처럼
cheoreom
Lay a stencil down and trace it: 처럼
The picture Placing a stencil on paper and tracing its outline. You are not becoming the stencil, you are borrowing its shape. 처럼 borrows someone else's outline from outside; 답다 says the thing fits its own outline.
Where the picture shows up in 처럼
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the stencil of sleeping
아기처럼 자요.
a-gi-cheo-reom ja-yo
He sleeps like a baby.
A grown adult lying with arms folded up in exactly the posture a baby sleeps in.
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the stencil of instructions
말씀하신 것처럼 했어요.
mal-sseum-ha-sin geot-cheo-reom hae-sseo-yo
I did it exactly the way you told me to.
The steps you were given spread open on the desk, and a hand following that line exactly.
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the stencil of a color
눈처럼 하얘요.
nun-cheo-reom ha-yae-yo
It is as white as snow.
A handful of snow held up against the cloth, and the two whites falling into one.
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the stencil you want to become
저 사람처럼 되고 싶어요.
jeo sa-ram-cheo-reom doe-go si-peo-yo
I want to be like that person.
That person's silhouette drawn on paper, and you fitting yourself inside the outline.
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the stencil of your usual self
평소처럼 오시면 돼요.
pyeong-so-cheo-reom o-si-myeon dwae-yo
Just come the way you always do.
Today's footsteps landing on top of yesterday's — same hour, same door.
처럼 says something resembles, not that it is. To say it truly is that thing, use 답다: 학생답다, 'a real student about it'.
All of it in one picture
The baby's sleeping posture is lifted off and laid over an adult; the steps you were given lie open on the desk and a hand traces along them. Snow held to the cloth makes the two whites fall into one, you fit yourself inside another person's outline, and today's footsteps land on top of yesterday's. All five are the same hand tracing the stencil placed in front of it. So 처럼 never asks you to become the thing — only to borrow its shape for a moment.