6.6 Making a Plan — Epoché
What you will be able to do Propose a meeting and fix a day and a time: 화요일에 만나요. and 내일 몇 시에 만날까요? Suggest doing something together, with the ending that makes a suggestion rather than a statement: 주말인데 영화 보러 갈까요? Decline without giving offence, in the two ways the corpus records: 죄송하지만 못하겠어요. and 시간 있는지 잘 모르겠어요. Ask what somebody did at the weekend and wish them a good one: 지난 주말에 뭐 했어요? and 좋은 주말 보내세요! Ask when something happens, including a birthday, in the register the person deserves. Prerequisites : 6.5, and the clock and calendar of 3.12 Grammar . The suggestion ending here is one you have met in lesson 3.7 without being told its name, and the future of lesson 3.10 does the rest. This lesson closes the conversations, and it is the one everything else was for. Arranging to meet somebody needs a day, a time, a place and an agreement, and Korean does each of those with a construction you already have. What it adds is the social half: how to propose without insisting, and how to decline without saying no, which in Korean is done by declaring uncertainty rather than refusal. Dialogue A Two friends of the same age arranging to meet at the weekend. Both use the polite style. 오늘 바쁘신가요? [5] Are you busy today? 내일 뭐 할 거예요? [7] What will you do tomorrow? 주말인데 영화 보러 갈까요? [8] It's the weekend, shall we go see a movie? 화요일에 만나요. [3] Let's meet on Tuesday. 내일 몇 시에 만날까요? [2] What time tomorrow should we meet up? 어디서 만날까요? [1] Where should we meet up? 이번 주말에 뭐 먹고 싶어요? [9] What do you want to eat this weekend? 친구를 만나서 영화를 봐요. [25] I meet my friend and watch a movie. 나중에 봐요. [33] See you later. The third, fifth and sixth lines all end the same way, and that ending is the one to take from this lesson. It makes a suggestion or a consultation out of any verb: shall we, should we, what about. It is softer than the plain polite form of lesson 3.7, which as a suggestion means "let us" and is closer to a decision than a proposal, and it is what you use when the other person might say no. Notice the order in the fifth line: tomorrow, then the hour, then the verb. The general comes before the specific, as it has since lesson 3.1, and English does the opposite, putting "tomorrow" at the end. Dialogue B A colleague inviting somebody who has to decline, and then the exchange about the weekend that follows a few days later. 주말인데 영화 보러 갈까요? [8] It's the weekend, shall we go see a movie? 시간 있는지 잘 모르겠어요. [6] I don't know if I have the time. 죄송하지만 못하겠어요. [22] I'm sorry, but I can't. 요즘 여행 준비하느라 아주 바쁘시지요? [30] Aren't you extremely busy preparing for your trip these days? 아마 내일 일찍 일어날 거예요. [24] I will probably get up early tomorrow. 좋은 주말 보내세요! [13] Have a nice weekend! 주말 재미있게 보냈어요? [12] Did you have a good weekend? 지난 주말에 뭐 했어요? [10] What did you do last weekend? 아버지를 만나러 왔어요. [27] I came to see my father. The second and third lines are the two ways of declining, and the first of them is the one worth copying. Saying that you do not know whether you have the time is not evasion in Korean; it is the standard soft refusal, and both sides understand it as one. A direct refusal, even the polite one in the third line, is stronger than its English translation and is used when the answer really is no. The fourth line is a question that supplies its own answer, which is a common Korean move and has no exact English equivalent. Asking whether somebody is not extremely busy is a way of accepting their refusal and giving them a reason for it at the same time. Learning to recognise it will save you from answering it as though it were a real question. Saying It Another Way Asking when something happens takes one word and three levels, and birthdays give the clearest set. Polite Polite, with the topic ending Respectful 생일이 언제예요? [15] 생일은 언제예요? [16] 생신은 언제세요? [17] The third uses a different noun, not a different ending. Korean has a respectful word for the birthday of somebody older, exactly as it has one for their name and one for their meal, and using the plain word about a grandmother's birthday is the same order of mistake as using the plain verb for her eating. The pattern is worth generalising: where a word concerns a person, Korean is likely to have two of it. Fixing a time uses the same frame as lesson 3.12 with any verb in it. Korean English 내일 몇 시에 만날까요? [2] What time tomorrow should we meet up? 몇 시에 출발해요? [18] At what time does it leave? 몇 시에 떠나요? [19] What time are you leaving? 몇 시에 문을 열어요? [20] What time do you open? 몇 시에 문을 닫아요? [21] What time do you close? 보통 몇 시에 아침에 드셔요? [31] What time do you usually eat breakfast? Only the verb changes. The two blocks at the front, the question word for how many and the counter for hours with the time ending, are fixed, and every appointment, departure and opening time in Korean is asked about with them. And two ways of wishing somebody a good weekend are attested, differing only in where the adjective goes. Korean English 좋은 주말 보내세요! [13] Have a nice weekend! 주말 잘 보내세요! [14] Have a good weekend! The first modifies the noun, as lesson 3.13 taught; the second modifies the verb with the adverb of lesson 3.8. Both are everyday, and the verb in both is the one from lesson 5.6 that means to send and to spend, which is why a weekend is something you send rather than have. New words Ten words. Read them cold. Cover the meanings and read these aloud: 생일 , 생신 , 출발하다 , 방학 , 관광 , 준비하다 , 아마 , 보통 , 요즘 , 이번 . Word Meaning Notes 생일 ko saeng'il a birthday Note for English speakers The plain word, used of your own and of anybody younger or the same age. 생신 ko saengsin a birthday (respectful) Note for English speakers Used of a parent, a grandparent or anybody senior. The two words are not interchangeable, any more than the two words for name are. 출발하다 ko chulbalhada to depart, to set off Note for English speakers Of a train, a bus or a person starting a journey. The verb for leaving in lesson 3.12 is about the place left rather than the departure. 방학 ko banghak a school holiday Note for English