All right, Kevin is back with the hottest K-drama which starred one of the most beautiful women in Korea, 손예진, and the super handsome guy, 현빈, Crash Landing on Love.
I'm going to talk about a love story between Yoon Se-ri, a 재벌 heiress, that is to say, a conglomerate heiress who crash-landed in North Korea due to a paragliding accident, and Lee Jeong-hyeok, a high-ranking officer who falls in love while trying to hide and protect her.
Because South Korea, and North Korea have been independent countries that have been separated for 70 years since the Korean War, even though the language is the same, the vocabulary is very different.
So, we can see the vast data investigation of North Korea, the background of the work. It is said that because North Korean front-line military officers, wives of military officers living in the village of their group, and various professional groups of North Korean defectors participated in the work as assistant writers, they are working to organize ideas and scenes related to North Korea as well as carefully verify them. And I think that's why this drama has a more reliable probability of dramatic development.
In fact, watching the drama, there are many North Korean terms that most South Koreans don't know well, so as we learn new words, we’re also excited by the exclamation and excitement of "That's how north Koreans can express those words."
Therefore, there are many interesting expressions to learn from this drama, too. And there are a lot of puns that only Koreans can feel, so I'd like to share them with you.
Today, we will study the expression, ‘일 없습니다’.
Originally, South Koreans use the term "괜찮습니다" or "괜찮아요," as “That’s okay” in English, but the North Korean words for that expression is "일 없습니다", or “일 없소”. The meaning of ‘일’ here is used to mean ‘problem’, or ‘trouble’, which can be interpreted as ‘no problem’. However, when South Koreans interpret the word “일 없습니다”, they interpret "일" as "work to do," which can lead to misunderstanding.
Now, let's start with the scene where Se-ri was found by Lee and was having a conversation with him, and then he accidentally stepped on a landmine and Se-ri tried to escape...
Lee Jeong-hyeok says, “일없소”, which means “I’m okay”. And then, Seri says like this.
“알겠어요, 자꾸 일이 없다고 하시니 전 이만 가볼까 봐요. 전 일이 너무 많아서. 그럼”
“Okay. You keep saying you’re okay, so I’ll just head off. I have a lot of things to do. Well then.”
알겠어요 came from 알다, which means to know, but by the context, 알겠어요 means ‘Okay’, or ‘I got it’, and 겠어요 is a kind of predicate of 알다. And 자꾸 is an adverb, and its meaning is ‘often, or frequently’, and 일이 없다고 하시니, means ‘You keep saying you’re okay’, in this line, we can guess Seri understood the meaning of 일이 없다, which means ‘no problem’, but she is making a pun, she is playing with words, so she says, “전 이만 가볼까 봐요” “I’ll just head off”. 전 is shortened form of 저는, which means ‘I’, and 이만 is an adverb, which means ‘this far’, or ‘to this extent’, and 가볼까 봐요 came from 가다, which means ‘to go’, and 가볼까 봐요 is “I will head off”. And then, she says “전 일이 너무 많아서. 그럼”. In this sentence, 일 is ‘work to do’, and 이 is the subjective case. and 너무 is an adverb which means ‘very, or too’, and 많아서 came from 많다, which means ‘many, or much’. And the reason why 다 is replaced with 아서 is that 아서 is used as indicating the cause, or reason. And the final word, 그럼 is ‘well then’.
And this is the second wordplay.
“아니, 사람이 가만히 있으니까 가마니로 보이는지... 어디 그 되도 않는 그, 그, 그, 그 누군가가 제 남편의 자리를 탐하고 있습니다.”
“All we did was to be nice, and this is how it paid off. That low-class...someone is coveting my husband’s position.”
The first word, 아니 is the expression of surprise, so 아니 is the same as ‘what’, or ‘why’, or ‘Good heavens’. And 사람 is ‘man’, and 이 is the subjective case. 가만히 is an adverb meaning ‘still’, or ‘motionlessly’, and 있으니까 came from 있다, which means ‘to stay’, or ‘to be’, so 가만히 있다 is ‘to stay still’, and 다 is replaced with 으니까, which represents the cause or reason. And the next word is the point of wordplay, 가마니, which meas ‘straw bag’, the bag that was used to put the rice in old times. However, in this context, 가마니 is used to express something useless, or trivial, or unimportant.
And 로 is a kind of postposition which is similar to ‘as’ in English, and 보이는지 came from ‘look like something’. So, 가마니로 보이는지 is the same as ‘look like something trivial’, which meas she ended up being ignored. So, if we make literal translation, 사람이 가만히 있으니까 가마니로 보이는지 is the same as “Because I stay still, I came to look like something unimportant, and I am ignored” And if we make liberal translation, this sentence could be like this, “All we did was to be nice, and this is how it paid off.”
In this wordplay, you can guess 가만히, and 가마니, these two words actually look different, but their pronunciations are very similar. The first one is 가만히, on the other hand, the second one is 가마니. As I say slowly and exactly, you can distinguish them easily, but if I say them quickly, you will have difficulty. Okay, listen carefully, 가만히, 가마니. Right? So, this is some kind of wordplay, but in Korea, this is also called 아재개그, which means dad joke in English. If you use this wordplay in an inappropriate situations, you will get a completely cold stare form others.
And next word, 어디 되도 않는 그 누군가가 is ‘someone who's nowhere’, or ‘that low-class’, 제 is shortened form of 저의, which means ‘my’, and 남편 is ‘husband’, and 의 is also the genitive case. and 자리 is ‘a position’, so 제 남편의 자리 is ‘my husband’s position’, and 를 is the objective case. 탐하고 있습니다 came from 탐하다, which means ‘to covet’, and 탐하고 있습니다 is the present progressive form of 탐하다. So, 어디 그 되도 않는 누군가가 제 남편의 자리를 탐하고 있습니다 is “That low-class...someone is coveting my husband’s position.”
All right, we went over the wordplay of Crash Landing on Love. And I’ll be back with more interesting and useful expressions. If you liked my video, I hope you will pound Like button, and Subscribe button. I’ll see you next time.
