lol never thought I'd tutor Korean in HN, but why not... :)
> But I’m not at all sure what role 걸로 ‘thing-WITH’ is playing in this clause.
It's a bit cheating, because 것 "thing" is kinda special and combines with the preceding verbal clause to create a noun clause. A better translation (if I were to teach Korean) would be "that". So, "이런 문장을 쓰신 것" is "that [you] wrote a sentence like this".
-으로 보다 (literally, "see with X") is an idiom meaning "considering X" - so "... 걸로(=것+으로) 볼 때" means literally "when [I] see that ...", or more naturally, "considering ..."
Also, the auxiliary verb 보다 (try - or "see" when used as a main verb) is a bit harder to explain but less forceful than English "try", which sometimes implies a lot of effort. Korean 보다 is similar to usages like "Please try this cookie!" or "Sure, I'll try walking next time." In our current sentence it's more like "[you] didn't have any experience studying ..."
Final "것 같네요" uses the same "thing/that" which takes the preceding clause, and "-것 같다" is an idiom meaning "I guess ...", i.e., "I guess that you haven't studied ..."
So, I guess you got most of the grammar right from very few clues. :)
> lol never thought I'd tutor Korean in HN, but why not... :)
And I never thought I’d learn Korean on HN either! But I appreciate anyone willing to talk to me about a topic of interest.
> It's a bit cheating, because 것 "thing" is kinda special and combines with the preceding verbal clause to create a noun clause. A better translation (if I were to teach Korean) would be "that". So, "이런 문장을 쓰신 것" is "that [you] wrote a sentence like this".
Huh, this is interesting! I haven’t come across this particular example of grammaticalisation before, but the World Lexicon of Grammaticalisation informs me that the same development has also occurred in Japanese (and apparently Ik as well), which makes me suspect areal factors.
> So, I guess you got most of the grammar right from very few clues. :)
Good to know! Though I must admit to ‘cheating’ as well… I’m very interested in linguistics, and Korean word order has many similarities to some other languages I’ve looked at. Also, I had to find a Korean reference grammar online before I could understand some parts :) But I’m still a bit surprised I was as successful as I was.
> But I’m not at all sure what role 걸로 ‘thing-WITH’ is playing in this clause.
It's a bit cheating, because 것 "thing" is kinda special and combines with the preceding verbal clause to create a noun clause. A better translation (if I were to teach Korean) would be "that". So, "이런 문장을 쓰신 것" is "that [you] wrote a sentence like this".
-으로 보다 (literally, "see with X") is an idiom meaning "considering X" - so "... 걸로(=것+으로) 볼 때" means literally "when [I] see that ...", or more naturally, "considering ..."
Also, the auxiliary verb 보다 (try - or "see" when used as a main verb) is a bit harder to explain but less forceful than English "try", which sometimes implies a lot of effort. Korean 보다 is similar to usages like "Please try this cookie!" or "Sure, I'll try walking next time." In our current sentence it's more like "[you] didn't have any experience studying ..."
Final "것 같네요" uses the same "thing/that" which takes the preceding clause, and "-것 같다" is an idiom meaning "I guess ...", i.e., "I guess that you haven't studied ..."
So, I guess you got most of the grammar right from very few clues. :)