She is pushing the limits.

Hi. Recently, the US president Barack Obama signed a bill to repeal "Don't ask don't tell" policy. Not only this is a significant event to many gay people, it also is a good news to all of us because the world is becoming more tolerant towards people with different beliefs and choices in life. Lady Gaga had a strong voice on this and she was recognized for her work. She and her 25 million fans on facebook can certainly contribute to making the world a better place. I wish Dalai Lama had 25 million fans on his facebook page. We will be able to change the world much faster following his simple teaching: kindness and compassion towards other beings, without seeing an eyesore like a meat dress or a US-airport-security-proof transparent dress. I am a little scared of what Lady Gaga is capable of now. Do I just need to work on my tolerance? :P


She is pushing the limits.
별의별 짓을 다 하네요.


별의별, byolebyol, all sorts of
짓을, jitsol, an act + suffix
다, da, all
하네요, haneyo, do (하다)


별의별 짓을 다 하네요.
byolebyol jitsol da haneyo.


별 alone means something outstanding or special. 별의별 or 별별 literally means all kinds of things. They may carry some negative nuance depending on the context. For example:

A: Thank you for our help.
B: 별 말씀을요. (Don't mention it. Literally, You are making a special mention.) - neutral

A: What did you see at the zoo?
B: 별의별 동물을 다 봤어요. (I saw all kinds of animals.) - neutral

A: I saw you littering before. That is not nice.
B: 별 꼴이야. (Mind your own business. Literally, Right, you are so special.) - negative

A: What if the world ends in 2012?
B: 별의별 걱정을 다하네. (You have too much time on your hands. Literally, You are worrying about everything.) - negative

짓 is an act in a negative way. So "별의별 짓" means all kinds of acts that is not really positive.

The world will never be perfect. But we can make it less ridiculous. Cheers! :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Please top up 5000 won on my card.

Hi all. Isn't it daunting to figure out a bus fare, find the right coins or notes and make sure you get the correct changes and so on when you visit a country for the first time? I hereby declare that it is a thing in the past! :) We have something called T-money which you can use on bus, taxi and subway in Seoul and some other cities. You can even use it at a convenient store to pay for the goods. Most convenient stores sell T-money cards and you can top up T-money from there too. So use this when you visit Seoul if you don't want to come back with a bag full of coins. :) Please top up 5000 won on my T-money card. 티머니 카드에 오천원 충전해 주세요. 티머니, T-money, T-money 카드에, cardae, card + suffix 오천원, ohchunwon, 5000 + won 충전해, chungjonhae, recharge (충전하다) 주세요, jusaeyo, give me (주다) 티머니 카드에 오천원 충전해 주세요. T-money cardae ohchunwon chungjonhae jusaeyo. The won is the Korean currency. Thanks to the inflation over the past half-century, the numbers are quite big compared to their value. Your ch...
Read more

From which exit should we meet?

Hi guys. Let's say, you have arrived at your subway station safely. That's great! But it is too soon to be relieved. You have accomplished only a half of the challenge and the second half is finding the right exit. :) You will see what I mean if you take a look at this map . It is where the city hall is and shows how many subway stations multiplied by the number of exits are concentrated in a small area. So, include the right exit number to your planning before you travel. A subway exit is great for a meeting spot so this expression might be helpful. :) From which exit should we meet? 몇번 출구에서 만날까요? 몇번, myotbun, which number 출구에서, chulgooaeso, exit + suffix 만날까요, mannalggayo, should we meet? (만나다) 몇번 출구에서 만날까요? myotbun chulgooaeso mannalggayo? 몇 means 'some unknown number' and 번 is a count word. There are different ways of counting in Korean as describe here . In short, '일, 이, 삼..' style is used for things in order while '하나, 둘, 셋..' style is for counting...
Read more

And then, and then

I have a couple of international colleagues at work. They are quite eager to learn Korean so I teach or correct them whenever I have a chance. Yesterday, we were going to have coffee after lunch and one guy said, "밥 먹은 다음에 커피 마셔요" It is totally correct. But we can also say, "밥 먹고 나서 커피 마셔요". Let's have coffee after lunch. 밥 먹고 나서 커피 마셔요. 밥 먹은 다음에 커피 마셔요. 식사하고 나서 커피 마셔요. 식사한 다음에 커피 마셔요. 밥, 식사, meal ~고 나서, after something ~은/는 다음에, after something 마시다, drink 마셔요, let's drink 밥 먹고 나서 커피 마셔요. bab mokgo naso kopi mashoyo. 밥 먹은 다음에 커피 마셔요. bab mokun daumae kopi mashoyo. 식사하고 나서 커피 마셔요. siksahago naso kopi mashoyo. 식사한 다음에 커피 마셔요. siksahan daumae kopi mashoyo. One of the hardest things of learning any language is the fact that there are usually more than one way of saying the same thing. But knowing different expressions for the same meaning will make your speaking more rich! Hope you don't give up!! :-)
Read more