Hi Hyeonjun,

Thank you for your question! Let’s see if I can help you.

I understand that what you want is to know the difference between “would” and “should” so that you can use the correct expression in the given context.

Unfortunately, this is not something that I (or anybody) will be able to just explain over text. If anybody claims that they can, I can guarantee that they do not have any idea what they are talking about.

If you want to find out how to use the word “would” or “should” in a sentence, I am sure you will be able to use many different resources such as Google, Naver, YouTube, etc. Reading your question makes me believe that you already have done your fair share of it.

So let me explain it another way.

Let’s say you have a Non-Korean friend who is asking you a question:

“Hey Hyeonjun! what’s the difference between ‘죄송합니다’ and ‘미안해’?

How would you explain? You might say something like “Oh ‘죄송합니다’ is more polite than ‘미안해’ so you would use ‘미안해’ typically to your friends or someone who is younger than you… blah blah blah. Am I right?

Now, your friend is asking more questions:

“Then how about “죄송합니다” vs “죄송해요”?
“What about “미안합니다” vs “미안해요”?
“Can I say “미안해” to my friend but not to my mother?”
“Why did this person just say “미안요”??? What does that mean?”
“My friend just said “ㅈㅅ” to me and told me it means “죄송”. Why did my friend say “ㅈㅅ” when they are not younger than me? Why don’t they say “ㅁㅇ” for “미안”? Why?

How are you going to answer above questions?

See, here is my point.

The problem with this notion of learning a language in another language is that often it will only work until a certain point or for a certain thing. In most cases, you will not be able to explain because that’s just how languages work (in Korean, we have this beautiful expression: “그냥”. So most likely your answers to your friend’s above questions will be “그냥 원래 그런거야 그만 물어봐!!!"

I understand that we want this process to be something like “Apple = 사과"

You ask your instructor Mason, "how do I say 사과 in English? "

and he will give you an answer “You say Apple!”

But it simply doesn’t work that way. Not anymore, at least. It simply means your language skill has advanced far.

So, how do we understand it then?

Stop trying to understand it in Korean. Try to understand it in English. I call it "acquiring a language" not "learning a language."

It is a very important concept that all translators and interpreters must understand. It takes time. It takes effort. You will need to read a lot, watch a lot, listen a lot, speak a lot and write a lot. But, once the language is acquired, I bet you will not lose it so easily.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

Mason U, CMI-Korean
Business Interpretation and Translation in Korean (BIT-K) Instructor

Hyeonjun Kim님의 댓글

Hyeonjun Kim 쪽지보내기 메일보내기 자기소개 아이디로 검색 전체게시물 Date 22-08-25 01:42

Dear Mason,

 Thanks for your answer sincerely.

I somewhat figured out why I didn't  fully catch meanings and differences of the words via your explanation.

Although it must be hard time for me, a native Korean, to get used to the words, I feel like what I can do is to try many example sentences as you advised.

Best regards,
Hyeonjun Kim

@direct lending https://vancorporate.com/financiacion-de-pymes-y-corporate/direct-lending/