Teacher, 정말 미국으로 가세요?
Monday, July 7th, 2008Sorry that I’ve been absent from the blog in recent weeks…but I am returning this week with a 2-part post for your translation pleasure. My contract is finishing in less than 7 weeks, and I am leaving Korea. Here is the text from the letter I wrote to half of my students. The other half got slightly different, and simpler letters.
It was a really interesting experience. As I was thinking about doing it, I was a little daunted by the Korean I would have to use. I wasn’t sure I was up to the task. I couldn’t decide if I should start in English because then I could get the right emotions out, and look for translation help, or if I should just try to write from scratch in Korean….I decided to give it a go starting in Korean. I was really pleased with the results! KClass team, you can claim as much credit as you want for increasing my fluency to this level !^^
I’ll post the translation after a few days.
6학년 1반 친구들에게,
이제는 거의 여름 방학이잖아요. 많이 기대했죠? 오늘은 우리 마지막 수업인데요. 그래서 하고 싶은 말 있어서 이 편지를 썼어요. 여러분 4학년 때 2006년 8월에 제가 한국에 도착했잖아요. 그전에는 외국에서 산 적이 없어서 내 생활은 너무 재미있게 됐어요.
우리 첫 번째 직접 만난 날 기억하세요? 저는 학생이 거의 600명 있으니까 별로 기억 안나요. 그렇지만 날마다 큰소리로 “Good Morning”으로 행복한 표정으로 인사 해준걸 항상 기억 할 게요. 여러분 덕분에 아침마다 환영 받은 느낌이었어요.
수업 할 때 한국어를 거의 절대로 말 안 했잖아요. 영어를 익숙하게 만들려 그렇게 했거든요. 원어민 선생님이 영어로만 말했으면 좋겠어요. 왜냐하면 그것이 여러분들이 더 잘 듣고, 말하는 연습을 하게 하니까요! 그렇지만 영어를 많이 공부하지 않았으면 좀 힘든 거 나도 잘 알아요. 여러분 열심히 공부해 줘서 감사합니다. 수업 시간이 별로 길지 않고 계획한 만큼 못 가르쳤는데 아쉬워요. 어쨌든 여러분한테 외국어 공부 하는 것이 얼마나 재미 주고 싶었어요. 다음 학기에 새로운 원어민 선생님 오신다면서요. 걱정 너무 하지 마요. 다른 외국인 만나는 건 좋을 것 같아요. 그 선생님에 대해서 아무 것도 모르지만 우리 성북 학생 여러분들은 너무 착해서 새로운 선생님이랑 잘 맞을 것 같아요.
올해 가을에 해외여행갈 계획인데요. 중미에서 스페인어도 배우고 싶어요. 그 다음에 대학원으로 입학 할거예요. 궁금하면 여행갈 때 내가 뭐 하는지 알 수 있도록 사진과 편지들 학교로 보내줄게요. 그리고 앞으로 연락 하고 싶으면 이메일 꼭 보내줘요!
앞으로 영어를 열심히 공부할 때 틀린 거 나오면 걱정 하지 마요. 연습 많이 하면 유창하게 말하는 거 꼭 배울 수 있습니다. 부지런히 계속 하면 영어는 점점 더욱 쉽게 될 수 있어요.
마지막으로 2년 동안 아주 재미있었고 보람 있었어요. 여러분과 시간 지내서 즐겁게 보냈어요. 한국은 집 같은 나라 됐어요. 우리 성북초등학교 선생님들과 학생들이 가족처럼 대해줬어요. 세월이 흐르면 다시 만나지도 모르고, 얼마 후에 한국에서 떠나지만, 마음속에서 추억 가지고 갈 거예요. 여러분을 잊지 않을게요. 노인이 되면 여러분 다정하게 기억 할 거 예요.
사랑해요 여러분,
Mr. D 선생님 올림
And lest you think that I am a bad English teacher for writing in Korean, rest assured they will get the English version printed with it! But in reality, this letter is way over the heads of most student’s English ability….besides writing in Korean is a bit more fun anyway!
Posted by 오민 (Austin) in Learning Korean |
July 7th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
You’re going back to America? (That’s all I could understand!)
July 7th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Max..
^^ I am leaving Korea at the end of August…but will only be in the States for 3 weeks. Then I’m headed to Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala to study Spanish for around 4 months. Then it’s grad school in Portland, OR. (USA)
Try reading the letter again.. piece by piece. I think there are parts you will understand. One trick I use when reading something that is above my current vocabulary is to zero in on one or two words I don’t know. Usually finding the verbs and looking them up in my dictionary sheds A LOT of light and then I can work out the rest
(for example - from the 3rd paragraph)
수업 할 때 한국어를 거의 절대로 말 안 했잖아요.
영어를 익숙하게 만들려 그렇게 했거든요.
The first sentence says “During class I almost never spoke in Korean”
In the second sentence, 영어 and 그렇게 are pretty easy. ~거든요 has been covered at least once or twice on KClass.
That might leave you with 익숙하게 and 만들려 했(거든요). Two verbs.
익속하다 (to grow accustomed to)
만들다 (to make)
The trick is to recognize those two as conjugated verbs and then pull out their dictionary form.
So, here’s my method:
ㅇㅇ하게 is just about guarranteed to be in your dictionary as ㅇㅇ하다 . -게 just makes it adverb.
만들려 when I see a word with a 려 at the end and I suspect it’s a verb I’ll look for it as ㅇㅇ리. Verbs ending with l get conjugated to ㅕ.
That’s NOT the case here because it is connected to 했(거든요). This grammar has also been covered in the past at KClass. It’s the past tense of ~(하)려 하다. (I intend to do something, or in the case to this sentence, I did x in order to do y)
So… that second sentence one again:
영어를 익숙하게 만들려 그렇게 했거든요
literally (english to become accustomed make in order to like that did)
I did that to make you accustomed to English.
I did that so you would become accustomed to English.
Sorry for the incredibly long-winded reply…but I think it’s important to be willing to tackle things that look too difficult. It often isn’t as hard as you first make it out to be. You can usually get SOMETHING out ot it!
여러분… 화이팅!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Austin, this is an awesome letter! Very touching too! I’m sure this will be an unforgettable letter for all of your students !!! ^^
July 8th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
That’s such a nice idea! I’m sure this is something your students will always remember.
One thing that has always confused me about Korean… you’re writing this letter to 12-year-olds, yet you use polite, even honourific language at some points. Of course, I know normally to kids one should use 반말, because otherwise it sounds unnatural. But, I get the sense that that rule gets changed when writing something formal– even to children.
설명 좀 해 주실래요?
July 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
고마워요 현우!!
Daniel,
Yeah, I wasn’t too sure about that either..but 현우 suggested that 존댓말 is appropriate. And if I was actually having a conversation with my students, I would probably use more 반말… But I do hear plenty of occasions when teachers use ~하세요 and ~습니다 etc. when addressing the whole class. Also, I’ve seen movies where students will address their class in a similar setting, and the language also shits up in politeness.
Some of the phrases are also just standard… I don’t ever say or hear 감사해요 it always 감사합니다
July 10th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[…] If you tried to follow along at home and translate the letter I shared, great! If not, then file it away in your “come back to sometime” folder and take another crack at it! […]