Don't want to lift a finger.

Hi all. I was flying to go overseas a few weeks ago. It is exciting except the fact that Australia is so far away from everywhere. Luckily, I sleep very well on the plane. A few hours into this flight, I woke up from sleep and tried to turn on the personal TV which happened to be touchscreen. I was still half asleep as I was touching the screen. My brain was not quite figuring out that the hand was mine and thought "Looking at these long fingers, this person much be really lazy...". In Korea, we think that the long fingers indicate the laziness of the person. True or not... You know how Korean people can be quite direct about personal things. E.g. Asking "How old are you?" is socially very acceptable in Korea. It is also quite common for Korean people, especially between friends, to comment on the physical features. I had many people telling me that I had lazy fingers. I could not object because it is quite true for me. :)


손가락 하나 까딱하기 싫네요.
I don't want to lift a finger.


손가락, songgarak, finger
하나, hana, one
까딱하기, ggadakhagi, move slightly (까딱하다)
싫네요, silleyo, don't want to


손가락 하나 까딱하기 싫네요.
songgarak haha ggadakhagi silleyo.


까딱하다 is a kind of movement when you slightly node you head. A very subtle move with no impact. And it can be used to warn a situation that has no room for mistake.

까딱 잘못하면 다친다.
You will get hurt if things go wrong slightly.

까딱하면 큰일 난다.
It will become a big trouble if not careful.

I was pretty lazy when I was living with my parents. Probably that's why I still don't know how to make Kimchi. My mother used to say something like 어떻게 집에서 손가락 하나 까딱 안하니? (How come you don't life a finger at home?) and did all the housework. She has short fingers, of course. I miss her.

Anyway, now you know the reason why the uploads are not regular these days. It's my fingers!!! ;)

Comments

  1. Daniel KovacicJune 29, 2011 at 11:38 PM

    I must say that I totally agree with this aspect of Korean culture, for my fingers are the complete opposite of yours, and as such I intend to display them with pride to all as very lively and hardworking fingers, despite the fact that they look like short Italian sausages to me :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. MinJune 30, 2011 at 12:19 AM

    Good for you, Daniel! :)

    ReplyDelete

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