ANSWER: "law (法) writings (文)"
My Korean-English dictionary defines 법문 (法文) as "the law" or "written laws," but it can also mean "Buddhist writings."
However, in China, 法文 (법문) means the "French language" because 法國 (법국) means "France."
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Understanding Chinese: A guide to the Usage of Chinese Characters |
ANSWER: "East and West (東西) is a thing (東西)."
In both the Chinese and Korean languages, 東西 (동서) can mean "east (東) [and] west (西)," but in the Chinese language, it can also mean "thing" or "things."
That's kind of weird, isn't it?
這個東西不很輕 (저개동서불흔경).
This (這個) thing (東西) [is] not (不) very (很) light (輕).
甚麽東西貴 (심마동서귀)?
What (甚麽) thing (東西) [is] expensive (貴)?
他喜歡甚麽東西 (타희환심마동서)?
He (他) likes (喜歡) what (甚麽) thing (東西)?
ANSWER: "star (星) meeting (期)" or "star date"
My Korean-English dictionary defines 성기 (星期) as "a wedding date," but it literally means "star (星) meeting (期)" or "star date." So, why does my dictionary define it as "a wedding date"?
Because 성기 (星期) is also another way to refer to "the 7th night of the 7th lunar month" (칠월칠석 七月七夕), which is the only night of the year that the "weaver-girl star" (직녀성 織女星) and the "herd-boy star" (견우성 牽牛星) are allowed to cross the Milky Way (은하수 銀河水) over "a bridge of crows and magpies" (오작교 烏鵲橋) to be with each other, like husband and wife.
In Chinese, however, 星期 (성기) means "week," so 星期一 (성기일) means "Monday," 星期二 (성기이) "Tuesday," 星期三 (성기삼) "Wednesday," 星期四 (성기사) "Thursday," 星期五 (성기오) "Friday," 星期六 (성기륙) "Saturday," and 星期天 (성기천) "Sunday."
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
ANSWER: A boy rainbow, of course.
This morning I was looking up the Sino-Korean word for "India ink" (수묵 水墨) to confirm that the 수 portion of the word was the Chinese character for "water" when I came across the word 수무지개, which is defined as "the brighter arch of a twin rainbow." The Korean word for a "double rainbow" or "twin rainbow" is 쌍무지개. Since 수 means "male," 수무지개 literally means "male rainbow." So, what is the Korean word for "the fainter arch of a twin rainbow"? The answer is 암무지개 since 암 means "female."
So, the brighter more beautiful portion of a double rainbow is male, and the fainter less beautiful portion is female? Does that seem fair? To suggest that girls are not as bright and beautiful as boys? I don't think so.
Yes, male birds do tend to be bigger and have brighter colors than female birds but it still does not seem fair to refer to the less beautiful portion of a double rainbow as "female," given that girls are prettier than boys, unless the boy is in a Korean boy band. Using 수 and 암 to refer to rainbows seems sexist, for some reason.
By the way, notice in the first photo below that 수묵 지다 means "to get smudged," and 수묵 치다 means "to cover up" or "gloss over (a mistake)." So, when using the two idioms, be sure to pronounce 지다 and 치다 correctly to avoid confusion.
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
ANSWER: 과일, 과실 (果實), and 열매 all refer to the fruits of plants, but 과일 refers only to edible "juicy or succulent fruits" (apples, pears, grapes, etc.), 과실 to both edible "succulent" and "dry fruits" (nuts), and 열매 to all fruits, both edible and inedible.
My Korean-English dictionary shows that 과일 is a pure-Korean word, but it actually evolved from 과실 (果實), which is a Sino-Korean word, so at one time 과일 and 과실 meant the same thing, but over time, as mentioned above, 과일 has come to refer to only edible "juicy or succulent fruits," which the Chinese refer to as 水果 (수과 - water fruits). Both the Chinese and Koreans refer to "nuts" as 乾果 (건과), which literally means "dry (乾) fruits (果)."
The woman in the video below is showing how to write Chinese characters, and the example sentence she uses is the Chinese for "We eat fruit." I'm using the Korean pronunciations for the Chinese characters, not the Chinese. Also, I'm using the traditional characters, not the abbreviated forms.
We (我們 아문) eat (吃 흘) fruit (水果 수과).
The character 我 (아) means "I," but if it is followed by the plural marker 們 (문), it becomes "We." Since 水果 (수과) literally means "water (水) fruit (果)," the kind of fruit she is referring to is "juicy or succulent fruit," like apples and pears, not "dry (乾 건) fruit (果 과)," like nuts.
By the way, the Chinese word for "candy" is 糖果 (당과), which literally means "sugar (糖) fruits (果)."
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
ANSWER: star (星) frost (霜)
My Korean-English dictionary defines 성상 (星霜) as "years" or "time," but it literally means "star (星) frost (霜)." The Chinese definition for 星霜 (성상) is 比喩歲月 (비유세월), which can translate as "a metaphor (比喩) [for] time or years (歲月)."
The following is a kind of poem I wrote about getting older, in which I used the phrase "star frost."
"My Time in the Sun," by Gerry Bevers
My mind is getting cloudy,
My body is getting stiff,
My soul is filling with star frost.
Ambition is just memories,
Women are just people,
Life is just survival.
Watching children play,
Seeing young people in love,
My time in the sun is over.
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From 新編國語日報辭典 |
ANSWER: exploding (炸) soy sauce (醬) noodles (麵)?
The Chinese character 炸 (작) can mean "explode," as in the Sino-Korean word 작렬 (炸裂), which means "explosion," but the character can also mean "to fry." So, since 醬 (장) means "soy sauce," or "fermented soybean paste," and 麵 (면) means "noodles," 자장면 (炸醬麵) can literally translate as "fried (炸) soy sauce (醬) noodles (麵)."
Some may wonder why the noodle dish is called 자장면 (炸醬麵) instead of 작장면, given that the character 炸 is pronounced 작 in Korean. I wondered that, too. Well, since 자장면 is a Chinese dish, it seems that Koreans have decided to use the Chinese pronunciation of the character 炸, which is /ja/ (자).
By the way, the Chinese word 炸鷄 (작계) means "fried (炸) chicken (鷄)," not "exploding chicken."
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| Taken from an article on Wikipedia |
ANSWER: [If] one (自己) makes (作) a mistake (錯), one (自己) [should] admit (認) the mistake (錯).
Lately, I have been trying to teach myself to read modern Chinese, but with Korean pronunciations. Why? Because learning Chinese characters (한자) in sentences and phrases is much more fun than learning them individually.
I do not think 작착 (作錯) and 인착 (認錯) are phrases that Koreans use because the phrases are not in my Korean dictionary, but the individual Chinese characters are still characters that Koreans use, so even though Koreans may not be able to understand the above Chinese sentence when spoken, they should be able to understand its meaning when read, if they can read Chinese characters. Personally, I think the sentence sounds great when spoken in Korean: 자기작착, 자기인착.
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
ANSWER: I think it is at least a "3-thought" (삼사 三思) decision.
The Chinese character 三 (삼) means "three," and 思 (사) means "think" or "thought," so 삼사 (三思) can literally translate as "three (三) thoughts (思)" or "three times (三) think (思)," which means "to think carefully [about something]."
So, since the decision to get married is so important, one should give it more than just "a thought" (일사 一思) or even "a second thought" (이사 二思).
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
ANSWER: an essay or an article
My Korean-English dictionary shows that the first definition for 문장 (文章) is "a writing," "a composition," "an article," or "an essay," but I normally associate 문장 with "sentence," 기사 (記事) with "article," and "수필 (隨筆) with "essay," so I wonder why "an article" or "an essay" is listed as the first definition for 문장 in my dictionary? I don't think I have ever heard or seen Koreans use 문장 to mean "article" or "essay." Can anyone point to an example where Koreans have used 문장 to mean "article" or "essay"?
The Chinese, however, do seem to use 文章 (문장) to mean "article" or "essay," which made me wonder what word the Chinese use to mean "sentence" since they do not appear to use 文章 (문장) with that definition. From what I have found, the Chinese word for "sentence" seems to be 句子 (구자), a word that Koreans do not seem to use, and a word that literally means "a phrase (句) child (子)" or "a child of phrases."
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
ANSWER: In Korea, 汽車 (기차) means "train," but in China it means "car."
汽車 (기차) literally means "steam (汽) car (車)," which seems to be a good description of the early steam locomotives, so I wonder why in China a "steam car" refers to an automobile instead of a train? Instead, the Chinese word for "train" is 火車 (화차), which literally means "fire (火) car (車)."
By the way, the Chinese word for "taxi" is 計程汽車 (계정기차), which can literally translate as "journey calculating (計程) steam (汽) car (車).
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
ANSWER: 2.4 kilograms
When you are near someone you are secretly in love with (짝사랑), your heart tends to throb or palpitate, which means your heart tends to beat faster. The pure Korean word for "palpitating," "pitapat," or "throbbing" is 두근두근.
Since 두 is also the pure Korean word for "two," and 근 (斤) is a unit of weight measure that equals 600 grams, then 두근 + 두근 = 4 근, which adds up to 2.4 kilograms (600g x 4), right? So, if you are trying to lose weight, don't fall in love.
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| From Dong-A's Prime Korean-English Dictionary |
The following was written as an introduction to a story by 공선옥 entitled "일가," in a book entitled "국어교과서 작품 읽기 (중2 소설)."
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| Introduction to a 공선옥 story entitled "일가" |
