Post-239: [My Korean Essay] Mistakes by Foreigners in Korea

Our teacher’s usual whirlwind style whirled on as she handed out papers filled with small boxes, and let me try to approximate by using the written word what her speaking style feels like to listen to by which I mean lots of words without many breaks and accordingly you can hardly keep the logical flow of what’s going on and thus it gets confusing whereupon despite the strain you may feel somehow you’ve got to keep up since walking out and leaving the room is not possible and so when all is said and done you’ve got to figure something out. See what I mean? Hah. (If you read it quickly you can get some idea of what the class tends to feel like to me). But I digress.

There I was with my two sheets of paper full of boxes on them, puzzled. Han Teacher starts talking something about mistakes foreigners make in Korea, but as it sounds a bit to me like the previous paragraph may sound to you, I figure out what’s going on more through logical deduction than true understanding of the fine points of the instructions. We were to write about our own experiences making (humorous) mistakes in Korea.

In each box, there could only be one Korean character, or a space, so we were limited to a certain number of characters, 400 to be precise (closer to 300 if counting spaces). It was implied that we had to more-or-less fill in all the boxes and be done with it. Not less, not more.

Here is my essay in Korean (after corrections) and then a translation into English.

한국에서 했던 실수에 대한 글
한국에 있는 외국인들은 실수가 많다고 합니다. 저도 실수를 해본 적있습니다. 여기에 제가 했던 실수에 대해 성명하겠습니다.

먼저, 미국에서는 우리가 보통 집에 들어가면 신발을 벗지 않습니다. 하지만 한국에서는 한국인들이 항상 신발을 벗는 것 같습니다. 그래서 저는 실수를 했습니다. 제가 신발을 벗지않고 집에 들어갔습니다. 저는 한국인들은 왜 이렇게 신발에 대해서 조심하라고 궁금했습니다.

다 른 실수도 했습니다. 이전에 한국말을 잘 못했습니다. 문법을 잘 몰라서 재미있는 실수를 했습니다. 저는 “발표를 잘 할거예요” (영어로: “You will do well”) 말하고싶었지만, 저는 한국 문법을 잘 몰랐기때문에 “잘 거예요!”라고 이야기했습니다 (영어로: “You will sleep”!). 이런 재미있는 실수를 하고 지금까지 그 실수를 기억합니다.

A translation into English is below:

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An Essay About Mistakes Made in Korea
It is said that foreigners who are in Korea make many mistakes. I, too, have the experience of making mistakes. I will explain about mistakes I have made.

Firstly, in the USA we usually don’t take off our shoes when going into a house. However, in Korea it seems to me that Koreans always take off their shoes and so I have made this mistake. I didn’t take off my shoes when I entered a house. I wondered why Koreans care so much about taking off shoes all the time like that.

There is another mistake I have made. In the past, I didn’t know Korean well. As I didn’t know Korean grammar well, I made certain funny grammar mistakes. I tried to say to another student, “Tomorrow you will do well [on your presentation]” (“내일 잘 할거예요”) but because I didn’t yet know grammar well, I actually said “Tomorrow you will sleep”! (“내일잘 거예요”). This was a funny mistake so even now I remember that one.

Postscript: “You will do well” and “You will sleep” sound very similar. Trust me on this. The other student didn’t know Korean well, either, of course, and responded with a vigorous “Yes, I will sleep!!” (네, 잘 거예요!”). How about that! It’s a good thing no Koreans were around.