To introduce yourself in English, you would typically state your name first, and then talk about yourself in separate sentences:
- Hello, I am Miss Terry. I will be teaching English to you, starting today, etc., etc.
You can do the same thing in Korean, of course. But sometimes, if it’s not spoken in the right tone, it could give an impression of a certain audacity, terseness, or awkwardness at best, even though it would sound grammatically correct:
- 안녕하세요, 나는 테리 선생님이에요. 오늘부터 여러분에게 영어를 가르쳐 줄 거예요. etc., etc.
Such awkwardness comes from the sociolinguistic syntax pattern that many Koreans, if not all, use in a self-introduction, by saying a relative clause about themselves first, which modifies their name that comes at the end of the sentence:
- 안녕하세요, 나는 오늘부터 여러분에게 영어를 가르쳐 줄 테리 선생님이에요. [Literally, “Hello, I am Miss Terry, who will be teaching English to you, starting today.” => Conversely, this sounds awkward and not natural in English, since in English, the relative pronoun “who” is not normally used to modify the speaker’s name. ]
This particular word order in the standard Korean self-introduction is similar to first showing your “intro” on your Facebook page, and then stating your name, altogether in one sentence. To do it, you need to use Korean relative clause endings, -는 (present tense), -ㄹ/을 (future tense), or -ㄴ/은 (past tense), after the stem of the verb in the relative clause:
가르쳐 주다 to teach => 가르쳐 줄 , who will teach [가르쳐 주+ㄹ future tense relative clause => 가르쳐 줄 ]
- 나는 영어를 가르쳐 줄 테리 선생님이에요. I am Miss Terry, who will teach English. [i.e., I am Miss Terry. And I will teach English.]
게임을 좋아하다 to like gaming => 게임을 좋아하는, who likes gaming [좋아하+는 present tense relative clause => 좋아하는]
- 나는 게임을 좋아하는 김태리예요. I am Kim Tae-ri, who likes gaming. [i.e., I am Kim Tae-ri. And I like gaming.]
Level 2A: Try to introduce yourself in Korean, considering the standard pattern shown above. Please write down your sentences first, using your dictionary and your grammar knowledge. Remember, in any language, self-introduction is the first step to a successful linguistic life.
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