#lets eat

Okay so I just got inspired by a video by the youtuber Dramamaster and their most recent video and wouldn’t it be cool if there was an MBTI like personality typing system for Kdrama watchers? What drama watcher personality type do you have? I’m an OFBJ

Watcher type 

O- Ongoing Watchers (Drama fans that watch dramas as new episodes are released weekly)

L- Late Watchers (Drama fans that don’t start the drama until the last episode has premiered and all episodes are available on a streaming service to binge in one go) 

Q- Quitters (Drama fans that try to get through dramas but usually end up quitting the drama when it starts to lose steam and drags out towards the end/ Drama fans that take long breaks between episodes and go back to the drama after) 

Reactions 

F- The Over- Feeler (Drama fans that find them selves crying after every emotional scene)

A- The Angry Fan (drama fans that find them selves getting genuinely angry with the character/ the characters actions/ the treatment of the character by the writers of the show) 

I- The Indifferent Fan (They don’t get too invested with the emotions of the drama and they don’t let it affect them as much as others)

Support (who are you rooting for?)

M- Main Lead Lovers ( Drama fans that actually enjoy when the main lead ends up with their main counterpart, typically enjoy the predictability of dramas and like seeing the two mains relationship blossom)

S- Second Main Lead Lovers (Drama fans that often root for the underdog and root for the main lead to end up with the second main lead, often has second male lead syndrome and roots for them even though they’re well aware that they may never get together)

B- Bromance Lovers (Drama fans that are honestly there to watch their to experience the friendship and often enjoys scenes between the main character’s and their best friends rather than their love interests)

After

C- Content creators (After the drama ends they keep the drama alive in their hearts and everyone elses’ by sharing the drama and creating posts and reviews about to share with the public)

J- Jokers (Drama fans that keep the drama alive by constantly quoting inside jokes from the drama that really only people that have watched the drama understand)

H- Memory Holder (Drama fans that constantly rewatch the drama over and over because they just love it) 

Unfortunately, 식샤를 합시다 2 has been removed from Netflix, which means that I have lost access to the Korean subtitles for the show. Although I could transcribe it by ear, it would take a lot of extra time and I’d risk making mistakes, so instead this blog will be introducing a new show to study from! Stay posted to see which drama we’ll be studying next. 나중에 봐요!

ㄴ/은/는가 보다 is a grammatical form used to indicate that what is being said is a guess or supposition. This is very similar to 것 같다, however the main difference between these two forms is that ㄴ/은/는가 보다 is only used when you have some kind of strong evidence to think that way. 

Yonsei University explains this difference really well in their video which you can find here. If you were to look at a picture of some delicious looking food, then you could say 맛있을 것 같아요. If the food looks good, then it’s reasonable to assume that it probably tastes good too. Yet, there is no actual concrete evidence that it will taste good. It could look amazing and still taste awful. Because of this, you can’t use ㄴ/은/는가 보다 since there needs to be clear evidence. A good way to translate the difference would be like this:

것 같다 - It seems / I think / It’s probably
ㄴ/은/는가 보다 - It must be

Here are some more examples:

Excuse me, could I please get some kimchi fried rice, kimchi jeon, kimchi jjigae, and lots of kimchi side dishes.
조기요, 김치볶음밥 하나랑 김치전 하나랑 김치 찌개 하나랑 김치 반찬 많이 주세요.
Woah, that foreigner must love kimchi!
와, 그 외국인이 김치를 좋아하는가 봐요!

Student: Ugh, what is this?!
학생: 애이, 이게 뭐야?!
Exam invigilator: I guess the test is really difficult.
시험 감독관: 시험이 어려운가 봐요.

This grammar form is conjugated differently depending on whether it’s used with a verb or an adjective. Here are the usage rules:

V+ 은/는가 보다
A+ ㄴ/은가 보다

There is also a shorted version of this form, which is used much more commonly than this full version. The shortened version is 나보다. This version is useful for us as Korean learners since this version doesn’t have any variations depending on usage. You can simply take the word stem and add 나보다. This is the version which is used in the scene. Do-Yeon says ‘천하의 보험왕도 별수 없나 봐요,’ meaning that in this world, even being the king of insurance must not be anything special.

When literally translated, 한 사람 means ‘one person’. The actual meaning of this grammar isn’t too far off the literal translation. This grammatical rule can be used to say ‘the person who’, or ‘the one who’. As with the English equivalent, this is used to highlight the person in particular who carried out a certain action. Here are some examples:

They were all destroyed. Even the (one who was) the last man.
그들은 모두 처치되었다. 마지막 한 사람까지.

She is the only one who is suited to the job.
그녀가 그일자리에 맞는 단 한 사람이다.

Who is the one who said that this movie was good (it’s terrible and I want to pick a fight).
이 영화 재미있다고 한 사람누구야?!

Which one of you said that it wasn’t going to be cold here? (I didn’t bring a jacket and it’s your fault).
여기 안 춥다고 한 사람누구야?

In this scene, Kyu-Sik is saying ‘아이, 그래도 이년 연속 보험왕까지 한 사람인데요.’ In our last lesson, we went through how the use of the auxiliary 까지 creates the meaning ‘Even for the insurance king?!’. Without 한 사람, this would be a perfectly fine sentence which conveys the same meaning. 한 사람 just adds the nuance of asking how can De-Young in particular be having a hard time since he’s the person who’s held the title of insurance king for 2 years running. It allows the suggestion that De-Young should be exempt from having a hard time due to his skills, but times are so difficult that even he is struggling.

Many Korean learners begin their studies by learning very basic grammar such as 도, 고, 서, 요, etc. One of the most commonly learned grammar rules at this stage is 부터 and 까지. In most situations, 까지 is used in this way to mean ‘to’ or ‘until’, however in this scene, it is an alternative usage of 까지. This form is the auxiliary form.

When used as the auxiliary form, 까지 is used to express that something has extended to an extreme or surprising extent. This can often be translated to ‘even’. Here is an example:

My friend ate japchae, bindaetteok, and kimchi jjigae. They even ate octopus!
친구가 잡채와 빈대떡과 김치찌개를 먹었어요. 문어까지먹었어요!

Here, you could say 문어도 먹었어요 - they ate octopus too. However, 까지 adds a nuance of surprise or something being beyond expectations, which is much more useful in this statement to show that it was shocking that their friend tried octopus. Here are some more uses of this grammar form:

I even did all my homework too!
나는 숙제까지 다 했어!

I lost my phone and even my wallet.
핸드폰도 없어졌는데 지갑까지잃어버렸어요.

I was already late but I even missed my bus.
늦었는데 버스까지늫졌어요.

In the previous scene that we studied, Do-Yeon was saying that from what she remembers, it’s hard to make money nowadays. In this scene, Kyu-Sik responds saying ‘아이, 그래도 이년 연속 보험왕까지 한 사람인데요.’ Here, 까지 is being used to say ‘What? Even for the person who was the insurance king for two consecutive years?!’

‘더 and 던

더 is a grammar particle which is used to show that something is being remembered from the past. If you combine 더 and -ㄴ/은, this grammar particle becomes 던. The most common usage of this form is when you are remembering something that has changed, or which is from your past.

This may seem like a small nuance but it is important to learn as it’s a very common form and if you as a Korean learner use it, it will make your sentences sound more natural by giving some variation and emotion to what you say. Here is an example:

A small house
작은 집

A house that I remember being small
작던 집

ㅆ던

던데(요)

Once you understand the other forms of 던, 던데(요) is very simple to understand as it just combines 던 and 는데(요). Again, this adds nuance, as it more or less translates to ‘but I remember’, or ‘I remember…though’. 

In the show, Do-Yeon says ‘가뜩이나 요즘 돈벌이도 시원찮은 것 같던데’. Translated, this means ‘moreover, from that I remember (던데) it seems (것 같다) hard to make money these days’. 

것 같아(요)

것같아(요) is the combination of the 는 것 principle and the verb 같다, meaning to be similar or the same. There are a few different ways that it can be translated: it might, it seems like, I think, or probably. The main idea that combines all of these translation is that an assumption is being made based on pre-existing information.

The conjugation rules of this form are:
Past tense               ㄴ/은 것 같다
Present tense          는 것 같다
Future tense            ㄹ/을 것 같다

It seems like it will rain.
비가올 것 같아요.

We’ll probably be late.
우리는 늦을 것 같아.

It seems like he’s on his break.
그를 휴식을 하는 것 같아요.

I think mom is waiting.
엄ㅁ아는 기다리고 있는 것 같아.

Teacher, I think you probably studied a lot.
선생님이 열심하 공부한 것 같아요.

I think the boss already did all of the work.
부장님이 그 일을 이미 다 한 것 같아요.

Another thing to note is that although this form is always written as 것 같아(요), you may hear people say it as 같애(요). This is still exactly the same form, and it actually a more natural way of saying it.

대요

If you’ve been following this blog so far, or if you’re an intermediate learner, you should be able to pick this form up really easily. 대요 is simply the contracted version of the quoting form 다고 하다. It’s usually only used in informal conversation. Here is a quick recap of the 다로 하다 form in case you’ve forgotten.

Active verb stem + ㄴ/는다고 하다
Descriptive verb stem + 다고 하다

I said that I want to go.
가고 싶다고 했어요.
가고 싶대요.

Did you say that you like kimchi?
제가 김치를 좋아한다고 했어요?
제가 김치를 좋아한대요?

래요

재요

Again, 재요 is a contracted quotation form, this time relating to the command quotation form 자고 하다.

I said let’s go.
가자고 했어요.
가재요.

아/어 봤자

This principle has a few different ways that it can be translated in English depending on how it is used, but the main purpose of it is to express futility. Because of this, translations can include ‘don’t bother’, ‘there’s no point’, ‘it’s a waste of time’, or ‘even if you try X, Y will happen anyway’. Here are some examples:

There’s no point talking to my parents honestly, they won’t believe me.
부모님은 내가 솔직하게 말해 봤자 내 말을 믿지 않으실 거예요.

Even if you go now, you’ll be late anyway.
지금가 봤자 늦었을 거예요.

Don’t bother going.
가 봤자예요.

In this scene, Kyu-sik asked Do-yeon if Dae-young eventually paid all of the settlement money. Do-yeon is responding by highlighting that he had to, mentioning that…
Even if he tried to take the problem to court, it would just be a waste of time and money.
어차피 이런 싸움 재판까지 가 봤자 시간 버리고, 돈 버리는 거.

You may also see (으)나 마나 used in place of 아/어 봤자 sometimes. These two principles have identical meanings and can more or less be swapped out in place of one another.

ㄴ/는 거예요

This principle is the combination of the topic particle ㄴ/는 with a shortened version of 것이에요. This principle requires a good understanding of the topic marker to be able to understand exactly how it functions, so if you feel like you don’t understand the nuances of 은/는, it’s definitely important to go over them again before learning this principle.

This principle uses the topic marker to highlight what is being said. It literally means THIS is the thing. Because of this, it is frequently used when asking for clarification, or when clarifying something yourself. 

가: What are you doing? Are you playing games.
가: 뭐하는 거야? 게임을 하는 거야?
나: No, I’m studying.
나: 아니, 저는 지금 공부하는 거야.

가: Is there anything you are looking for / Can I help you?
가: 뭐 찾으시는 거 있으세요?
나: I’m just looking.
나: 그냥 구경하는 게예요.

In the usage given in this scene, Kyu-sik is asking Do-yeon for clarification as to whether or not Dae-young was made to pay all of the settlement money eventually.  

Since it’s asking for clarification, this principle can also be used if you are accusing someone of something, or if you want them to explain their actions (maybe if they’ve upset you or acted rudely). Here is an example, where a store assistant accuses a customer of stealing.

가: Quickly, put this necklace in your pocket.
가: 빨리, 너의 주머니에 이 목걸이를 넣어.
나: What are you doing? / Are you stealing? / Please explain yourself.
나: 뭐 하시는 거에요?

결국 eventually
합의금 settlement money
아시다 to know (honorific)
어차피 anyway (it doesn’t matter what you do, something will happen anyway)
이런 this/this kind of
싸움 fight
재판 trial
버리다 to discard/give up
보증금 down payment/deposit
빼다 to lose
가뜩이나 in addition/moreover
돈벌이 making money
돈벌이하다 to make money
시원찮다 unsatisfying/not so good
그래도 however/nevertheless
안 그래도 I was actually going to (say/do) that
연속 consecutive 
보험 insurance
보험왕 insurance king
-을 보험에 들다 to insure
줄이다 to decrease
천하 world (old term)
별수 없나 봐요 it is what it is/it can’t be helped (colloquialism)
게다가 besides/in addition