I really enjoyed reading this when it was posted. The main text and selected responses should be useful for beginner/intermediate learners.
This post was archived from Duolingo forum.
Credits to Charoleia for the original post
Hello.
I began Korean on Duolingo two months ago. I have been progressing slowly but, I hope, steadily. I haven’t reached Checkpoint 2 yet, and only have 58 crowns. Outside of Duo, I watch mediums in Korean as much as possible (Netflix with English and Korean subtitles and youtube videos – language related or not) and listen to music. I sometimes use Memrise and Drops but rather scarcely (usually about twice a week).
Today I decided to see if I could write a text with what I learned so far.
The “plot” is of course borrowed since it’s about Alice in Wonderland. Text is mine though.
I first wrote it in English, in an overly simplified way, since the point was to translate it in Korean myself with my meager knowledge.
I used only a dictionary (https://krdict.korean.go.kr/) and the Dongsa Verb Conjugator app (https://koreanverb.app) especially for past and future tense which I haven’t reached yet on Duo. I tried keeping the text in the present tense as much as I could since it’s the only one I am supposed to know. Conditional mood I only picked up from watching dramas, so I am not sure I used it right.
The Mad Hatter and March Hare names I googled, since I expected there was a fixed translation for those.
I would appreciate if anyone fluent, or even a native speaker, would be kind enough to correct the probably vast amount of obvious and glaring grammatical blunders and/or misuses of vocabulary.
Also I ask for your leniency. It took me more than three hours to write this poor piece, but it still feels like a small achievement… 
Have a nice day.
앨리스는 피곤해요. 흰토끼가 갔어요. 노래하는 꽃들이 친절하지 않았어요.
지금, 큰 나무에서 그 웃은 고양이가 영어로 질문들을 묻하지만 앨리스는 질문들을 못 이헤헤요.
« 고양이씨, 당신은 저를 안 돕습니다 »
« 차 파티 가면, 아마 저기에 도움을 있을 거예요 »
고양이가 웃고 사라지어요. 지금 고양이는 없지만 거기에 웃음은 남아요.
« 이 장소는 이상이가 있어요… »
앨리스가 노래를 듣고 저쪽으로 걷어요. 그녀가 공원에 도착해요. 저기에서 모자가 큰 이상한 남자는 산토끼와 쥐하고 차를 마시어요. 그것은 차 파티이에요!
« 안녕하십니까 ? 제 이름은 앨리스입니다. 제가 영국 출신이고 집에 가고 바랍니다. 저에게 도움을 주십시오. »
사람들은 놀라고 서로 봐요.
« 아니요 ! »
« 많이 실례는 ! »
« 공손는 없어요 ! »
« 실례합니다, 죄송합니다. 피곤입니다. 앉면 됩니까? »
« 아니요, 정말 가능한 않아요! »
« 의자는 없어요 ! »
« 전혀 의자는 없어요 ! »
« 여기에 의자는 많습니다 ! »
« 네 생일날이에요 ? »
« 아니요, 손님. 제 생일날를 아닙니다. »
« 그래요. 괜찮어요, 앉아요. 여기 차를 있어요. »
« 당신들은 누구입니까 ? »
« 우리는 모자장수-»
« -삼월 토끼- »
« -쥐일만이에요. 만나서 반가워요. 여기에 차가운 차를 있어요. »
« 감사합니다, 괜찮습니다. 뜨거운 차를 더 좋홥니다. 뭐 하십니까 ? »
« 오늘 우리는 없생일날를 쇄요. »
« 무슨 뜻입니까 ? »
« 네 생일날이 없으면 파티에 화영해요. 이것은 이래요. »
« 그 없생일날은 그래요. 여기 네에게 내 차를 주어요. »
« 감사합지만 저는 이미 두 차 그릇들이 있습니다. »
« 차를 마다한 매우 실례있어요 ! »
« 많이 무례는 ! »
« 너무 많이 무례는 ! »
« 정말, 이 장소가 너무 많이 이상이에요… » 앨리스가 말해요.
Alice is tired. The white rabbit is gone. The singing flowers were not kind.
And now, that laughing cat in the big tree asks questions in English but Alice can not understand them.
“Mister Cat, you are not helping me.”
“If you go to the tea party, maybe you will find help there.”
The cat smiles and vanishes. Now there is no cat but the smile is still there.
“There is something strange about this place…”
Alice hears a song and walks in that direction. She arrives in a park. There, a strange man with a big hat drinks tea with a hare and a mouse. That’s the tea party !
“Hello, I am Alice. I am from England and I want to go home. Would you help me please ? »
The strangers look at each other in shock.
“No !”
“Very rude !”
“No courtesy !”
“Excuse me, I’m sorry. I’m tired. Is it alright if I sit down ?”
“No, it’s not possible !”
“No chairs !”
“No chairs at all !”
“But there are plenty of chairs here !”
“Is it your birthday ?”
“No sir, it is not.”
“I see. It’s all right then, sit down. There is tea here.”
“Who are you all ?”
“I’m the Mad Hatter.”
“I’m the March Hare.”
“I’m just a mouse. Nice to meet you. Here is cold tea.”
“Thank you very much, but I’m okay… I prefer hot tea. What are you doing ?”
“Today, we celebrate non birthdays.”
“What do you mean ?”
“If it’s not your birthday, you are welcome. That is how it is”
“Non birthdays are like that. Here, I give you my tea.”
“Thank you, but I already have two bowls of tea.”
“It is terribly impolite to refuse tea !”
“Very rude.”
“Very very rude.”
“This place is very strange indeed” says Alice.
slowsummits wrote:it's pretty good as far as i can tell, especially after just a few months of study. the meaning is clear for the most part but there are some issues that jumped out at me. very impressive work overall.
i started making some comments just planning to point out a few errors here and there but ended up going through the whole text. i guess this is my korean homework for today hehe. i mostly did all of this to refresh things for myself so please don't take offense. also i'm nowhere near fluent so there might be mistakes in the remarks. basically i'm looking for people to correct me also, if i have gone wrong somewhere.
흰토끼가 갔어요 - 갔어요 seems strange here, it reads to me as 'went' rather than the passive 'is gone' that you want. i'd probably use 떠났어요 (left) instead
지금, 큰 나무에서 그 웃은 고양이가.... - the 그 here seems out of place to me
질문들을 묻하지만.... - you can just say 질문하다 for 'asking questions.
앨리스는 질문들을 못 이헤헤요. - for 하다 verbs, you usually place 못 between the first piece and 하다, so 이해 못해요 is better. also, you don't need to repeat 질문 here.
고양이씨 - the cat is being referred to by its social role so it should be 님 rather than 씨
아마 저기에 도움을 있을 거예요 - 아마 should be used with the subjective future tense 을게요 rather than the objective future tense. also 있다 isn't transitive so you should use the subject marker on 도움. (overall - 아마 저기에 도움이 있을게요)
이 장소는 이상이가 있어요 - Alice is speaking to herself here so there's no need for the formality signified by the 요 ending and also you wouldn't use 이상이가 있다 when 이상하다 is available
걷어요 - the correct conjugation of 걷다 is 걸어요.
모자가 큰 이상한 남자는 - i don't understand the 모자가 큰 bit. probably 큰 모자를 쓴 이상한 남자 is better.
그것은 차 파티이에요 - no need for 그것은 here.
집에 가고 바랍니다 - i'm not sure where 바랍니다 comes from, but the way to say i want to do x is -고 싶어요.
도움을 주십시오 - the usual way to say this is 도와 주십시오, there is a construction for polite requests which involves conjugating the first verb and then adding 주다 to it. not sure if it is covered in duolingo or not but you can check level 2, lesson 27 of TTMIK for an explanation
« 많이 실례는 ! » - i don't follow this structure that you've repeated a few times. i think « 실례가 많아요! » is more natural but i'm not sure that's how koreans would phrase this (as an aside, korean uses speech marks rather than guillemets)
피곤입니다... - should be 피곤합니다.
앉면 됩니까... the structure for 'is it okay to...' is (아/어/여)도 돼다.
가능한 않아요 ... the negation you meant here is -지 않아요. however there is a verb 불가능하다 which is the opposite of 가능하다, which seems more suitable to me
좋홥니다 - i guess this is just a typo 좋아합니다 is what you want.
뭐 하십니까 - 뭐 is very informal but 하십니까 is very formal. 무엇을 하십니까? is the proper way to say this
없생일날를 쇄요 - 없 isn't used a negative prefix in korean so you can't do this. 생일 is sino-korean so you should use 무 or 불 here - there might be conventions but i don't know them. also 'to celebrate' is 축하하다.
주어요 - should be 줘요.
두 차 그릇들이... - the counter for drinks is 잔, so this should be 차 두 잔이
너무 많이 이상이에요… - the verb is 이상하다
« … » 앨리스가 말해요. - this isn't the correct way to quote in korean. there's a grammatical object called the quotation particle. but if you haven't studied it yet, then there's no need to worry.
Sophiafilm wrote:The verb 쓰다 (to use, to write, to wear something on your head).
Any verb could be placed before nouns, to form a meaning of "...ing" or "the one who...".
Present 쓰다 -> 모자를 쓰는 남자 - a man who wearing a hat;
Past 쓰다 -> 모자를 쓴 남자 - a man who wore a hat;
Future 쓰다 -> 모자를 쓸 남자 - a man will be wearing a hat.웃다 - to laugh, to grin, smile.
Present 웃다 -> 웃는 고양이 - a grinning/ laughing cat;
Past 웃다 -> 웃은 고양이 - a cat that smiled;
Future 웃다 -> 웃을 고양이 - a cat that will be smiling.Unbirthdays would be 생일이 아닌 일/것.
In case it might be interesting to you, since the cat is a Cheshire cat, in Korean it would be 체셔 고양이. The only character in the book from Cheshire - the county in England, where Lewis Carroll was born.