#23. 넘사벽 -- Try as you might

Superstitious people are everywhere. In North America, 13 is considered unlucky (I'm not really sure why; maybe because there were 13 people at the table during the last supper) and you sometimes see the 13th floor missing entirely from high-rise buildings.

In Korea, the number to avoid (along with 13, because why not) is four. This is because the number four, pronounced "사" in Korean, sounds exactly like the Chinese character 死 meaning death (for example, "사형" means the capital punishment, "사신" means the messenger of death, "사약" means the poisonous drink that people were required to drink in the olden days when they were given the death penalty). So in many Korean buildings, both the fourth and the thirteenth floors are missing.

Anyway, there's a Korean internet slang word "넘사벽." It is often used in the context such as this: Say that you figure skate as a hobby, and a friend compliments you on your skating skills, going as far as saying things like how you skate like the famous Yuna Kim (김연아.) Then you are embarrassed because you're not actually that good, and you say something like, "Oh, I will never even come close to catching up to Yuna Kim." In Korean, you could say:

김연아는 넘사벽이야.

If you were chatting on the internet, you might have typed instead:

 김연아 >>>>>>>넘사벽>>>>>> 나 (Yuna Kim >>>> 넘사벽 >>>>> me.)

When I first heard the word in a sentence, it was clear that the word "넘사벽" was clearly a shortened form, because I didn't see how to break up "넘사벽" into different words. Before reading on, try to guess what this word means -- it wasn't completely obvious to me, even as a native speaker (and the exact meaning of the catchiest internet slang can usually be interpreted!)
 

The famous skater Yuna Kim, whom every Korean can recognize.

From the context, it seemed obvious that the word "넘사벽" should mean "incomparable," or "way beyond my abilities." But in the word "넘사벽," I only recognized one word inside it, namely "벽" or "wall." Combined with the context, it felt like the word should come from the well-known phrase "넘을수 없는 벽" or "insurmountable wall."

That took care of the letters "넘" and "벽," but where did the letter "사" come from? At this point, I was left completely on my own to take a stab in the dark. My guess was that the letter "사" came from "death," combining to suggest that the word "넘사벽" means "a wall that you can't overcome, even if you died trying." Satisfied with this meaning, I happily went about my way around the Korean internet world (and I suppose you could use this word with anyone, since it's not offensive and the meaning is guessable.)

A few years later, though, I learned that the original intended meaning of "넘사벽" was not a wall that you cannot overcome even in death, but actually a shortened form of "넘을수 없는 사차원의 벽," or "an insurmountable four-dimensional wall."

Oh well. I was a little bit off, but I wasn't the only one, and many Koreans guessed that the letter "사" came from "death" rather than "four." Plus, the meaning still wasn't lost. Such is the way of the Korean internet slang.

Apparently, this word presented more of a challenge to some than the others, though. Some people thought that this word meant "넘을수 없는 사랑의 벽," or "an insurmountable wall of love," but that really shouldn't have made sense from the context (although it would be pretty hilarious in the right context!) In any case, I thought you might enjoy seeing how a native Korean speaker goes about figuring out the new slang word that they encounter on the internet (and get it wrong!)

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#22. 만렙 -- You're the best

I was an elementary school student in Korea in the late 90s and early 2000s, when Starcraft was just gaining its popularity. I was never a teen in Korea, and I was more interested in comic books and cute K-pop boy bands, so I never played Starcraft. Despite this, I heard about Starcraft daily from my classmates. If we were to form groups for some projects, our group name was invariably going to be Protoss or Terran, or some variation thereof (apparently, Zergs were too ugly to be considered a good name!) I listened to my classmates brag about their actions per minute, or the latest strategy, and none of this was strange to me. It was a bit of a shock to realize that the gamers were fairly rare in the Western world, when practically everyone in Korea could be considered a gamer.

Well, gamers naturally end up spending a ton of time on the internet, so when most of your population is a gamer, gamer lingo is sure to seep into your internet slang. Now that I reflect on it, I am surprised that I managed to avoid talking about the gamer slang for the majority of my posts so far. The only words coming from gamer language so far would be "항마력" and "용자."

But here is another word that clearly comes from the gaming culture.

When I was living in Korea, I had a friend who never got anything other than 100% on her math exams. Although this expression did not exist then, if I see her now, I'd want to tell her that:

넌 정말 수학에 있어서는 만렙이다. (As far as math is concerned, you are really the best.)

The slang here is the word "만렙." The word "렙" is a shortened form for "레벨," or "level (as in, the level of a game; the Koreans never use it like in the sentence 'level the ground.')" Koreans really like to shorten words, and this is just one instance of such contraction. So for example, in gaming language, if someone has just started playing and has pretty low stats, you could call them "0렙 (level 0)," "1렙 (level 1)," or "저렙 (low level; "저" is a Chinese letter meaning "low," as in "저지대 (low-lying area)," "저원 (low-lying field)," or "저퀄리티 (low quality)")." In contrast, someone who has high stats can be called "고렙 (high level; "고" is a Chinese letter meaning "high," as in "고지대," "고원," "고퀄리티," etc.)"

The word "만" comes from Chinese, and it means "full." The most common usage you see in Korea, of course, is how the Koreans count their age. When the Koreans want to talk about their age in the Western sense (where you age one year when you have lived out a full year), they will say:

제 나이는 만으로 스물 두 살이에요 (I have lived twenty-two years in full; I'm 22 in the Western sense.)

Putting the above two words together, "만렙" means that your stats are full; that is, there is no room to improve. So, if I were telling my friend that she is "만렙" in math, I'm telling her that no one is better than her in math, and that she pretty much has nowhere to improve. In short, I am giving her the highest compliment.

You can also use this word in the gaming setting (or any situation that reminds you of a gaming setting.) When someone achieves the highest level in a game, the correct way to use this slang is to use the verb "만렙을 찍다." For example, you can say:

너 어제 만렙 찍었다면서? (I heard that you got to the final level yesterday.)

Unfortunately, this word has such strong gamer origins that it is inappropriate to use in a formal setting (although no one would be offended by it, it would be pretty strange to use this to your grandparents, for example!) But it's a widespread word nonetheless, and given the affinity to video games in Korea, most people who use the internet will understand the word!

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#20. 안드로메다 -- What is this, I don't even

So, I'm in the process of experimenting with my blog's layout. I'm not convinced that what I have now is better than what I had before, but it turns out that HTML is difficult to learn, and no template perfectly fits my dream. I'm going to continue to experiment for the next while, so if my blog is out of order, please visit again in a few minutes! Also soliciting any kind of advice and help that you can give on how to make my blog more readable, and more navigate-able (leave them in the comments below!) This is my first time blogging and I think the inexperience is definitely showing. Sigh. I promise that I'll improve. I also got a Twitter account! You can follow my Twitter account here.

Moving onto the actual post...

For some weird reason, every Korean knows about the Andromeda galaxy. This knowledge of the Andromeda galaxy is such a staple in our everyday life that there is even a neologism to honour this galaxy. In everyday Korean conversations, "안드로메다" means "very far away." For example, I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, who used the following brilliant exaggeration:

여가시간은 안드로메다로 관광보냈지 (I sent my free time on a trip to the Andromeda galaxy.)

 She was trying to tell me that she was so busy that her free time could have gone on a trip to the Andromeda galaxy, and she wouldn't know. So by sending something on a trip to the Andromeda galaxy, the speaker is telling me that she has none of that something, in a very strong negation. Just saying that "I have no free time" is nowhere as strong as "All of my free time is having some fun in the Andromeda galaxy."

 Knowing this, we can try using it in many different contexts. If someone cuts the line in front of you while you're waiting for the metro, you could tell them:

이봐요, 매너는 안드로메다로 관광보냈어요? (Hey, are your manners having fun on the Andromeda galaxy?)

If you're about to go into a haunted castle with your friends, and you want to appear tough, you could tell your friends:

무서움 따위는 안드로메다로 보내버렸지 (I sent my fear away to the Andromeda galaxy.)

If you feel that Andromeda is a teensy bit too far for what you're trying to say (because, who is not scared of going into the haunted castle, really?), you could maybe settle for not necessarily the Andromeda galaxy, but just out of our own galaxy, which is the Milky Way galaxy. You could have said instead:

무서움 따위는 은하수 너머로 보내버렸지 (I sent my fear away beyond the Milky Way.)

 Again, you could be creative and replace the Andromeda galaxy by other things that are sufficiently far away (Jupiter, Pluto, or Asteroid XXIV, whatever it is, are all good candidates, as are a bunch of other things).

While this expression is not offensive at all (you would sometimes see this expression in some TV shows), because of the gross exaggeration, I would not say that this is necessarily appropriate for the elders.

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#15. 낚시, 떡밥 -- Trolling, or fishing for reaction

The anonymity of the internet sometimes tempts us to do strange things. We are safe to prank people, we can mock people, and we can get involved in a fight. What's the worst that could happen? Some people might get mad at us, but all we have to do is turn off the computer, and all that is behind us. In the anglophone culture, we call this type of behaviour "trolling."

There are two theories for the origin of this word.

The first hypothesis is that these internet rogues are named after the Scandinavian monster "troll" that is often hostile and aggressive. I am all for this hypothesis -- what a wonderful way to describe that dark corner of our minds that propel us to do strange things on the internet!

The second hypothesis is equally compelling as the first. It says that "trolling" came from the word "trawling," which means to drag the net in the ocean to catch the fish. This is exactly what the trolls do on the internet. Stir up the vast ocean of the internet in hopes of getting lots of reactions from other internet users.

Shockingly, although Korean is completely disconnected from English in terms of linguistics, the Korean word for "trolling" comes from an identical background as its English counterpart. If you wanted to see if someone was trolling on the internet, you might say "Are you trolling?" In Korean slang, the appropriate thing to say would be:

낚시하냐?

"낚시" is Korean for "fishing," so it seems that the Korean internet users decided that the second hypothesis for the origins of "trolling" was more appropriate, or at least, more humorous (It often seems to be the case that the most important requirement for a successful Korean internet slang word is in its humour, so the second hypothesis is just so much more promising!) When you're intentionally trolling, you can use the verb "낚다" or "to fish" to say things like "오늘도 한번 낚아볼까?" (shall I try to fish people again today?)

When the Koreans have fallen into a clever trap, they tend to acknowledge the humour in the situation, and concede defeat by saying "낚였다" (you have fished me). When the Koreans spot someone successfully being fished by another internet user, they sometimes write "파닥파닥," which is an onomatopoeia that describes the sound that a freshly caught fish makes, to mock the hapless victim.

The Korean internet users might upload pictures like this to mock those who reacted to the trolling.

When a particular user is particularly skilled at trolling the other users, he might be dubbed "강태공." This 강태공 (강 is his last name, and 태공 is his governmental title, similar to a marquis) was a very gifted Chinese politician who helped King Wen overthrow the Shang dynasty and establish the Zhou dynasty. However, he waited for years for King Wen to recognize his talent and to hire him, by studying politics on his own in the countryside, and fishing in the nearby river to provide for himself.

And just like in English, if some internet user seems to be looking to muddy up the waters (we would probably call that "baiting," as in "clickbait,") the Koreans would say "떡밥을 뿌리다," or "scatter the bait." When someone reacts to the bait, this is described as "떡밥을 물다," or "take a bite out of the bait."

Staying true to the original analogy, though, the word "떡밥" now means any material that has the potential to stir up a reaction among the others. These two words, "낚시" and "떡밥" have become so commonplace that they even left the internet. In particular, "떡밥" is often used in dramas or webtoons, when an episode introduces a new element that has the potential to significantly impact the future events.

For example, suppose that your favourite drama ended by zooming in on a mysterious new character. This is definitely a bait that lures you to watch the next episode, to find out who this new character is. The Koreans would say, "떡밥만 뿌리고 끝나네," meaning "they just baited us and ended the episode." When all loose ends are tied up and all conflicts cleared, the Koreans would say "떡밥 회수 완료," or "the collection of all bait has been completed." On some of the comments, you might see some Koreans begging the writers or producers to tie up all the loose ends, by saying, "떡밥은 언제 회수하실겁니까?" (when will you take back all the bait?) or "아직 떡밥이 너무 많이 남았네" (still a lot of bait remains.)

All of the above expressions, although still slang, is not particularly offensive, and you could probably use it with anyone (but avoid using these at very formal occasions, just in case!)

Finally, the Koreans also use the "troll" analogy as well, although it is not as extensive as the fishing analogy. There is a word called "병먹금," which just takes the first letters of the phrase "병신 먹이 금지" (idiot feeding forbidden). It quite literally means, "Don't feed the trolls!" This expression is a bit more offensive, since "병신" (in the literal sense, it means a cripple, although most of the time it's more natural to interpret it as an idiot) is nested squarely in the swear word category. The word "병먹금" really is only for the internet!

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#14. 프로 불만러 -- How to say "he complains all the time" in five letters

Once, when I was frequenting a small DC Inside gallery (a Korean equivalent of a subreddit), I got to recognize the handle of this one particular user. He came by the "갤" (how the Koreans call galleries on DC Inside) all the time,  always armed with a new story of how the world has done him some injustice. He was very good at extracting hidden meaning from a mundane gesture. How this stranger walked past him on the street without acknowledging his presence, probably because this stranger was hell-bent on offending him. How his professor assigned him an unfair grade. How his lunch portion was smaller than his friend's portion.

We soon took to mocking him by saying things like

프로 불만러 또 오셨어요?

The word "프로 불만러" is made up of three parts: "프로 + 불만 + 러."

The word "프로" comes from the shortened English word "professional." While the shortened form "pro" is only used in informal context in the anglophone culture, it can be used even in formal context in Korea. For example, a professional golfer is called "프로 골퍼," and this word is acceptable even in your school report. When you want to compliment someone's professionalism, you could also say "정말 프로네요," and this usage is also completely sanctioned in any setting.

The word "불만" is a standard Korean word meaning "complaint."

The word "-러" comes from the English suffix "-er," which denotes the person doing a particular activity. For example, someone who calls is called a "caller"; there are many other usages in English, such as "swimmer," "golfer," "player," and so on. It is unclear why "-러" was chosen instead of "-어" or "-머," but it just seems that the "-러" ending sounds the best in most contexts.

Putting these words together, you can see that we were mocking this particular user that he was a "professional complainer."

This is a word that combines English and Korean. Usually the words that contain both English and Korean have a humorous undertone (for example, 발퀄 or 이불킥). While this word also has a slight humour to it, there is also a lot of overt sarcasm, and I would say that this sarcasm is the dominant feeling in this word.

As usual, the Koreans are masters at modifying and adapting internet neologism. You should also feel free to replace the word "불만" by other words of your choice to appropriately describe your situation! Here are some other examples that are commonly used on the internet:

• 프로 불편러: The word "불편" could mean "inconvenience," but in this case, it refers more to the word "discomfort." These people find offense in every statement uttered in the name of some cause. For example, someone might be upset that the women's bathrooms are always on the left-hand side of the men's bathroom, whereas gender equality should mean that they should be on the left side only half the time...? This is a word with a fairly negative connotation, and they are only used when someone is being unreasonable, not when that someone is advocating for a just cause.
• 프로 질문러: When someone is full of questions, you could call this person "프로 질문러." Because there is no negative connotation in the word "질문," (compare this to "discomfort" or "complaints"!) this word has a more humorous undertone compared to the previous two examples.
• 프로 실망러: These kinds of people find disappointments in everything. Maybe because they have high expectations, or maybe because of their personality. Depending on the context of how the "실망" or "disappointments" are found, this word may be humorous or more sarcastic, so you have to make the judgment call on whether it is appropriate to use it.
• 프로 불참러: The word "불참" comes from two parts made up of Chinese letters. "불" is a negation prefix. "불공평" means "unfair" (you might be on the winning side or the losing side; but the two sides are not equal); "불리" means "not gainful," so something is unfair, and you have the short end of the stick. The letter "참" comes from "attendance." For example "참석" means to attend an event. So "불참" means to not attend. A "프로 불참러" is someone who misses all the events!

These words are definitely neologisms and are the most suitable for informal internet conversations, or among very close friends. However, definitely take into account that depending on the context, the person on the receiving end of this word might be offended. It really depends on what meaning you are trying to get across!

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#13. 이불킥 -- Looking back to the most embarrassing moment of your life

Any wise person knows that reflecting on the most embarrassing moment of your life right before you try to sleep is a terrible idea. You relive that moment, such as that moment when you felt the need to show some 허세, feel the blush creeping up your neck to your face, and you writhe lying on bed and burrowing into your blanket. UGH. How could I have been so stupid?

Koreans have the perfect word to describe your embarrassment. If they see you doing something stupid that they just know you will regret later, they might tell you:

오늘밤에 이불킥 할 각인데?

Remember that "-할 각이다" means "setting oneself up for something." Therefore, your friend might be telling you that "You are setting yourself up for 이불킥 tonight."

The word "이불킥" is made from two words: "이불," meaning blanket, and "킥," which is just the English word "kick." So the word literally means "kicking the blanket." That is, as you lie in bed tonight, you will be embarrassed by the stupid thing that you did, and in your flailing of embarrassment, you will end up kicking your blanket to vent your anger. Pretty appropriate.

The memories of that embarrassing moment.

Although it is not always the case, when an English word and a Korean word compound to form a single word, the resulting word is often quite humorous, especially when there was an easy Korean substitute. As a rule of thumb, the vast majority of formal Korean words are made up of Chinese or pure Korean, and when English or Japanese appear (there are two languages other than Chinese that influenced the Korean language the most, although we see some French and German influence as well), they are usually there for the humorous and vulgar (without being offensive) effect.

"이불킥" is one of these words that give off a humorous nuance ("kick" could have easily been replaced by "차다," but if you do that, it's not as funny.) While not offensive, "이불킥" is also far away from being formal Korean!

Below is a Cyworld (early Korean version of Facebook) post of a Korean student that went viral many years ago. The student was likely in middle school or high school, and likely a sufferer of 중2병. Many Koreans suspect that the writer of this post kicked many a blanket to compensate for his post below (translation follows).

 

Right this moment, I am slowly going mad.

I entrust my entire body and my soul to this headphone,

As music is the only drug

that this nation will allow me

This is me, right now. 

As a Korean reading this, you might say things like

저분 요즘도 이불킥하시겠지? (Do you think he still kicks his blankets?)

저거 생각하면 자다가 벌떡 일어나서 이불 걷어차실 듯. (I think he would wake up in the middle of the night to kick his blankets whenever he thinks about that post -- note that instead of using "킥," the speaker chose to use the corresponding Korean word "걷어차다.")

You can also focus on the fact that "이불킥" just means "venting your embarrassment on the blanket." Using this, you can be creative. For example, you could have instead said:

자다가 일어나서 이불 불질러야겠다 ㅋㅋㅋ (He should probably wake up and set his blankets on fire).

Feel free to experiment; Koreans are witty people, and they will appreciate your creativity!

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#11. 발 -- Being terrible at something

It is infuriating when someone doesn't put their heart into the work they are tasked to do. Maybe your teammates are not pulling their weights in your group project, and the work that they do manage to do is so terrible that you can't even use it. Maybe one of the actors in your favourite K-drama is terrible at acting, and it's really grating on your nerves.

In one of these cases, consider the following retorts. The common key word is "발," meaning "foot."

너는 과제를 발로하니? (Are you doing the project with your foot?)

발로 연기를 해도 저 배우보다는 잘하겠다 (Even if I act with just my feet, I could do better than that actor.)

The reason for these kinds of remarks should be fairly obvious even for the non-Korean speakers; since feet are much less adroit than the hands, we are mocking the clumsiness of the receiver of the comments, since even my feet would accomplish better than what they have done.

English has a similar expression as well; namely, to have two left feet. However, compared to this English expression, the Korean version described above has a nuance that is much more vulgar. It conveys the annoyance of the speaker, if not anger, and I would not use this expression at all to a person older than me. Even for my peers, I'd have to be pretty annoyed to throw one of these retorts to them.

In some cases,  there's a slightly more humorous usage, when you are not directly insulting someone, but rather a third party. In this case, you can use the prefix "발-" to mock someone. For example, when you're mocking an actor (there's really no danger of offending the actor personally, since you probably don't even know him!) you could say

발연기 장난 아니더라 (His terrible acting was no joke.)

Similarly, you could be reading an English novel translated to Korean, and notice that the translation is terrible. In this case, you could refer to this translation as "발번역," and say things like "그 소설 읽지마. 발번역이 너무 심해" (Don't read the novel, there was too much terrible translation.") Here's a hilarious clip of "발 CG," or terrible quality computer graphics, from one of the Korean dramas "연개소문:"

You can pretty much tell that whoever did these special effects really didn't have much time, so you would be laughing hard with your friends, calling it "발 CG." So, again, the prefix "발-" has a different nuance from just using the word "발" in your sentences! The effect is rather humorous! (As an aside, the last scene is probably a bit puzzling. It depicts thousands of palace maidens throwing themselves to their death from a cliff, because the enemy had taken over the palace and they were in danger of getting caught and being sold as slaves, or worse. It's a fairly well-known bit of Korean history that I hope to write about in the near future!)


Finally, you can use the "발-" prefix to mock yourself, when you've made something of a questionable quality. You can preemptively declare it to be of terrible quality "발퀄리티" or "발퀄" for short, thus introducing some quick humour into the situation, and acknowledge that your product is not of the best quality. You will often see the hashtag #발퀄 on Instagram, for example, for terrible quality photos. This word is especially humorous, because of the two parts that make up this word. One is pure Korean, and the other is English. Since no real Korean word is made from two stems such as this, the combination of Korean and English usually has a humorous effect. You can even add the all-purpose prefix "개-" to make it "개발퀄," or "f-ing awful quality."

The prefix "발-" is not offensive, so you could use it to most people, although it is slang, and I would avoid it in formal company.

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#7. 오글거리다 -- Overly sentimental

If you've spent even the smallest amount of time watching Korean dramas (highly recommended), you know that these dramas are thickly laden with mushy and lovey-dovey dialogues that you would never dare to utter in public unless you wanted to face snickers from everyone around you.

Believe it or not, Koreans feel the same way about these scenes.

 

I make this exact same expression when I see these cheesy scenes.

There's a slangy expression for this reaction in Korean, which I believe doesn't exist in English. Notice what Merida is doing with her hands. This finger-curling reaction must be universal, because Koreans say that over-sentimental scenes make their fingers and toes curl, or:

손발이 오그라든다.

"손발" just means "hand and foot," and "오그라든다" means "shrink while curling inwards." In my opinion, this is a pretty perfect description of our reaction. Here's a four-cut Korean webtoon that depicts the perfect situation where you can use this expression.

Woman: Huh, what are you looking for?
Man: Ah... I'm looking for a key but I can't find it...

Woman: Do you need some help? What key are you looking for?

Man: The key that will open your heart.

손발이 오그라들다. Source

There are a few related expressions as well. Instead of using the verb "오그라들다," you can also use an adjective "오글," more commonly using it twice for emphasis "오글오글," and say "오글오글하네." For strong emphasis, you could say "온몸이 오그라든다" (my entire body is curling up), but Koreans often invent their own expressions too.

Another related expression you might see in this direction is the phrase "손발 퇴갤." The letter "퇴" usually means exit, or going out. When you leave work for the day, you say that you are going to "퇴근." When you exit stage, you say "퇴장." The letter "갤" is short for the DC Inside Galleries (갤 is from 갤러리, Koreanization of the word "galleries"). This means that your hands and feet have left the galleries, where you have presumably just seen something incredibly cheesy. Your hands and feet shriveled up to the point where they are just not there anymore. Reading this phrase always feels to me as if it has an English equivalent, where the commenter is announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen, my hands and feet have just left the house."

On a website, I have seen a commenter write, "손이 오그라들어서 팔꿈치로 타자친다." He has written, "since my hands have shriveled up, I am typing this with my elbows." This is a typical Korean internet humour, which, in my opinion, is characterized by very fresh perspectives and humorous imagery that is completely unexpected.

Finally, you can talk about just how much of this stuff you can take. The amount of natural resistance that you have to the sentimentality is sometimes called "항마력" in Korean internet-slang. "항마력" actually means the "ability to resist the evil." All three characters have Chinese origins. "항" means to resist -- think of the word "대항" which means to "resist against"; "마" refers to the things magical -- the words such as "마녀 (witch)," "마법 (sorcery)," or "마귀 (devil)" all have the same letter; "력" means power or ability -- "활력 (vitality, or power of life)," "인력 (manpower)," and so on.

항마력 is often a character attribute in online role-playing games. This word naturally made its way into the Korean internet scene, because a lot of people spending time on the internet play these kinds of games, and because it just feels so appropriate! After all, what could be more evil than a couple being lovey-dovey to each other in public? This word is almost never used in real life, unless you're talking to your buddies, whereas "손발이 오글거리다" is much more widely accepted in the Korean society. As long as you don't directly insult someone with it, you can use this latter in almost any situation!

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#6. 정주행 -- Binge-watching a show

Despite the fact that I left Korea more than fifteen years ago, and that I consider myself very much an anglophone, there are a few things in the Korean culture that I find to be irreplaceable by the anglophone culture.

One example that I always talk about is the manga and anime scene of Korea. In Korean, we call it "만화" for both. If you want to distinguish the two, you add the second words -영화 or -책, obtaining "만화영화" and "만화책." The Korean 만화책 scene in particular has no parallel in terms of creativity. The usage of the Korean humour by the 만화가, or "comic book artists," never fail at making me burst out laughing in the middle of my workdays. In the digital age, most comic book artists have switched to the internet as the medium, and you can get weekly installments of hundreds of comics for free through 네이버 만화 or 다음 웹툰 (now that these things are published online, Koreans have taken to calling them webtoons).

Since these fantastic creative works are released in weekly installments, readers quite often feel that they can't get enough of it. Thus, if you're a true fan, while you're waiting for the next installment, you would re-start the series by re-reading every episode from the very beginning (often, these webtoons go on for hundreds of installments, so this is no easy feat). To say that you are about to embark on this quest, Koreans will say, "이 만화 정주행해야지." This means "I will read every episode of this webtoon from the very beginning." Once you've done it, you can say "정주행 끝났다." You can use the same phrase for drama binging as well.

This neologism comes from a standard dictionary word (noun) "주행." Its verb form would be "주행하다." It usually refers to the movement of some mode of land transport that is not your legs. For example, if you wanted to describe a car driving down a road, you could say that "자동차가 도로를 지나간다." If you wanted to be fancy about it, you could say instead: "자동차가 도로를 주행한다." Similarly, you could describe the movement of a train (기차), a subway (지하철), or a motorcycle (오토바이) using the word "주행." The only exception is when you're walking. The fancy word for "walking" is "보행," not "주행."

Anyway, this word gave rise to the internet neologism 정주행. "정" means straight, or in the correct way. So, if we were describing the movements of a car, "정주행" would mean that the car is moving forward. In the context of webtoons, we're basically plowing through the series in a straight fashion, from the first episode to the last. While this word remains a slang, it is fairly well-accepted within the Korean community, and unless you're speaking to an elderly person (who might not understand the meaning if they're not into binge-watching), you can use this word without worrying about being rude. I still would avoid using this word in a formal report, however.

As an aside, if you were going to take my suggestion and try your hands at reading some of the webtoons, I would recommend Noblesse. It's about a vampire who was in hibernation for 700 years, and awoke to find himself more or less alone in our current-day world. He soon gets entangled in a battle against evil scientists to protect the humanity. It is iconic in the Korean internet culture. It is so popular that it has been going strong for ten years with one installment every week. Almost every Korean has heard of it, and you will actually see some people quoting it in random places on the Korean internet, and if you can understand the context, these comments are actually hilarious.

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#4. 개 -- Do you know the prefix that emphasizes everything? (you do!)

In English slang, if you're having a piece of cake and it's really good, there's an easy way to express your sentiments. Just add the f-word in front of the adjective. Instead of saying "This cake is amazing!" you say "This cake is f-ing amazing!"

Of course, if a teenager said this in front of his parents, this might lead to a huge gasp from the parents, and the teenager might be grounded.

Korean also has a very similar word, although it's slightly milder than the f-word. If a teenager uses what I'm about to tell you in front of his parents, the parents would probably chuckle a little bit, and maybe he'll get a lecture on the beauty of using proper Korean. If he has a very open-minded set of parents, he might even get away with it entirely, although this usage should be avoided in polite company, with a few exceptions!

Instead of using the f-word, just try adding "개-" to all the adjectives.

Yes, it's the word that means "dog." This multi-purpose prefix is technically featured in the Korean dictionaries, and it's supposed to mean "untamed," "uncivilized," or in some cases "meaningless," which was probably how the dogs were, way back when. It was supposed to be a prefix to only certain words: for example, "죽음" (death) becomes "개죽음" which means uncivilized, undignified death (for example, a death in a battlefield might get this description); "꿈" (dream) becomes "개꿈" which means a dream of no significance (here, 꿈 does not mean your aspirations; it really means the thing that you experience when you sleep).

But people noticed that this prefix actually does something else. It just emphasized the meaning of the root word. If you think about it, death is uncivilized no matter what, so adding 개- just emphasized the unpleasantness of death. A dream is meaningless already, so 개꿈 is even more meaningless.

Thus, a new usage was born. Nowadays, if you want to say that the piece of cake you're eating is amazing, you can say "이 케이크 맛있다." To emphasize it even further, you say "이 케이크 개맛있다." If you really really like your K-pop band, you could say "나 그 밴드 개좋아해" (I f-ing like that band). If that test was really hard, you can say "시험 개어려웠다" (Test was f-ing hard). See a really pretty girl? Say "그 여자애 개예쁘다" (that girl is f-ing pretty). You recently came across an amazing windfall? You can say "개이득" meaning "f-ing gain."

If you want to be slightly more polite and avoid the word "dog," you can also replace "개-" with "핵-" meaning "nuclear." It's still slang, so don't use it in the formal setting, but your parents are definitely less likely to get upset with you for using this. So you say "이 케이크 핵맛있다," "나 그 밴드 핵좋아해," "시험 핵어려웠다," "그 여자애 핵예쁘다," "핵이득" etc. This is not as widespread as "개-" just because it's less funny, but people will understand you!

It works with pretty much any adjective, while not being nearly as vulgar as the f-word. You can try using it with your friends, and they will be entertained! But again, do not use it to your teachers or superiors; they will think that you are being rude!

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#2. 낙제각이야 -- How to say "the situation is setting up for failure"

In writing one of my beginner Korean posts, I realized that one of the very first Korean words that I outlined actually has a pretty cute slangy usage, popular among the people of approximate age 13-35. Using only the first consonant and the first vowel, we make the simple word "각" which usually means "angle." But if you saw a friend who wasn't studying for an exam tomorrow, you could tell him that you think he'll fail using this slang:

이대로라면 낙제각인데?

"이대로라면" means "if you continue the current status."

To de-construct further, "이" means "this" or "current status" (where the word "status" is implied). "대로" (aside from meaning "highway") means "continue." So for example, if you want to say "stay just where you are, and don't move" you could simply say "이대로 있어" or "그대로 있어" (where "그" means "that"). This usage is completely safe to use in any company.

"-라면" (aside from meaning "ramyun noodles" which are awesome) talks about the hypothetical. For example, "내가 가수라면" means "if I were a singer." "네가 여자라면" means "if you were a woman." If you were to talk about a hypothetical action, as opposed to a situation, the conjugation changes slightly to various things such as "-다면", "-으면", "-면". For example, "내가 뛴다면" meaning "if I run"; "먹으면" meaning "if eaten"; "하면" meaning "if done."

So anyway, with the above sentence, I'm basically telling my friend that if he keeps up the current status of not studying for the exam, he's setting himself up for a failure. "낙제각" is made up of two parts, "낙제" and "각", or "failure" and "angle." If you think about the game of pool (which is really a game of angles!), certain angles make good hits, and certain angles make bad hits. This is where this usage comes from: you're aligning yourself for the angle of failure.

This "-각" usage has been popular for probably 10 years at this point, at least. And Koreans really like to make up new usages. For example, if you've been partying hard, and everyone is joking about chickens for some reason. You're hungry, so you want to playfully suggest that you go eat Korean fried chicken (which is the only kind of fried chicken, really). You would say, "이거 치킨각 아닌가?"

If you have a lot of homework that you put off until the deadline, and you realize that there is no way you can complete everything, you could say things like "드랍각이다," meaning that you should probably go drop one of the courses. If things are really serious, Koreans often say "자살각이네," meaning that they should just kill themselves over not having done the work earlier.

In Korea you can get sued and get a criminal record if you insult someone publicly online. Often, if the Korean internet users see someone going too far, or if an online discussion is getting too heated, they would try to stop the argument by saying, "이거 고소각인데?" meaning that they are setting themselves up for a lawsuit.

It's not always "noun + 각" either. You can use verbs. If a professor looks like she is about to hand you homework, you could say, "숙제내줄각이다." If two people are gearing themselves up for a fight, you could say "싸울각이네." If one of them looks like he is about to cry, you could say "울각이다."

Koreans are incredibly generous and receptive to the creation of new words and phrases; so feel free to experiment with it! The only words of caution that I have is the fact that this usage of "-각" is strictly for friends only. This originated from internet celebrities of Afreeca (early version of YouTubers), and a lot of them had contents that were 19+. Although this has nothing to do with the 19+ content, it's just a matter of etiquette to avoid mentioning these words to your boss, your professors, or your grandparents (who might not actually know what it means anyway!)

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#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.

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