I know some people here avoid Tumblr, and others may not follow Fictional Serial Killer, so I wanted to let those of you who might be interested know that this blog has a series of posts explaining some subtle language differences, particularly about when Bum uses the polite rather than the personal register with Sangwoo. Here is the last post that speaks about it:
The gist of these posts is that at first Bum uses the polite way of speaking to Sangwoo out loud, but Bum thinks of him in informal language. Over time, Bum sometimes uses informal ways to address Sangwoo (especially when he is stressed or being almost killed). Sangwoo seems to like this. Sangwoo doesn't seem as happy when Bum goes back to treating Sangwoo formally. It's an interesting observation.
Also, from these posts and a few others, it seems like Sangwoo comes off snarkier in Korean. I mean, we can tell he's taunting people and an ass, but I think we miss some of the subtlety. Like when he tells Jieun her forehead resembles a dolphin it's major shade in Korean (I think) and then he covers with some comment about teasing her because she is so pretty, but it's that type of sarcasm some use when teasing people who don't get that the speaker is making fun of them (which is the same type of snide attitude Jieun used with Bum that night--but Sangwoo uses this type of put down even more than she does throughout the story). I think many things he says have more sting in Korean somehow.
Anyway, I thought it's interesting. I hope some of you do too.
I know some people here avoid Tumblr, and others may not follow Fictional Serial Killer, so I wanted to let those of you who might be interested know that this blog has a series of posts explaining some subtle language differences, particularly about when Bum uses the polite rather than the personal register with Sangwoo. Here is the last post that speaks about it:
https://fictional-serial-killer.tumblr.com/post/157846105268/actually-there-is-one-more-thing-sangwoo-ssi
The gist of these posts is that at first Bum uses the polite way of speaking to Sangwoo out loud, but Bum thinks of him in informal language. Over time, Bum sometimes uses informal ways to address Sangwoo (especially when he is stressed or being almost killed). Sangwoo seems to like this. Sangwoo doesn't seem as happy when Bum goes back to treating Sangwoo formally. It's an interesting observation.
Also, from these posts and a few others, it seems like Sangwoo comes off snarkier in Korean. I mean, we can tell he's taunting people and an ass, but I think we miss some of the subtlety. Like when he tells Jieun her forehead resembles a dolphin it's major shade in Korean (I think) and then he covers with some comment about teasing her because she is so pretty, but it's that type of sarcasm some use when teasing people who don't get that the speaker is making fun of them (which is the same type of snide attitude Jieun used with Bum that night--but Sangwoo uses this type of put down even more than she does throughout the story). I think many things he says have more sting in Korean somehow.
Anyway, I thought it's interesting. I hope some of you do too.