The Chinese character 龜 (귀) means "turtle," and 頭 (두) means "head." So, why is this word important? Well, "important" is a relative term, so I would not say the word is important, but I do find it interesting because even though 귀두 literally means "turtle head," it is also the Korean word for "glans," which is the English medical term for the head of a human penis. In Latin "glans" means "acorn."
Personally, I like "turtle head" more than "acorn" because turtle head is more kinetically descriptive.
By the way, the Korean word for clitoris is 음핵 (陰核), which literally means "shady seed" or "female seed." Naver's Chinese Character dictionary describes 음핵 as a "persimmon-seed-like protrusion" [여자(女子)의 외음부(外陰部)에 있는 감씨 모양(模樣)의 돌기(突起)], so I have posted a photo of some persimmons seeds to help people visualize what a clitoris looks like.
In bony fishes, an operculum /ō-ˈpər-kyə-ləm/ is a protective flap that "covers the chamber housing the gills just behind the head. By moving the operculum, a bony fish can keep a steady supply of oxygenated water flowing over the gills even if the fish is not moving." (Biology, The Core)
In Latin, operculum means "cover" or "lid." The Korean word for operculum is 아가미 뚜껑, which literally translates as "gill cover," or 아감딱지.
Back in 2006, I wrote twenty-five posts (I called them "chapters") concerning the Dokdo-Takeshima (Liancourt Rocks) island dispute between Korea and Japan. I titled them "The History of Ulleungdo" since all the Korean sources were talking about Ulleungdo, not about Liancourt Rocks. I was not only interested in teaching myself the history of the dispute but also in teaching myself literary Chinese, of which I knew very little at the time. Anyway, for some reason, I have decided to post links to the old posts below in the order they were written.
I have written much more about the Dokdo-Takeshima dispute on other Web sites, including THIS ONE, but the posts below represent the beginning of my quest to understand the history of the dispute, which may or may not interest people. I have learned a lot more since writing the posts, mainly with the help of other more knowledgeable people.
In the animal kingdom, mollusks is one of the nine major classifications and includes snails, slugs, clams, mussels, oysters, squid, and octopi. Many mollusks feed using a radula, which is a saw-like organ that can cut and scrape up food. In Latin, radula means "a scraper." The Korean word for radula is 치설 (齒舌), which literally means "tooth (齒) tongue (舌)." Do not confuse 치설 (齒舌) with 칫솔 (齒-), which means "toothbrush."
ANSWER:to run a deficit or to decrease one's savings or allowance
My Korean-English dictionary defines 축내다 as "spend (a certain amount, part of a sum)" and gives the following example sentence:
1,000원에서 100원을 축내다.
Spend 100 won of the 1,000 won.
Am I the only one who finds the above definition somewhat confusing? Why is it confusing? Because every time someone spends, he or she spends a certain amount, so why bother putting "a certain amount" in parentheses? And what does "spend part of a sum" mean? That someone spends part of his or her money? Duh! Again, isn't it obvious that when someone spends, he or she will be spending part of or all of a sum of money, so why put it in parentheses?
My Korean-English dictionary defines 축나다 as "decrease; run low; lack; be deficit; fall (become) short of" and gives the following example sentence:
돈이 500원 축난다.
There is a deficit (shortage) of 500 won.
So, according to the example sentence, 축(縮) means deficit. In fact, my Korean-Korean dictionary says 축 is an abbreviation of 흠축(欠縮), which my Korean-English dictionary defines as "shortage; deficiency; want; deficit; lack." Therefore, since 내다 is the causative of 나다, the word 축내다 literally means "to cause a deficit." In other words, when you spend more money than you have, you run a deficit and, thereby, accumulate debt. However, in the first example sentence above, 축내다 seems to have been used with a different meaning.
Notice that one of the meanings of 축나다 is "decease," which means 축내다 could also be interpreted as "to cause a decease." Therefore, the first example sentence (1,000원에서 100원을 추내다) seems to be referring to someone who spent 100 won of his or her 1,000 won savings or allowance and, thereby, caused a 100 won decease in that savings or allowance. But doing that would not cause a deficit; it would only cause a decease in his or her savings or allowance. That is why using 축내다 in that situation causes me some confusion. Instead, why not just use 쓰다 (to spend / to use) in that situation? It would make me feel much better.
The Korean alphabet is called Hangeul (한글), a name that only began to be used in the early 20th century. Before that it was called Hun Min Jeong Eum (훈민정음), which literally means the proper sound to teach the people. Korean dictionaries say 한글 is a pure Korean word meaning great (한) script (글), but if that is true, then why is the 한 in 한글 pronounced with a long vowel sound: /한:글/?
According to Korean Wikipedia HERE, the word 한글 was first coined in 1913 by a Korean linguist named Ju Si-gyeong (주시경 - 周時經), a man who lived from 1876 to 1914. Koreans generally claim that the 한 in 한글 is the pure Korean prefix that means big or great, the same prefix used in the Korean words 한가위 (추석), 한걱정 (big worry), 한근심 (big anxiety), 한길 (a main street), 한동안 (for quite a while), 한숨 (a deep sigh/breath), and 한턱 (a big treat). However, the problem with that claim is that the 한 prefix in all those words are pronounced with a short vowel sound, not with the long vowel sound used to pronounce 한글 and 한국 (韓國), which is the Sino-Korean name for Korea. That suggests that the original meaning of the word 한글 was most likely Korean (한- 韓) script (글), not great script.
By the way, in North Korea, they call the Korean alphabet 조선글, which just happens to also mean Korean (조선) script (글).
In Korea, the day they celebrate the creation of 한글 is called 한글날, which is pronounced /한:글랄/. If you pronounce it correctly, you will probably impress many of your Korean friends.
잠자리 can mean either bed or dragonfly, so, in written Korean, a person would need to see the word used in the context of a sentence to determine its intended meaning. However, in spoken Korean, a person should be able to determine the meaning of the word by its pronunciation. When 잠자리 is pronounced /잠자리/, it means dragonfly, but when it is pronounced /잠짜리/, it means bed or sleeping place.
The 잠자리 meaning dragonfly is considered a base word, but the 잠자리 meaning bed is considered a compound word since it is made from two Korean nouns: 잠 meaning sleep and 자리 meaning place.
ANSWER:Besides their meanings and spellings, there is also their pronunciations.
잇다 means to join or to connect, and 있다 means to exist, so they have different meanings, but the only difference in their pronunciations is that 잇다 is pronounced with a long vowel sound, and 있다 with a short one. In other words, the 이 in 잇다 is pronounced longer than the 이 in 있다.
Korean-English dictionaries do not usually mark short and long vowel sounds, but many Korean-Korean dictionaries do, which is a good reason to also consult a Korean-Korean dictionary when learning a new word. Korean-Korean dictionaries usually leave a short-vowel sound unmarked but mark a long-vowel sound with a colon after the vowel sound. For example, 있다 is listed as "있다," and 잇다 as "잇:다" in many Korean-Korean dictionaries. That means 있다 is pronounced /읻따/, and 잇다 is pronounced similar to /이읻따/.
But do long-vowel sounds really make that big a difference when speaking Korean? Well, except for the 을 and 에, the only other way to distinguish the following two sentences in spoken Korean is by using the short-vowel sound in the sentence with 있는 and the long-vowel sound in the sentence with 잇는.
남과 북에 있는 [인는] 다리 a bridge between the North and the South
남과 북을 잇는 [인:는] 다리 a bridge connecting the North and the South
When the Korean consonants ㄱ, ㅁ, ㅍ, and ㅎ attach to the Korean vowel ㅖ to form 계, 몌, 폐, and 혜, the syllables can be pronounced either as /계/, /몌/, /폐/, and /혜/ or as /게/, /메/, /페/, and /헤/.
Why? Because so many Koreans these days are pronouncing 계, 몌, 폐, and 혜 as 게, 메, 페, and 헤 that whoever is in charge of making the rules has decided to declare both sets of pronunciations as acceptable. However, 예 and 례 are still pronounced only as /예/ and /례/.
What about the other consonants: ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄸ,ㅂ, ㅃ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅉ, ㅊ and ㅌ? Well, apparently there are no longer any Korean words with the syllables 녜, 뎨, 뗴, 볘, 뼤, 셰, 쎼, 졔, 쪠, 쳬 or 톄, so they are irrelevant. Koreans used to use 녜 to mean yes, but now most Koreans simply say 네 or 예, which seems to show that the pronunciation /네/ won out over /녜/, similar to how the pronunciations /게/, /메/, /페/, and /헤/ seem to be winning out over /계/, /몌/, /폐/, and /혜/.
선술집 literally means astanding (선) liquor (술) house (집). The 선 in the name comes from the verb 서다, which means to stand. During the Yi Dynasty, a 선술집 was a place where customers had to stand while drinking their wine and eating their anju (안주), the food served with drinks. Back then, sitting at a stand bar was not an option. In fact, I have read HERE that if someone were to sit, he would have been berated by other customers because it was considered undignified to do so. These days, however, a stand bar seems to refer to a bar where people sit or stand at the bar counter and drink.
The following is a Joseon-era painting of a stand bar (선술집) by Sin Yun-bok (신윤복 - 申潤福), who lived from 1758 to 1813. Notice there is no table at which to sit.
A great resource for Korean language learners is a Korean-English terminology dictionary by Lee Jin-yeong (이진영) entitled "이진영의 동시통역 기초사전," which translates as "Lee Jin-yeong's Beginning Dictionary for Simultaneous Interpretation," but the English title on the dictionary is "Korean-English Terminology for Beginners."
Though the title says the dictionary is "for beginners," it is really a dictionary for anyone, from beginners to advanced learners. The dictionary gives concise and accurate translations of terminology used in twenty-four different major categories: 1) Society, 2) Culture, 3) Media & Advertising, 4) Sports and Leisure, 5) Education, 6) Religion, 7) Public Administration, 8) Law, 9) Politics, 10) International Politics, 11) Security, 12) Economy, 13) Business, 14) Finance, 15) Trade, 16) Primary Industries, 17) Major Industries, 18) Energy, 19) Transportation, 20) Distribution, 21) Science & Technology, 22) Information & Communication, 23) Environment, & 24) Medicine.
The list of trees and bushy trees listed below were under 임업 (Forestry), a subcategory of the "Primary Industries" category.
My 2004 version of the dictionary has a total of 830 pages, including Korean and English indices in the back of the book. I paid only 25,000 won for my book soon after it came out, but a newer version of the dictionary, "이진영의 통역번역 기초사전," is now selling HERE on Amazon for $58, so it is now somewhat pricey. If you sign up with Bandi Books US, a Korean bookseller here in the U.S., you can get it for $36. See HERE.
Anyway, below is the list of common Korean trees and bushy trees from my dictionary. It would be good to learn these names since they are commonly mentioned in Korean literature and media, though I do not remember hearing or reading about the Rat Turd Tree (쥐똥나무), also called Amur privet.
I have added to the original list and made some changes:
너도밤나무Engler's beech / Chinese beech(Found in Korea only on Ulleungdo, 너도밤나무 literally translates as "You're also a chestnut," which suggests there is a good story behind the name. By the way, there is also a tree or shrub named나도밤나무, which literally translates as "I'm also a chestnut.)
거기 means there, and 거기서 means from there, so 거기서 거기야 literally means From there it's [right]there. For example, if someone calls you and asks you how to get to a certain place and then tells you he is standing in front of a place that you know is right next to the place he wants to find, you can say, "거기서 거기야," which translates as "From there, it's right there." Or if the place he wants to find is in the same building he is standing in front of, you could also say, "거기서 거기야."
The meaning of 거기서 거기야 then expanded to include the meaning it's all the same. A good example of the second meaning appears in the lyrics of the song "Wave," by Hail, which I recently posted. Here is that portion of the lyrics:
우리 노래가 People say our songs 거기서 거기래, Ha! sound almost all the same, Ha!
내 가사도 얘 멜로디도 They say her melodies, my lyrics
틀에 박혔다나 are both set in frames [conventional],
The 래 in 거기래 is a reduced form of "~라고 한다," which means "[people] say."
By the way, the "Ha" after 거기서 거기래 means the singer disagrees with the suggestion that their "songs sound almost all the same."
I had a little trouble translating this song, but it was fun. I hope I got the sense of it right because it is a neat little song that the girls seem to be using to respond to critics of their style of music.
Wave
파도소리따라
With the sound of breaking
Wave
몸이 가는대로
Let your body move with
Wave
리듬에 맞춰서
With that wavy rhythm,
이번여름에는
why don't you this summer
헤일과 함께 춤을
come out with Hail and dance?
맴맴맴 매미 왔다
With the cicadas singing
여름 곡 써야지
we need a summer song,
통기타 뚬바뚬바
a doomba, doomba guitar
쳐보고있는데
jungle strumming song
자꾸만 생각나네
I keep on thinking that
우리보고 뭐 뭐
you'll see us and say, “What?”
우리 노래가
People say our songs
거기서 거기래. 하!
sound almost all the same. Ha!
내 가사도 얘 멜로디도
They say her melodies, my lyrics
틀에 박혔다나
are both set in frames [conventional],
틀이 뭔데 뭬 창틀이야
But what kinda frames? A window frame?
빵틀이야 뭐야
A bread baking frame? What?
이 노래 완성시키면
If we finish doing this song,
땅을 치고 후회할거다
and it's a flop, we'll be really sad.
범생이 헤일과
Though Hail is nerdy,
춤이나 춰.
still dance with us.
Wave
파도소리따라
With the sound of breaking
Wave
몸이 가는대로
Let your body move with
Wave
리듬에 맞춰서
With that wavy rhythm,
이번 여름에는
why don't you this summer
헤일과 함께 춤을
come out with Hail and dance.
Wave, Wave, Wave
Wave, Wave
Wave, Wave
Wave
헤일과 함께 춤을
Come out with Hail and dance!
이래도 말할텐가
Even so, will they still say
틀에 박혔다고
we are conventional?
방금 꿀렁꿀렁
Just now I was loosely
춤춘 거 다 봤는데
dancing. You all saw it.
아직도 꼼짝않네
Yet, you are still not moving
따라해봐 Yo Yo
Follow along. Yo! Yo!
이거까진 안할랬는데
They said I wouldn’t even say this:
“Huh, drop the beat.”
“It’s time to boogie with me.”
아직도 가만히 있니
Are you guys still not moving?
이건 swag, feel my swag
This is swag; feel my swag.
범생이들의 swag
The swag of us nerds. Oh, yeah!
봄바람은 이미 휘날렸고
I’m already waving with the spring wind.
씨스타도 이제 못 보잖아
Now you can’t even see Sistar (a disbanded Korean girl group),
ANSWER:I don't know. Maybe because it is in Hawaii?
Below is a collection of writings in Korean by high school juniors and seniors who attended the Asia Pacific International School (ASPI) during the 2016-2017 school year. ASPI is a college preparatory boarding school in Hauula, Hawaii, but there is also a Seoul campus. The poems and stories look pretty interesting. The school's Web site is HERE.
I like the voice, I like the lyrics, I like the style, but I do not really like the English translation in the subtitles, so I have posted my own translation below the video.
The translator of the subtitles seemed to think the girl was the one planning to break up with the guy, but the whole point of the song was to say the girl sensed that her boyfriend was preparing to break up with her, so she was preparing for it by taking away all of the excuses he might use for it. For example, he would no longer be able to say he was breaking up with her because he did not like her wearing her short skirt.
“헤어지기위하여”
“In Order to Break Up with You”
요즘부쩍달라진너를보면서
These days, as I see you quickly changing,
아니사실오래전부터넌
No, actually you started long ago.
너도나름대로많이노력했겠지만나도많이애썼어
You probably tried hard in your own way, but I tried hard,
too.
워– 너무오랫동안붙잡고있었나
Have I been trying to hold on for too long? 워– 이제놓아줘야하나 Is now the time to let go?
혼자인게어색할테지만
Though being alone will probably be awkward.
평소보다더널생각하면서
I’ve been thinking of you more than usual
연락도자주하고
and contacting you frequently.
입지말아던내짧은치마도
And the short skirt you told me not to wear
옷장에깊숙이넣고서
is now stored deep in my closet.
고집부리며고치지않았던작은것까지모두다
And all the little things I stubbornly refused to fix
그렇게완벽해져서
are now [fixed] just as you wanted
너와헤어지기위하여
in order to break up with you.
자존심버리고간절히부탁했잖아제발
I put aside my pride and begged you
나좀예쁘다고해줘
to please tell me I’m pretty.
그런내가귀찮은듯날보지도않고말해
As if I were a nuisance, you said without even looking at
me,
“노력해도안되는걸어떡해”
“Why? It won't change things?”
워– 너무오랫동안붙잡고있었나
Have I been trying to hold on for too long?
워– 이제놓아줘야하나
Is now the time to let go?
혼자인게어색할테지만
Though being alone will probably be awkward.
평소보다더널생각하면서
I’ve been thinking of you more than usual
연가도자주하고
and contacting you frequently.
입지말라던내짧은치마도
And the short skirt you told me not to wear
옷장에깊숙이넣고소
is now stored deep in my closet.
고집부리며고치지않았던작은것까지모두다
And all the little things I stubbornly refused to fix
