6.3 Ordering Food — Epoché
What you will be able to do Get a table, ask for a menu you can read, and order, with nothing but a noun and one verb: 고기 주세요. Say that something is very good, that everything is good, and that something is too salty: 전부가 맛있어요! and 이 국 너무 짜요. Ask whether a dish contains meat, which is the one question a foreign visitor most often needs: 이것이 고기 들어가요? Ask for the bill and say how you will pay: 계산서 주세요. and 카드 돼요? Recognise the four attested ways of asking whether a card is accepted, and produce the shortest. Prerequisites : 6.2, and the food vocabulary of 5.4 Vocabulary . The counters you need for ordering two of anything are in lesson 5.3, and the request form of the verb for giving is from lesson 5.6. A restaurant is the easiest place in Korea to use the language, because the exchange is short, the vocabulary is finite and the other person wants the conversation to succeed. It is also where a beginner discovers that the grammar of this phase is enough: a noun, the polite request form of one verb, and a counter will order anything on any menu in the country. Dialogue A A customer arriving alone at an ordinary restaurant at lunchtime, and the person who works there. Both use the polite style throughout. 어서 오세요! [1] Welcome! 자리 있어요? [2] Are seats available? 영어 메뉴 있어요? [4] Do you have a menu in English? 이것이 고기 들어가요? [20] Does this food contain any meat? 고기로 할게요. [7] Meat, please. 물 좀 주세요. [9] Please give me some water. 맛있게 드세요. [12] Enjoy your meal! 아주 맛있어요! [15] Very delicious! 계산서 주세요. [21] Give me the bill, please. 카드 돼요? [25] Does my card work here? Count what the customer actually used: a question with the verb for existence, two more of the same shape, one order with the instrumental ending of lesson 3.3, one request, one compliment and two closing lines. Every one of them is a construction from the third volume, and none is longer than four blocks. The fourth line, about whether a dish contains meat, is the sentence a vegetarian visitor needs most and cannot easily paraphrase. Notice which side speaks first. The greeting at the door is said by the restaurant, not by the customer, and it is the one from lesson 5.1 that means literally "come quickly". A customer who greets first has not done anything wrong, but the ordinary sequence begins with the shop. Dialogue B Two friends eating together, with a third person ordering for the table. This one is about the food rather than the transaction, and the lines are the ones you say while eating. 한국 음식을 먹고 싶어요. [19] I want to eat Korean food. 가장 좋아하는 음식이 무엇입니까? [31] What is your favorite food? 생선 좋아해요? [33] Do you like fish? 저는 이거 할게요. [8] I'll do this. 맥주 두 잔 주세요. [11] Two beers, please. 맛있게 먹어요! [14] Bon appetit! 이 요리 맛있네요. [17] This dish is tasty. 이 국 너무 짜요. [18] This soup is too salty. 전부가 맛있어요! [16] Everything tastes good! 와인 한 병 더 주세요. [10] One more bottle of wine, please. 커피 마실래요? [28] Would you like some coffee? 현금으로 낼게요. [27] I'll pay in cash. The sixth and seventh lines are the two things to say about food, and they differ in more than politeness. One compliments the dish and the other says something is wrong with it, and in Korean the second is normal rather than rude: saying that a soup is too salty at a friend's table is a remark, not a complaint. Saying it in a restaurant to the person who cooked it is a complaint, and the same words do both jobs. The last line settles the bill. Offering to pay for everybody, with the commitment ending of lesson 3.10, is a normal move between friends in Korea and is often argued over; the loser pays next time. Saying It Another Way Four things you will say in a restaurant, each attested in more than one form. Shorter Longer What differs 계산서 주세요. [21] 계산서를 주세요. [22] the object ending, dropped in speech 영어 메뉴 있어요? [4] 영어 메뉴 있습니까? [5] polite against formal 자리 있어요? [2] 바다가 보이는 자리 있나요? [3] a modifying clause added in front 맛있게 드세요. [12] 맛있게 먹어요! [14] the respectful verb against the plain one The card question has four attested forms, which is worth a table of its own, because a learner will meet all four and need only the first. Korean English 카드 돼요? [25] Does my card work here? 신용카드 받으세요? [23] Do you accept credit cards? 크레디트 카드 받으세요? [24] Do you accept credit cards? 카드로도 지불할 수 있어요? [26] Can I pay with a credit card? The first is two blocks and does the whole job. The second and third are the same question with two different words for a credit card, one Sino-Korean and one a loanword, which is the pattern lesson 5.4 found with the two words for egg. The fourth uses the ability construction of lesson 3.6 and is the most explicit and the least necessary. A different softening is worth adding to any request. 물만 부탁드려요. [30] and 커피 한 잔 더 부탁드릴게요. [29] use a humble verb for asking rather than the verb for giving, and they are what you say when you are conscious of putting somebody to trouble. Neither is necessary and both are noticed. And one greeting belongs here rather than in lesson 5.1. 밥 먹었습니까? [32] asks whether you have eaten, and between people who know each other it is not a question about food at all. It is the equivalent of asking how somebody is, and the expected answer is that you have. New words Ten words. Read them cold. Cover the meanings and read these aloud: 계산서 , 신용카드 , 현금 , 전부 , 국 , 바다 , 보이다 , 다른 , 김치 , 맵다 . Word Meaning Notes 계산서 ko gyesanseo the bill Note for English speakers Built from the word for calculation plus an element meaning document, which also ends the words for a certificate and a report. 신용카드 ko a credit card Note for English speakers Sino-Korean for credit plus the loanword for card. The all-loanword version also exists and both are in use. 현금 ko hyeon'geum cash Note for English speakers Sino-Korean, literally present money. It takes the instrumental ending to say how you will pay. 전부 ko jeonbu all of it, everything Note for English speakers A noun, so it takes the subject ending and stands as the subject of an adjective. 국 ko guk soup Note for English speakers The thin s