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믿기 힘들겠지만 it might be hard to believe but • 믿다 believe, trust • -기 changes verb into noun • 힘들다 hard, difficult, tough • -겠다 will do (be), probably do (be) • -지만 but, even though

I have never read a story for its plot. I read and enjoy stories (books, fics, TV shows, movies) because of the characters. 

Writers* are obsessed with plot because they believe it will give their work validation and credibility. They’re modern Pinocchios who beg The Plot Fairy to make them real writers. If a story has solid “conflict and resolution”, it’s a good story. It’s something worth publishing, reading, buying. Or is it?

Plot, to me, has always felt like an excuse to write about other things. I don’t even care about my own plots, least of all someone else’s. Cat’s eye by Margaret Atwood is like... probably one of the most plot-less novels I have ever read, and yet it’s my favorite book.

My first year at uni was really rough because I knew I wanted to write, and I knew more or less what I wanted to write about, but I couldn’t get started because I kept having problems with the plot of my stories. Then one day in the middle of my nine a.m Italian Literature class, my professor said: “Every character is a plot in and on itself.” And that changed my life. I later came to find out he was quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald, but that’s another story.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to like plot or to enjoy writing complicated, complex, mind-twisting fictional conflicts. I’m saying it’s not necessary. Is a 250-word drabble not a real story? Aren’t there 6-word stories out there? Hemingway’s, for example. Why are we so obsessed with convincing others that we are, in fact, real writers? Why is plot so important? Why do plots get shoved down our throats in creative writing courses? 

If you like writing plot-centered stories, good. If you don’t, why torture yourself by writing them? 

Here’s a quote by Moehringer (according to Google anyway) about this: 

“People who read for plot, people who suck out the story like the cream filling in an Oreo, should stick to comic strips and soap operas. Every book worth a damn is about emotions and love and death and pain. It's about words. It's about a man dealing with life.”

Example:

A: 야 그 가수 노래 잘부르지 않냐?"

B: "잘부르기는 개뿔."

A: "너 돈 많이 벌지?"

B: 많이 벌긴 개뿔."

Yes! I'll put this ask under the Upper-Intermediate section of my masterlist!

-기는 무슨 and -기는 개뿔 do mean the same thing -- -기는 개뿔 is more of a slang version of -기는 무슨 as you mentioned. Before we talk about the grammar, what do 무슨 and 개뿔 mean?

무슨

무슨 means “what” and must come before a noun (I think it’s technically an adjective). So you can say: 

무슨 책 읽어요? = “what book are you reading?” 

It’s that kind of “what.” More about 무슨 here!

You’ll also hear sentences like 무슨 소리야? which literally translates to “what noise is it?” but really means “what are you saying?” It’s used when someone says some nonsense or something ridiculous. 

개뿔

개뿔 is more of a slang word meaning “jack shit.” You might here the sentence 넌 개뿔도 몰라 meaning “you don’t know anything.” Not sure if this counts as a curse word, but it definitely seems rude in my opinion.

-기는

Let’s move onto -기는, which is often shortened to -긴 in this sort of context. You probably already know that -는 is a topic particle. -기 is one way to turn verbs/adjectives into nouns and is simply attached to stems. You might see sentences like 

수영하기 어려워요 = Swimming is difficult. 

Here, 수영하다 (to swim) is turned into a noun, 수영하기 (swimming; the act of swimming). 

More about -기 here!

Use the following formula:

[verb / adjective stem] + 기는 무슨 OR 기는 개뿔

What these essentially mean is similar to the English phrases "my foot" or "my ass" when someone says something we disagree with. Let's see the examples you gave, for instance:

A: 야 그 가수 노래 잘부르지 않냐? = Hey, doesn't that singer sing well?

B: 잘부르기는 무슨. = Yeah right they sing well (sarcastic). / They don’t sing well at all. / What do you mean they sing well?

A: 너 돈 많이 벌지? = You make a lot of money, right?

B: 많이 벌긴 개뿔. = I make a lot of money my ass. / Bullshit I make a lot of money.

Essentially, you’re just making the claim that the other person is wrong and negating what they said. To me, when I hear it in K-dramas it usually sounds pretty strong, especially 개뿔, although that’s just my opinion with my limited exposure to conversational Korean. I would keep these phrases for when you’re talking to someone you don’t have to be super polite to. If anyone has more insight on the differences in nuance between the two, let me know!

I feel like maybe -기는 could be used in politer situations depending on the context and if you end it with -요. For example:

소연: 민지 씨는 잘 공부하나 봐요. = You must study well, Minji. / You must be a good student, Minji,

민지: 잘 공부하기는요. = I don’t study that well. / I’m not a great student at all.

Here, I feel like Minji’s tone wouldn’t be super strong and she would be kind of laughing. This would be a modest way of saying “nah, I’m not a great student.” She wouldn’t be disagreeing/arguing with the person, but is instead trying to be modest if that makes sense. At least I think this is possible based on what I have heard in Korean. I hope this is helpful, thanks for the question! See you all in the next lesson! 다음에 또 봐요!

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Hello! First off, thanks for your question! This has been a problem with Tumblr since the dawn of time, you are able to view the resource on the desktop application; the mobile app doesn’t like links. It doesn’t matter how many times I re-insert the links, it will still format everything under the same link in the mobile version of my Masterlist. 

A good way to get around this (at least I’ve found for the mobile Masterlist) is by clicking on the search bar of my blog and looking directly there! I can definitely go through and tag each vocab list as their own separate thing, I know that will help! 

Here it is for your convenience!

Happy learning :)

I’ve had this problem (as we can see) for almost two years--while I’ve had this blog for five years. I mean, Tumblr will add 500 new features but not make this site more accessible, or consistent with mobile/tablet users, or fix current bug issues (typical!). Remember, Tumblr is an archive, you can find the blog you want in my search bar if you can’t access the mobile masterlist! 

Happy Learning :)