손
son
Why a Korean task can "take a lot of hand"
The picture The end of you that reaches out and actually touches the world. Nothing moves until this part lands on it. 손 is the end that reaches out and moves the world; 발 is the end that carries you to where the world is.
Where the picture shows up in 손
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the part on your body
손을 씻으세요.
so-neul ssi-seu-se-yo
Please wash your hands.
Two open palms held under a running tap, soap lather worked in between the fingers
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how many touches it takes
이 일은 손이 많이 가요.
i i-reun so-ni ma-ni ga-yo
This job takes a lot of work.
One small dish on the table that the hand keeps reaching back to, touching it and fixing it again and again
The picture: your hand has to go to it again and again.
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not enough hands to touch
오늘은 손이 모자라요.
o-neu-reun so-ni mo-ja-ra-yo
We're short-staffed today.
Orders piling up with only two hands reaching out, so one plate just sits there untouched
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the touching moves to someone
그 건은 과장님 손에 넘어갔어요.
geu geo-neun gwa-jang-nim so-ne neo-meo-ga-sseo-yo
That case is with the manager now.
A stack of documents lifted off my palm and set down onto someone else's palm
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stopping the touch
저는 그 일에서 손을 뗐어요.
jeo-neun geu i-re-seo so-neul tte-sseo-yo
I pulled out of that project.
Fingers uncurling from a handle they had been gripping, one by one, until the hand is off it entirely
All of it in one picture
손 is the end of you that touches the world. Put that end under running water and you are washing; send it back to the same spot again and again and the job "takes a lot of hand." When there aren't enough ends reaching out, you are short-handed; when the touching end moves onto someone else's palm, the case is theirs now. Peel that end off the handle you were gripping and you are out of the project. So wherever 손 turns up, the question underneath is: whose end is touching this right now?