The other day was the first time I ever used a “four character aphorism” appropriately in conversation.
I said to Curt, “한국말을 배우할 수 없으니까 나는 자포자기가 됐어요.” He understood what I meant, so that’s a sign I must have used it more or less correctly. It wasn’t entirely spontaneous – I’d been pre-composing some sentences involving the idiom, and suddenly the context made one of the sentences I’d worked out appropriate.
Roughly, this means “Because of being unable to learn Korean, I feel despair.”
The four character idiom is:
自暴自棄
자포자기
ja.po.ja.gi
self-furious-self-abandon
“despair”
I made some kimchi fried rice today, because I received a large amount of home-made kimchi from a co-worker, and some years ago, I used to make dish quite often. I stopped making it, because it hasn’t been so easy to eat since my surgery, but sometimes I crave things I used to eat, even though it rarely is very rewarding to actually eat them. It ends up being a kind of eating-for-nostalgia.
Notes for Korean (finding meaning)
- 까맣다 = to be black, to be dark-colored; to be far away (I think, also, to be “burnt to a crisp”)
- 대표 = representation
so 대표부 = a mission (e.g. to the UN)
대표단 = a delegation - 허락 = consent, approval, assent
허락하다 = to consent to something, to grant permission, to allow, to permit - 방법 = method, way, procedure, means, process
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]