Everyone is a foreigner somewhere

[Chevere33]

누구나 어디 인가에서는 외국인.

1) Is this written correctly and spaced right?

2) What does it convey? I'm trying to give the impression that people should be nice to foreigners, since everyone is a "waygook" somewhere!

Thank you.

 

[pcy0308]

Hello Chevere33,
It seems like you are confusing "어딘가" with "어디인가". The former translates to "somewhere", the latter "where" in an interrogative sense. The sentence also seems to end rather abruptly, but since it is not clarified how and where the sentence is used, I will refrain from suggesting an alternative in this case. If correctly written and spaced, it goes "누구나 어딘가에서는 외국인", which is simply saying "everyone is a foreigner somewhere (other than their home country)", and though the message is quite subtle, personally, I was able to understand what the sentence was really trying to convey, and so do other people I am sure. Then again, that's just me, and a teensy, tiny bit more elaboration can't hurt, as the underlying message could be interpreted differently (eg. homesickness, affinity to one's native culture, etc.). It could definitely be argued that the phrase itself may be suggesting an entire different idea. Say for example, "everyone outside the comfort of their own native culture/environment is a foreigner, so accepting, respecting, and learning about other's cultures with an open heart is important..." so on and so forth can totally be possible. I see why not. It is better to be safe and sure than sorry, so clarifying what you are trying to say right after might just be better. After all, the phrase seems to end more or less on an abrupt and incomplete note, as mentioned.

Oh and just a side note, "외국" refers to a foreign country, abroad. "외국인" is a foreigner. Hope this helps.

 

[Paulfromitaly]

1) Is this written correctly and spaced right?

2) What does it convey? I'm trying to give the impression that people should be nice to foreigners, since everyone is a "waygook" somewhere!

Thank you.

What do you want it to mean?

 

[Chevere33]

@Paulfromitaly, I want it to convey the idea that the word "Waygook" (or Waygookin) does not necessarily mean "non-Korean".

For example, some Koreans were on the bus in Japan. When a White person from the USA sat down across from the women, one of them said, "Look, a Waygook". However, in Japan, they are also Waygooks if they are Korean! I want to say, "Everyone is a foreigner somewhere."

Would it be what I wrote or maybe “누구나 어딘가에서는 외국인”? Or something else? I've tried to get local help and have gotten like 5 different suggestions.

 

[pcy0308]

@Chevere33 I am sure all the other suggestions you've recieved so far are all valid and should get the point across. It is worth noting though, "어딘가" is the correct form. "누구나 어딘가에서는 외국인" is a more or less straight forward translation of what you are trying to say ("everyone is a foreigner somewhere").

 

[Dianann]

If I want to convey what you meant above, I would go say

너도 밖에 나가면 외국인이야

I totally get what you are trying to say above, but if you are interested in saying it more colloquial way, in my opinion, I would say like that.
But here again, I don’t see any thing wrong in your sentence “너도 어디인가에서는 외국인” .

Since everybody has their own way of saying, I guess it should be no problem if you say it by ajust a little bit of intonation in “어디인가에서는”
And in fact, your version sounded like something I would come across in comercial, which gives me kind of formal sense, though I couldn’t finger on it

Also, my version above
너도 밖에 나가면 외국인이야
could be sensed as a little bit rude, but okay to be used between friends.
After writing this, I really wonder how other Korean speaker would want to say in this case too!