and phono- learrreiof Korean has to learn to match words and suffixesto achieve logical differencesbetween the two languages,Korean learnersfind it consistencyof expression,so the Korean learner of English has to reassuringto be reminded how much Englishthey aheadyknow. becomeaware of the possibilityof inconsistenciesof registerin English. However, as well as English words that have been imported into Korean and are used in the same way, there are others that constitute false friends: i.e. they are usedwith a different meaning in Korean, but Body language and gesture are still pronouncedin a recognisablyEnglish way. The following are in addition to those listed in The Cambridge lnternational Dictionary of It is important to understandthe stlong cultural pressure.onKoreans to English: speak in an unhurried way, and without facial mobility or gesture. cap (excellent) (Teachersof Korean academicsand businesspbople will find them chorus(cboir is neverused in Korean) extremelyreluctant to usegestures of any kind when giving a.presenta- cutline (for the cut-off point below which candidatesare not tion, or speaking in public.) Koreans may appear unmoved-,'ormay acceptedfor something) smlle.Lnything more ixpressiveis regardedas unacceptable.\rhat may

338 339 I t

Koreanspeakers

dynamics of the languageclass also influence interaction outside the classroom.The commercial world has already become aware of the importanceof inter-culturalunderstanding. In a world in which English is for so many a lingua franca, communication will be much more effective if interlocutors are more sensitiveto - perhaps even more appreciativeof the valuesof - one another'sspeech styles.

A sample of written Korean

)atft vt1tg"1W+Aq+ a-,zl4t LA-+ +Wft8€al"r: Ze4zt-71 *hql|- b,y+u$t- efz- tA&,}stb&AjfTr ,lA"ot*-t T &feqr urrY'.alt 3-9-%"L ht^t4- &?f . I $ I Tran s I ite ratio n an d w o rd -fo r- wo rd tra ns lati on + se-jongdae wangi namgin upjuk jung tukhijungyohan I Se-Jongking left achievementamong most important gutun hunminjongumida. kuttae kkaji hanguk enun hanguk accomplishmenthunminjongum is. until then korea in korean malun ttaro itsutjiman guljaga upsutgittaemune languageseparately had but writing systemnot because oledonganhanja bilusu ssutta. long time chinese character borrowed used.

An idiomatic translation

Among the achievementsleft behind by the Great King Sejong, by far the most important is the Hunminjongum. Up to that point, although the Koreans had their own language, they used borrowed Chinese characters,because they did not have a writing systemof their own.

2 ct't i