"동서남북"

Translation: East, west, south and north

[mkS0k]

동 is east, 서 is west, 남 is south, 북 is north. why East, west, south, and north is wrong? Is there an idiom in America?

[wintertriangles]

Haha actually yes we say north south east west in that order but it's very odd that "east, west, south, north" would be wrong. I've answered it like that and was correct. Hopefully it'll get fixed.

[Hexelonia]

I live in Canada and we say north east south west

[happypenguin44]

Not sure which part of America you're from, but I'm from America too (California) and we say North East South West.

[GinAndChronic]

Hi. I'm also from California and I've alwayd used NSEW. Weird.

[SvedishPlumber]

From eastern US and I'd say we use the same, but i realized that when I wrote this in my notes for vocab to study, I wrote "north, west, east, south" though I don't think I've ever said it that way

[jlseymour3]

I've tried looking briefly and haven't found anything to suggest there is a set idiomatic order in the English. Do you have a source to support the idea that most common is NSEW? Most common order I saw was NESW, that is starting with north and running clockwise around the compass. IMHO, since English appears to lack the same idiom, the course should either accept any order of the cardinal directions or require a translation of the Korean order.

[DanaAgusto]

I've lived in the Midwest, the South and on the East Coast (of America) and I've never heard anyone say north, east, south, west only north, south, east, west. It's very interesting to find out people say north, east, south, west. Thank you for the knowledge.

[Kiyomice]

I'm from the Midwest and I too have only ever heard North, South, East, West. I had no idea others in America used any other order, haha.

[Iron_Venema]

In the Netherlands we also say "noord, oost, zuid, west" meaning "north, east, south, west"

[CF00l]

東西南北

[VincentMaucorps]

In France, we say NSEW.

[mark76865]

this has really confused me!!

[Mariavande778060]

I live in Europe and we say the same as Canada aparently (NESW)

[Yummyricecake]

Huh. In English I've always heard north-south-east-west, and in Chinese we say east-south-west-north. Now it's east-west-south-north? So confused...

[TalvirChri]

I live in Russia and here we say North-South-West-East))))

[Victoria911218]

The US also says North East South West

[SvedishPlumber]

*parts of the US

[SeanFogart4]

It depends how you remember it. If you use the mnemonic "Never Eat Soggy Weiners" as we were taught in school then it goes NESW, others use NSEW as in "from north to south and east to west", the order daylight arrives in the summer, or NEWS, say, for what it spells out.

[SvedishPlumber]

Did they really teach you that mnemonic in school??

[jlseymour3]

I was taught the NEWS mnemonic, but that was a really, really long time ago.

[AmandaStok10]

Mine was Never Eat Soggy Waffles, in school. Lol

[Noah459171]

I was taught that too, but there was a kid in the class who's initals were S.W., so we would just put his name in instead of Soggy Waffles

[SashoNr1]

In Bulgarian we usually say "изток, запад, север, юг", but there is no rule that the directions always have to be repeated in that order. Apparently there's no single rule for English either. So if you want to teach us that Koreans have a fixed order for the directions please do, but do not confuse us by changing the order in English.

[Jaikandi]

"North, south, east, west" is not accepted?

[oee16]

There are a variety of possible combinations depending where one comes from. Best to stick to the literal translation.

[bmf0QMZI]

"North, south, east, west" is present in pop-up hint, but marked as "wrong"...