Even after living in Korea for more than one year, I still find it difficult to decipher the structure of the language, as it is so completely different from any other language I've ever learned.I once asked my teacher: "Seonsaengnim (teacher), what does the ending -jiyo mean?"
"You use that when you ask a question of which you already know the answer."
Me, confused: "Why should I ask a question when I already know the answer???"
5 comments:
That's easy. You know the answer and ask it to question someone.
Of course in the meantime I found out about this queer ending. It's like the English tail question, e.g. if it is obvious that someone went to cut their hair, you might ask: "You went to the hairdresser's, didn't you?" But the way they explain it is sometimes quite funny.
I'm an American considering teaching English in Korea. Any advice?
Check out Dave's ESL Cafe Korean Job Forum:
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Hihi, here's my belated attempt.^^
I think what your teacher is trying to say is "~지요" is used when you want to confirm what you think is correct or get an agreement from the person you are talking to.
Like people always ask me if Singapore is really as clean as they've heard.
If they just ask "깨끗해요?", it's purely "Is it clean?".
If they ask, "깨끗하죠?", it's like "It's clean, right?". Now, if someone says this pointing at a filthy toilet bowl, he's probably in some british comedy. hehe..
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