6.2 Where Are You From — Epoché
What you will be able to do Ask and answer where somebody is from, where they were born and where they live, which Korean keeps as three separate questions: 어디 출신이세요? Say what languages you are learning and how well you speak them: 한국어를 배우고 있어요. and 저는 프랑스어를 조금 합니다. Use the two constructions for ability, one of which you met in lesson 3.6: 영어를 할 수 있어요. Build the name of any language from the name of its country, and use it as the object of one verb. Hear the same question at four levels and answer at the level it was asked. Prerequisites : 6.1, which opened the conversation. The vocabulary is from 5.1 Vocabulary , and the constructions for living somewhere and being able to do something are from lessons 3.3 and 3.6. English collapses three questions into one. "Where are you from" can mean where you were born, where you grew up or where you live now, and the answer is expected to sort it out. Korean asks each separately, with a different verb for each, and a learner who answers the question about birth with the name of the city they moved to last year has not answered it. This lesson separates the three, and then takes the other half of the conversation, which in Korea is almost always about languages. Dialogue A Two students at a language class, both about the same age, comparing notes after the first session. Both use the polite style of this phase. 어디에서 오셨어요? [1] Where are you from? 교토에서 태어났어요. [2] I was born in Kyoto. 도쿄에 살고 있어요. [3] I live in Tokyo. 어떤 언어를 배우고 있어요? [4] What languages are you learning? 한국어를 배우고 있어요. [5] I'm learning Korean. 저는 한국어를 한국에서 배웠어요. [7] I learned Korean in Korea. 영어를 할 줄 아세요? [8] Do you speak English? 영어를 할 수 있어요. [9] I can speak English. 외국어를 좋아해요. [10] I like foreign languages. Notice that the second speaker answers the first question with a birthplace and then adds a residence unprompted. That is the normal shape of the answer: the two facts are different and a Korean gives both, because neither alone settles the question. Notice too that the verb in the second line is in the past and the verb in the third is a progressive, which is exactly the distinction lesson 3.9 made between an event and a present state. The seventh and eighth lines are two ways of talking about ability. The question uses a construction that is treated properly in the second phase; the answer uses the one from lesson 3.6, a small noun meaning "a way" plus the verb for existing. Both are everywhere, and the answer is the one to produce. Dialogue B A Korean colleague asking a foreign newcomer about themselves, at work. The Korean speaker uses respectful forms and the newcomer answers in a mixture of polite and formal, which is what a learner in a workplace actually does. 어디 출신이세요? [11] Where are you from? 저는 러시아 사람입니다. [12] I'm Russian. 어디에서 태어나셨어요? [13] Where were you born? 한국에서 태어났어요. [14] I was born in Korea. 어떻게 외국어를 배우나요? [17] How do you learn foreign languages? 내친구는 한국어를 공부해요. [16] My friend studies Korean. 저는 프랑스어를 조금 합니다. [18] I speak French a little. 일본어를 배워야 해요. [19] I have to learn Japanese. 한국어를 배우고 싶어요. [20] I want to learn Korean. The second and fourth lines together are the shape of a real answer from somebody whose nationality and birthplace do not match, which is a common enough situation and one English handles badly. Korean handles it by keeping the two questions apart: one asks about belonging and takes the copula, the other asks about an event and takes a past verb. The seventh line is the single most useful sentence in this lesson for a beginner. Saying that you speak a language a little, with the adverb in front of the verb, is both honest and idiomatic, and a Korean who hears it will slow down rather than switch to English. Denying all knowledge, with the ability negative of lesson 3.8, ends the Korean conversation immediately. Saying It Another Way Four questions, each attested at several levels. Read across. Plain Polite Formal 어디에서 태어났어? [21] 어디에서 태어났나요? [22] 어디에서 태어나셨습니까? [23] 어디서 오셨어요? [24] 어디에서 오셨어요? [1] 어디에서 오셨습니까? [25] 한국어를 해요. [26] 한국어를 말해요. [27] 한국어를 할 수 있어요. [6] 도쿄에 살아요. [28] 도쿄에 살고 있어요. [3] 저는 한국에서 살고 있어요. [29] A fifth pair belongs here and does not fit the table, because the two differ in word order rather than in level. 외국어는 어떻게 배워요? [15] puts the topic first and asks about the manner; 어떻게 외국어를 배우나요? [17] puts the question word first. Both are polite, both are attested, and the difference is emphasis, which is the freedom lesson 3.1 promised: everything before the verb may be rearranged. The third row is not a difference of politeness but of emphasis, and it is worth separating from the others. Saying that you do a language is the shortest claim; saying that you speak it names the activity; saying that you are able to speak it is a claim about capacity. All three are polite and all three are attested, and a learner who can produce the first can be understood in a shop. The fourth row shows the same thing with residence. The simple present says where you live as a fact; the progressive says the same thing with a little more sense of the present arrangement, and it is the commoner of the two in speech. English has no comparable pair, since "I live" and "I am living" differ in a way Korean does not copy. One more piece of practical advice. A Korean will almost certainly ask why you are learning Korean, and the corpus gives you the raw material for an answer: a sentence saying that you want to learn it, a sentence saying that you like foreign languages, and a sentence saying that you want to visit the country. Any of the three is a complete answer and none of them needs grammar you do not have. New words Ten words. Read them cold. Cover the meanings and read these aloud: 출신 , 언어 , 러시아 , 터키 , 도시 , 삶 , 룸메이트 , 아랍어 , 중국어 , 일본어 . Word Meaning Notes 출신 ko chulsin origin, where somebody is from Note for English speakers A noun taking the copula, so the question is literally "are you of what origin". It covers a country, a region, a city or a university. 언어 ko