Built directly on lesson 108: the same copula, a new particle, and enough vocabulary to answer the second question anyone asks you.
Countries and their people
The pattern is mechanical — country + 사람:
한국 + 사람 → 한국 사람
Korea person a Korean| 싱가포르 / 싱가폴 사람 | Singaporean | 미국 사람 (美國) | American |
| 말레이시아 사람 | Malaysian | 영국 사람 (英國) | British |
| 일본 사람 (日本) | Japanese | 독일 사람 (獨逸) | German |
| 중국 사람 (中國) | Chinese | 호주 사람 (濠洲) | Australian |
| 인도 사람 (印度) | Indian | 캐나다 사람 | Canadian |
| 태국 사람 (泰國) | Thai | 프랑스 사람 | French |
| 대만 사람 (臺灣) | Taiwanese | 필리핀 사람 | Filipino |
독일 is pronounced [도길] — 연음 again, the ㄱ sliding into the empty ㅇ slot.
The bracketed 한자 show which of these are Sino-Korean coinages rather than transliterations. 美國 is literally beautiful country, 英國 heroic country — these are Chinese phonetic approximations of America and England that Korean inherited wholesale. The ones without 한자 (싱가포르, 캐나다, 프랑스) are modern transliterations straight from the source language.
Native and Sino-Korean, side by side
Almost every one of these has two forms — a native Korean one and a Sino-Korean one — and they are not freely interchangeable.
| Country | Person (native) | Person (Sino) | Language (native) | Language (Sino) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 한국 | 한국 사람 | 한국인 | 한국말 | 한국어 |
| 일본 | 일본 사람 | 일본인 | 일본말 | 일본어 |
| 중국 | 중국 사람 | 중국인 | 중국말 | 중국어 |
| 미국 | 미국 사람 | 미국인 | 미국말 | 영어 |
| 프랑스 | 프랑스 사람 | 프랑스인 | 프랑스말 | 프랑스어 |
| 독일 | 독일 사람 | 독일인 | 독일말 | 독일어 |
| 외국 (外國) | 외국 사람 | 외국인 | 외국말 | 외국어 |
The two suffix pairs:
- 사람 (native) ↔ 인 人 (Sino) — a person
- 말 (native) ↔ 어 語 (Sino) — a language
Which to use: 사람 and 말 are conversational; 인 and 어 are more formal and are what appears in writing, forms and signage. 한국어 is the name of the subject you are studying; 한국말 is what you would call it chatting to a colleague.
The exception in that table is real — the English language is 영어, from 영국 (England), not from 미국. 미국어 is not a word.
외국 (外國) is foreign country, so 외국인 is foreigner — the word you will see on immigration forms and hear about yourself.
The topic particle 은 / 는
Attaches to a noun to mark it as what the sentence is about.
| After a consonant | After a vowel | |
|---|---|---|
| 은 | 는 | |
| 타완은 [타와는] | 유카는 | |
| 케빈은 [케비는] | 슈이는 | |
| 선생님은 [선생니믄] | 저는 |
Every left-hand example links across — 타완은 is [타와는], because 은 begins with the silent ㅇ and the ㄴ 받침 slides straight into it. That is lesson 105 doing real work: the particle is why you keep meeting the linking rule.
은/는 marks the topic, not the subject — those are different jobs, and Korean has a separate particle 이/가 for the subject. The contrast between them is one of the genuinely hard parts of Korean grammar and is taken up in lesson 112. For now: 은/는 introduces what you are talking about, and is the right choice for 저는.
Putting it together
Vocabulary for the exchange: 씨 Mr./Ms., 어느 which, 나라 country.
A: 민수 씨는 한국 사람이에요?
Minsu, are you Korean?
B: 네, (저는) 한국 사람이에요.
Yes, I'm Korean.A: 어느 나라 사람이에요?
What nationality are you?
B: 아니요, (저는) 싱가포르 사람이에요.
No, I'm Singaporean.저는 is in brackets both times because it is normally dropped — difference 4 from lesson 106. Say it only if you are drawing a contrast.
어느 나라 사람이에요? is the standard way to ask, and it is worth noticing that it has no subject at all. Literally which country person is it?
Work culture: appropriate work attire
싱가포르의 직장인 복장 규정은 한국이나 일본에 비해 아주 많이 자유롭다.
Workplace dress codes in Singapore are far more relaxed than in South Korea or Japan.
The deck’s framing is comparative, and it is candid about the direction of travel. Until a few years ago a proper suit was effectively mandatory in a Korean office — pressed dress shirt and tie for men, blouse and tailored skirt for women. The growth of start-ups and IT firms, where creativity is part of the pitch, has loosened that considerably.
But “looser than it was” is still noticeably stricter than Singapore, and the gap is the thing to keep in mind when a visitor from Seoul is in the building.
What the deck lists as inappropriate
옷 — clothing
| 힙합 스타일 | hip-hop styling |
| 찢어진 청바지 | ripped jeans |
| 민소매 | sleeveless tops |
| 노출이 심하고 깊이 파인 옷 | revealing or low-cut clothing |
| 미니스커트, 핫팬츠, 레깅스 | miniskirts, hot pants, leggings |
| 맥시 드레스 | maxi dresses |
신발 — footwear
| 슬리퍼 | slippers, flip-flops |
| 스포츠 샌들 | sports sandals |
The class question was left open, and it is a fair one to sit with:
그럼 직장인은 옷차림에 신경을 써야 할까? 여러분은 어떻게 생각하세요?
So should working professionals pay attention to how they dress? What do you think?