Previously, we briefly learned how to say 안녕하세요 “hello” and NAME입니다 “NAME is” in Korean. Talk with your classmates about anything you think you should be careful of when you introduce yourself in Korean and your native language.

Now, read these two dialogues. How does Seyoung introduce herself?

In this lesson, you will learn how to introduce yourself using names, nationalities, and professions and how to ask and answer simple yes-no questions.

A. “Be” Verb 이에요/예요

–이에요/–예요 is the BE verb (it is, they are, you are, I am, etc.). It comes at the end of a sentence, of course, and like all Korean verbs, does not conjugate for Subject Person and Number (I, we, you, he, she, it, or they). BUT! –예요 is used after a word that ends in a vowel, and –이에요 is used after a word that ends in a consonant. These two forms are (already) conjugated with a polite ending and are ready to be used in conversations with colleagues and acquaintances. Note that there is no space before –이에요/예요. As mentioned in Preliminaries, the subject is often dropped in conversation, so these sentences are perfectly fine in Korean:

	Noun	BE Verb	Translation
consonant-ending nouns–이에요	학생	이에요	(I) am a student.
vowel-ending nouns–예요	디자이너	예요	(I) am a designer.

이에요/예요 is used in sentences identifying a person or an item. (My name is Jamie. I am Korean. This is a candle.) It is not used for locating items (e.g., Jamie is here.).

Now let’s expand the sentence.  Can you figure out the role of –는 in this sentence?

웨이는 가수예요.                         Wei is a singer.

B. Topic Particle –은/는

When a noun that begins a sentence is flagged with the marker –은 or –는, you can assume that the sentence is about that noun — that is, the noun is the topic of the sentence. Sometimes it helps to translate the sentence with as for… or with regard to…

There are two variants of the topic marker, –은 and –는. Can you guess when to use 은 and when to use 는?

	Noun	Topic Particle	Noun + BE Verb	Translation
consonant-ending nouns–은	선생님	은	한국 사람이에요.	The teacher is a Korean.
vowel-ending nouns–는	저	는	미국 사람이에요.	The teacher is an American.

친구 이름은 에밀리예요.            (My) friend’s name is Emily. (As for my friend’s name, it’s…)

에밀리는 캐나다 사람이에요.    Emily is Canadian. (With regard to Emily, she’s…)

Use –은 when the noun being marked ends in a consonant, and –는 when it ends in a vowel.

C. First-person Pronouns 저/나

Some expressions in Korean are used to raise the status of the listener (e.g., –님 in 선생님), and others are used to humble oneself (e.g., 저). 저 is a humble first-person pronoun, I, and 나 is a plain first-person pronoun. We will focus on using “저” in this lesson to speak politely in Korean.

First-person I	Example	Translation
저 (Humble Form)	저는 대학생이에요.	I am a college student.
나 (Plain Form)	나는 대학생이에요.	I am a college student.

아니에요 is a negative BE verb.  It negates the identity or likeness of two entities (e.g., X is not Y).

저는 선생님이 아니에요.                                  I am not a teacher.

A. Subject Particle –이/가

Note, in the previous sentence, the first entity 저 is flagged with the topic particle –는 and the second with the subject particle –이. This is because 저 is a known topic and 선생님, the concept now being introduced into the conversation, is new information. 아니에요 completes the idea 저 ≠ 선생님. Look at a few more examples:

박선생님은 한국어 선생님이 아니에요.               Teacher Park is not a Korean teacher.

아키는 대학생이 아니에요.                                  Aki is not a college student.

모린은 제 친구가 아니에요.                                 Maureen is not my friend.

Can you guess when to use –이 and when to use –가?

–이	subject particle (after a noun ending in a consonant)	조엘은 선생님이 아니에요.
–가	subject particle (after a noun ending in a vowel)	다미는 가수가 아니에요.

In spoken Korean, the subject particle –이/가 is frequently omitted before 아니에요.

아키는 대학생이 아니에요.                                  Aki is not a college student.

모린은 제 친구가 아니에요.                                  Maureen is not my friend.

A. Yes-No Questions in Korean

We learned that questions use the same word order as normal statements in Korean. To ask Yes/No questions, you just need to raise the intonation at the end of a sentence. Answer Yes/No questions using 네 or 아니요. It is natural in Korean to repeat the main part of the sentence as well.

가: 조엘씨, 가수예요?                    Are you a singer, Joel?

나: 네, 가수예요.                             Yes, I am a singer.

가: 니콜 씨, 선생님이에요?           Are you a teacher, Nicole?

나: 아니요, 학생이에요.                 No, I am a student.

B. WH-Questions in Korean

To ask ‘wh-‘ questions, you also need to add the ‘wh’ word into the sentence.

어느 나라 사람이에요?             Where are you from? (Lit., Which country person are you?)

(저는) 한국 사람이에요.            I am Korean.

Listen to the conversation between Maya and Paul and answer the following questions in Korean.

1) Where does this conversation seem to take place?

2) What is Paul’s profession?

3) Are Paul and Maya close friends?

The following people posted their self-introductions on the class homepage. Read the following messages from the class chatroom.

	안녕하세요? 저는 김세영이에요. 디자이너예요. 한국 사람이에요. 반갑습니다.
	안녕하세요? 저는 알리사 존슨이에요. 저는 배우예요. 미국 사람이에요.  반갑습니다!
	안녕하세요? 저는 첸 웨이예요.  학생이에요. 중국 사람이에요. 일본 사람이 아니에요. 반갑습니다!

Which of the following statements are true?

1) Seyoung is American.            T          F

2) Seyoung is a singer.               T          F

3) Alissa is from Canada.           T          F

4) Wei is Chinese.                        T          F

5) Wei is a teacher.                      T          F

자기소개를 해 보세요. Introduce yourself

PART I: Introduce yourself to your partner. Be sure to include your name, profession, and nationality. Include greetings and use appropriate body language.

PART II: Walk around the classroom introducing yourself to your classmates. Listen to your friends’ self-introductions and collect four friends’ information.

이름	Profession	Nationality
1	1	1
1	1	1
1	1	1
1	1	1
1	1	1

Helpful Vocabulary: More Professions
교수	professor
교직원	school employee
변호사	lawyer
사서	librarian
사업가	entrepreneur
엔지니어	engineer
의사	doctor
회사원	company worker

It’s all in the history

Korea is a country with a long written history. For centuries, before the creation of Hangul, Koreans used Chinese characters to write and borrowed many words from the Chinese language. Similar to how English has two words that mean similar things (e.g., “sorority,” which has a Latinate root, and “sisterhood,” which is Germanic), Korean has many synonym sets with one word from Chinese (called Sino-Korean) and one that is native Korean. Just as “sorority” and “sisterhood” are used in different contexts, so are Sino-Korean and native Korean pairs.

Sino-Korean words tend to be decomposable, where you can usually detect the meaning of each syllable. You will learn more about this as you go along.

중      국       어
center    country   language

Another interesting way to come about sets of words with the same meaning is as in the example 스페인어 and 서반아어 or 프랑스어 and 불어. The latter in each pair is the Korean pronunciation of the names of these countries when written in Chinese characters, the first in each set is an approximation of the country name in its own language or sometimes in English! So the picture became even more even complicated when Korean started using borrowings from Western languages. Can you guess what the following words mean?

월남=베트남       이태리         대만

Find more country names in Korean! 베트남 Vietnam       호주 Australia      인도네시아 Indonesia    필리핀 Philippines   터키 Turkey    사우디 아라비아 Saudi Arabia    인도 India 독일 Germany         이집트 Egypt        태국 Thailand                러시아 Russia          에티오피아 Ethiopia

 Korean Names

Did you know that almost one-fifth of Koreans have the last name Kim? The top five most common last names are 김, 이, 박, 최, and 정, and they account for more than half of the total population. Last names usually consist of one syllable, but there are a few two-syllable last names, such as 남궁, 독고, and 선우. The last name 김 has many different clans from different places in Korea. When people with the “same” last name meet, they ask about each other’s clan origins (본관 or 본향). If their clan origins are the same, they could not marry each other in the olden days, but this is not true any longer.

Unlike Western naming traditions, the family name is said first in Korean. Most Korean names are Sino-Korean and based on Chinese characters, although native Korean (first) names have gained popularity recently. Also, Koreans never use given names when calling or talking about people who are older than they are. (They use titles like Auntie, Older Brother, or Manager Kim.)

Click on the following links for more information:

• Korean Name (Wikipedia)
• An Introduction to Korean Names: Are All Kims the Same?