Back to Basics: 감사합니다

Everyone needs help moving sometimes.
감사합니다: Thank you.
포장이사한: Packing and moving (probably slightly wrong)

Korean Komics

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A: I need a doctor! 의사가 필요해요!

B: I'm not a doctor. 저는 의사가 아니에요.

A: Just do it! 그냥 해!

B: Really, I'm not a doctor! 정말, 저는 의사가 아니에요.

B: I'm a chicken. 저는 닭이에요.

Yep.

Twitter, Pop, and the Korean Language

Image text: 또 여드름? 안돼!!!!!!

Translation: Pimple again? NO!!!!!!

Text and translation courtesy of @KoreanEveryDay on Twitter.

또: another

여드름: pimple/acne

안돼: no (seems to be stronger than 아니요 and more of an interjection, more of a "not that!" or an "oh god why" than a simple "no")

...so I didn't actually write this one, but it's a fun phrase, and it gives me a chance to point out a couple other websites that might be of interest to people learning Korean. The first is busyatom.com, which is actually where I found this phrase in the first place; BusyAtom.com also has some video lessons about Korean grammar that I find helpful.

While I'm talking about other websites, http://kpopcorn.com/ is a website whose tagline is "learn Korean with K-pop". I haven't really looked at the site much yet, but I think it's an interesting idea, and I might translate some lyrics in a future post.

Ice Cream

Korean text:

나는 비명질러.

너는 비명질러.

모두는 비명지르려고 아이스크림을 받아.

Intended translation:

I scream.

You scream.

We all scream for ice cream.

Notes:

Okay, so I realize it's not as catchy in Korean. I struggled a bit on the pronoun choice here, eventually settling on the informal '나' and '너' pronouns for I/you and '모두' (everyone) instead of '우리' for "we all". The last sentence is also crazy because of the "for..." part. I looked up prepositions for a while ("을위한" seemed like one possibility), but this seemed like a good opportunity to use a conjunctive form of the 비명지르다 verb, so I tried to do that (with ice cream as the direct object for the "to receive" verb in the second clause.

...what on Earth am I doing?

Edit: Google is currently translating my last sentence as "Ice cream is going to take all the screaming," which isn't quite correct. Google's suggestion for "receive ice cream" is "아이스크림을받을 수". Perhaps "모두는 아이스크림을 비명질러 받아" works? Or "모두는 아이스크림을 비명질러 받을 거야"?

Hello? Yes, this is dog.

Image text: 여보세요? 네, 개가예요.

Intended translation: Hello? Yes, this is dog.

For those of you who are wondering about the strange grammar in the intended English translation, the text is from this internet meme.

여보세요: hello

네: yes

개: dog

-예요: a variation of 이다 (to be)

I've edited the last part of this several times now. In my first attempt, I wrote it as "개가여요" then I changed that to "개가이여요" before changing it to "개여요" and finally "개예요".

Les Ananas Ne Parlent Pas

Image text: 파인애플들은 말안해요

Intended translation: Pineapples don't talk!

This image is, of course, a reference to the French TV series Téléfrançais that was produced by TVOntario back in the day (before I was born). The line "les ananas ne parlent pas" (pineapples don't talk) is repeated frequently in the first episode of the series. Apparently, there are a lot of people in Canada who know this one French line without knowing anything else in the language.

In my attempt to translate the phrase into Korean, I ran into a couple grammatical things I hadn't seen before. In particular, I needed to figure out how to negate a verb (I'm using the '안' particle-like-thingamajig here) and how pluralization works (I went with tacking on a '들' before the '은' subject identifier). Is any of this correct? I don't know, but I'm sure I'll find out sooner or later.

"jjiktta"

찍다: to spear, to stamp, to take a picture.

카메라: camera

창: spear

Edit: I guess I drew more of a 'stomp' than a 'stamp' but you can think of it as his foot stamping that thing's face with a footprint, maybe? Also, the thing that's being speared is supposed to be 물고기 (fish).