I’ve decided to do a series of Korean tongue-twisters, in the same way I have been doing aphorisms and proverbs.
저기 가는 상장사가 헌 상장사냐 새 상장사냐?
저기 가는 상장사가
jeo·gi ga·neun sang·jang·sa·ga
There go-PRESPART table-merchant-SUBJ
헌 상장사냐 새 상장사냐
heon sang·jang·sa·nya sae sang·jang·sa·nya
old table-merchant-OR new table-merchant-OR
Is that table-merchant there an old table-merchant or a new table-merchant?
Actually, I have zero percent confidence about the choice of “table” as the meaning for 상. My tutor and I figured the merchant was selling something, and 상 has a lot of possible meanings – assuming it’s a merchant.
The fact that it stumped a native speaker means I don’t feel bad about this. Table merchant makes some sense – maybe not nowadays, but I can easily imagine in olden times a man with some of Korea’s little wooden tables strapped to his back, going from town to town selling them at the 5-day markets.
Here’s my little table at right, that I bought from a streetside table merchant (or was it a more generalized housewares vendor?) in Suwon in 2010. I have no idea if he was an old table merchant or a new one.
I feel a sort of apprehension: tomorrow I return to get the results of my biopsy and probably get a CT scan. I received a text message this morning on my phone from the hospital:
WAY JARED 님의 정확한 조직 검사진단을 위하여 검사가 추가 시행될 예정입니다.
검사결과는 다음 외래 내원시 수납 후 확인하실 수 있습니다. – 국립암센터-
본 검사는 6월 19일 접수한 조직으로 검사가 진행되오니 내원하실 필요는 없습니다.
Basically, it’s telling me that they want to do additional “diagnostic tests” (검사진단) and that it can be done when I come in for my next appointment (which is tomorrow morning). I don’t think this is really very encouraging, though I suppose I could conclude that it means “they don’t really know” which is better than “they’re certain.”
