Lesson 84 (Intermediate 2 Lesson 11)

We completed the outstanding items in the textbook, then the rest of the lesson was focused on revision.

Class also ended 6 minutes early. This is the first time this has ever happened. I thought the teacher was going to use the time to ask us extra oral questions and I was kind of relieved that was not the case… but depending on how you look at it, it may actually be worse.

The revision sheet had vocab on the first page. After the vocab, we did Quizlet Live revision on the word sets (individual teams). After that, we reviewed the grammar. Then, the last two pages were exercises which I will go into a bit more detail later.

Culture Note

We actually read the culture note this time! It was about what you would say if you brought a gift to someone when you visited their house (in this context, visiting a Korean person’s house in Korea). Then what would they say?

So it turns out in the text, the mother of the Korean friend that the author (based on the pictures, the fictional author is probably Steven) visited said (in Korean, but I will just translate): “Why did you buy and bring such a gift?”

Then, the person was taken aback and did not know how to respond. Later on, the friend told the author that it is simply the way Koreans would say thank you for the gift.

The teacher said this is common in Asian cultures, and yes, the entire class already knew that the question was not really a Why-question in need of an answer.

Pronunciation

This one is kind of related to the pronunciation topic back in SNU 1B, Chapter 13 that was covered in Lesson 50.

Over there, it was just discussing how to pronounce the station names, but this rule here gives a bit more detail.

When the final consonants ‘ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅇ’ are followed by ‘이, 야, 여, 요, 유, 얘, 예’, the initial consonant ‘ㅇ’ in ‘이, 야, 여, 요, 유, 얘, 예’ becomes [ㄴ], resulting in the sounds [니, 냐, 녀, 뇨, 뉴, 냬, 녜].

‘이, 야, 여, 요, 유, 얘, 예’ are basically the sounds that either is [i], or have the j semivowel sound. Which is actually the same sound as [i].1

Examples:

  1. 배낭여행 [배낭녀행]
  2. 무슨 일[무슨 닐]
  3. 한 약속[한 냑속]

Vocabulary

Korean English
대답하다 to answer
표현하다 to express

Revision

The revision sheet had two main exercises. Basically, they were to identify if the sentences were correct in the usage of the two grammar being compared. If not, they should be corrected.

1. A/V-아서/어서 vs A/V-(으)니까

A/V-아서/어서:

  • The second clause cannot be a suggestion.

A/V-(으)니까:

  • The second clause should not be a polite excuse.

Links to the posts that introduce the grammar:

2. N(이)라서 vs N 때문에

  • N(이)라서 means “because (it is) N”
  • N 때문에 means “because of N”

Links to the posts that introduce the grammar:

Homework

  • None
  • However, I have not cleared last week’s homework yet. 😬 (Worse, I am not the only one, judging by what the teacher said at the end of the class.)

Stats

  • Students: 5 out of 5
  • Breakout room activities: Yes, for the revision sheet only. Same group for both exercises (split 3/2).

  1. See Wikipedia’s Semivowel article for an explanation, if it matters. I did not cover this in any of my posts since when this was taught I had not started writing these posts, but in the foundation course, we were taught that 야 = 이 + 아 for example. Now that I think about it, maybe one of the Korean Alphabet posts (based on the First Step Korean course) might have this. Anyway, Wikipedia also says that what would be called “semivowels” are transcribed as vowels anyway in Hangeul orthography. 


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