#1. 단풍국, 천조국, 카레국 -- Some tongue-in-cheek names for the countries of the world

Even for those who have a pretty good command of the Korean language, the Korean internet is a baffling place. I left Korea at the age 10, so I should have been a competent speaker. When I first discovered DC Inside, which is pretty much the Korean version of Reddit, that belief was shaken to the core. So, if you found yourself not understanding a word of the Korean internet communities, don't worry. You're not alone. Really. It took me years to navigate through all the slangs that I missed, and I thought I'd share some of them with you.

I had posted something hoping to get to know some of the lurkers on the forum, and told them that I was living in Canada. The responses had overwhelming number of the word "단풍국."

단풍국은 춥다던데 진짜임?

내친구도 단풍국 사는데.

Cute, I said, knowing that the word 단풍 means maple. Canada is known for its maples, and 국 is a word that has its roots in the Chinese language, and it means country. So the internauts were basically calling Canada the maple country. Such an endearing word, I thought!

The first sentence says, "I heard that the maple country is cold, is it true?" Not that the adjective + 던데 conjugation relays hearsay. For example, if you want to say "I heard that she's pretty" in Korean, you can say "그여자는 예쁘다던데." Also, the adjective + 임 conjugation is used exclusively on the internet. Welcome to the language of a million conjugations. Any conjugation with a ㅁ as its final consonant is used only on the internet. So you won't hear people say it to each other (unless they're mocking the internet culture), and definitely not in your classes!

The second sentence, which is more tame, simply says that "My friend lives in the maple country, as well."

As I was getting warmed up to the word "maple country," I became aware that the Koreans liked to nickname EVERY COUNTRY EVER. Some of it is actually quite stereotypical, but it is what it is, and I will tell you about some of them briefly.

The United States is very often called 천조국. Without going into too much details on historical details (you'd need to know Chinese history for that!) 천조 is derived from Chinese, and it means the empire of the heavens (actually, it's helpful to remember that the word 천(天) means the sky in Chinese, and although it is not an independent Korean word, you can often recognize it in words (of course, it could mean the number one thousand; it all depends on the context!) Anyway, according to the Korean internaut-logic, since America is so strong and powerful, it is descended from the heavens, thus the word 천조국. Another theory says that America is called 천조국 because its annual military cost is around 천조 Korean won (using an alternate Chinese character 천(千) meaning a thousand; 조 is a very large number; it is 1,000 x 억 = 1,000,000,000,000).

The other countries are a lot more straightforward. We have:

• 카레국, curry country, for India; yum!
• 미쿡, another word for the United States, making fun of the English accent since if they were to pronounce 미국, the English speakers often overshoot on the second syllable and pronounce it mi-kook, instead of the more standard mi-gook.
• 메시국, for Argentina. It means Messi country, after the famous soccer player.
• 바게트국, for France, since it is very stereotypical that the French walk around with a loaf of baguette under their arms!
• 쌈바국, for Brazil, for the Samba country.
• 형제국, for Turkey. It means the brother country. Turkey sent a ton of soldiers during the Korean war, and Koreans haven't forgotten this; although these names are a bit humorous, I really like this one!
• 불곰국, for Russia. 불곰 is a brown bear, and I guess the Koreans believe that Russia has a lot of brown bears?
• 풍차국, for the Netherlands. 풍차 is a windmill.
• And my favourite, 부카니스탄, which is a composite of 북한 (North Korea, pronounced 부칸) and 아프가니스탄 (Afghanistan). It refers to North Korea, of course.

Anyway, most of these things rely on pretty obvious stereotypes (at least, they're obvious if you're Korean!) and some of these names are actually quite mean. Just remember that the Koreans internet really isn't for those with a faint heart. They try very hard to provoke, while maintaining humour. Of course they know that these stereotypes are not true, but I think they do it for the irony. Certainly the ones who use these words, which are strictly for the internet only, are trying to be facetious.