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Story 2 · Season 1 · Read after Level 1 · Unit 2

할머니의 물건들

Grandma's Things

13 scenes · about 4 min of listening. Tap EN on a line for its English. Underlined words have a meaning card.

7:58 in the morning, the third-floor hallway. Bori, just home from the night shift, green hoodie, a convenience-store plastic bag in one hand, has stopped at the half-open door of 302.

  1. Eight in the morning. Bori is coming home from the night shift. Hoya has been up since five.

  2. 할머니의 가 있어요.

  3. 호야는 학생이에요.이거는…뭐예요?

  4. Hoya

    보리 씨, 안녕하세요.

  5. Bori

    그거 뭐?

  6. Hoya

    이거요?…할머니 거예요.

  7. 보리는 알아요.

Top-down view of the yellow vinyl floor. The objects laid out in two groups.

  1. 열쇠가 있어요.알아요.

  2. 우산이 있어요.알아요.

  3. 시계가 있어요.알아요.

  4. 사전이 있어요.알아요.

  5. 이거.이거.이거.이거.이거.이거.

  6. Four things he knows. Six he doesn't. The ratio feels familiar.

  7. Hoya

    이거는 뭐예요?이거는 뭐예요?이거는…

  8. Hoya

    …지우개?제 지우개예요.

  9. 호야의 지우개예요.할머니 거가 아니에요.

Bori now sits in the doorway, legs crossed, hood down, the plastic bag beside him.

  1. Hoya

    보리 씨, 이거 뭐예요?

  2. Bori

    할머니 거.

  3. Hoya

    이거는요?

  4. Bori

    할머니 거.

  5. Hoya

    …그럼 이거는요?

  6. Bori

    .

  7. Hoya

    아.보리 씨 거예요?

  8. Bori

    내 거.

  9. Its name means, roughly, the hand of a good son. It is cheaper than a son.

  10. 손이 있어요.사람은 없어요.

Hoya hunches over the thick dictionary open on his knees, flipping pages fast with one claw — dense tiny print, faded pencil notes in the margins (all unreadable).

  1. 사전이에요.

  2. 한국 사전이 아니에요.

  3. 프랑스 사전이에요.

  4. Hoya

    …프랑스.

  5. Hoya

    이 사전은 누구 거예요?

  6. Bori

    프랑스 학생.

  7. Hoya

    프랑스 학생은…없어요?

  8. 프랑스 학생은 없어요.사전은 있어요.

  9. Someone before him had needed it very much.

Close-up. Hoya holds up both paws wearing the pink rubber gloves.

  1. 이거는 사람 거예요.

  2. 호랑이 거가 아니에요.

  3. Hoya

    …제 거예요.

  4. Bori

    호야 거.

Low wide shot at floor level. The white rice cooker, plugged into the wall socket, small green light on; a paper bag of rice and a plastic measuring cup beside it.

  1. Hoya

    이게 뭐예요?

  2. The machine answers. It is the first thing in Seoul to address him formally.

  3. Hoya

    …안녕하세요.

  4. 이거는 사람이 아니에요.

  5. 선생님이 아니에요.

  6. 할머니가 아니에요.

  7. Hoya

    …감사합니다.

  8. 보리는 선생님이 아니에요.

Hoya lifts the last cardboard flap at the bottom of the empty box. Under it — the brown glasses case and the photo.

  1. One last flap at the bottom of the box.

  2. 사진이 있어요.안경이 있어요.

  3. Hoya

    이 사람은 누구예요?

  4. Hoya

    할머니예요?

  5. Bori looks at it for longer than it takes not to know someone. He says nothing.

  6. Hoya

    그럼 이 안경은 누구 거예요?

  7. Bori

    할머니 거.

Hoya wears the gold-rimmed glasses. They make his eyes look enormous; the room behind him is drawn slightly blurred.

  1. Hoya

    할머니 안경이에요?

  2. Bori

    할머니 거.

  3. 할머니의 안경이에요.

  4. 호랑이 안경이 아니에요.

  5. 호야는 할머니가 아니에요.

  6. Soon-ja has been looking for them since the spring before last.

The laundromat. Soon-ja at the folding-table counter holding a receipt at full arm's length, squinting — floral blouse, brown quilted vest, slippers, no glasses yet.

  1. Hoya

    할머니, 안녕하세요.

  2. Hoya

    할머니, 이거 할머니 안경이에요?

  3. Soon-ja

    …내 거.

  4. 할머니의 안경이에요.할머니 거예요.

Close shot. Soon-ja, now wearing the gold-rimmed glasses, slides the photo face down into her vest pocket without looking at it; her eyes stay on the towel she is folding.

  1. Hoya

    이 사람은 누구예요?

  2. Soon-ja

    손님.

  3. It is the quickest thing she has said all week.

  4. 사진은 없어요.이게 있어요.

Evening, Room 302. Hoya and Bori sit on the floor either side of the rice cooker, lid open, steam rising; each holds a bowl of plain white rice; an opened pack of convenience-store kimchi between them.

  1. Hoya

    보리 씨, 이거 뭐예요?

  2. Bori

    호야 거.

  3. Hoya

    네, 제 거예요.…뭐예요?

  4. Hoya

    보리 씨는 알아요?

  5. 보리는 알아요.

  6. Some things are explained at the bathhouse. Bori feels this is one of them.

Night. The room is now arranged: rice cooker on the floor like a small shrine, back scratcher on a nail, holed pink gloves drying on the window latch, dictionary propping up the short leg of a low table, alarm clock on top.

  1. 시계가 있어요.사전이 있어요.우산이 있어요.열쇠가 있어요.

  2. 지우개가 있어요.이거, 이거, 이거…이게 있어요.

  3. 사진은 없어요.안경은 없어요.

  4. 그거는 할머니 거예요.

  5. 은 없어요.그거는 보리 거예요.

  6. Bori

    그건 뭐?

  7. Hoya

    …제 거예요.

  8. Of everything in the room, it is the one thing he can name without help. He cannot read it.

The dark room. Hoya asleep on the mattress, tail curled over his face.

  1. 이거는 할머니 거가 아니에요.

  2. 이거는 호야 거예요.

  3. The rice cooker keeps the rice warm all night. Nobody asked it to.

Words from outside the course so far

상자
box
효자손
back scratcher (lit. 'good son's hand')

Back to Level 1 · Unit 2: What is this?