Dialogue

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Misun: 안녕하세요, 여러분. 미선입니다.
Keith: And I am Keith. Welcome to Idioms and Phrases, lesson #19 Express Reason in Korean Because I Am Worried!
Misun: Today we have another idioms and phrases lesson.
Keith: That means we are going to have an expression in the dialogue that does not translate quite well literally into English.
Misun: And we let you, our listeners guess what the meaning of the phrase of the day is.
Keith: And we provide you with natural translation for that phrase in our bonus track.
Misun: So when you listen to the dialogue be sure to make your guess and check your answer by listening to the bonus track at KoreanClass101.com.
Keith: All right. So 미선 씨.
Misun: 네.
Keith: What can our listeners learn from this lesson?
Misun: In this lesson, you will learn how to explain a reason or to tell a story using the sentence ending 거든.
Keith: And actually this is used quite frequently when you are telling a story. So it’s going to be very useful.
Misun: It’s a very useful ending part but one of my Korean students, he is saying like, God why you keep changing like ending party, it’s kind of like garbage.
Keith: Well it is a bit tricky to get used to how to use….
Misun: Right.
Keith: Because English doesn’t have something similar.
Misun: Right.
Keith: But if you learn it, you will be very, very regarded. Your Korean will be regarded very, very highly because it’s a very commonly used sentence ending.
Misun: Right, right.
Keith: But it’s very useful too.
Misun: That’s true yeah.
Keith: Okay so the conversation is between who?
Misun: 진영과 민수. Two friends and 진영 seems to be worried about something.
Keith: Okay and the speakers are friends. Therefore the speakers will be speaking in intimate Korean.
Misun: 반말이에요.
Keith: Don’t forget. You can leave us a comment on this lesson.
Misun: So if you have a question
Keith: Or some feedback.
Misun: Please, please leave us comment.
Keith: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by KoreanClass101.com.
Misun: Click on comments, enter your comment and name and that’s it.
Keith: We are looking forward to hearing from you. Okay how about we take a listen?
Misun: 네.
DIALOGUE
진영: 아... 어떻게 하지?
민수: 왜 그래?
진영: 우리 사무실에서 알바생을 한 명 뽑는데, 열 명이 지원했거든.
민수: 그래? 근데 왜?
진영: 그 중에 한 명이 내 사촌 동생이거든. 뽑아 주고 싶은데... 걱정이야.
민수: 사촌 동생이... 일은 잘 할 것 같아?
진영: 그게 걱정이야. 일은... 별로 잘 못 할 것 같거든.
민수: 팔은 안으로 굽는다고 하지만, 일을 못 하면 뽑으면 안 되지.
진영: 나도 그렇게 생각하는데, 지금 사촌 동생이 돈이 꼭 필요하거든.
민수: 그래? 정말 어렵구나.
Female: 한 번 더 천천히.
Keith: One more time, slowly.
진영: 아... 어떻게 하지?
민수: 왜 그래?
진영: 우리 사무실에서 알바생을 한 명 뽑는데, 열 명이 지원했거든.
민수: 그래? 근데 왜?
진영: 그 중에 한 명이 내 사촌 동생이거든. 뽑아 주고 싶은데... 걱정이야.
민수: 사촌 동생이... 일은 잘 할 것 같아?
진영: 그게 걱정이야. 일은... 별로 잘 못 할 것 같거든.
민수: 팔은 안으로 굽는다고 하지만, 일을 못 하면 뽑으면 안 되지.
진영: 나도 그렇게 생각하는데, 지금 사촌 동생이 돈이 꼭 필요하거든.
민수: 그래? 정말 어렵구나.
Female: 영어로 한 번 더.
Keith: One more time with the English.
진영: 아... 어떻게 하지?
Jinyeong: Argh...what should I do?
민수: 왜 그래?
Minsu: What's wrong?
진영: 우리 사무실에서 알바생을 한 명 뽑는데, 열 명이 지원했거든.
Jinyeong: Our office is hiring a part-timer and ten people applied.
민수: 그래? 근데 왜?
Minsu: Really? So what's wrong?
진영: 그 중에 한 명이 내 사촌 동생이거든. 뽑아 주고 싶은데... 걱정이야.
Jinyeong: One of them is my cousin. I want to hire her...but I'm worried.
민수: 사촌 동생이... 일은 잘 할 것 같아?
Minsu: Your cousin...do you think she's going to be good on the job?
진영: 그게 걱정이야. 일은... 별로 잘 못 할 것 같거든.
Jinyeong: That's what worries me. Work-wise...I don't think she's going to be too good.
민수: 팔은 안으로 굽는다고 하지만, 일을 못 하면 뽑으면 안 되지.
Minsu: _____________ but you shouldn't hire her if she's not good.
진영: 나도 그렇게 생각하는데, 지금 사촌 동생이 돈이 꼭 필요하거든.
Jinyeong: I think so, too, but right now my cousin really needs the money.
민수: 그래? 정말 어렵구나.
Minsu: Oh, does she? It's really difficult.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Keith: 미선 씨.
Misun: 네.
Keith: What would you do in this kind of situation? Would you hire your cousin?
Misun: Ah well, it’s a really difficult situation. I cannot say anything because I cannot really put my relatives into that situation like you know…
Keith: And you can’t…
Misun: This is what I want. I cannot say that right…
Keith: You don’t want to put yourself in that position.
Misun: Right, right, right.
Keith: But…
Misun: And work wise, that’s not really a good way to working together with your relatives sometimes.
Keith: Yeah I kind of agree with you. Working with your relatives and working you know, brothers and sisters, cousins. Not always the best idea. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes…
Misun: I always think that it’s not…
Keith: Your face tells me no.
Misun: Never. No..I want to go away from my relatives and family in terms of working, but honestly, I think making decision in favor of someone that you already know happens everywhere you go, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Misun: It’s just that in Korea for a long time, it was considered to be more than natural and wasn’t considered to be something very unfair but now more and more people are trying to be fairer in choosing people like what I said before.
Keith: Yeah hiring the best person for the job, not necessarily your cousin. So yeah, I think that’s bringing up a good point. I think a long time ago in Korea, nepotism where you hire your family, that was pretty common but right now, it’s changing and a lot of times it’s not your cousin who is getting the job. The person who is best fit for the job is getting the job.
Misun: 네, 그래요. 그래서 정말 어려운 결정인 것 같아요.
Keith: Yeah it’s a tough decision to make if you know one of the candidates personally.
Misun: That’s where the phrase of the lesson comes in.
Keith: Hey can you give us that phrase one more time?
Misun: 네. 팔은 안으로 굽는다.
Keith: And we are not going to get into that right now. So remember to stop by and listen to our bonus track but for now, it’s time for some vocabulary.
VOCAB LIST
Keith: The first word we have is
Misun: 알바생.
Keith: Part timer.
Misun: 알바생 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 알바생 [natural native speed]
Keith: Next
Misun: 뽑다.
Keith: To choose, to hire.
Misun: 뽑다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 뽑다 [natural native speed]
Keith: Next
Misun: 지원하다.
Keith: To apply.
Misun: 지원하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 지원하다 [natural native speed]
Keith: 그 다음에.
Misun: 사촌 동생.
Keith: Younger cousin.
Misun: 사촌 동생 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 사촌 동생 [natural native speed]
Keith: 그 다음에.
Misun: 걱정.
Keith: Worry, concern.
Misun: 걱정 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 걱정 [natural native speed]
Keith: And what’s next?
Misun: 굽다.
Keith: To bend, to be bended.
Misun: 굽다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 굽다 [natural native speed]
Keith: And finally, what do we have?
Misun: 필요하다.
Keith: To need, to be necessary.
Misun: 필요하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 필요하다 [natural native speed]
Keith: Okay well we are going to take some time to look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First word we are going to take a look at is
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Misun: 뽑다.
Keith: To pick, to hire, to choose.
Misun: 뽑다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 뽑다 [natural native speed]
Keith: And this word actually has many meanings but what’s the basic meaning?
Misun: Basically it means pull something out, to take something out.
Keith: Yeah so for example, what can you 뽑다, what can you pull out?
Misun: 예를 들어서 이빨을 뽑다.
Keith: Oh…아플 거 같아요.
Misun: I had that feeling before I even said something.
Keith: Well that means to pull the tooth. All right, well what about another example? What can you 뽑아?
Misun: ATM에서 돈을 뽑다.
Keith: To withdraw money from an ATM.
Misun: Yes. So imagine pulling out one person from a group of people. That means you are choosing that person.
Keith: Yeah so the word 뽑다 means to choose and to hire as well. As in the example from our dialogue
Misun: 알바생을 뽑다.
Keith: To hire a part-timer.
Misun: 직원을 뽑다.
Keith: To hire an employee. You know what’s a good way to remember this is that we gave the example for teeth, right?
Misun: Yes. 이빨을 뽑다.
Keith: Well just there you said 뽑다 it’s kind of like a pop.
Misun: Right that’s true.
Keith: So you are kind of 뽑.
Misun: Yeah that’s a good association yeah.
Keith: Yeah so you can kind of 뽑 kind of scary.
Misun: All right.
Keith: But yeah you are kind of picking it up.
Misun: Right.
Keith: So remember that sound.
Misun: I have an imagination like there is something bigger like tools and…
Keith: But let’s not go there…
Misun: Close to your mouth. 뽑다.
Keith: That’s more like 아.
Misun: Right, okay.
Keith: Hopefully that will help some of our listeners.
Misun: 네.
Keith: Okay what’s the next word we are going to take a look at?
Misun: 지원하다.
Keith: To apply.
Misun: 지원하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 지원하다 [natural native speed]
Keith: Yeah you got to apply before you get hired right. So how do you say to apply to something?
Misun: Something, something 에 지원하다.
Keith: And when you apply 지원할 때 you submit your resume and how do you say resume in Korean?
Misun: 이력서.
Keith: Okay well can you also let us know how to say to submit a resume?
Misun: 그럼요. 이력서를 내다.
Keith: Okay. Great job, well I think we are almost there to the job. We almost have a job now.
Misun: 네. I got a job here.
Keith: Well let’s take a look at the grammar for this lesson and hopefully we will get a job by the end of this lesson.
Misun: 네.

Lesson focus

Keith: Okay 미선 씨, 오늘의 문법 포인트가 뭐예요? What’s the grammar point for this lesson?
Misun: 거든요.
Keith: As in the example
Misun: 그 중에 한 명이 내 사촌 동생이거든.
Keith: One of them is my cousin. Now here you can’t really see how it’s translated into English, can you?
Misun: No unfortunately. This is one of those sentence endings in Korean that adds some specific nuance to the sentence that doesn’t really translate well into English.
Keith: Yeah basically English doesn’t have it.
Misun: No.
Keith: Well what you are doing is you are basically describing a situation or talking about what happened rather than using the same plain sentence ending over and over again, people like to use various sentence endings to add flavor I guess. It’s a pretty word to add flavor to a sentence and also to specify the purpose of the sentence.
Misun: 네, 맞아요. Well explained and one of them is -거든요.
Keith: Right. So why is 거든요 used?
Misun: 거든요 is used to express a reason or describe a fact. When a sentence is ending with 거든요 Korean people take it as an explanation for something or expect that there is additional explanation following.
Keith: Right. So you are using it to give a reason or you are maybe kind of leading on.
Misun: Right.
Keith: For another explanation.
Misun: Yes consecutively.
Keith: Right.
Misun: Yes.
Keith: So how do you form a sentence then? For example, how do we say the word to sleep?
Misun: The verb is 자다.
Keith: Okay and what’s the verb stem?
Misun: The verb stem is 자. So you just add 거든요 at the end and you have 자거든요.
Keith: Very simple and that means sleep basically but I like to think of it as like you are saying, sleep you see. Kind of like you are adding a little tag word at the end like you see. Don’t you know, kind of like that.
Misun: Right.
Keith: Okay well how about the past tense then?
Misun: For the past tense, you just add 았/었/였 and add 거든요. That’s that simple. The same thing like 잤거든요.
Keith: And what about the future tense?
Misun: If you already know how to make the future tense, this is very simple too. Just add 거든요 after the 을 거
Keith: So for example, how do you say I will sleep as a reason when you are explaining something?
Misun: 잘 거거든요.
Keith: Okay well can you give us some more examples?
Misun: Sure. First 어제 친구 만났거든요.
Keith: Because I met a friend yesterday or I met a friend yesterday and – or sometimes, I like to translate it as, I met a friend yesterday, you see.
Misun: Right, that’s right. And another example 요즘 바쁘거든요.
Keith: Because I am busy these days or I am busy these days so or I am busy these days, you see. So how was this structure used in the dialogue for this lesson?
Misun: 우리 사무실에서 알바생을 한 명 뽑는데, 열 명이 지원했거든.
Keith: Our office is hiring a part timer and 10 people applied.
Misun: 그 중에 한 명이 내 사촌 동생이거든.
Keith: One of them is my cousin.
Misun: 일은... 별로 잘 못 할 것 같거든.
Keith: Work wise, I don’t think she is going to be too good.
Misun: 지금 사촌 동생이 돈이 꼭 필요하거든.
Keith: Right now, my cousin really needs the money. Well you know, what else we really need right now?
Misun: 돈이요.
Keith: Well I was alluding to the idioms and phrases that we are talking about but yeah we need money too. 돈도 필요하거든요.
Misun: Go back to idioms and phrases, it’s 팔은 안으로 굽는다.

Outro

Keith: Right and we are going to discuss that in a lot more detail in our bonus track. So remember to stop by KoreanClass101.com
Misun: Yes.
Keith: Premium members, use the review track to perfect your pronunciation.
Misun: Available in the premium section of the website.
Keith: The learning center
Misun: And through iTunes via the premium feed.
Keith: The review track gives you vocabulary and phrases followed by a short pause so you can repeat the words aloud.
Misun: The best way to get good fast.
Keith: All right. So we will see everyone at KoreanClass101.com.
Misun: 네. 여러분, 안녕히 계세요.

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