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When anybody speaks a foreign language, they make mistakes because of their native language (mother tongue interference).
Here are a few mistakes that Koreans often make in conversation.
1) Sometimes when you meet a Korean for the first time they say, “I’m meeting you for the first time.” This is a direct translation from the Korean (처음뵙겠습니다), but we just don’t say it in English. It leaves the person you’re talking to confused.
2) “Nice to meet you.” This is the correct thing to say when you FIRST meet someone. But it isn’t the correct thing to say the NEXT time you meet them. Then you would say, “Nice to see you.”
3) “Have you eaten rice?” or “Did you eat rice?” Again, this is a direct translation from the Korean (밥을먹었어요?), but if you say this to a native English speaker they will be really confused. They’ll think, “What is he asking? Does he want to know if I’ve ever eaten rice in my lifetime or if I’ve I eaten it today? Why does he want to know this?”
4) If you apologise to a Korean, they sometimes say, “No.” This is confusing to a native speaker and they might think, “Is he saying he won’t accept my apology?”
5) There are some words that often get mistranslated from Korean to English. For example, 화가나다 can be translated as to be angry or be upset. However, the words ‘angry’ and ‘upset’ can mean very different things in English. ‘Upset’ might mean angry, but it could equally mean worried or unhappy.
6) Likewise, 편하다 can be translated as convenient or comfortable. Again, these two words are very different in English. For example, a park bench might be convenient (i.e., it’s good to have somewhere you can sit and eat your lunch), but it might not be comfortable.
So, if the person you’re talking to looks a bit confused, maybe a bit of Konglish is getting in the way.
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