# 처음 본다며 빨리 사장을 부르라는 것이 아닌가



## 82riceballs

Hi Everyone!!

I don't quite get the following sentence:

A woman comes back to a bag store angry, because there was a problem with the bag. Due to a misunderstanding, she and the storeperson (whose point of view this is in) get into an argument:

그러자 손님은 나에게 이렇게 어처구니가 없는
사람은 처음 본다며 빨리 사장을 부르라는 것이 아닌가?

(1) Does 본다며 mean 본다고 하면서?
(2) What does 부르라는 것이 아닌가? mean? How would you translate that into English?


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## vientito

82riceballs said:


> Hi Everyone!!
> 
> I don't quite get the following sentence:
> 
> A woman comes back to a bag store angry, because there was a problem with the bag. Due to a misunderstanding, she and the storeperson (whose point of view this is in) get into an argument:
> 
> 그러자 손님은 나에게 이렇게 어처구니가 없는
> 사람은 처음 본다며 빨리 사장을 부르라는 것이 아닌가?
> 
> (1) Does 본다며 mean 본다고 하면서?
> (2) What does 부르라는 것이 아닌가? mean? How would you translate that into English?




Without all the context this is what I guess from the sentence quoted above
 나에게 (to the store person)
 손님 (the woman who comes to the store)

So it seems that the storeperson is saying this to the woman QUOTING exactly what the woman is telling the storeperson to do
What is the quote?
 본다며 -> 보다+다면서 -> while saying that "seeing such ridiculous people the first time"
부르라는 것이 아닌가 -> it is a case "to call the superior right away", isn't it?

Note the quoted part this is what the storeperson has in effect objectively refered to what other(s) have said.  In this scenario, it would very well be what the woman has been saying to the storeperson.

However, there is a possibility that it may not be the case.  There are times when quoted portions do not explicitly refer to anyone's saying in particular but generally perceived fact (that everyone knows) or simply an inner voice/thought/conviction/belief.  Sometimes quoted speech could be even used in familiar circle to signal closeness.  Quoted speech has many usages and sometimes it could be hard to interpret it without a full context.

If you see 라/ㄴ다 it is the structure to quote, it is similar to "that" in english...  So no matter what interpretation you take, you know it is a form of quoting at least

The only catch is in english quoting has only one use but in korean quoting structure has other usage.


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## Rance

1) 본다며 = 보다 + 며
In this context, you can change with 본다고 하며/하면서 without altering the meaning.

2)  Based on the context ~아닌가 is a rhetorical question as store person  isn't really trying to figure out what the woman is saying.
It seems to imply that the store person is surprised(and probably frustrated) about the situation he has to deal with.
Such use of ~아닌가 is most common in monologue part of a literary piece narrated in first person.
It's practically a quote from the narrator to readers, not narrator(the store person) to the woman.
Crude translation into English would be something like: 
'Is she really telling to me to call my supervisor?!?'


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