에서
e-seo
에 vs 에서: what one extra syllable decides
The picture Draw a box around a place. Things happen inside the box — and when you step out of it, the box is where you came from. 에 leaves a single dot; 에서 draws a box around the place so the action happens inside it — 식당에 있어요 is just being there, 식당에서 일해요 is moving around inside it.
Where the picture shows up in 에서
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the floor it happens on
저는 식당에서 일해요.
jeo-neun sik-dang-e-seo il-hae-yo
I work at a restaurant.
Inside the four walls of a restaurant, plates go out and orders come in all day
식당에 있어요 is simply being there; 식당에서 일해요 is doing something inside it.
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the door you came out of
베트남에서 왔어요.
be-teu-na-me-seo wa-sseo-yo
I'm from Vietnam.
A door in the outline of Vietnam opens and you walk out of it, all the way to here
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where the line starts
아홉 시에서 여섯 시까지 일해요.
a-hop si-e-seo yeo-seot si-kka-ji il-hae-yo
I work from nine to six.
A pencil is set on the nine mark of a time ruler and drawn along to six
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the whole box acts
회사에서 전화가 왔어요.
hoe-sa-e-seo jeon-hwa-ga wa-sseo-yo
The company called.
The whole office building turns into a telephone receiver and calls you
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where you fished it up
그 뉴스는 인터넷에서 봤어요.
geu nyu-seu-neun in-teo-ne-se-seo bwa-sseo-yo
I saw that news online.
A hand reaches into the water called the internet and fishes out one piece of news
All of it in one picture
에서 draws a box around a place. Move around inside the box and you are working there; open its door and step out and you are from there. Set your pencil at the left edge of the box and the line runs from nine to six; let the whole box act at once and it is the company, not a person, that phoned. Reach inside it and pull something out, and that is where you saw the news. So when 에서 shows up, the place is not just where you are — it is where something is happening or where something came out of.