# 이 신엔서 만큼은 내가 주인공이라고 생각하자



## 82riceballs

Hi all,

In class, we were watching an interview with the actress 장서희 who spent 10+ years in unimportant acting roles until she finally made it big.

She said that the way she dealt with that was by thinking,
이 신에서 *만큼은* 내가 주인공이라고 생각하자
조연이지만 그 신에서 *만큼은* 열심히 했었거든요.
그 모습을 알아주시는 누군가가 있잖아요.

But I don't get what the meaning of 만큼 is here...
Usually we learn 만큼 in the following ways:
1. "밥 이만큼 주세요" give me *this much* rice. 
2. "개가 코끼리만 하더라고" the dog was *as big as* an elephant.
3. "장학금을 받은 만큼 더 열심히 공부해서 한국어 실력을 향상시키겠어요" Since I received a scholarship, I have to work *that much harder* to really make sure that I improve my Korean

Usually there are two things being compared to each other: "rice" to "this size", "dog" to "elephant", "amount of scholarship" to "amount of hard work" but here I'm not sure what's being compared in 이 신에서 만큼은 내가 주인공...

Any help is appreciated- thanks so much!!!


----------



## bomida

Hello, 82riceball. Wow, you do study hard!

I would translate '~~만큼+은' as 'especially / when it comes to', emphasizing something.

Here are some examples that I came up with.
나는 다른 건 몰라도, 영어만큼은 자신있다. I don't know about other things, but I'm really good when it comes to English.
이 제품은 디자인만큼은 세계 제일이다. The design of this product is number one in the world.

Back to your question;
이 신에서만큼은 내가 주인공이라고 생각했다. Especially in this scene, I reminded myself that I am the lead role.

Thank you!


----------



## Kross

82riceballs said:


> but here I'm not sure what's being compared in 이 신에서 만큼은 내가 주인공...


 You need to draw the omitted part from context because Jang didn't say it clearly. She was cast as assistant actors in many shows for years. And her parts were shown on TV for a very short time. Basically they were not very important. But she counter-intuitively thought that she was playing the lead role for her given scenes like pretending to do so. This way she could get focused on her roles and act better, at the same time trying to not thinking who she really was in reality, an assistant actor. This is how she could overcome those seemingly-endless period of her unnamed times and make it to the position she has now. So she compared one of herself on stage with the other of herself in reality.


----------



## 82riceballs

Thanks to you both!! I think I understand it better.

I just wanted to ask a clarification question to what Kross said:


Kross said:


> So she compared one of herself on stage with the other of herself in reality.


I feel like you're making a really awesome point, but I'm not sure I get what you're saying... She compared herself in the scene with her real self?

이 신에서 만큼은 재가 주인공이라고 생각했다.
Is "me in this scene" being compared to "me outside this scene" (=where I don't matter)?

Are there comparisons here in the examples by bomida too?
1. 나는 다른 건 몰라도, 영어만큼은 자신있다. 
Is "my english" being compared to the "english level" of other people?
i.e. 저만큼 영어 할 수 있는 사람이 없다.??

2. 이 제품은 디자인만큼은 세계 제일이다. 
Is "the design of this product" being compared to the "design of other products"?
i.e. 이 제품만큼 디자인이 좋은 제품은 없다.??

Thank you both so much for your help in understanding this grammar!!


----------



## Kross

82riceballs said:


> I feel like you're making a really awesome point, but I'm not sure I get what you're saying... She compared herself in the scene with her real self?


 Yes.



82riceballs said:


> 이 신에서 만큼은 재가 주인공이라고 생각했다.
> Is "me in this scene" being compared to "me outside this scene" (=where I don't matter)?


 Yes, this is how I interpreted what she said.



82riceballs said:


> Are there comparisons here in the examples by bomida too?
> 1. 나는 다른 건 몰라도, 영어만큼은 자신있다.
> Is "my English" being compared to the "English level" of other people?


 It is totally context-dependant about what is being compared with what. So your interpretation here may be true for some situations. But I think it would be more commonplace to look at that this way. My English level is being compared with that of his other abilities (that are not as great as my English.) 



82riceballs said:


> 2. 이 제품은 디자인만큼은 세계 제일이다.
> Is "the design of this product" being compared to the "design of other products"?
> i.e. 이 제품만큼 디자인이 좋은 제품은 없다.??


 You got it right here.


----------



## yonh

In the OP and bomida's examples, 만큼 is used as a synonym for 만.
만큼 is a comparative marker while 만 means "only" and is not related to comparison. Because of this, some argue that this usage is incorrect, but it is widely used.
It's a contrast marker 은/는 which show contrast between "her scenes" and other actor's.
이 신에서*는* 내가 주인공이다. In *this scene*, I am a main character. (in other scenes, maybe not.)
이 신에서*만* 내가 주인공이다. *Only *in this scene ...
이 신에서*만은*(or *만큼은*) 내가 주인공이다. *At least *in this scene ...


----------



## 82riceballs

Ohhh I see, thanks so much yonh!!!


----------

