Everyday Korean Idiomatic Expressions

by TalkToMeInKorean

This book is designed to help you enrich your conversations in Korean by adding idiomatic expressions Koreans often use. This book introduces 100 idiomatic expressions that you can use every day, along with a literal translation, the actual meaning, a detailed expression and two sample sentences with English translations for each expression.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me just say all of this will be useful to you in your day to day life. Koreans do use these expressions very frequently. This will be of much use for beginners or intermediate learners.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Idioms are fun to think about in any language but reading these was really eye-opening. I love turns of phrase that you would possibly not be able to guess immediately if you didn't get the breakdown. I'm sure foreign learners to English have a hard time understanding what a cold turkey has to do with anything if it's not about leftover food or why that cat was ever in the bag in the first place. For instance 오리발 내밀다 literally translated would be "to stick out a duck's foot" but the actual usage in conversation is "to lie about something you did when asked, have the nerve to feign ignorance." You would NEVER be able to deduce that if you didn't study a book like this for these types of things. I will definitely come back to this a lot.

[Billie Pritchett]

Everyday Korean Idiomatic Expressions teaches Korean language learners 100 Korean idioms used in the context of short conversations. Each chapter focuses on one idiom and provides two short conversation examples. There is downloadable audio at the Talk To Me in Korean homepage as well. This audio is an important accompaniment since it allows language learners to hear the idioms used in conversation at their natural rhythm and speed. Very helpful.

[Elodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative, and probably something I'll return to often since I read through it cover to cover instead of actually trying to memorize the expressions. You get the hangeul, a breakdown of what the expression means literally and figuratively, and what each word means on its own, which is cool because you can see the expression and how it was shaped. You also get some cultural background on some of them, and then sample conversations using the expression. (Some of them are kind of unintentionally hilarious. I got way too invested in them sometimes. You made food for 50 people but 100 are coming!!! WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO, EXAMPLE GIRL?!)

The illustrations are.... special... I mean I can see the idea of wanting to associate an image to an expression for ease of association, but not gonna lie, some of them are kind of disturbing.