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Showing posts from September, 2011

What do you do for a living?

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Hi. I have been living in an English speaking country for about ten years now. But the language barrier is still high. I tried to pick the best way to say something before I open my mouth, however too often I sound awkward. So I understand when other people make similar mistakes. I trust their good intention. Like today, someone whose English is not very good asked me "Are you still working?" after saying hi. I assumed she was asking if I worked today. It was a lot better than hearing someone asking me "Are you still single??" out of nowhere. :) Today, someone asked me on facebook how to say "What do you do for a living?" And I was trying to think of the most safe expression for most situations. What do you do for a living? 하시는 일이 뭐에요? 하시는, hasinun, polite form of 하다 meaning do 일이, yli, work or job + suffix 뭐에요, muoeyo, what is it 하시는 일이 뭐에요? hasinun yli muoeyo 하시는 일 means "work that you do" with politeness because of -시- variatio

That is way more than needed.

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Hi. Sometime ago, I was thinking why I hadn't been reading much in the last few years. Having thought of the reason seriously, after a while, it became obvious. I wasn't reading because I didn't have a Amazon Kindle. Who reads paper books these days?! ( Borders closed ) I ordered a Kindle the next day and it arrived within a few days. I loved it. I "downloaded" a bunch of "e-books" immediately. And I loved it more! Since I don't like my gadgets being scratched, I decided to buy a cover for my Kindle as well. I went to amazon.com and browsed the covers. There were many at different prices with some covers as expensive as $125! A $125 cover to protect a $139 device? If I bought that one, I would need to get another cover to protect the cover. It was definitely much more than I needed. That is way more than needed. 배보다 배꼽이 더 크네요! 배보다, baeboda, belly + suffix for comparison 배꼽이, baeggobi, belly button + suffix 더, duo, more 크네요, kneyo, big 배보

That is really petty.

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Hi there. I am following news in IT industry as part of my job. Recently, patent lawsuits are increasing a lot between mobile phone makers namely, Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, HTC and so on. At this point, no one seems to be completely innocent because they are suing each other. Some months ago, Apple sued Samsung claiming that the offender copied their unique form factor, a black square with rounded corners to be blunt. What do other companies have to do not to copy black square form factor? A phone of a yellow triangular shape? Anyway, later one claimed that Apple had manipulated the evidence so that Samsung products look more like theirs. Hmm... Isn't that mean, or what? That is really petty. 정말 치사하네요. 정말, jeongmal, really 치사하네요, chisahaneyo, petty/mean/shameful (치사하다) 정말 치사하네요. jeongmal chisahaneyo. 치사하다 is to accuse someone for being mean or petty.  To say someone is acting petty, you can say "치사하게 굴다". Here, "-게 굴다(gulda)" means acting

This is really making me angry!

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Hi. I went to university in Korea when there were a lot of anti-government activities among students. I was never that political before but somehow I got involved heavily. During the summer of the second year, there was a massive protest in Seoul. It went on for three days and we were roaming about the city to avoid the police. The event ended without a big drama but our luck ran out there. On the way to our hometown, we all fell asleep on a chartered bus. And when we woke up, the bus was conveniently parked in front of a police station. D'oh!! All of us were arrested and sentenced to a few days in cells at the back of the police station. I was locked up for five days and it was enough to feel what it was like to loose freedom. I still remember the freshness of the air when I got released. And I swore to God that I would never do anything that could risk my freedom again. Never! But then, news like this  (constructing a military base on a tourism island and suppressing people who w