# 좀 그렇네요.



## wonlon

왕명: 아니예요, 저도 한국 요리를 좋아하지만 계속 먹으니까 뭔가 *좀 그렇네요*. *중국 요리 생각에 집 생각도 나고요.*

1. 뭔가 *좀 그렇네요*.
What does *그렇네요 *mean here?

2. *중국 요리 생각에 집 생각도 나고요.*
I am really lost in this sentence. Everything looks familiar but just what does the sentence mean then?


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## 조금만

Given my Socratic, i.e. emphatically non-Confucian approach to such matters, I will stick to what I hope are helpful hints to let you get the rest of the way yourself (apart from maybe suggesting you make 아니예요 into 아니에요, at least when your teacher's not around: this is an area where official orthography is more at odds with common usage and common sense than any other). 

You're bound to know 그렇다: it is, of course, what Shakespeare might have expressed as "To be thus", though we no longer have a convenient all-purpose English equivalent for it. You surely also know the sort of thing the ~네 pattern and the adverb 좀 express, and what 뭔가 means as well. So take the (actually fairly common) phrase 뭔가 좀 그렇네요 as a single unit, rather than staring at 그렇네요 in isolation (a word-by-word approach is almost always a bad idea when faced with a puzzling Korean phrase).

If you're still in the dark, put that phrase on the shelf for a moment, and translate first as far as the 좋아하지만, which I'm sure you can do with no difficulty. Then tackle 계속 먹으니까, which, as the ~으니까 pattern shows, contains the explanation for the state of affairs expressed by your problem phrase. Another hint: 먹다 can be both transitive and intransitive (밥 먹자 as compared to just 먹자) but here there's an implied object (look to the left...). Now you've come this far, think about the components of the problem phrase again, and see if light doesn't dawn. 

Now on to the next sentence. Forget the -에 particle for a moment, and consider 중국 요리 생각 as a single noun phrase, now re-attach the -에, as applying to that entire noun phrase and making it function as adverbial qualifier for the main verb phrase 집 생각도 나고요.  The grammar of 집 생각 is an exact parallel to that of 중국 요리 생각, and you know what 생각 나다 means, so...


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## vientito

I think in chinese we would say "有點兒那個。。。“


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## wonlon

조금만 said:


> You're bound to know 그렇다: it is, of course, what Shakespeare might have expressed as "To be thus", though we no longer have a convenient all-purpose English equivalent for it. You surely also know the sort of thing the ~네 pattern and the adverb 좀 express, and what 뭔가 means as well. So take the (actually fairly common) phrase 뭔가 좀 그렇네요 as a single unit, rather than staring at 그렇네요 in isolation (a word-by-word approach is almost always a bad idea when faced with a puzzling Korean phrase).
> 
> If you're still in the dark, put that phrase on the shelf for a moment, and translate first as far as the 좋아하지만, which I'm sure you can do with no difficulty. Then tackle 계속 먹으니까, which, as the ~으니까 pattern shows, contains the explanation for the state of affairs expressed by your problem phrase. Another hint: 먹다 can be both transitive and intransitive (밥 먹자 as compared to just 먹자) but here there's an implied object (look to the left...). Now you've come this far, think about the components of the problem phrase again, and see if light doesn't dawn.
> 
> Now on to the next sentence. Forget the -에 particle for a moment, and consider 중국 요리 생각 as a single noun phrase, now re-attach the -에, as applying to that entire noun phrase and making it function as adverbial qualifier for the main verb phrase 집 생각도 나고요.  The grammar of 집 생각 is an exact parallel to that of 중국 요리 생각, and you know what 생각 나다 means, so...



I just try:
1. 뭔가 좀 그렇네요.
I think it means "there is something sort of like that...".
I failed to find a source explaining this expression.

2. 중국 요리 생각에 집 생각도 나고요.
When I think of Chinese food, I think of my home.


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## 경상남도로 오이소

1. "Korean food starts to cloy a bit." in this context. 
It is essential that when you say something is "뭔가 좀 그렇네요" to someone, you need to make a facial expression which indicates that you don't (quite) like it. 

2. Can mean either "I long for Chinese food, which is followed by my home" or "I long for Chinese food and my home". But not "When I think of Chinese food, I think of home". 
집생각 always means missing home. As in "처음 유학왔을 때에는 집생각도 많이 났지요." The formal (and somewhat humorous) word is 향수병 (Hanja:鄕愁病) and it's pronounced 향수뼝.


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## vientito

the third definition may very well fit the bill

http://krdic.naver.com/small_detail.nhn?docid=5048600#165245

if you care to switch to the chinese reference there's a good explanation.   I will paste it here

那个 
1. [대명사][구어] 그렇다. 저렇다. 거시기하다. [직접 말하기 불편한 언사를 대체함. 완곡하고 해학적인 의미를 내포함] ↔[这个(zhège)]

Approach this one from your chinese background then you will understand how it's used


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## wonlon

경상남도로 오이소 said:


> 2. Can mean either "I long for Chinese food, which is followed by my home" or "I long for Chinese food and my home". But not "When I think of Chinese food, I think of home".
> 집생각 always means missing home. As in "처음 유학왔을 때에는 집생각도 많이 났지요." The formal (and somewhat humorous) word is 향수병 (Hanja:鄕愁病) and it's pronounced 향수뼝.



중국 요리 생각에 집 생각도 나고요.
I think the problem is the postposition 에, here it should mean "in addition to" rather than time or place, etc.
~"in addition to missing Chinese food, I also miss my home."


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## 조금만

If you think of  -에 more generally still, as a marker of location, then its occasional use as a marker of location-in-context fits in quite well with its more common appearance to mark location in time or space.

Location as a very general category (encompassing time, space and context) seems to be neglected in the description of Korean and many other languages. Unlike, say, Tagalog, where statements of location have a whole voice all to themselves, so its status as the common basis for more differentiated markers can't be so readily overlooked. The preposition_ bei_ in German can mark either context (Beim Gedanken an chinesisches Essen...) or spatial proximity (Ich bin bei dir) but, unlike Korean -에 it is not used for location in time.


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## ddungbo

Hi 조금만. I was wondering if you can answer my own question about 에's translation. 
I thought of 'by' as the right preposition to translate the meaning conveyed by 에 in this particular usage. 

The idea I get from the original sentence is, in literal sense, that while you were thinking about Chinese food you came by the homesick feeling, almost as if the feeling is a byproduct. The feeling came 'by' the way(of thinking about the food) Can you write a English translation using by? 
Also, what about ,
I grew homesick "at" the thought of Chinese food. 

Can you also think of other preposition that fits? Of course, a different preposition may entail a different construction, but if you could get me some example sentences it'd be much appreciated.


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## kenjoluma

'에' here is definitely translated to 'in addition to' or 'and'.

http://krdic.naver.com/detail.nhn?docid=26411800
cf. -ii.

examples)
잔칫집에서 밥에, 떡에, 술에 아주 잘 먹었다.
아버지가 책에, 연필에, 장난감에 이것저것 많이 사 주셨다.


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