➹ teaching myself some hangul: 어떻게 or 어떡해?

Knowing how to read and write Hangul is strangely one of my biggest pride and joy ... and at the same time one of my greatest frustrations ㅋㅋㅋ. I mean I think it's super awesome to have a basic know-how so that I can mutter and scribble phrases which none of my peers can ever google translate (nyaha!)... But my skill can only get me as far as short conversations with kids (I assume!) and a ballad song at the noraebang. Anyway, lacking the tenacity and the financial backing to provide myself a formal education on the subject, I will just have to rely on the treasure cover of online resources to learn Hangul! ^^



One of my very first Korean friends used to coach me in Hangul through an exchange of emails. I can't forget one of her initial criticisms on my rookie writing and usage of words...

'어떻게' is right.
Koreans don't write '어떡헤'.
However, we use '어떡해'.
'어떻게' means 'how', and '어떡해' is kind of the expression of pity and asking.

Because this really doesn't matter so much when you say it out loud~ sadly, I think I still switch this up a lot to this day! I think I caught myself with the wrong usage several times in kakaotalk ㅠㅠ. I kind of needed a mnemonic to remember the difference.For now, I just try to recall 2 very common phrases:

나 어떡해? 어떡해? 어떡해? which ends like "he, he, he" ... kind of like the English onomatopoeia for laughing as in "heheheh". Picture the classic kdrama heroine who is foolish and crazy and in trouble all the time muttering "어떡해? 어떡해? 어떡해?" when in the most humiliating situations. Think of it as a sort of go-to panic phrase. Works well with fangirling like this:



And then the other phrase I would recall is:

어떻게 알아? This one I may have heard a LOT of from variety shows hahah! 어떻게 알았어? 어떻게 알았지? No real trick to this one except that "어떻게" is not so much repeated.



Keeping these 2 phrases in mind, I hope to ultimately correct my confusion between these 2 words. Let's see me not misuse them in kakaotalk from here on! 화이팅! ^^