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Now that I have done…/Having done… ~아/어 보니(까)
Vocabulary
Nouns:
양심 = conscience
장사 = business
유가 = price of oil
저자 = writer/author
어김 = breach/violation/failure
원동력 = driving force
강제 = force, by force
강제적 = to be forced, to be compulsory
획기적 = to be groundbreaking
양심적 = to be conscience
Verbs:
낮추다 = to lower, to drop, to reduce
염색하다 = to dye one’s hair
연애하다 = to go out with
좌우하다 = to influence, to sway
행진하다 = to march, to parade
구축하다 = to construct
발산하다 = to radiate, to emit, to give off
검증하다 = to verify
Adjectives
진지하다 = to serious
활발하다 = to be active
완연하다 = to be definite, to be obvious, to be clear
Adverbs and Other Words:
어김없이 = without fail
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn another grammatical principle that contains 보다. In this lesson, you will learn how to use ~아/어 보니까. Let’s get started.
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Now that I have done…/Having done… ~어/어 보니(까)
In Lesson 81, you learned how to add ~(으)니(까) between two clauses. As you saw in that lesson and the previous lesson, one of its functions is to provide the listener with information from the previous clause.
Notice that in the previous two lessons you learned grammatical principles that were connected like this:
~다(가) 보면
~다(가) 보니
In those grammatical principles, the word 보다 that is being used literally means “to see” or “to reflect.”
However, in this lesson, you should recognize that we are connecting 보다 to the preceding verb using ~아/어. This is not the same verb as above. Remember from Lesson 32 that this has the meaning of “to try/to attempt”.
Therefore, the meaning that this entire grammatical principle expresses is not related to “seeing or reflecting” as it was in the previous two lessons. Rather, the meaning is related to attempting or trying an action.
You should remember from Lesson 81 that the meaning of ~(으)니(까) is something like “because…” or “now that I have…”.
By using ~(으)니까 and ~아/어 보다, we combine their meanings. When used in a sentence, you can indicate that, now that one has tried/attempted an action stated in the first clause, he/she realizes or can state/assert the second clause.
Let’s look at a simple example:
아이폰을 써 보니까 다른 핸드폰을 사용할 수 없다
= Now that I’ve used an iPhone, (I realize that) I can’t use another phone | or | Having tried (using) the IPhone, I can (no longer) use another phone
Here, the speaker can state/assert that they can no longer use some other non-iPhone phone. They can only state this after having tried the iPhone itself.
Below are many more example sentences:
연애를 한번 해 보니까 남자들을 더 잘 이해하게 되었다
= Now that I have tried/attempted having a boyfriend, I became able to understand men better
양심적으로 장사를 해 보니까 자연스럽게 손님이 늘었어요
= After having tried running my business conscientiously, customers just started coming in naturally
밤을 새워 보니까 잠을 자는 것이 얼마나 중요한지 깨달았다
= Now that I’ve attempted to stay up all night, I realized how important sleep is
유가의 가격을 강제적으로 낮춰 보니까 시장에 문제가 생겼어요
= After having tried forcing the price of oil down, I now realize that it created problems in the market
에너지를 발산하려고 운동을 해 보니까 삶의 원동력이 생겼어요
= After having exercised to burn off some energy, I now have a will to live
유가의 가격을 강제적으로 낮춰 보니까 시장에 문제가 생겼어요
= After having tried forcing the price of oil down, I now realize that it created problems in the market
10킬로 마라톤을 뛰어 보니까 뭐든지 할 수 있다는 자신감이 생겼다
= Now that I have tried/attempted running a 10km race, I have the confidence to do anything
살을 빼려고 무리하게 다이어트를 해 보니까 어김없이 요요가 왔어요
= After having tried dieting too much in order to lose weight, I now realize that just causes the yo-yo effect
I was contemplating not including this example sentence in the lesson because of the 요요가 왔다 at the end. I didn’t really want to include the word 요요 in the vocabulary list, as it’s simply the word “yo-yo” written into Korean. It’s referring to the yo-yo effect, where one’s weight goes up and down (like a yo-yo). My wife asserts that every Korean person would know what this means.
외국에서 생활해 보니까 내가 한국사람이라는 게 너무 자랑스러웠다
= Now that I’ve tried/attempted living in a foreign country, (I know that, I can assert that, I realized that) I am very proud to be Korean
공연을 진행할 때 더 활발하게 행진해 보니까 사람들이 더 환호했어요
= When I ran the performance, when we marched more actively people cheered more
10킬로 마라톤을 뛰어 보니까 뭐든지 할 수 있다는 자신감이 생겼어요
= Now that I have tried/attempted running a 10km race, I have the confidence to do anything
외국에서 생활해 보니까 내가 한국사람이라는 게 너무 자랑스러웠어요
= Now that I’ve tried/attempted living in a foreign country, (I know that, I can assert that, I realized that) I am very proud to be Korean
대학생이 되어 보니까 고등학교 생활이 얼마나 좋았는지 느낄 수 있었다
= Now that I have been a University student, I can feel (realize) how good my high school life was
한번 머리를 염색해 보니까 염색이 생각만큼 간단하지 않다는 걸 알게 됐다
= Now that I have tried/attempted to dye my hair, I realize/can assert that doing so is not as simple as one thinks
과학 공부를 해 보니까 많은 과학 서적 내용이 검증이 필요하다는 걸 알게 됐다
= Having studied science, I now know that the material in science books require a lot of verification
그 회사가 획기적으로 건물 디자인을 구축해 보니까 사람들이 반응이 더 좋았어요
= After that company constructed a groundbreaking design for their building, they realized people’s reactions were better
저자가 다른 작가에 좌우되지 않고 책을 더 잘 쓰기 위해 자신에 더 집중해 보니까 더 진지하게 작품을 쓸 수 있게 됐어요
= In order to write his own book well, the writer realized that not allowing himself to be influenced by other works allowed him to write his piece more seriously.
Just one quick thing before we finish. This grammatical principle can also be written/said as ~아/어 보니. However, I feel that it is more common as ~아/어 보니까.
That’s it for this Lesson!
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