Lesson 02 - Discover Koreans Occupation

How to find out Korean's occupation?? Not mind reading certainly, but asking them about it. It is one of the really good topic where we can talk about what we do for living.

If you meet a Korean people for the first time, he or she might start asking you a lot of questions like "How old are you?", "Where did you study?", "Are you married?" things like that. This is common at Korea and is a way for them to understand how they should talk to you using honorific way or casual way. Little fact here ^^

So if you want to ask the question "what's your occupation?" or answer "I work at hospital, company, etc", HOW TO DO THIS IN KOREAN?



브루스: 스티븐, 무슨 일을 하세요?
스티븐: (저는) 회사에서 일을 해요.
브루스: 아버지는 무슨 일을 하세요?
스티븐: 우리 아버지는 학교에서 일을 해요. 무슨 일을 하세요?
브루스: 학교에서 공부 해요.

Translate:
Bruce : Stephen, what do you do for living?
Stephen: I work at a company.
Bruce : What does your father do?
Stephen: My father work at school. What do you do?
Bruce : I study at school.

Explanation:

1. 무슨 일을 하세요 - 무슨 mean what, 일 is work, 하세요 is do you do. The whole sentence bring up the meaning "what do you do for living?" The ending form ~세요 is actually use when talking to person you respected, someone you meet for first time or older than you, or when you are asking a question.
2. 저는 can be omitted because in respond to the question it is understood that the person work at a company is Stephen. Koreans often omit the subject in sentence.
3. 우리 mean our. As you notice the answer given by Stephen "우리 아버지" is not wrong. Koreans often address their family member as "our father, our mother, our brother sister" instead of using "my". They use our like "우리 말 = our language", "우리 나라 = our country" and etc.
4. 학교에서 공부해요 brings up the meaning I'm a student. You can also say "학생 입니다" which mean "I'm a student"
5. For the use of 에서 or the difference between 에 and 에서 please refer to my previous post =)

The END~