I’ve decided to do a series of Korean tongue-twisters, in the same way I have been doing aphorisms and proverbs. This first one is one I mentioned before – in 2007.
내가 그린 기린 그림은
Naega geurin girin geurimeun
I-SUBJ draw-PP giraffe drawing-TOPIC
잘 그린 기린 그림이고,
chal geurin girin geurim-igo,
well draw-PP giraffe drawing-be-CONJ
니가 그린 기린 그림은
niga geurin girin geurimeun
you-SUBJ draw-PP giraffe drawing-TOPIC
잘 못그린 기린 그림이다.
chal motgeurin girin geurim-ida.
well can’t-draw-PP giraffe drawing-be
The giraffe drawing that I drew is a well-drawn giraffe drawing, but the giraffe drawing that you drew is a not-well-drawn giraffe drawing.
I remember that 그린 [geurin] caused me some confusion, way back when, because the stupid online Korean-English dictionary says it can mean “green” (i.e. that it’s a Konglish term), but that’s not really what’s going on. It is, instead, a past participle (or relativized form, “~ that ~ V-ed”) of the verb 그리다 [geurida = draw].
It’s frustrating to think that I have been studying Korean for 5 years since then, and I’m still so very bad at it, that I can’t say this tongue-twister much better now than I could then. Sigh.
