깜놀 (g/kam nol) n. (slang). Language: Korean. Meaning: Surprise, a shock. My time in Korea has provided me with a constant stream of surprising things. Perhaps one of Korea’s most endearing things to me is how it has consistently managed to surprise me despite my constant attempts to understand it. Sometimes, you get more surprised and confused the more you learn. 

My name is Adam R. Carr and I’m a Canadian national living in Korea for the last 3 years. I started out here as a private school teacher in Busan. After a second stint at private school in Southeast Seoul, I now tutor executives at a major company in social issues, management techniques and English.

During my time here, I have been to just about everywhere in the country by motorcycle, bus or train. The language has fascinated and terrified me every step of the way due to its complete dissimilarity with English or French, which came a lot easier to me. I originally began learning Korean in Busan, where the dialect is considered ‘hillbilly’ by Seoul standards. After being called out by a Seoul taxi driver on my accent, I figured a more consolidated effort to develop the standard accent was in order.

Numbers for Words

1. How many years have you studied it?

Well, at first, I didn’t really study it. I learned enough not to be terrified at the prospect of buying things, as I believe most of us do. I learned only through active curiosity after that for a good long time. Curiosity is important when approaching a new language. It’s an unassuming way to inherit most anything. Language is no exception. I started taking classes about a year ago (off and on).

2. How would you describe your fluency? 1–10 (0, a houseplant speaks this language better than me. 5, I’m just barely fluent; 11, I could write the dictionary.) 5. I learned enough Korean to have conversations about things with people in casual social situations. It’s really hard to get over that hump in order to feel like you could sit down with someone and have a relaxed conversation, but I think that’s a great accomplishment. I mean, what are we learning a language for if not to express ourselves properly?

Out in Seoul subway with my friends Emily and Maddy.

3. Rate difficulty in learning Korean on a scale of 1-5 for each of the following categories: 

     a. Pragmatics/communicational competence. (Appropriate use of language in context.) 3. ​The tricky thing about communicating that every foreigner will tell you is the difference in politeness levels. I mean, they teach you in semi-polite, but when you are out with Koreans, there’s almost none of that. I think that the struggle with communicational competence in particular is that they don’t talk the way that they teach you. I’m sure that’s true of any language to a point, but ​it puts a strain on your ability to participate at a social level, and not sounding like a textbook is a really difficult endeavour for all language learners. Korean is no exception. It’s perhaps worse the younger the conversational partner is here.

     b. Grammar 4. Grammar is particularly strange here. Learning Korean (and Japanese) is difficult because their sentence structure is so different. This makes it harder to develop a flow of thought, because there’s a reroute every time you talk until you develop a space in your head that thinks in that language. That’s exactly why, conversely, Japanese and Korean people have such a hard time learning English. It’s a lot different even from the get-go.​

     c. Pronunciation 2. Well, learning Korean pronunciation is no cake walk. There are unaspirated consonants and aspirated consonants. The difference between ‘bread’ (bbahng) and ‘room’ (bahng) is a small aspiration​. It’s hard to even hear at first, let alone pronounce. However, most of it isn’t particularly taxing, so long as you get it right from the start. 

Me and the cop that helped me out of a tough situation.

Language Meets Culture

When I drove my motorcycle around the country, a piece of scrap metal flew into my chain about 10km from the Eastern DMZ, stopping it dead. I headed over to the convenience store to get help. I spoke to the clerk, who talked with me about my situation, and then phoned for the police to help me out. When they arrived, I spoke to them in Korean, and they were as appreciative of my efforts as I was of their assistance. In fact, they had my bike towed to their station for free, then bought lunch for us to share and took pictures with them. They even gave me my Korean name, Yonggi (용기). I came back a week later, the bike was fixed for 30 bucks, and they were all smiles and high fives. I’m fairly certain that it would have gone a lot differently had I slow-and-loud-talked my way through it in English.

4. You are this language’s lawyer. Build a case for it. Why should people study this language?

In front of a monument in Pohang with my bike during my travels.

Part of learning Korean is learning to hand over things gently (especially money). One hand forward, one perpendicular to support the dominant hand. If you throw money on the table here, be prepared for the thousand yard stare.

5. A funny mistranslation you made while learning Korean.

Actually, I was in a sauna one lazy sunday with my cleaning stuff. The old man in charge leaned in and stared at my deodorant (they don’t have it here). He said “Why do you use this?” I wanted to say something stupid like “Ladies think it smells nice.” What I actually said was “Ladies smell nice.” He gave me the most twisted stare, carefully put it down, and walked clean away from me. Embarrassing.

6. A little somethin’ extra: 

Koreans are super appreciative of efforts to learn their language. Their stumbling blocks to encouraging others are their incessant correction of minor details and their lack of exposure to foreigners speaking Korean. They’re still new to outsiders speaking Korean, and as such, are not good at understanding and encouraging/teaching outsiders to speak confidently. They’ve worked miracles to get themselves where they are as a people, and I’d like to see them move forward socially as fast as they have economically.

And in conclusion. . . .

원숭이도 나무에서 떨어진다

About The Author

Jenny

Jenny Marshall studied Language, Culture, and Society at the University of California Santa Barbara, and now teaches English in Spain. Here she writes about the intersection of language and culture, and lives a life translated by travel.