My students, especially at the lower level, often write about some bad thing that has happened to them, leading to being reprimanded by parents or teachers, and they will conclude with a sentence that looks rather formulaic: “I had bitter experience.”
That’s not bad English, but it’s not really idiomatic. It’s clear to me that they’re translating some Korean idiom. I’ve been trying to figure out what that idiom is. My best guess has two variations:
1) 쓴경험이 있었어요 = bitter experience (subj) there was
2) 쓴경험을 했어요 = bitter experience (obj) I did
Both seem like good Korean. But I still haven’t gotten clear feedback if either of these is really a common idiomatic phrase. More research required.