7.2 My Family — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read a second text of nineteen sentences without a dictionary, introducing a household. Recognise the honorific verb form when the subject is a grandparent: 할아버지는 아침 일찍 일어나셔요. Read the shortest complete sentences in Korean, which have no subject because they are said while pointing: 내 딸이에요. See the possessive dropped and contracted in one paragraph: 내 아들이에요. and 제 아내예요. Answer six questions about a text in English, without translating it first. Prerequisites : 7.1, which explained what a controlled composition is and how this course builds one. The kinship words are from 5.2 Vocabulary and the copula from lesson 3.5. The second text is built exactly as the first was: nineteen sentences, every one of them quoted verbatim from this course's corpus, arranged into seven short paragraphs. Nothing has been composed. The subject this time is a household, and the reason for choosing it is that Korean kinship vocabulary and Korean honorifics are the two systems a learner cannot see working until they see them working together, which is what a family description does. Word by word The nineteen sentences with the job of each block. Read the middle column across once, then read the Korean again without it. Korean Block by block English 나는 작은 아파트에 살아요. 작은 modifier · 아파트에 static location · 살아요 state verb I live in a small apartment. 저는 7년 동안 한국에서 살았어요. 7년 동안 duration · 살았어요 past I lived in Korea for seven years. 우리는 가족같이 친해요. 가족같이 like a family · 친해요 adjective We are close like family. 아버지를 만나러 왔어요. 아버지를 object · 만나러 purpose · 왔어요 past I came to see my father. 그는 의사예요. 그는 topic · 의사예요 noun and copula He's a doctor. 그는 좋은 사람이에요. 좋은 modifier form of an adjective He is a good person. 그녀는 예뻐요. 예뻐요 irregular adjective as predicate She is beautiful. 그녀는 동화를 좋아해요. 동화를 object · 좋아해요 transitive verb She likes fairy tales. 할아버지는 아침 일찍 일어나셔요. 할아버지는 topic · 일어나셔요 honorific verb My grandfather gets up early. 저는 항상 바빠요. 항상 adverb · 바빠요 irregular adjective I'm busy all the time. 내 딸이에요. 내 contracted possessive · 딸이에요 noun and copula She is my daughter. 내 아들이에요. the same shape He's my son. 제 아내예요. 제 the humble contracted possessive She's my wife. 우리 빵을 먹어요. 우리 bare subject · 빵을 object We eat bread. 우리는 저녁을 먹고 있어요. 우리는 topic · 먹고 있어요 progressive We're having dinner. 저는 학생이에요. 저는 humble topic I am a student. 저는 아직 학교에 다녀요. 아직 adverb · 다녀요 habitual verb I'm still in school. 나는 한국어를 공부해요. 한국어를 object · 공부해요 verb built on a noun I'm learning Korean. 나중에 봐요. 나중에 time ending · 봐요 contracted verb See you later. The ninth line is the only one in the text with an honorific verb, and it is there because its subject is a grandparent. Lesson 5.2 said that this was compulsory when speaking about one's own elders and left the system for the second phase; here it is, one syllable inserted into an ordinary verb, and a reader who does not expect it will not recognise the word. The fifth paragraph is the shortest and the most Korean. Three sentences, two blocks each, no subject in any of them, and every one of them completely clear because it is said while pointing at a photograph. English cannot begin a sentence with a possessive and stop there; Korean does it constantly. Two forms of the possessive appear in that paragraph. The first two use the plain contraction and the third uses the humble one, which is the pair from lesson 3.4. Nothing in the text explains the switch, and a careful reader will notice it and wonder, which is the right response. The humble form lowers the speaker before the listener, so the third sentence is said more deferentially than the first two; it says nothing about the wife herself. Each sentence is also quoted from a different source, and the switch is one of the places where the joins show. Full translation An English translation of the whole text, made for this course and kept close to the original. The numbers are the paragraph numbers of the original text, so you can move between the two. I live in a small apartment. I lived in Korea for seven years. We are close like family. I came to see my father. He's a doctor. He is a good person. She is beautiful. She likes fairy tales. My grandfather gets up early. I'm busy all the time. She is my daughter. He's my son. She's my wife. We eat bread. We're having dinner. I am a student. I'm still in school. I'm learning Korean. See you later. Questions on the text Answer in English, without translating the whole text first. How many people are mentioned, and which of them are described by their occupation? Which sentence has an honorific verb, and how do you know the verb is honorific rather than simply unfamiliar? Three sentences in the text have only two blocks and no subject. Find them and say what makes them clear. Two different contractions of the possessive appear in one paragraph. Say what the difference is. Find the two sentences in the past and the one in the progressive. The word for "we" appears twice, once bare and once with an ending. Say what the ending adds. Words in this text Read them cold. Cover the meanings and read these aloud: 동화 , 아파트 , 가족 , 의사 , 딸 , 아들 . Word Meaning Notes 동화 ko donghwa a fairy tale What it is doing here The only word in this text that has not appeared in an earlier lesson. It is Sino-Korean, built from the elements for child and story. 아파트 ko apateu a flat; a high-rise estate What it is doing here From lesson 2.3, where it was one of the twenty-five loanwords whose Korean meaning is not the English one. 가족 ko gajok a family What it is doing here From lesson 5.2, and here with the word for "our" rather than "my", as that lesson said it would be. 의사 ko uisa a doctor What it is doing here From lesson 3.2, in the same construction it had there: a noun and the copula. 딸 ko ttal a daughter What it is doing here From lesson 3.5, here in one of the shortest complete sentences in the course. 아들 ko adeul a son What it is doing here From lesson 3.5, in the same shape. Practice Read it aloud twice. Read the