바쁜게 좋은 거예요 => busily good thing is => “it’s good to be busy.” This is what it seems nearly every Korean says when one complains about being busy. I don’t entirely disagree, either.
I saw my friend and former coworker Basil off at the airport today. He’s returning to the U.S. with intentions of starting grad school in a few weeks. I wish him best of luck, but I’ll miss being able to occasionally hang out with him and BS about various topics.
I’ve been working on mastering the distinction between Korean ㅅ/s/ and ㅆ/ss/, which are phonologically quite distinct but which sound essentially identical to English-trained ears. The /ss/ (revised standard transliteration) is not just a geminate (double) /s/, but rather something quite different… it’s “tense” or “faucalized” featurally, and seems to involve something like a pharyngealization of the subsequent vowel. So far the best pronunciation tip I’ve received is to try to remember holding my teeth together, touching, when making the /ss/, but letting them relax on the /s/. This may be why some transcriptions render ㅆ as /ts/ instead of /ss/. Here’s a horrendous tongue-twister based on trying to practice the distinction: 싸서샀어요 /ssaseosasseoyo/ = (it) was cheap so (I) bought it.
Vocab Notes for Korean
외계인 = a space alien
주요 = main, essential, important
구하다 = search for, look for, demand, desire, buy, purchase
순수하다 = be pure, be genuine, be true
평범하다 = common, featureless, humdrum-looking
아담하다= elegant, graceful
일탈하다 = deviate from, depart from 일탈 deviation
행위 = act, work, conduct, behavior …so… “일탈행위” deviant behavior (?)
장 애자 = a handicapped person; a brain-damaged person (this is very important vocabulary for comprehending the joking around of 5th graders – see picture below for what is apparently an exemlar of a “jangaeja” – probably best not to ask about the plastic pitchfork)
