Lesson 54 (Beginner 3B Lesson 6)

The youngest girl in our class was 30 minutes late for this lesson. I don't know if she is the youngest anymore, with the new male student who said he was a university student. It depends on which year he was in.

We started with Quizlet, a deck that I'd not added to Anki because I didn't know it existed and I'd not thought to check the decks when they were added. Actually, I don't recall seeing an email about them being added. I know Quizlet changed their UI a bit too. So the deck was basically on the second grammar point from the previous lesson, the present tense modifier.

But before that I think the teacher had also asked us what we did last week, since it was a public holiday and we had no class. I honestly couldn't remember. Sigh.

Also I noticed it at least twice during the lesson some German came out because I had a German lesson on Thursday for the first time in 3 months.

Anyway, this week is a busy week for me at work, and so was the weekend, which is why this is late. In fact, I am doing this as a form of procrastination instead of doing a presentation I should be preparing for. Ah, well. But this is also overdue in my own books to (I try to finish the post over the weekend), so... it's not really that either.

This week is also Black Friday... uh, Thanksgiving Week, if I'm not mistaken, from the marketing emails I've been getting. I'm wondering whether to get some language courses but I doubt I'd actually use them now, given how my schedule is and I probably won't fit them in.

We finished up the last 2 grammar points. I can only breathe a sigh of relief that the next writing assignment is next week and not this week.

Grammar

3. N한테[께]

This is, basically, the indirect object marker. Like how 을/를 is the direct object marker.

The notes say that N한테:

indicates that the preceding noun is affected by the action of the verb

That is really not helpful to me, but I know this is the indirect object marker and so that is okay for me.

Some usage notes:

1. You use 께 instead of 한테 when you want to show that the receiver of the verb's action is respected (e.g. grandparents, parents, boss,...).
   • When the verb is "to give" (주다) and the situation calls for using 께, you use 드리다 instead of 주다. It's like the honorific speech, but... not really. At least not as we have seen it. Notice the difference:
     1. 제가 할머니께 선물을 드렸어요. (I gave a present to my grandmother.)
     2. 할머니가 저한테 선물을 주셨어요. (My grandmother gave a present to me.)
   • The second sentence is where the subject of the sentence is respected, which is what was previously covered.
2. You use 에게 instead of 한테 in formal speech or in written language.
   • 친구에게 선물을 줬습니다. (I gave a present to my friend.)
3. You use 한테(서) or 에게(서) when the noun is the source or starting point of the action.
   • Example would be a verb like "to hear" (듣다) and "to receive" (받다), where you hear something from someone or receive something from someone.
   • 친구한테(서) 선물을 받았어요. (I received a present from my friend.)
   • It's easy (but not entirely correct) to translate 한테/에게 as "to" and 한테서/에게서 as "from". As we have seen, depending on the verb, 한테/에게 can also mean "from" since 서 is optional.
   • The teacher said that she rarely adds the 서.

4. V-아/어 보세요

This is used to suggest or recommend that someone try a certain action.

In terms of how it's conjugated, it's very similar to V-아/어 주다, in particular with V-아/어 주세요 which requests that someone does something for you.

To "soften" the request, instead of using 좀 (it seems), you use 한번, which literally means "one time".

Examples:

1. 이 책을 한번 읽어 보세요. (Please try reading this book.)
2. 들어 보세요. (Please try to listen.)
   • This is a very familiar instruction I hear for many of the audio tracks. I've wondered what the grammar was (but was not curious enough to try to find out before this).
3. 제주도에 한번 가 보세요. (Please try to go to Jeju island.)
   • Context could be someone asking what is a nice place to visit in Korea, for example.

I'm honestly not sure about the nuance between this and making requests with V-(으)세요.

In the example sentences that I've seen that are translated (in the Quizlet deck), they all have the "try" there, but it doesn't really tell me much about the distinction.

Vocabulary

Title

I forgot to title this and I'm too tired to think of anything.