Conversation 10: Birthdays

Jinho and Anna are making an appointment before leaving.

안나: 진호 씨, 오늘 정말 재미있었어요.

진호: 다행이네요. 저도 오늘 안나 씨를 만나서 참 즐거웠어요.

안나: 진호 씨, 혹시 유 월 십이 일에 시간이 있어요?

진호: 그 날 오후에 두 시부터 저녁 여섯 시 반까지 아르바이트가 있어서 좀 바쁜데요… 왜요?

안나: 유 월 십이 일이 제 생일이에요.

진호: 아, 그래요? 생일 축하해요! 그럼 이제 몇 살이에요?

안나: 스물한 살이에요. 천구백구십오 년에 태어났어요.

진호: 그래요? 저하고 동갑이네요! 제 생일은 오 월 삼십일 일이에요.

안나: 그럼 진호 씨가 저보다 오빠네요.

진호: 안나 씨, 혹시 그날 저녁 일곱 시는 어때요? 우리 저녁 때 만나서 같이 식사할까요? 

안나: 네, 좋아요. 그럼 그 때 만나요.

Anna: Jinho, today was really interesting.

Jinho: That's good. I also really enjoyed meeting you today.

Anna: Do you happen to have time on the eleventh of June?

Jinho: I'm a bit busy on that day as I have my job from two o'clock in the afternoon until half past six in the evening … Why?

Anna: The eleventh of June is my birthday.

Jinho: Really? Congratulations! So, how old are you?

Anna: I'm 21. I was born in 1995.

Jinho: Really? You're the same age as me! My birthday is the 31st of May.

Anna: So, you're older than me.

Jinho: Anna, how would seven o'clock on that evening be? Shall we meet at dinner time and have a meal together?

Anna: That works well. In that case, see you then.

Vocab and notes

다행 lucky, good

즐겁다 enjoyable. Note that using 서 before 즐겁다 gives the meaning “glad that or enjoyed ...ing” in English. The idea is cause, followed by result. One may think of the basic meaning of 서 as being sequence (one thing happens and then another). It is formed by removing 요 from the Polite Form and adding 서. You don’t need to put anything before 서 to indicate tense, as it takes its tense from the verb at the end of the sentence.

이제 now (indicating the passing of time; unlike 지금 which is now, point of time)

년 Counter indicating years. See Names of days and months. Takes the Sino-Korean numbers.

월 Counter indicating months. See Names of days and months. Takes the Sino-Korean numbers, but with two irregular forms: 유월 June and 시월 October.

일 Counter indicating days. Takes the Sino-Korean numbers.

아르바이트 part-time work. From German Arbeit.

는데 is used when one is about to explain something. In English it may be translated by ‘but’ or ‘and’. To make the form, remove the 다 of the Dictionary Form. After a consonant it becomes 은데.

생일 birthday

축하하다 to congratulate

태어나다 to be born

동갑 same age

식사 meal

살 Counter indicating years of age. It takes the native Korean numbers before it. Note that 스믈 twenty is one of the numbers that loses a consonant before a counter: 스므 살 twenty years old.

시 Counter indicating hours. Takes the native Korean numbers before it.

오빠 'elder brother', but in this friendly usage, it just means 'older'.