Every one who have experience to translate Korean to English or vice versa, can understand how weird if those are translated literally. For example , if you translate “Do you have time?” to Korean literally it means “Do you have any schedule ?” It’s totally different meaning.

As you can see, we can’t just translate Korean to English literally. Why is it? Because English speakers think differently from Koreans. It would be much easier if we could just change Korean words to English words, but reality is we have to know how English speakers say to avoid making mistakes. Here are three differences in way of thinking between English speakers and Koreans.

First of all, English speakers use more words that have meaning of possession while Koreans use more words that have meaning of existence. For example, English speakers say “I have two brothers.” but Koreans say “There are two brothers.” Koreans might wonder how they can “have” their family – they are just existing around them – but English speakers think differently. They think they can “have” things, family, time, emotions and many more, that Koreans think they can’t have.

Secondly, English speakers use object as a subject of a sentence while Koreans usually not. They say “The book was stolen.” but Koreans say “Someone stole the book.” It seems Koreans think human being and objects should be divided clearly while English speakers don’t think so.

Finally, English speakers are more sensitive in number. Korean usually don’t use plural form even though there are more than two, but in English it’s very important to use plural if there are more than two. For example Koreans say “I have many book.” while English speakers say “I have many books.”

Aside from these three example, still there are more differences in way of thinking. Since we are not living there, it’s impossible to know all of them. However it’s important to know how they think to learn real English. Because English is not just a language but it’s result of their whole culture.

Reference book “ì˜�ì–´ì‹� 사고 & ì˜�ì–´ì‹� 표현”, 김낙중, 쓰리ë�¼ì�´í”„