Conversation 1: Anna meets Minjun

Anna is an exchange student from SOAS to Korea University. Minjun is a male second year student in Economics there. They meet by chance at the school cafeteria and start talking to each other.

안나: 안녕하세요? 저는 안나예요. 이름이 뭐예요?

민준: 안녕하세요? 저는 민준이에요. 처음 뵙겠습니다.

안나: 민준 씨, 한국 사람이에요?

민준: 네, 한국 사람이에요. 안나 씨는 어느 나라 사람이에요?

안나: 저는 영국 사람이에요.

민준: 아, 그래요? 만나서 반갑습니다.

Anna: Hello. I’m Anna. What’s your name?

Minjun: Hello. I’m Minjun. Pleased to meet you.

Anna: Minjun, are you Korean?

Minjun: Yes I am. Where are you from? (Lit. “Where is Anna from?”)

Anna: I’m British.

Minjun: Really? I’m pleased to meet you.

Vocabulary and notes

You will also find these pages helpful: Grammatical terms, Script and pronunciation and Verb styles.

안녕하세요? “Good morning / afternoon / evening”. Lit. “Are you well?”

저 I (used on formal situations e.g. when first meeting someone). Remember that ㅈ j at the beginning of a word is pronounced like English ch, but with no aspiration.

는 is a grammatical particle indicating the topic of the sentence. After a consonant, it is 은.

예요 pronounced /에요/ 'am, are, is, etc.' After a vowel, this would be 이에요. The Dictionary Form is 이다.

이름 name

이 is a grammatical particle indicating the subject of the sentence. After a vowel, it is 가.

뭐 what. Short form of 뭣.

처음 뵙겠습니다 “pleased to meet you” Lit. “I met you for the first time.” This phrase is anticipating meeting, hence the use of 겠 which often indicates intention. Note that many polite verbs end in eumnida and that the m is written with ㅂ (normally b).

씨 Sometimes equivalent to Mr/Mrs/Miss, etc., but here just indicates respect to the listener. Note 안나 씨 further down, where use of the name ends up meaning “you” in English.

한국 사람 a Korean person. Note that ㅅ is pronounced tense after a final ㄱ.

네 yes

어느 나라 which country

영국 England, UK

아 oh

그래요 is so. The Dictionary Form is 그렇다 geurotha.

만나서 반갑습니다 “pleased to meet you”, lit. “(I) am glad that (I) met (you)”. This phrase is looking back on the experience of meeting. The Dictionary Forms are: 만나다“meet and 반갑다 glad. 서 is an ending that indicates in this case the cause of the gladness.