Excuse Me, Where’s the Restroom?
저기요, 화장실이 어디예요 [Cheogiyo, hwajangshiri eodiyeyo?]

Interrogatives: When and Where

Are you ready to continue a discussion we had back in chapter 11? You remember, don’t you? We talked a bit about interrogatives, focusing on two main question words: 무엇 (“what”), and 누구 (“who”). Now I’m going to introduce you to two more: “when” and “where.”

When?

When you travel abroad, one of the things you want to make sure to do is investigate the country’s medical system. Nothing can spoil a trip like getting sick in an unfamiliar place and realizing you can’t make a doctor’s appointment because you don’t speak the language!

Lucky for you, Korea has an excellent healthcare system. There are clinics everywhere, and they’re consistently staffed with helpful, friendly personnel. You can even find facilities where they speak English! But hey, you don’t need that, do you? With what I’m going to teach you right now, you’ll be able to do it like a real Korean.

So, what’s the first thing you’ll need to do? Make an appointment to see the doctor, of course. When you call, they’ll probably ask you:

언제가 편하세요 [Eeonjega pyeonhaseyo?] When is good for you?

Maybe you’re hoping to get in tomorrow, so let’s tell them that.

저는 내일이 팬찮아요. [Cheoneun naeiri kwaenchanayo.] Tomorrow will be good for me.

And just like that, you’ve got yourself a doctor’s appointment! You’ll be able to kick that cold in no time. Okay, let’s practice some more with the interrogative 언제. Say you’ve made a new Korean friend, and you’re curious about when her birthday is. Birthdays are always a good topic of conversation, aren’t they? In this case, you’d say:

생일이 언제예요 [Saengiri eonjeyeyo?] When is your birthday?

Or maybe you want to ask your friend about the weather in Korea, another nice conversational tool. You could say something like this:

한국은 언제 비가 많이 와요 [Hangugeun eonje piga mani wayo?] When is the rainy season in Korea?

Actually, Korea typically has a short but intense rainy season that’s called 장마 [changma] and occurs throughout the month of July. It rains almost every day. Ask your new friend about it—I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to have someone to complain to about 장마.

Where?

From time, let’s move on to a space-oriented interrogative. Consider this: you’ve just arrived at Incheon International Airport, Korea’s main hub and one that’s frequently been rated as a top world airport. It’s not actually in Seoul, but rather about an hour west on the coast. Seoul is a crowded city, remember? We can’t have big planes flying this way and that all day as 10+ million people go about their business. That would be distracting. So the main airport is in Incheon.

Anyway, you’ve arrived at the airport, and now what do you do? Is a friend meeting you there to help guide you? Of course, I wish I could be there to meet you, but I’ve been so busy working on this book. ^^ So perhaps you’re all alone in a big airport in a strange new country. Don’t worry. Korea’s transportation system is well organized, and you have many options for getting to Seoul, or wherever you want to go.

But before you can arrange where to go, you have to know where you are, right? Well, do you? If not, don’t hesitate to ask:

여기가 어디예요 [Yeogiga eodiyeyo?] Where is this?

Of course, a person might think you’re a bit odd for asking such a question at the airport. Didn’t the flight attendants tell you where you were landing!? But remember, Koreans are very helpful, so I bet you’ll get a straight answer.

Now that you know where you are, it’s time to arrange transport to where you want to be. Many people catch a taxi from the airport. It’s a little pricier, but the convenience and comfort can’t be beat. After you’ve thrown your bags in the trunk and hopped into the back seat, the driver will ask you:

어디 가세요 [Eodi kaseyo?] Where are you going?

What do you think is missing in this sentence? Anything? If you were constructing this question, wouldn’t you put a particle (such as -예, or -(으) 로, or 까지) on the end of 어디? Well, you wouldn’t be wrong to do so. Your cabbie is simply omitting it because, in this situation, the meaning of 어디 is understood without it.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully taken a taxi and arrived at your destination. Don’t you feel great that you’ve accomplished this all in a foreign language? Well, you should.

Uh-oh, wait a minute. It was a long ride from the airport to downtown Seoul, and you didn’t use the restroom before you left. Now you’ve really got to go! What do you do!? First of all, relax. You’re in a land of nice restrooms, and unlike in many countries of the world, you don’t have to pay to use them! So all you have to do is pop into a café and ask:

(실례지만) 화장실이 어디예요 [(Shilryejiman) Hwajangshiri eodiyeyo?] (Excuse me,) Where’s the restroom?

It’s okay to just say 화장실이 어디예요? But in order to draw the employee’s attention, you’ll want to begin your question with 실례지만, which is another way to say “excuse me.” Surprised and pleased by your fluent Korean, the barista will no doubt inform you of the location of the restroom with a smile.

To understand his response, however, you’re going to need to think back again to chapter 11 and the demonstrative pronouns “this” and “that.” Hmm…I can tell by the look on your face you’d appreciate a review. Shall we?

Remember that in English these are only two words, but in Korean we have three. The demonstrative 이 translates as “this,” referring to something close to the speaker. The other two both signify the English “that,” but differ depending on the specific location of what exactly it is you’re talking about. 그 is used for something close to the listener, while 저 is for an object distant from both speaker and listener.

It’s all coming back to you now, right? Well, the barista’s directions will probably include one or more of these pronouns, but there will be another element as well: 쪽 [jjok]. 쪽 actually has a number of different uses, but when you add it to the end of demonstrative pronouns, it creates the meaning of “this/that direction.” I bet you can figure out these translations:

이 쪽 [i jjok] this way

그 쪽 [keu jjok] that way (closer)

저 쪽 [cheo jjok] that way (more distant)

And lastly, we’ll need a particle…but which one? Of course, the particle indicating “in the direction of” is called for, which is -(으)로. So finally we have the barista’s answer:

이 쪽으로 가세요. [I jjogeuro kaseyo.] Go this way.

그 쪽으로 가세요. [Keu jjogeuro kaseyo.] Go that way. (closer by)

저 쪽으로 가세요. [Cheo jjogeuro kaseyo.] Go that way. (more distant)

But wait, what if the restroom is on a totally different floor? Oh no! Oftentimes in Korea’s multi-story buildings, the restrooms for multiple businesses will be located on a separate floor, or the men’s and women’s will be in different places. So your barista may need to direct you to an upper or lower floor, like this:

남자 화장실은 위 층에 있어요. [Namja hwajangshireun wi cheunge isseoyo.] The men’s room is on the next floor up.

여자 화장실은 아래 층에 있어요. [Yeoja hwajangshireun arae cheunge isseoyo.] The women’s room is on the next floor down.

Notice these sentences are a little different than the three listed above. Here, the barista isn’t telling you to go a certain way, but rather is relating where the restrooms are. So, in place of the directional particle -(으) 로, you need the particle of location, 에. Make sense?

I bet you really have to go to the restroom now, don’t you!? But there’s still one more way the barista could respond to your question, and we should cover all the bases, right? Any ideas what else he might say? Well, he could tell you to go straight or to turn left or right:

이 쪽으로 죽 가서 왼쪽으로 도세요. [I jjogeuro chuk kaseo oenjjogeuro toseyo.] Go straight this way and then turn left.

Ahhhhhh…you found the restroom! Well, I won’t keep you, then, but I just want to mention something about 왼 and its opposite, 오른. These are related to “left” and “right,” respectively, but you can’t use them alone. They always have to be paired with a second word to create meaning. This could be 쪽 (“way”), which you’ve already learned, or perhaps 손 [son] (“hand”), or 발 [pal] (“foot”), which would give you the following:

왼쪽 (“left”), 오른쪽 (“right”), 왼손 (“left hand”), 오른손 (“right hand”), 왼발 (“left foot”), 오른발 (“right foot”)

Okay, you must be bursting now, so I’ll leave you to it!

Korean Style: Snow water, or eye water?

Oops! You forgot to check the weather forecast this morning. Don’t worry, just ask your Korean friend, 오늘비 와요? (“Will it rain today?”). But don’t be confused if your friend puts on a mischievous grin and replies, 아니요, 비는 지금 미국에 있어요. (“No, Rain is in the U.S. right now.”). This is a common joke in Korean, playing on the double meaning of 비 to mean both the precipitation rain and the Korean singer Rain.

Words like this are called homonyms—they sound the same and are spelled the same but have different meanings. English has them too, of course, lots of them. Consider the words “fly,” “matter,” and “bear,” for starters. In Korean, homonyms are used to make some great puns, like this one:

눈에 눈이 들어가니 눈물일까, 눈물일까?

The word 눈 has two meanings. The first is “snow,” and the other is “eye.” So can you guess what the sentence above means? It says, “When snow gets in your eye and melts, is the water eye water or snow water?”

Here are some more good ones:

다리가 너무 아파서 다리에서 쉬었어요. [Tariga neomu apaseo tarieseo shieosseoyo.]

머리를 다쳐서 머리가 빠져요. [Meorireul tachyeoseo meoriga ppajyeoyo.]

배에서 배를 먹었더니 배가 아파요. [Paeeseo paereul meogeotdeoni paega apayo.]

Answers? I rested on a bridge, for my legs hurt.

            My hair has been falling out since I hurt my head.

            I developed a stomach ache after I ate a pear on the ship.