What does 약간 (若干) literally mean?

 ANSWER: Like a shield?

My Korean-English dictionary defines 약간 (若干) as "some," "a little," or "a few," but the word literally means "like (若) a shield (干)." So how did the phrase "like a shield" come to mean "some"?

The Chinese character 干 (간) means "shield," but when you break it down into its component parts, you get 一 (일) and 十 (십), which mean "one" (一) and "ten" (十), and that suggests a range of numbers from "one" to "ten." So, in this case 약간 (若干) literally means "like (若) one (一) [or] ten (十)."

Even though Koreans now use 약간 to include the meanings "a little" and "a few," it seems to have originally meant "some" or "somewhat," referring to an unspecified number, amount, or degree.

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary

If you have 17 fifth-graders, 15 sixth-graders, and 30 chickens in the same classroom, what do you have?

 ANSWER: chaos

In her book 자전거 도둑 ("The Bike Thief"), which is a collection of children's short stories, the late Korean novelist Park Wan-suh (박완서) included a story entitled "달걀은 달걀로 갚으렴," which can translate as "Repay Eggs with Eggs." In the story, the teacher in charge of the fifth- and sixth-graders, who share the same classroom in a small village school, gives 30 chickens to the students to care for. Actually, the 15 sixth-graders buy two chickens each to care for. By selling the eggs gathered from the chickens, the students plan to make money for a planned school trip to the city in the fall. 

Try to imagine a classroom with 32 students and 30 chickens. As the owner of just one chicken, which I keep in my backyard, I can imagine a big mess, and I don't mean the untidy kind of mess. Anyway, here is my translation of the first couple of paragraphs from the story to give you just a taste.

It is a new school year and like the years before, Teacher Mun (문 선생님), who is in charge of fifth- and sixth-graders, hands out new books and two hens each to the students, though the hens are handed out only to the sixth-graders. Since there are 17 fifth-graders and 15 sixth-graders in the same classroom, adding 30 chickens to the mix causes quite a hubbub.

The chickens are fully grown white leghorns (다 자란 흰 레그혼), which means they are ready to lay eggs at any moment. They cannot really fly, but they flap their wings as vigorously as if they could. The classroom is suddenly in utter chaos as students try to prevent the chickens from pooping on their new books and from pecking at and eating the newly sprouted plants in the flower pots on the window sill. Nevertheless, the children seem to be having a great time. By saving their pennies, the children bought the egg-laying hens to raise money to pay for a school trip to the city in the fall, by selling the eggs collected from the chickens.  

From Park Won-suh's (박완서) book "The Bike Thief" (자전거 도둑)

From Park Won-suh's (박완서) book "The Bike Thief" (자전거 도둑)

From Park Wan-suh's (박완서) book "The Bike Thief" (자전거 도둑)

The front cover of Pak Wan-suh's book "The Bike Thief" (자전거 도둑)

What does 잠지 mean?

 ANSWER: a baby's penis?

The Korean word for "penis" is 자지, but my Korean-English dictionary defines 잠지 as "a baby's penis." Wondering why there would need to be a different word for a baby's penis, I looked up 잠지 in my Korean-Korean dictionary and found that 잠지 is defined as "a cute way to refer to a young child's penis" ('어린아이의 자지'를 귀엽게 이르는 말). Okay, that makes sense since 잠지, for some reason, does sound a little cuter than 자지.

However, I have read HERE that many Koreans these days are now using 잠지 to refer to a little girl's private part, not a little boy's, and use 고추 instead for a little boy's. What's the deal? Why do Koreans make learning Korean so difficult?

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary

From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary

From 동아 새 國語辭典