My summer language program is moving along here in Seoul. Although I’m in level 4 of 6, my Korean still sucks. This is especially true for my listening ability, which is so bad I’m almost about to give up hope on it and concentrate on reading. I still struggle to understand anyone in a daily conversation and I can’t answer an overwhelming majority of any questions on any of our listening exercises. Today’s “cute” homework was to make a list of what “image” I get in response to various animal pictures. I had to look up a few of them, including “turtle.”
My electronic English-Korean dictionary, which uses Si-sa Elite (시사 엘리트 영한사전), provided me with what I guess is the correct word, 거북, in its first numbered entry under “turtle.” Entry number 2 explained that turtle could mean turtle meat, such as that which is used in soup. Entry number 3 was “=turtleneck.” Entry number 4 was some kind of computer term.
I was amazed to find the following as the 5th and final entry for “turtle” in my dictionary:
5. (때때로 T-) 닌자 거북이[어린이 영화•만화 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle에 나오는 거북. 방사능에 의한 돌연변이로 태어남].5. (Occasionally with a capital T) A Ninja Turtle (The turtles which appear in the children’s movie/comic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. [They are] born with mutations due to radiation.)
Apparently TMNT has made enough of a cultural impact to get into the dictionary under the entry for the animal. I think they need to make the “Turtle” in TMNT plural though…