Reading is one of the greatest ways to practice and improve your Korean. It helps with getting familiar with the letters and words so that next time you see them, your brain recognises them faster. The practices I include here are short text paragraphs with a breakdown of the words and sentences which will hopefully help you with your Korean.
자기 소개 – Self-introduction
안녕하세요. 저는 김수민이라고 해요. 나이는 27살이에요. 고향은 부산인데 지금 서울에 살아요. 서울에서 회사를 다니고 있어요. 보통 아침에 8시 출근하고 6시-7시 사이에 퇴근 해요.
Listening – Slow version
Listening – Normal version
Translation
Hello. My name is Kim Sumin. I am 27 years old. My hometown is Busan but I currently live in Seoul. In Seoul, I am working for a company. Usually, I go to work at 8 o’clock in the morning and I get off work between 6-7 o’clock.
Before we look at the sentences, let’s break down the vocabulary used in this short paragraph.
Vocabulary
- 안녕하세요 – Hello (polite form).
- 저 – me
- 는 – topic marking particle
- 김수민 – Kim Sumin (name)
- -이라고 해요 – I am called
- 나이 – age
- 는 – topic marking particle
- 살 – years
- 이에요 – I am
- 고향 – hometown
- 은 – topic marking particle
- 부산 – Busan (city in Korea)
- 인데 – but
- 지금 – now
- 서울 – Seoul (city in Korea)
- -에 – in/at/to
- 살아요 – I live
- 서 – in/from
- 회사 – company
- 을 – object marking particle
- 다니고 있어요 – I am attending
- 보통 – usually
- 아침 – morning
- 에 – in/at/to
- 시 – hour
- 출근 – go to work
- 하다 – to do
- 사이에 – in between/during
- 퇴근 – get off work
- 해요 – do
Sentence breakdown
안녕하세요 – Hello.
I have another most that explains it further, click here if you want to know more.
저는 김수민이라고 해요 – I am called Kim Sumin.
As per the vocabulary section, 저 means “me” and we add 는 – the topic marking particle to let the listener or the reader know that the topic of the conversation is ‘me’. You could say 저 김수민이라고 해요 and it would not be a problem. ‘는’ just adds a little bit information about the speaker’s intentions.
There are few different ways to introduce your name to someone. The above structure uses -라고 해요. “라고” gives the nuance of “I am called” or “people call me”. “해요” is “do”. You can remember it as it is and use it to introduce yourself.
One thing to remember using this structure is that it can either be “라고 해요” or as seen in the above example, “이라고 해요”. This is not to make it harder for people to learn Korean, but for the sake of an easier pronunciation. So, if a name ends in a vowel, you would use “라고 해요” and if your name ends in a consonant, you would use “이라고 해요”. So let’s look at few examples.
- 저는 소니아라고 해요 – Here, the name ends with a vowel, so we just add “라고 해요”.
- 저는 이건흔이라고 해요 – Here, the name ends with a consonant, so we add “이라고 해요” since that’s much easier to pronounce than 이건훈라고 해요.
- 저는 소민이라고 해요 – Here, again the name ends with a consonant, so we add “이라고 해요”.
There are few different ways to introduce yourself.
You can literally just say “My name is Sonia”. The vocabulary for that is;
- 제 – my
- 이름 – name
- 이에요/예요 – to be
Now, to add these together you would say “제 이름 소니아예요”. As with “라고 해요”, if the name ends with a vowel, you would add “예요” and if it ends with a consonant, you would add “이에요”. So let’s look at few examples.
- 제 이름 김수민이에요
- 제 이름 광수예요
- 제 이름 소민이에요
Furthermore, just like with the above example, we can add, ‘은’ to “이름” to let the listener or the reader know that the topic of the conversation is my name. And it becomes, “제 이름은 소니아예요”. 은/는 is explained in this article in more detail.
나이는 27살이에요 – I am 27 years old.
This is literally translated as “My age is 27 years old”. This sentence changes the topic from my name to my age and therefore it is natural to add ‘는’ to the word ‘나이’. If you are still confused about the topic marking particle, that’s ok, you don’t have to use it but you will sound more natural if you do. 살 – is years or age and “이에요” is “to be” (and used as explained previously).
고향은 부산인데 지금 서울에 살아요. – My hometown is Busan but I currently live in Seoul.
Again, this sentence changes the topic from the age to hometown so it is more natural to add “은” to “고향”. Here, 부산인데 is written as one word but the literal translation would be “Busan, but”.
“서울에” – here, the particle “에” is added to the word “서울” to express the meaning I live IN Seoul. “에” is also used in other situations where it can mean “in” or “at.
Examples
- 미국에 살아요 – I live in the USA
- 한국에 살아요 – I live in Korea
- 독일에 살아요 – I live in Germany
서울에서 회사를 다니고 있어요. – In Seoul, I am working for a company.
When you want to express a place where an action is taking place, you add “에서” to the noun just like we can see in this sentence. You are in Seoul so you might think that you only need to add “에” to “서울” but because you are stating that you are doing something there “working”, adding “에서” is correct. If you want to know more about the difference between “에” and “에서”, see this article.
Company is “회사” but its more natural to also add the object marking particle “를” to this sentence. It is ok to drop the “를” and just say “회사”. Everyone will know that ‘회사” is the object of the sentence and everyone will understand you just fine. But you will sound more native if you do add it. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make much sense yet. These things will start making more and more sense as you keep exposing yourself to the Korean language.
다니고 있어요 = comes from the verb “다니다” which translates to “attend” but for a more natural translation to English I have translated it as “I am working for a company”. I’m sure you are aware that not everything can be translated literally and some sentences just need to be adjusted as we don’t really say I attend a company. The “다” is dropped, and I have added “니고 있어요” which means “I am attending”.
보통 아침에 8시 출근하고 6시-7시 사이에 퇴근 해요. – Usually, I go to work at 8 o’clock in the morning and get off work between 6-7 o’clock.
As I mentioned previously “에” can also mean “in” and so here, it is added to the word “아침” to express the meaning “in the morning”. “출근하다” means “to go to work” and when you add “고” it means “and”. “사이” can mean “gap”/”space” or “between” and when you add “에”, it marks certain period of time.