ANSWER: No. It means "people" (사람) who live in a "seaside village" (갯마을) on the "shore of an estuary or inlet" (갯가), where one will often find "tidal mudflats" (갯벌 or 개펄), which are sometimes called 갯뻘 or 개뻘.
Here the word 개 does not mean "dog." It is a pure Korean word that means "inlet," "cove," or "estuary." And 벌 or 펄 means "field," so 갯벌 and 개펄 literally mean "estuary/inlet (개/갯) field (벌/펄)," where you will find 개흙, "the slimy mud or silt on the bank of an inlet or estuary."
By the way, 갯바람 translates as "sea breeze" but literally means "estuary/inlet (갯) wind (바람)."
From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary (1998)
Do you like "house profits separated" on you pancakes?
The transliteration of the word "syrup" (시럽), using Chinese characters, is 사리별 (舍利別), which literally means "house (舍) profits (利) separated (別)." In other words, the Chinese characters are used for their sounds, not their meanings.
There is also the word 단사리별 (單舍利別), which literally means "single (單) house (舍) profits (利) separated (別)," but I think the 단 (單) is a transliteration of the Korean adjective 단, which is a form of 달다 and means "sweet." So, 단사리별 would mean "sweet syrup," not "simple syrup," as Naver's Korean-English dictionary translates it.
It is not in my Korean-English dictionary, but the supposedly pure-Korean word 망정 in 망정이지 means "lucky" or "fortunate," but why does it mean "lucky" or "fortunate"? What is the origin of the word? I cannot find anything on its etymology.
The word 망정 does appear in my Korean-Korean dictionary with the following definition:
"[대개, '-니 망정이지' 또는 '-기에 망정이지'의 꼴로 쓰이어] '-니(기에) 다행이지'의 뜻을 나타내는 말."
"[Usually used in the form of '-니 망정이지' or '-기에 망정이지'], the word appears to mean 'to be fortunate/lucky with something' (니/기에 다행이지)."
So, instead of saying 망정이지, one could say 다행이지 (lucky/fortunate).
There is also an example sentence with the definition:
"미리 알았기에 망정이지 큰일날 뻔했다"
"It's lucky we knew in advance; we almost had a big problem."
Though my Korean-Korean dictionary does not say anything about the etymology of the "lucky/fortunate" 망정, it does list another 망정 (望定) just below it that is defined as follows:
"조선때 관원을 천거(薦擧)할 때 후보자로 세 사람을 지명하던 일"
"The act of nominating three candidates for a government post during the time of Joseon."
Could the "lucky/fortunate" pure-Korean 망정 be related to the "nominating three candidates for a government post" Sino-Korean 망정 (望定)?
I wonder because the Chinese characters in the Sino-Korean word 망정 (望定) literally mean "a wish or hope (望) is decided (定)," which would be "lucky" or "fortunate" for the person whose "wish or hope was decided (망정)." It could also be translated as "a hopeful or desired decision."
젬병 is Korean slang for "being terrible at" (형편없다) doing something. Here is an example sentence:
내가 과학에는 젬병이다
"I'm terrible at Science."
But 젬병 comes from 전병 (煎餠), which my Korean-English dictionary defines as Korean-style "pancakes." So that means the above Korean sentence can literally translate as follows: "I'm a pancake at Science."
The Korean adjective 을씨년스럽다 can mean "desolate," "shabby," or "wretched," but it literally means "like 1905," which was a depressingly sad year for many Koreans because it was the year Korea gave up its diplomatic sovereignty when it signed the "Eulsa (을사) Treaty" with Japan.
The 을씨년 in 을씨년스럽다 comes from 을사년 (乙巳年), which literally means "the Eulsa (乙巳) year (年)," and since the suffix -스럽다 means "like," 을사년스럽다 literally means "like the 'eulsa' (을사) year (년)."
Koreans used to use a 60-year calendar to refer to dates, based on the sexagenary cycle, and 1905 just happened to be the "Eulsa" (을사) year, which was the 42nd year in that 60-year calendar.
So, in the past, when Koreans were feeling sad or depressed about things happening around them, some of them apparently started using 을사년스럽다 to express their feelings. It was kind of like saying, "Wow! It seems like 1905 all over again." That would suggest that the expression did not exist before 1905. Then over time, 을사년스럽다 changed to 을씨년스럽다.
From "Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary" (1998)
The following is the first sentence in the short story "The Last King" (마지막 임금님), by Park Wan-suh (박완서):
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"옛날에 사시장철 춥지도 더웁지도 않게 날씨 좋고 땅은 기름진 고장에 작고 아름다운 나라가 있었습니다."
"A long time ago (옛날에), there was a small beautiful country (작고 아름다운 나라가 있었습니다) in a region where the land was fertile (땅은 기름진 고장에) and the weather was good (날씨 좋고), with a year-long season that was neither cold nor hot (사시장철 춥지도 더웁지도 않게)."
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The above sentence is a good example of one of the big differences between English and Korean.
In English, we tend to name something before describing it, which Koreans sometimes find boring. Koreans, on the other hand, seem to like keeping you in suspense about what is being described until the end of the sentence, Sherlock-Holmes style, which some Americans (including me) sometimes find confusing.
The Chinese character 時 (시) means "time," but it can also mean "season." So, since the character 四 (사) means "four," 사시 (四時) can mean either "4 o'clock" or "the four seasons," but Koreans usually use it to mean "the four seasons" since they say, instead, "네 시" for "4 o'clock."
The Chinese character 長 (장) means "long" or "a long time," so the phrase 사시장 (四時長), literally means "four (四) seasons (時) long (長)," which can translate as "all year long."
So, since 靑 (청) means "green," the word 사시장청 (四時長靑) can translate as "evergreen." And since 春 (춘) means "spring," the word 사시장춘 (四時長春) can translate as "everlasting spring."
But what does 사시장철 (四時長철) mean?
철 is the pure-Korean word for "season," so 사시장철 (四時長철) literally means "year-long (四時長) season (철)."
From "국어시간에 소설읽기 1"
From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary (1998)
방귀 is the pure Korean word for "fart," and 벌레 the pure Korean word for "bug," so in Korean "stinkbug" literally means "fart (방귀) bug (벌레)."
But what is the Sino-Korean word for "stink bug"?
ANSWER: 방비충 (放屁蟲), which literally means "fart-releasing (放屁) bug (蟲)
屁 (비) is the Chinese character for "fart," 放 (방) the Chinese character for "release," and 蟲 (충) the Chinese character for "bug," so 방비충, the Sino-Korean word for "stink bug," literally means "releasing (放) farts (屁) bug (蟲)."
The Chinese word for "anus" is 비안 (屁眼), which literally means "fart (屁) eye (眼)." And, the Sino-Korean word for "sodomy" is 비역 (屁役), which literally means "fart (屁) work (役)."
Finally, here are two old Chinese proverbs you should live by:
1) 寧不焚香但勿通屁 (영불분향 단물통비)
"If you can't burn incense (寧不焚香), at least don't fart (但勿通屁)."
In other words, "If you can't help, at least don't do any harm."
2) 放屁長還爲糞 (방비장환위분)
"[If] farts (放屁) are frequent (長), [they eventually] return (還) as (爲) poop (糞)."
In other words, "There are often signs of things to come, so don't ignore the signs."
When I played Kid's Inc. softball in elementary school, one of the teams we played against was the "Stink Bugs." Our team's name was the Chinch Bugs."
ANSWER: At least 28, except they are called "strokes," not "letters."
The following YouTube videos do a really excellent job of introducing Chinese characters (Hanja, 한자, 漢字) to English-speaking foreigners, but the videos introduce the characters using Chinese pronunciations, not Korean. Yes, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese pronunciations of Chinese characters are mostly different.
But even though the videos below teach the Chinese pronunciations of the Chinese characters, not the Korean, they can still be used by people who want to learn the Korean pronunciations of the characters.
But how can I use the videos to learn the Korean pronunciations? Well, just look up the Korean pronunciations of the characters. But how do I look up the Korean pronunciations? Well, one way is to count the number of strokes in the character and then go to Naver's Chinese Character Dictionary HERE to find the character among the list of characters that have the same numbers of strokes. The Korean word for "stroke" is 획, so if you click on "1획" (one stroke), you will see a list of characters made with just one stroke. If you click on "2획" (two strokes), you will see a list of characters made with two strokes. For example, the Chinese character for "two" is 二, which is made with two strokes. That means 二 would be among the characters in the 2획 (two stroke) list. In that list, 二 is defined as "두 이," with the 두 (two) being the meaning of the character and the 이 being its Korean pronunciation. It's that easy.
Anyway, the following is a list of some of the beginning videos. Some of the characters introduced in the videos are simplified characters, which Koreans do not generally use. So, for those characters, I have also included the characters the simplified characters represent. I will add more to this post later, maybe.
