Starting Korean Conversations | First Meetings & First Expressions

Welcome to the very first episode of this brand new season of the Talk To Me In Korean podcast. My name is Hyunwoo. as you know. And as you heard in our introduction episode prior to this one, this season is going to be in a format that's more accessible and easily understandable for a wider range of learners.

By listening to this podcast regularly, you will be able to naturally learn new Korean words and expressions, learn more about Korean culture, and even participate. I will tell you more about that in our future episodes. So first... Let's start with a fun quiz. I'm going to say a fun Korean expression and I want you to think about what it could mean. Are you ready? Okay, so here you go. One last time. What does it mean? Okay, think about it. Hint. It's related to

Typing, typing on your keyboard. 독수리 답답. So think about the answer while you listen, and I'll give you the answer at the end of this episode.

And now moving on to the next part, we're going to listen to a dialogue between two people. It's a very useful dialogue that you can learn a lot from. And it's actually based on our book, Real Life Korean Conversations for Beginners. So in each episode... of this season of the Talk To Me In Korean podcast. I would like to give you an opportunity to listen to a natural dialogue between two people or three. And not all dialogues will be based on our book, but this one is.

Real Life Korean Conversations for Beginners is the base for this dialogue. You will see it in the first chapter, and it is one of our most popular books. So I thought, okay, let's... use part of the content here in the podcast as well so if you don't have the book it'll be the first time that you listen to this and if you have it it'll be a good review for you so let's listen to the dialogue 안녕하세요. 네, 안녕하세요. 처음 뵙겠습니다. 반갑습니다. 제 이름은 김성찬이에요. 네, 반갑습니다. 제 이름은 이지현이에요. 어디에 사세요?

저는 서울에 살아요. 성찬 씨는요? 학생이세요? 저는 회사원이에요 무슨 일을 하세요? 저는 컴퓨터 엔지니어예요 So how was it? Let's break it down together. The first line is something that you already probably know. 안녕하세요. And then the next line, which is the answer to 안녕하세요, is 네, 안녕하세요. It's very common for people to say, yes, hello, like that, 네, 안녕하세요, and then 처음 뵙겠습니다. If you hear it for the first time,

It's very formal sounding and if you break it down and study the parts of it, it is actually quite formal, but it's a set phrase. You can just memorize it and practice it and then it'll come out naturally. 처음 뵙겠습니다. 처음 뵙겠습니다. People usually say it really fast. Like that, so you need to practice a lot. So 처음, first, or for the first time.

뵙겠습니다. It's from 배다 to see somebody but in a more honorific form so 뵙겠습니다. I am seeing you or I will see you for the first time now is the literal translation. 처음 뵙겠습니다. How do you do? or even nice to meet you it's included but then the next line is actually the phrase for nice to meet you Nice to meet you. 반갑다 is to be nice or to be glad to see somebody or meet someone. And then 제 이름은 김성찬이에요. 제, my, 이름, name, 은 as for

김성찬이에요. It is 김성찬, 성찬 김. And then a very similar line. 네, 반갑습니다. It's a repetition almost. 네, yes, nice to meet you. 제 이름은 이지연이에요. 김 and 이 are very common surnames in Korea, as you know. And then this question, 어디에 사세요? 어디에 사세요? Where do you live? I mean, it is not very common for people to ask each other, Where do you live? Right away. But it will come up eventually as you talk more. So we included it here. And then we're not giving detailed addresses here, right? Just broad areas.

저는 서울에 살아요. I live in Seoul. 저는, as for me, 서울에, in Seoul, 살아요. From 살다 to live, 살아요, I live. 성찬 씨는요? This is a great way to ask how about you if you know the other person's name. Here the name was already introduced so it is easier now like this. 성찬 씨는요? Say the other person's name and title. 정찬 씨, 사장님, 교수님, 선생님. And then 능요 or 은요. How about you? How about you, sir?

You, ma'am, like that. But if you don't know the other person's name, you have to repeat the question. 어디에 사세요? Like that. And then the answer was 저도 서울에 살아요. 그런데 고향은 부산이에요. 저도, me too, I live in Seoul as well. 그런데, but, 고향, your hometown is 고향. Not to be mistaken with 고향이, like 고향이, 고향이, so 고향. Very, very good as a dad joke material. Anyway, as for my hometown, it's Busan. You don't really have to talk about your hometown, but...

It's, you know, it's your choice. It's fun. And then the girl asks, 학생이세요? Are you a student? 학생, student. And then the answer is, 네, 저는. 한국 대학교에 다녀요 대학교 is university 대학교 and 한국 대학교 Fun fact, you will hear this name 한국 대학교 in many Korean dramas and movies but this actually isn't a real university that exists. It's just a name that people choose because they don't want to talk about a specific university, especially in a drama where if...

Something scary happens or bad happens. It doesn't want to be associated with a real university, right? So it's a very, very common fictional university name. 한국 대학교. 다녀요. I attend. I go there regularly. 지연 씨도 학생이세요? Are you a student as well, 지연? 아니요, 저는 회사원이에요. 아니요, no, I am a 회사원. 회사 is a company. 원 is a member. 회사원 is a member of a company, an employee, an office worker usually. 무슨 일을 하세요? 무슨, what kind of? 무슨 일을 하세요?

What kind of work do you do? What do you do for a living? And then the last line in the dialogue is 저는 컴퓨터 엔지니어 예요 컴퓨터 엔지니어 엔지니어 Very easy, right? There are many loan words like these in the Korean language that are just Koreanized pronunciations of English words or French words or words from other languages. So that was a quick breakdown of this dialogue. And please, I would love to hear your feedback about...

how fast this was, how detailed this was as a breakdown. So please do let us know in the comments for our social media posts that talk about this podcast, if you are following us already. And yeah, let's hear it one more time. 안녕하세요 네, 안녕하세요 처음 뵙겠습니다 반갑습니다 제 이름은 김성찬이에요 네, 반갑습니다 제 이름은 이지현이에요 어디에 사세요? 네, 저는 한국대학교에 다녀요. 지연 씨도 학생이세요? 아니요.

And now that we're finished with today's dialogue, here is the Korean word of the day. In each episode, I will be introducing the word of the day. So if you also have some good words that you learned recently in your studies or in your conversations with other people that you would like to share with other learners. please let us know. And today's word is 시작. I love this word. Beginning. Start. As a noun, 시작.

So when you are doing a race or a game, when you want to say ready, set, action, or ready, go. In Korean, you say it like this. 시작! 시작. The longer the ready part, the longer you say the 시 part. 시작. Like that. And then both people run toward the goal or something like that. 시작. And then if you want to say starting again or getting started again, you can say 다시 시작. 다시 시작. This is especially useful around the year end, year beginning period because

Many hobbies are restarted and people make up new resolutions and then they start again, right? 다시 시작. Maybe some of you are starting your Korean learning again. 다시. 다시 시작. And then one last thing. People often say 슬슬 시작 in association with 시작 or 시작하다 as a verb. So what is 슬슬? 슬슬 is Actually, it's fun to associate with the English word slow. Because it means to slowly get started.

So gradually, you know, you don't just suddenly pick things up and... jump out of the room or anything like that, you slowly start packing your bag and you slowly start picking things up and then go outside or do other things or 슬슬 출발, you know, slowly get ready to depart, right?

So 슬슬 시작 is slowly getting started. All right, now it is finally time to give you the correct answer for today's quiz, which was what is 독수리 답법?

what does that mean? 독수리 means an eagle the bird eagle and 타법 means typing method so 독수리 타법 means a eagle typing method or the eagle typing method what is it as far as i know in other languages too a similar concept exists like hunt and pack typing so it's basically typing with two fingers two index fingers usually typing very slowly as if your one hand or your one finger is one eagle hovering over the keyboard like looking for prey and kind of coming down to hunt

and eat something so 독수리 타법 refers to very slow typing when you use just two fingers to type on your computer keyboard usually How was that? Do you have 독수리 타법? You can say 저는 독수리 타법이에요 like that to say that you are a very slow typer. I hope you enjoyed that new word. And with that... That is it for today's episode of the Talk To Me In Korean podcast in this brand new season.

Thank you so much for listening. And as always, thank you for learning Korean with Talk To Me Korean or Titimik as we call it as a nickname. You will find everything you need to start learning and continue improving your Korean at our website. TalkToMeInKorean.com. And if you already follow us on social media, please do me a favor and find the post where we talk about this podcast, the brand new season, and let us know what you thought of it.

what you thought of the first episode. We want to offer the best podcast possible for Korean learners, so your suggestions will be very, very welcome.