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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everyone! I’m Jaehwi, welcome back to Korean Weekly Words. In this video we'll be talking about how to respond to “how are you”. Let's begin.
1. 괜찮아요. (Gwaenchanayo.) "I'm fine."
For example, if someone asks you 어떻게 지내요?(Eotteoke jinaeyo?) "How are you?”
You can say, 괜찮아요. 어떻게 지내?(Gwaenchanayo. Eotteoke jinae?) “I’m fine. How are you?"
Or, 괜찮아요. 잘 지내요? (Gwaenchanayo. Jal jinaeyo?) "I'm fine. You’re doing well?”
2. 전 괜찮아요. (Jeon gwaenchanayo.) "I'm okay."
So if you just say 괜찮아요(Gwaenchanayo), that means “I’m okay”, ”I’m fine”.
But if you say 전 괜찮아요 (Jeon gwaenchanayo), it means, I'm okay, but i'm not sure about other person.
전 괜찮아요.(Jeon gwaenchanayo.) "As for me, I'm okay.”
So for example, if your friend know there was something bad happened to your family, and asks you 어떻게 지내?(Eotteoke jinae?) ”How are you?”
Then if you say 난 괜찮아(Nan gaenchana), or 전 괜찮아요(Jeon gwaenchanayo), it means “I’m okay, but i'm not sure about other (family members).“
3. 졸려요. (Jollyeoyo.) "I'm sleepy."
So you don't have to keep saying 괜찮아요(Gwaenchanayo) always, sometimes when you're feeling sleepy you can also say 졸려요 (Jollyeoyo), "I'm sleepy."
And I think it's better to give the reason why you feel sleepy, for example,
졸려요. 어제 늦게까지 공부를 했어요. (Jollyeoyo. Eoje neutgekkaji gongbureul haesseoyo.) which means ”I’m sleepy because I studied until late last night."
4. 잘 지내요. (Jal jinaeyo.) "I'm great."
It literally means I’m spending my days well, so it, you know, if someone says 잘 지내요 (Jal jinaeyo), that means that the person is having great days. So let's say, you know, you just passed the test that you prepared for years, and if someone asks you 어떻게 지내요? (Eotteoke jinaeyo?) “How are you doing?”
You can say 잘 지내요. 시험에 통과했거든요. (Jal jinaeyo. Siheome tonggwahaetgeodeunyo.) "I'm great. I passed the test."
5. 기분이 별로예요. (Gibuni byeolloyeyo.) "I'm feeling bad."
It literally means “I’m feeling so-so”, nothing special, but in context you can figure out if it really means “I’m okay”, or if it means something like “I feel bad”. In Korean, when it's about negative feeling, it’s not ideal to say something about negative directly, so people usually say 기분이 별로예요 (Gibuni byeolloyeyo), like, I feel just so-so, nothing special, nothing good, to mean “I feel bad”.
6. 나쁘지 않아요. (Nappeuji anayo.) "I'm not bad."
So 나쁘다 (nappeuda) means “bad”, so it literally means actually “I’m not bad”, “I’m not feeling bad”, “it's not bad”. So for example, you just work hard, you studied hard, so you're tired, but it's for making something good, so even though you're tired, it's not that much bad. In that case we can say, 나쁘지 않아요. (Nappeuji anayo.)
7. 물어봐 줘서 고마워요. (Mureobwa jwoseo gomawoyo.) "Thank you for asking."
It's kind of not common to say this phrase, because people usually, you know, just give the answer right away, and then, you know, ask your back how are you.
8. 너는? (Neoneun?) "And you?"
So you can use that kind of phrase for any situations that you want to say “and you?”
For example
뭐 먹을래?(Mwo meogeullae?) “What do you want to have?”
김치찌개. (Gimchijjigae.) "Kimchi stew. And you?" 너는? (Neoneun?)
9. 요새 어떻게 지냈어요? (Yosae eotteoke jinaesseoyo?) "How have you been recently?"
So 요새(yosae) means “recently”, and 어떻게 지냈어요? (Eotteoke jinaesseoyo?) means “How are you?” “How have you been doing?”
So if you haven't seen someone for a long period of time, like, for a month, you can say that 요새 어떻게 지냈어요? (Yosae eotteoke jinaesseoyo?) "How have you been doing recently?"
10. 바쁘게 지내고 있어요. (Bappeuge jinaego isseoyo.) "I've been busy."
But still I'm really enjoying meeting you guys, who really wanna learn Korean. So I'm happy to do it, so I can say that 잘 지내고 있어요. (Jal jinaego isseoyo.) "I am doing great."
Ok, that's all the responses to how are you in Korean. I hope you like some of the phrases and use it when someone asks you 어떻게 지내요?(Eotteoke jinaeyo?) "How are you?”
If you wanna learn more phrases like this, make sure to visit KoreanClass101.com. I’ll see you next time. 다음 시간에 뵙겠습니다 (Daeum sigane boepgetsseumnida) 안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi gyeseyo).

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