Saturday, November 19, 2022

so many ways to say the same damn thing

We do it in English, too, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating when, in Korean, you encounter multiple ways to say the same thing. Today's example: saying "pay on delivery." Depending on what website I'm ordering food from, I can encounter any of the following Korean expressions:

현장 결제 hyeonjang-gyeoljae = lit. payment on site

후불결제 hubul-gyeoljae = lit. deferred payment (i.e., you don't pay while ordering on the website; payment is deferred until the delivery guy arrives at your door)

만나서결제 mannaseo-gyeoljae = lit. meet, then pay

The lazy part of my brain says, "Pick a goddamn expression and stick with it!" But the language-hungry part of my brain knows that learning multiple ways to say the same thing is actually beneficial in terms of the flexibility it affords you as you learn a new language. And knowing a repertoire of synonyms makes you more prepared, in future exchanges and encounters, to handle a variety of inputs without registering everything as gibberish.



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