Learning English mindset as well as English expressions

[유진승]

Dear 재홍.

I can understand your concerns.

그를 10달만에 보았다.
그를 오랜만에 보았다.

1. I saw him for the first time in ten months.
2. I saw him for the first time in a long time.

Obviously, 1 and 2 do not mean the same as their supposed Korean originals because it has "first", which means 처음으로. Their exact Korean equivalents will have to be "... 처음으로 보았다."

So you will be back to the expressions that you consider a "detour" because their forms do not exactly match their Korean originals.

1. It's been ten months since I saw him.
2. I haven't seen him in a long time.

Especially, you want to use a positive structure for "오랜만에..." because the Korean original is positive.

But I would like to ask you if you feel this kind of reluctance with the negative "Long time no see", which means "오래간마냐~". Would you also rather use some positive expression‎ instead of "long time no see"?

I think you won't have problem with "long time no see." Then why? Because you have already become used to the negative expression‎. Although the English is negative and Korean is positive, they are the closest match between the two languages. We can say they express roughly the same thing.

I've been trying to point out especially in BTE that Korean and English have different sentence structures while meaning the same thing, for instance, passive and active, and positive and negative. Different structures normally mean different way of understanding the same situation--the mindset.

For other examples, English predomiinantly uses possessives while Korean expresses it in existential mode (read Erich From)

1. 돈 있니? --> Do you have money?

2. 도서관에는 주차장이 없어여 -> The library has no parking lot.

3. 이빨이 빠졌어요 --> I've lost a tooth.

Of course, in 2, you can copy the Korean structure and say: "There is no parking lot by the library." But this does not have the same focus as the first sentence. The first sentence focuses on the library, or how it is equipped, while the second sentence focuses on the availability of the parking lot, and library is just a place considered along with it. So if the Korean original has the library focus, its closest match is the first, not the second sentence, despite its difference in structure.

So learning English does not just mean learning the words and expressions but also its mindset.

[재홍]

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation. I'm so impressed.

[EQ(Equality)]

Wow.. No wonder you are a great teacher.