Learn the Korean construction that shows causes and consequences
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Keith: I was Speaking Korean, So I Impressed Her. In this lesson, you will learn how to do what? |
| Misun: To give excuses using 아-서. / 아서 |
| Keith: This conversation takes place where? |
| Misun: At the office in the morning. |
| Keith: All right. That’s a good time and good place for a lot of excuses. The conversation is between who? |
| Misun: Anne and her boss. |
| Keith: And they’re at the workplace, so of course, they'll be speaking formal Korean. |
| Misun: 네 존댓말이요. |
| Keith: Let’s listen in to today’s conversation. |
| Misun: 네. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 사장님:앤 씨…안녕하세요. |
| Ann: 늦어서 죄송합니다. |
| 사장님음… |
| Ann: 비가 와서… |
| 사장님:네… |
| Ann: 교통이 막혀서… |
| 사장님:음… |
| Ann: 죄송합니다! |
| English Host: One more time, with the English. |
| 사장님:앤 씨…안녕하세요. |
| Keith: Ann...hello. |
| Ann: 늦어서 죄송합니다. |
| Keith: I'm late, so I'm sorry. |
| 사장님:음… |
| Keith: Hmm... |
| Ann: 비가 와서… |
| Keith: It was raining, so... |
| 사장님:네… |
| Keith: Yeah.... |
| Ann: 교통이 막혀서… |
| Keith: There was traffic, so... |
| 사장님:음… |
| Keith: Hmm... |
| Ann: 죄송합니다! |
| Keith: I'm sorry! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Misun: And being late to work. |
| Keith: Misun… |
| Misun: I do sometimes often. |
| Keith: Yeah, I know what you mean. It happens with everyone at some point, right? |
| Misun: 네, 그렇죠. |
| Keith: But Misun, instead of making up excuses as to why we might be late to work... in Korea, are there a lot of delays on the subway? |
| Misun: Not really. For the most part the subways are very consistent. They're almost always on time. |
| Keith: But many people take the bus to work too, right? |
| Misun: Right, that's where you might be late. |
| Keith: For the most part, the bus is efficient and reliable, but there can always be traffic on the streets, right? |
| Misun: Yup. So sometimes you might be waiting 30 minutes to an hour for a bus, and then all of a sudden, there will be 4 or 5 buses, one right after another. |
| Keith: Yeah. And I hate it when that happens! |
| Misun: I know. It’s just frustrating. When that happens, and the bus drivers know that there's a few buses right behind, he might just pass by your stop. |
| Keith: Right. So if you’re waiting a long time and you finally see the bus, and you wave it down but it just passes by, he’s doing it on purpose because he knows there’s a couple of buses behind. |
| Misun: I know, but still…well, what if all the buses think the same thing and they all pass by? |
| Keith: Well, that means you’re in trouble. |
| Misun: I know. |
| Keith: Well, there's always taxis. |
| Misun: It happens a lot to me, that’s why I’m so upset. |
| Keith: Well, there’s taxis, right? |
| Misun: Right. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Keith: All right. Well, take a look at the vocab for this lesson. |
| Misun: Okay. |
| Keith: The first word we have is… |
| Misun: 늦다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To be late |
| Misun: 늦다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 늦다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next is… |
| Misun: 죄송합니다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: I'm sorry. (polite) |
| Misun: 죄송합니다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 죄송합니다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Next is… |
| Misun: 비 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Rain. |
| Misun: 비 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 비 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: After that… |
| Misun: 오다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To come. |
| Misun: 오다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 오다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next… |
| Misun: 교통 |
| Keith: Transportation. |
| Misun: 교통 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 교통[natural native speed]. |
| Keith: And finally… |
| Misun: 막히다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To be clogged, to be blocked (with traffic). |
| Misun: 막히다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 막히다 [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Keith: All right. Well, let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Misun: The first word we’ll look at is.... |
| Misun: 죄송합니다. |
| Keith: I'm sorry. |
| Misun: This is "I'm sorry" in the politest form. |
| Keith: Yeah, there's a few other ways to say sorry, but this is the most polite. |
| Misun: 네. But if you're with your close friend, this is too polite to use. |
| Keith: That's right. In that case you would use the informal version, which sounds different than 죄송합니다 |
| Misun: Right.The informal version is 미안해. |
| Keith: Okay. And again, this should be used with very close friends. |
| Misun: And in other situations, you can use 미안해요. |
| Keith: Yup, you can add 요 at the end to make it a little more polite. |
| Misun: But 죄송합니다 is the most polite, as we said. |
| Keith: And usually, when you're sorry, you want to be the most polite, right? |
| Misun: So using 죄송합니다 would be the safest to use unless it's someone very close to you. |
| Keith: All right. Well, let’s take a look at our next phrase. |
| Misun: 네. Well, in Korean it's a phrase 비가 오다. |
| Keith: Right. And that means “it's raining.” |
| Misun: But literally, it means “rain is coming.” |
| Keith: Okay. The first part? |
| Misun: 비 |
| Keith: Means “rain”. And the second part... |
| Misun: 오다. |
| Keith: Means “comes”. So literally, it's “rain is coming.” |
| Misun: Yes. So whenever you say it's raining, you have to say that the raining is coming. |
| Keith: You can also say that rain is falling as well. |
| Misun: Sure 비가 내리다 versus 비가 오다. |
| Keith: But "rain is coming" 비가 오다 is more general and commonly used. |
| Misun: 네 맞아요. |
Lesson focus |
| Keith: Okay. Well, let’s move on to the focus of this lesson. |
| Misun: The focus of this lesson is either 아서, 어서, 여서. |
| Keith: And this grammatical structure gives a cause or reason for a something. |
| Misun: Yea, So just like in this lesson's dialog, if you're late and what to give a reason, you use this. |
| Keith: So naturally, it's translated as "so" or "because" in English. |
| Misun: 네. And usually, you need two things, the reason or the cause, right? And then a statement after that. For example, you can 늦어서 죄송홥니다. |
| Keith: Okay. And that's literally, “I'm late, so I'm sorry.” |
| Misun: The first part is 늦어서.... |
| Keith: I'm late so... |
| Misun: And after that is 죄송합니다. |
| Keith: “I'm sorry.” So altogether it's “I'm late so I'm sorry.” / And of course, we translated it as ‘I’m sorry. I’m late.” |
| Misun: But a lot of times, you don't need the second line. |
| Keith: Right, many times you can infer from context what the speaker is trying to say. |
| Misun: 네. For example, if you're at a birthday party, and I’m really quiet and I look really tired, I can say, 늦게 자서. |
| Keith: I slept late so... |
| Misun: And you don't have to say anything after that. |
| Keith: Right you can infer from context, “I slept late so...” the thing you’re inferring is “I’m tired.” |
| Misun: Right. If someone asks me, “why do you look so sick?” |
| Keith: Well I can give them a reason, "I drank alcohol yesterday so..." |
| Misun: 술 마셔서... |
| Keith: And the rest of the sentence is open ended. It's okay because a lot of times, you're answering questions. |
| Misun: 좋아요! How about, 피곤해서... |
| Keith: I'm tired so..." And again, I'm giving you the reason. “I'm tired so....” |
| Misun: How about we take a look at some examples from this dialogue? |
| Keith: Sure! First Anne said, “I'm sorry I'm late,” but more literally it can be translated as "I'm late so I'm sorry." |
| Misun: 늦어서 죄송합니다. |
| Keith: And now she's just giving some excuses, giving her boss some reasons. For example, "It was raining so..." |
| Misun: 비가 와서… |
| Keith: Next, “There was traffic so...” |
| Misun: 교통이 막혀서… |
| Keith: And for myself, 저는 졸려서... |
| Misun: Aw, you're tired? |
| Keith: Yeah. So… |
| Misun: Me, too. |
| Keith: So I guess we’re going to have to leave. |
| Misun: Okay. |
| Keith: I hope our listeners don't mind if we end over here. |
| Misun: Right. |
Outro |
| Keith: Well, that just about does it for today. Bye-bye! |
| Misun: 안녕히 계세요, 여러분. |
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