kangmi: learning korean

나는 1988년 이래 실시된 대통령 중임 제도가 마음에 들지 않는다.

* I haven’t been grateful for sth/sb: 나는 sth/sb가 마음에 들지 않는다.
* presidential term: 대통령 임기
* limits: 제한
* since 1988: 1988년 이래

Two words of 실시된(enacted) and 제도(institution) are arbitraily inserted for clearer meaning. Also, the word of 'term' in your English sentence should refer to 중임(multiple-term) in Korean political context, so I changed them.
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I am Su-young KIM struggling to learn English. ^^
I am teaching Korean to a Japanage friend as a language exchage. For this reason, I've become interested in teaching Korean.
(If you like, could you correct my English sentence above? I am not sure if it is correct or not.)
Have a nice day!!!

Thanks for your translation. Is "실시된 대통령 중임 제도가" is its own clause within the sentence? I still have a lot of trouble with more complex Korean sentence structure, both in creation and comprehension.

Now, another question (probably more for the Americans out there who understand the meaning behind my English sentence): does the Korean sentence communicate the same underlying meaning?

It is quite understandable for you to have that kind of trouble. Gramatically speaking, the sentence is called 'an-eun-munjang' (embracing sentence), which means that a sentence embracing one sub-sentence within it. It is quite understandable for you to have that kind of trouble. Gramatically speaking, the sentence is called ' 안은문장' (embracing sentence), which means that a sentence embracing one sub-sentence (안긴문장; embraced sentence) within it. A minimun requisite for constituting a simple sentence(홑문장) is 주어 and 서술어. Let me anlayse words by words the above Koorean sentence; it could be boring though.

The main frame(주성분) of the sentece is 나는 대통령 중임 제도가 마음에 들지 않는다.
The embraced sentence is 1988년 이래 실시된 대통령 중임 제도. This seems not to be a sentence, but it is, because it has 주어 and 서술어. The original form 1988년 이래 대통령 중임 제도가 실시되다 is chagned to "1988년 이래 실시된 대통령 중임 제도가", which is now become 관형절(a modifying sentence)

It is quite difficult, isn't it? Just train yourself being familiar with this kind of 겹문장(composite sentence). Here are some examples:

* 그가 하루 빨리 오기를 바랐다: 그가 빨리 오다 + (나는) ...를 바랐다.
* 이 공책은 종이가 매우 하얗다: 이 공책은...+ 종이가 매우 하얗다
* 그녀가 기차로 온다는 소식이 있었다: 그녀가 기차로 온다 + ...소식이 있었다
* 눈이 온 적이 없다: 눈이 온다 +...이 없다
* 예쁜 꽃이 피었다: 꽃이 예쁘다 + 꽃이 피었다.
* 비가 소리도 없이 내린다.: 비가 내린다 + 소리가 없다

Examples from: http://ipcp.edunet4u.net/~koreannote/6/6-lang_main.htm

Wow Su-Young...very descriptive. The sentence in your first post was great - I thought you were a native speaker of English~ ^^ In spoken English, "of" is not so commonly used: "two words of" "the word of". Just leave the 'of' out~

I got totally lost in your second post, however...
What is 주어 and 서술어? You seemed to assume they were known, which would tell me that they're probably simple terms, but I've never studied Korean grammar, so the jargon is lost to me~

No doubt you could look it up (I guess I could too but I'm going to be lazy), but 주어 is the subject and 서술어 is a descriptive... I think it's called a predicate in English but don't quote me on that.

Wow, Su Young's explanation is really useful !
If only she could also correct my broken Korean at my blog ! ^-^

주 is probably of Chinese origin and means 'main' or 'key'.

Su Young, your explanation is not the least bit boring. Thank you for your detailed explanation.

Did I miss something?

"나는 1988년 이래 실시된 대통령 중임 제도가 마음에 들지 않는다." as a translation of "“I haven’t been grateful for presidential term limits since 1988” is incorrect. It means something different.

Here's my (too) literal translation of "나는 1988년 이래 실시된 대통령 중임 제도가 마음에 들지 않는다"...

(it has to be either of the following)

"I do not like the system under which a president can serve two terms, (a system) which has been in force since 1988."

or

"Since 1988, I have not liked the system under which a president serves two terms."

Even if one could argue that "term limit(s)" = '중임' an d some other points, the desire to express "it was 1988 when I last felt grateful for term limits" has turned into something else.

No, you didn't miss anything. I checked the English statement with a few friends and found that only one of them understood my meaning.

Which is: Although I am unhappy that George Bush was re-elected, because of presidential term limits he will be unable to be elected again. I felt the same way in 1984 when Ronald Reagan was re-elected (should have originally said 1984, although it wouldn't have made the obscure statement any more clear).

인선 thinks that I would have been better off saying something like "저는 대통령 임기제도로 인해서 부시 대통령이 더 이상 중임될 수 없어서 기쁩니다."

Directness, rather than obfuscation. Which I usually champion, except when I'm trying to be clever.