#96. 오지라퍼 -- your business is my business

The Western society has come a long way.

When I imagine a peaceful medieval town, I imagine a small community of maybe a hundred families. Many of these families probably had children of similar age, and they probably all played together. Their parents probably took turns providing snacks for these children when they got hungry. If one child was not around for a few days, they would be concerned for the child, and also for his parents. They would pay them a visit, and make sure that everything is alright. Maybe they'll bring some bread and soup, just in case. In these towns, everyone would know everyone, and if something happened to one of the families, the news would travel quickly throughout the entire town. If a young couple eloped, the entire town would stop by the parents' house to offer their unsolicited advice.

With time, this familiarity with your neighbours started to fade in the West. Now, the invasion of privacy is a crime. Spreading gossip indiscriminately can be prosecuted as slander. It is impolite to be discussing your neighbours.

The increase of the radius of your personal bubble ensures your privacy. However, with it, you lose the familiarity with your neighbours. You lose the sense of community. And you lose the trust. It's always that if you win some, then you lose some.

The Korean society started out in a very similar way as a Western medieval town.

A very typical imagery for a traditional Korean town. The roof made of hay was extremely common for the middle and lower class families!

While the Koreans grew to value privacy a little bit more, they also clung to the idea that the sense of community, and knowing that your neighbours care about you is still very important. It is still common to have very close neighbours who will stop by unannounced to make sure that your children had snacks while you are out working. They may bring over a portion of their dinner, because they cooked so much and the dinner turned out great. To thank them, you may ask them over to have a bottle of beer. Like the Koreans say, you may get so close to your neighbours that you know how many spoons they have in their household.

But this also means that you are subject to a lot of unsolicited advice. They may have something to add to your spending habits. They might think that your children could do better, if it weren't for your terrible parenting, and take it upon themselves to lecture you on how to raise your children better.

The Koreans have a word for this. When someone sticks their nose in your business one time too many, you can say:

"저사람 정말 오지랖이 넓네." (He has a very wide shirt-front.)

The word "오지랖" doesn't seem to be commonplace in English. We talk about the tail of a shirt, which is the bottom part of the shirt in the back which hangs below the waist. "오지랖" is the corresponding counterpart in the front. If you have a very wide shirt-front, then it will end up covering your pants, leading to an unwise fashion choice. Your shirt is invading the space that rightfully belongs to your pants, just like your annoying neighbour who doesn't know when to leave you alone.

While the grammatically correct idiom is to use it as an adjective "오지랖이 넓다," now "오지랖" itself can be used in many different form. For example, "오지랖" itself can be used as a noun meaning "butting into situations where one is not welcome." For example, in the picture above, the common type of 오지랖s that most Koreans experience are written:

when you're a student, the 오지랖 is whether you're getting good grades;
when you graduate, the 오지랖 is to ask whether you have found a job;
when you're over 30, whether you will marry;
when you marry, that you should have kids;
when you have a son, that you should have a daughter because it's nice;
when you have a daughter, that you should have a son to feel secure;
when you have a son and a daughter, that you should have a third child since two children of different gender (남매) are rarely close to each other;
when you have two sons, that you should have a daughter;
when you have two daughters, that you should have a son;
when you have three kids, that you won't be able to afford having three kids...

It seems incredible, but most Koreans do deal with these kinds of 오지랖! An appropriate response to these unsolicited concerns might be:

"쓸데없는 오지랖이야" (These are useless worries, and none of your business.)

The word "오지랖" itself is completely standard, and you can use it to Koreans of any age (although if you use it to the offending party, they will find it insulting!)

However, the cute neologism popular among the younger Koreans that I have been seeing a lot lately is the word "오지라퍼." And perhaps you can already guess what it means. Well, a "rapper" is a person who "raps," so an "오지라퍼 = 오지랖+er" is a person who doles out generous amounts of "오지랖" to people. As always, the combination of a pure Korean word and an English word has a humorous effect (since it destroys the beautiful Korean language!) so it intensifies the nuance of sarcasm.

It also feels trendy in the sense that the word itself sounds a bit similar to "rapper," almost like "my bro the busybody." This means that you do not want to use this word with your superiors or elders, in case they get offended (although I think most Koreans, except the very elderly who did not have an English education, should understand it). So, if you want to exaggerate your feelings of sarcasm, you could say:

"세호야말로 진정한 오지라퍼야." (Seho is the true busybody, man.)

This has the effect of sounding a bit more vulgar and sarcastic than just saying it in the standard way:

"세호는 오지랖이 참 넓어." (Seho has a very wide shirt-front),

 which sounds relatively polite and almost gentlemanly compared to the slangy sentence using "오지라퍼."

Finally, there is a very similar (and fairly standard) clothing-related slang for "helicopter moms." The helicopter moms tend to hover around their children, and become involved in all of their childrens' businesses. The Koreans call these women "치맛바람," literally meaning "skirt winds." They are so busy chasing their children that their skirts cause wind! :) You can use it in various capacities, such as just as a noun (just like how you would use 오지랖), or you can use it as an adjective by saying "치맛바람이 세다" (her skirt winds are strong), or you can say it as a verb via "치맛바람이 분다." I close this post with three examples:

"요즘 어머니들 치맛바람때문에 못살겠다." (I can't carry on my day-to-day activities these days because of the skirt winds of the helicopter moms.)

"슬기 어머니는 치맛바람이 너무 세서 아이가 불쌍하다." (The skirt winds of Seulgi's mother are too strong that I feel bad for the child.)

"요즘은 학원가에도 치맛바람이 분다." (Nowadays, the skirt winds reach even the hagwons (private academies).) 

If anyone is given the description of "치맛바람" they will of course be annoyed. However, the word itself has become completely standard, appearing in newspapers and other news outlets.

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#94. 지리다 -- so awesome that I peed my pants (or worse)

I stared at the blank screen for nearly half an hour, because after such a long hiatus, I have no idea how to start again.

I guess I should start by apologizing. With my full-time job, I realized that writing a blog frequently was going to be harder than I imagined. The prospect of doing something on a schedule scared me and although this blog was on my mind almost every day, I couldn't bring myself back to it. In fact, I was too afraid to sign into my account for months, for some reason. When I finally signed into my email attached to this blog post, I had so many emails and comments from the readers encouraging me to continue, and I decided that I would give it another shot! :) This blog really is something that I cherish, and I would never let it die completely. So, if you're still subscribed, or if you're still reading this blog (I was surprised that I was still getting a ton of visitors even though I didn't write for three months). Sorry for being away for so long.

Sorry!

Here is a word that seems to have become popular on the Korean internet during the past three months that I was gone. It is mostly used among the 급식 of the Korean internet (that is, immature middle schoolers!) to express their admiration.

Say that you are watching a game tournament (as you should, if you're a proper K-lover!) and one gamer seems to be miles above everyone else. No one is able to even put up a fight against this gamer. Usually these one-sided games are boring to watch, of course, but this gamer is just so otherworldly in his skills that you're past the point of being bored -- you're fascinated and you cannot look away.

Then after a particularly awesome gameplay, you might hear some Korean teenager who was watching the game next to you exclaim:

"와, 저사람 지린다" (Holy shit, that person is f-ing awesome)

His friend might agree with his friend by saying:

"진짜 지렸다 ㅋㅋ 나 지릴뻔" (That really was f-ing awesome. I nearly peed my pants)

As you can tell from this dialogue, the verb "지리다" made its way into the teenage vocabulary in the past few months, and it is used to describe something that is seriously awesome.

This word, unlike many of the trendy slang, is actually not a new word at all. As far as I know, even my grandparents would understand this word if they heard it, because it is a dialect of the Jeolla province in the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula. Its major cities include Gwangju and Jeonju, and it is known for having particularly delicious food (but it is also home to the famous fermented skate, called 삭힌홍어, that sometimes make its way into the Korean entertainment programs).

In Jeolla province, you can order something like this with 30-40 side dishes for yourself for not that much money, around $20-30 USD (tip/taxes included!)

Anyway, Jeolla province is known for its characteristic dialect. I promise to do a listening exercise on it very soon! But for now, the word "지리다" is a long-standing Jeolla dialect that means "to pee or poop." While I am not from the Jeolla province and I am not sure how it is used there, but from a native Seoulite's perspective. this word carries a negative connotation -- to me, it means to pee or poop in a place where you shouldn't have done so.

For example, if you get very very drunk, and decide to pee in an alley, the Koreans might derisively say:

"걔는 술먹고 담벼락에 오줌지리고있더라" (I saw him get drunk and pee on someone's wall.)

More commonly, and related to the current slangy usage of the word, this verb can be used to describe someone soiling one's pants, like this:

"소영이는 너무 놀라서 바지에 오줌을 지렸다." (Sohyoung was so surprised that she peed her pants.)

Usually not actually this.

In fact, the context above is where the modern usage derives. It is commonly accepted and understood in the Korean culture (much more so than in the western culture) that if you're surprised or frightened, then you soil your pants.

And this particular cultural understanding, along with the hilarious fact that there is a separate verb for peeing in one's pants, is where the modern usage of the word comes from. Now the word "지리다" means that someone (or something) is so frighteningly awe-inspiring that it made the speaker pee his/her pants (or worse!)

Of course, as it is currently very popular in Korea, it doesn't have to be actually awe-inspiring to use this word. It is mostly used in exaggeration. For example, you score an 80% in a test, and your friend who only scored 60% might say:

"너 80점이야? 와 지린다!" (You got 80%? That's f-ing awesome!)

Unfortunately, the adults, knowing the meaning of the word, very rarely (if at all) would use this word, and it is popularized only among the very young -- if I had to guess, college students would already view this word to be fairly immature. While it is not a particularly offensive word (as it is ultimately a compliment), I imagine that most people are not excited to evoke the imagery of themselves in soiled pants. However, used in the appropriate situations, it could bring out some explosive reactions -- no pun intended!

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#92. 삽질 -- killing the time in the worst possible way

Korea is in the state of truce against North Korea. This may sound great, but if you think about it, truce is totally different from peace. It means that a war can break out any day -- given the current climate, it doesn't even seem that unlikely (actually, the Koreans are surprisingly nonchalant about the possibility of war even now, but that's a story for another day.)

Anyway, the possibility of war means that every Korean men bears the responsibility of protecting their country. On their 19th birthday (or thereabouts), the Korean men undergo a physical examination that determines whether they are fit to serve Korea as a soldier. Most Koreans get declared that they are physically and mentally fit, and they serve in the infantry or the marines (for 21 months), the navy (for 22 months), or in the air force (for 24 months). These people are called "현역 병사," or "active duty soldiers." The letter "현" means "present" as in "현재 (right now)," and "역" means "duty" as in "역할 (given role)."

Being in the Korean military sucks, though. So while having been a 현역 병사 is a source of pride for many Korean men, they would probably prefer to have avoided it in the first place. Indeed, many celebrities and the children of Korean politicians get caught up in military duty scandals for having tried to game the system by getting diagnosed with obscure illnesses. If they get caught, it destroys their (or their parents') careers. Yet they continue to do this, so you can imagine how terrible being in the army might be.

Here's a scenario that supposedly happens frequently in the Korean army.

A captain decides that all soldiers will be assigned to a construction within the army base for the day. Every soldier is given a shovel ("삽" in Korean) and is put to work. At the end of the day, his officer stops by to check on the progress, and finds that the work isn't even close to being half-done. Afraid that the captain might find out, the officer calls for a bulldozer, which finishes the remaining work in less than half an hour.

So, why would you do this?

Koreans believe in the art of looking busy. This is true in most cultures. In office environments, you don't just pack up and go home when you're done with your work (well, some innovative companies in North America have started this, but there are still many places where this is not an option.)
Koreans do this even better. Not only do they stay until 5pm, they actually stay glued to their seats until their boss (who also stays later than 5pm to look good to her boss) packs up and leaves. It doesn't matter if they're done with everything; they'll sit there looking busy.

Koreans also joke about underlining and highlighting every word in your textbook. That's the biggest aspect of studying after all, no?

In the military also, since there is no active battles being fought, the soldiers must be kept busy. This is often done in the form of training, or manual labour. If there's snow, send out the soldiers with a shovel to clear the snow from everywhere in town. If a hole needs to be dug, send out the soldiers with a shovel. And so on.

Thus, a neologism "삽질" was born. "삽" means "a shovel," and "-질" means "the act of doing something," and it is often used as a derogatory suffix (for another example, see 선비질). So "삽질" means "the act of shoveling," and with the unsaid nuance, it means "to shovel uselessly." Nowadays, it is used to make fun of the situation where someone is working very hard for no gain at all.

For example, say your friend is courting a girl rather aggressively, but the girl is not interested at all and turns him down despite all his efforts. You might tell him,

"괜한 삽질만 많이 했네." (That was a lot of useless shoveling).

The Korean soldiers whose work got out-done by a bulldozer might use this in a more literal sense and say:

"불도저 앞에서 삽질했네." (That was a lot of useless shoveling in front of a bulldozer.)

 If your younger sister is begging for a ride on your car this evening by doing all of your chores, and you already have a plan so you can't give her a ride, you might say:

"삽질하네." (You're doing some useless shoveling.)

While this expression does have a vulgar nuance, just by the virtue of all Korean men having experienced this, this expression gets used quite a bit, especially among men (but women will also use it from time to time.) This expression is suitable among friends or peers, but because of the inherent sarcasm in the word, you should take care not to say it in front of your seniors.

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#88. 하드캐리 -- Playing the hero

When people start introducing foreign language into their own language, mistakes invariably happen. For example, apple pie à la mode should mean "fashionable apple pie" but we use it to mean "apple pie with ice cream." And what about words like maître d' which makes no sense in French?

When I hear the Korean word "하드캐리," I feel that this is a bunch of mistranslations rolled into a single word. This word is often used in gaming communities (it is said that this word originated from League of Legends), to describe someone who played a crucial role in leading the team to victory. Its verb form is "하드캐리하다."

So for example, you can say:

"이번 게임은 니가 하드캐리했다." (You pretty much won this game for us.)

 This usage within a game has been expanded into various other situations in life. For example, if a particular comedian is full of hilarious 드립 and makes an entire episode of the entertainment clip alive, then you can also say:

"이번회는 그 코메디언이 완전 하드캐리했네." (That comedian really made this episode.)

The origins of this word is admittedly a bit random. It seems that this word has English as its origin, as in "hard carry." The word "carry" comes from the newspaper articles that sound like this:

While the word "carry" is not an essential part of headlines such as this, it seems that the Korean gamers decided to focus on the word, and brought it over to Korean. So in the Korean gamer language, it means "to lead to victory."

There are a couple of hypotheses about the word "hard." One says that it is supposed to be an adjective to "carry" to emphasize it, so "hard carry" should mean that someone really lead the team to victory. Another hypothesis says that this used to refer to the team members who were weak at the beginning, but became stronger (=hard in the Korean mistranslation... oops!)

As far as its usage goes, it seems that most young-ish people tend to understand it, as it sometimes even makes an appearance as the subtitles of entertainment shows. With the older generation, however, it may just lose its meaning, although it is in no way offensive.

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#86. 의문의 1승 -- How Koreans do sarcasm

Let me begin this post by talking about one of the Korean soccer heroes.

The name of this dreamy man is 안정환 (Jung-Hwan Ahn). He scored the most number of goals (3) in the Korean history during World Cup over his career. And he is considered to be one of the most good-looking soccer players in Korea. Despite looking like he grew up like a prince, his family was very poor and dysfunctional, so his grandmother raised him (he was so poor that he begged on the streets when he was young, and had never tasted an orange before he was selected to the national youth soccer team.) Even after his debut as a professional soccer player, his team manager was greedy and did not give him a good salary.

Despite all the trials and tribulations of his life, he still managed to be an extremely successful soccer player, who holds an iron-clad 까방권, and a hero of many Koreans.

안정환 often appears on TV shows after his retirement. Times have flown, but he is still a good-natured 아저씨 with a great sense of humour!

Then there is your friend, who just openly cheated in her exams. She talks about how poor her family is, how she would lose her scholarship if she failed this exam, and so on. You soon get sick of listening to her self-justifying excuses.

While you'd love to say something, unfortunately you are currently in Korea. It turns out that the Koreans are incredibly polite. Sure, they may push and shove strangers in the subway, but between the people who are actually acquaintances, you see almost no displays of rudeness. Most Koreans prefer to avoid confrontations and take a small personal loss, and standing up for oneself seems rarer than in North American culture.

So, you don't want to say things like:

"그래도 컨닝은 나쁜거야." (But cheating is wrong nonetheless -- Koreans say 컨닝 (cunning) for cheating.)

This makes you sound like you are engaging in a bit of 선비질, which Koreans generally don't appreciate. You also don't want to say things like:

"이세상에 너만 있냐?" (Do you think you're the only one living in the world?)

This is far too direct for most Koreans' tastes. As the Koreans tend to walk away from fights (often saying that both sides are terrible), this attitude won't win you any friends, either.

 

It seems frustrating, but there are probably many reasons for doing this. They probably don't want to be the subject of gossip -- Koreans really hate to stand out as the community is valued above the individual. The consequences of confrontations could be greater in the Korean culture as well -- stand up to your manager who wants you to put in an extra hour's work tonight? You might become a 왕따 in your company. Between losing an hour's sleep and having none of your coworkers speak to you, I would probably choose to not stand up for myself and just do that hour's work, too.

As a result, any behaviour that could result in burned bridges or social repercussions is highly discouraged in the Korean society (and many people would make these choices by themselves without pressure, because they have probably seen the consequences of the alternative).

This doesn't mean that the Koreans aren't sarcastic people. In order to create good sarcasm, you need it to be more obscure, and you need a lot more humour. 

So what is the best course of action for venting your frustration? I think a reasonable action taken by many Koreans is to first walk away from the girl (creating the setup for 왕따), then making a light and obscure about her online. Don't vent all of your anger, don't obsess, just say it once and move on, people will remember. Here is a lighthearted remark that gets used often online:

"안정환 의문의 1승이네 ㅋㅋ" (It looks like a mysterious score 1 for Jung-Hwan Ahn).

Basically, you pulled out the obscure fact that 안정환 had a childhood even more difficult than your friend; either this reference will lose some people, or it will evoke such strong comparison that it will convince your listeners that your friend is complaining about nothing.

Furthermore, it is a humorous remark, as you are randomly entering your friend into a match against the Korean soccer god. As it's funny, most Koreans won't feel so uncomfortable at this, they will laugh and move on, secretly harboring their discontent deep inside them, taking solace in the knowledge that someone else also hates her for cheating.

There are other instances where you can use this slang. In K-pop, idol groups have a fairly short lifespan. They sign a contract for seven years, and by the time seven years are up, they are either fed up with the entertainment industry, their company, or with themselves. Most of them are ready to disband, and they do.

This is the K-Pop group called 신화, Shinhwa.

In this case, you could make a remark such as:

"신화 의문의 1승" (It looks like a mysterious score one for Shinhwa)

 The K-Pop group Shinhwa (신화) debuted in 1998 and they are still going strong, setting a great example that most other groups fail to follow. So every time some group fails to follow in their footsteps, Koreans like to say that Shinhwa has yet again triumphed.

As this is getting to be a pretty long post already, I will return to this post in the near future to talk about a few more funny examples, but feel free to experiment and pull out some obscure references! It will be cool if someone gets it, and if no one gets it, it'll be a conversation starter.

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#80. Someone tweeted about a 맘충

Today, while browsing the internet, I saw a tweet, in which someone complains about a 맘충 that they encountered. It seemed to have just the right amount of slang that I thought I would put it here.

Here is the text:
와 진짜 골때린다 ㅋㅋㅋ
Wow, I really feel like I've just been hit in the head.

요즘 애엄마들 다 그러나?
Are all moms like this nowadays?

남의 가게 메뉴꾸며놓은 칠판에 애가 낙서하고있는데 거기다대고 "어머~ 참잘했어요~"
Her kid was ruining the menu board for someone else's store and she said "wow~ good job~"
(Note that the writer made one typo, saying 낚서 instead of 낙서.)

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 왘ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
"왘" is actually "와" but if you type "와" and "ㅋㅋㅋ" together, you often end up with "왘." It just means "wow."

닥치고 니가 그대로 복구해놔라
Shut up and put it back yourself.

Hopefully studying the Korean slang made this tweet easier to understand!

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#79. 파오후 -- You are f-ing obese (not my words, theirs!)

Another shout-out to Shane for suggesting covering more onomatopoeic words! :)

This had not occurred to me before Shane asked me about the Korean onomatopoeia in one of my other posts -- the Korean language is full of onomatopoeia, compared to English! For example, the following sentences all use onomatopoeia and they are sentences that you would often hear in everyday life.

"먹을때 쩝쩝대지 마." (Don't chew with your mouth open -- "쩝쩝" is onomatopoeia for the sound that you make when you do)

"이 수학문제를 가지고 한시간째 끙끙대고 있어." (I've been struggling with this math problem for an hour -- "끙끙" is the sound that you might make when you're struggling with a heavy weight at the gym. Math problems make you suffer just as much, right?)

"물결이 찰랑대는 호수가 너무 예쁘다." (The lake with small waves is so beautiful -- "찰랑" is the onomatopoeia for the small sloshing of water. For a larger wave, you might use "출렁" instead.)

These onomatopoeia occupy a large portion of the Korean language, and while we, the anglophones, might use these words to a toddler to engage in conversation, these are totally normal words to use in Korean. This brings up the question, how about on the internet? Do the Koreans also make up new onomatopoeia?

The answer is a loud YES. Looking through my previous posts, I have talked about one instance of onomatopoeia here (the word is "철컹철컹" which describes the clanking of handcuffs, and also describes how you might be locked up in a jail cell with a lock). Perhaps this is not totally satisfactory since "철컹철컹" is an onomatopoeia that already existed in standard Korean. But here is one that you might find to be more amusing (or more offensive, as is the case with most internet literature!)

Long before YouTube was a thing, Koreans already had a platform where people could have their own channels, and create video content that was broadcasted live. The website still exists. But it often comes under fire because a lot of people there create questionable content (for example, minors trying to create sexual content for the money, or adults trying dangerous stunts), and the censorship is not well enforced for the most part.

Anyway, one of these broadcasters, who was known for being overweight, was one day streaming a video of himself eating. He made some interesting noises during the broadcast, which, to Koreans, seemed like the sound that people make when they are very enthusiastic about food (and this is an awful stereotype, but a fair number of these people are overweight).

When he inhales the food, it sounds like he's breathing in and saying "파오후," and when he chews, he makes a sound very similar to "쿰척쿰척," listen for yourself and see if you agree that this sounds like a fair representation of the eating sounds that the broadcaster is making.

So the Koreans started making fun of obese people with the phrase "파오후 쿰척쿰척." First when they were eating food, but then it just kind of became a phrase to mock the obese people of the internet. In the current usage, "파오후" just became a noun for "an obese person," and "쿰척쿰척" became an onomatopoeia describing anything that an obese person does. (Another theory says that "파오후" refers to the sounds of breathing of an obese person, and "쿰척쿰척" is the sound of sniffling, so you are free to believe whichever theory suits your imagination!)

At this point, I can imagine your reactions. You are gasping in shock, because this is incredibly insensitive and mean-spirited. And I agree with you; Korean internet users tend to be a lot more vitriolic than their anglophone counterparts.

One of the reasons this is tolerated is because the Korean society is a lot less forgiving towards the people who stand out. This is really how the unfortunate tradition of 왕따 started, where people attempt to punish those who stand out by not acknowledging their existence, or with open hostility.

Another reason is that these kinds of words get made up in what you might call the garbage dumps of the Korean internet -- namely DC Inside and ilbe.com, where they are notorious for their blatant disregard for the social norms. A lot of people hide the fact that they have accounts on these websites (for the fear of being ostracized), but I guess a lot of people still use these communities, as they are still one of the most popular internet communities of Korea. These slang words end up becoming mainstream either through these secret users slipping up and using them in real life, or by the non-users, who try to use these new neologisms to insult the users of DC Inside and ilbe.com (as the internet communities always seem to be at war with one another.)

Finally, the default assumption of the Korean internet users is that whoever you are interacting with on the internet is the biggest loser imaginable (as this makes it easier to insult them). They are probably losers with no jobs, ugly or deformed, never dated, and probably went to a 지잡대. Also, they are probably morbidly obese. So it is not unusual to see insults of the kind

"이 파오후새끼야, 쿰척쿰척하지말고 가서 알바라도 해." (You f-ing pig, stop being a fat loser and get a part-time job)

Regardless of they are actually obese or not. (Of course, they also get used correctly to mock obese people.)

So there you have it, probably the first truly mean Korean internet slang that I've covered in this blog. This only touches the surface of what some of the Korean internet users are capable of, though (and if this scares you, you should stay far away from DC Inside and ilbe.com, and a few other communities!) And please, do not use these words in real life!

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#77. 현피 -- Korean gamer drama gone wrong

The gaming community (of which nearly every Korean is a member) always carries a lot of potential for drama. People put in years, if not decades, of effort into their characters, and it is so easy to lose all of that in a heartbeat if someone sets their mind on it. So "keyboard battles" (키보드 배틀, or 키배 for short) where people insult each other via chat are a daily occurrence in the Korean internet.

Well, everyone fights, you say. And you would be right. However,  there is one thing that is unique about the Korean gamer drama.

Remember that Korea is a tiny country. For context, South Korea is about 1/3 the size of Germany, and about 1/5 the size of California. And the majority of the Korean population lives in Seoul. This means that if you get so upset at your opponent in a 키배 that you want to punch him, that can be easily arranged.

The Koreans would say,

"너 나와! 나랑 현피뜨자!" (Come out, let's have a 현피).

The word "현피" and its verb form "현피뜨다" comes from combining "현실" (real life) and "PK" which is a gaming word for "Player Kill." So you get "현P" which gets written as "현피" in Korean. It literally means that two gamers want to meet in real life to kill each other (instead of killing each other's characters online.) You can substitute "real-life player kill" for "현피" and it would be a pretty accurate translation.

By the way, this is one of the reasons that makes the Korean internet so unique in my opinion. It feels so much more "real" than say, American internet.

In reality, no blows were exchanged in this 현피.

 Anyway, you are probably wondering, why on earth would you agree to a real-life fight?

Well, I can think of two major reasons.

The first is that most Korean internet users tend to assume that everyone on the internet is a huge loser. They are probably weak, they were probably bullied in school, they probably don't have a job or a girlfriend, they probably mooch off of their parents. Of course they are going to win if they fight in real life.

The second is, of course, peer pressure. Koreans tend to value community over the individual, so compared to an average North American, Koreans tend to be a lot more aware of what is going on around them. In general, they seem more susceptible to peer pressure as well. Once a major 키배 breaks out, a lot of people are watching them fight and exchange brave words, and they are egging them on. Once the word "현피" is uttered, it would be majorly embarrassing to back down!

It's not incredibly frequent that a 현피 takes place, so when it does, it provides a major 떡밥 to the internet community. Word travels quickly that something is happening in real life, and since all communications leading up to the 현피 are done publicly, hundreds of thousands of people end up knowing the time and the location of a 현피. You are very likely to have a spectator if you ever engage in it.

Often it ends up with a hilarious result. In one instance, one riled-up internet user accepted the challenge of 현피 just to see that his opponent was a kid in elementary school; in another case, two internet users met up to fight, only to realize that they were far too overweight to actually fight in earnest (and to their mortification, a sizeable audience had gathered); and sometimes they get stood up by their opponent.

I would discourage you from engaging in a 현피, however, since some of the spectators will probably record the interaction and you will be forever remembered in a gif ("움짤" in Korean, which comes from "움직이는 짤방" or "moving pictures"). Most likely you will be doing a lot of 이불킥 when you think about it in a couple of years! Then there are the couple of rare cases where someone actually ends up being killed, although those are incredibly rare, maybe one or two cases in the history of Korean internet have been known to the public.

However, if you ever see people actually organizing a 현피, grab some popcorn and stick around -- they are pretty rare, and chances are, you are witnessing the birth of yet another page of Korean internet literature!

As for when to use this word in real life... I guess you wouldn't really. The only cases where I can think of using this word is maybe when you're texting your friend and you playfully challenge them to a fight. This is definitely a word among the younger generation, though!

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#74. Why do people hate spoilers?

While browsing the internet, I saw a 드립 that made me laugh, so I thought I'd share this for today's post. While I translate the post below, see if you can see the humour in it before seeing the translation:

This post is from DC Inside, which is generally a pretty rough part of the Korean internet. The internet users are pretty ruthless in making fun of you, or putting you down, so you have to learn to take it in stride.

The original poster (whose ID is 패스트 -- the DC Inside users call each user "갤로거" which is the DC Inside equivalent of a "Redditor") discusses the subject of "스포," which comes from the English word "Spoilers" or "스포일러" in Korean. The Koreans often choose to abbreviate by using the first two letters only. The act of giving out spoilers is written in Korean as "스포하다." When you want to say "spoiler alert" the Koreans will say "스포주의" and so on.

Anyway, here is the translation of the above post:

Title: 스포하는게 뭐가 나쁘냐?
(What's so bad about giving out spoilers?)

Body:
친구: 야 나 오늘 XX 보러가.
Friend: Hey, I'm going to go see XX today.

나: 어 그러냐? 잘보고와라.
Me: Oh yeah? Have fun. [By the way, this way of speaking is very masculine. Women almost never conjugate their sentences with -냐 or -라; they would have instead said: "아 그래? 잘보고와."]

바로 집에가서 네이버에 검색해서 결말 알아낸다음에 친구한테 문자해주면
Then I go home and search on Naver (Korean equivalent of Google) to find out the ending and text my friend

애들이 되게 좋아하던데
Then my friends really like it

니들은 스포당하면 싫음?
 But you don't like spoilers?

흠 이상하네
Hmm strange.

So for whatever reason, the poster is convinced (or maybe he is trolling; I am also calling the above poster a "he" and not "she" because the way the verbs are conjugated strongly suggests that the speaker is male) that everyone he knows likes spoilers.

Of course, the people reading this post are outraged, and now they must think of a clever comeback. A user whose ID is "산고양이" (mountain cat) manages to do just that. He says:

너네 엄마가 애가졌을때 니가 태어날꺼라고 알려줬었어봐라
Suppose (-어봐라) that your mom was told (알려줬-) that you would be (-거라고) born when (-을때) she was pregnant (애가졌다).

엄마가 어떤 기분일까
How do you suppose (-일까) that she would have felt?

And this kind of witty comeback is definitely something that the Koreans love to hear. It's vicious, it's personally insulting, and it's very fitting to the situation (You like spoilers? Let's see how your mom likes the spoilers about you!) There's also a certain amount of rudeness, because calling a mother who is not your own an "엄마" is not really acceptable unless you're a child.

So the other spectators compliment "산고양이" by calling his remark a "파워드립" or "powerful ad-lib." Note that the original poster, 패스트, has also responded, saying "산고양이 너 센데?" or, "you're a pretty strong opponent." Clearly he is not offended, although if he heard that in real life he probably would be. Korean internet is definitely a strange place!

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#70. 골때린다 -- I feel as if I've been hit on the head.

Everyone probably has a memory of the moment of betrayal by someone trusted. Maybe your boyfriend, with whom you were completely in love with, broke up with you out of nowhere. Maybe your sister knew a secret about you and promised not to tell mom, but then she did.

The moment you find out about this betrayal, especially if the person who betrayed you was someone you deeply trusted, there is actually a physical response to this. Blood rushes to your ears, your face turns red, and you're not really sure if you're hearing everything correctly. It almost feels as if someone took a swing at your head.

Koreans often describe this feeling as

"머리가 띵해지는 기분이야." (It feels as if my head was '띵해지다')

and the verb "띵해지다" describes exactly the above physical response. This word is slang, although not offensive and widely known among all demographics. It is so well-known that you can probably even use it in formal settings. For example, if you're having a bad headache and what you're feeling is similar to how you would feel in a case of betrayal (often a heavy dose of cough syrup does this to me), you could describe your condition to your doctor by saying:

머리가 띵해요.

Before this expression existed, though, there was actually another expression in our parents' generation. This expression, once identical to "머리가 띵해지다," is "골때린다." The word "골" means "bones" in Chinese. In this particular context, it probably means your skull, which is "해골" in Korean. Remembering that Koreans like to take off the first letter of a word in order to become more informal and more vulgar, it is likely that "골" is a vulgarized form of "해골." And of course, "때린다" is "to hit," and its infinitive form is "때리다."

So, "골때린다" literally means "to hit (my) skull."

For example, if your boyfriend just dumped you out of nowhere, in your anger, you could say:

"너 정말 골때린다." (I feel as if you just hit me in the head.)

And your (ex-)boyfriend will get that you are hurt by his betrayal, and understand that you weren't expecting it at all.

However, as this expression has been around for a long time, and almost everyone uses it, it lost some of its strong meaning. This is because Koreans like to exaggerate. So now you can use this expression without offending in certain cases. If your friend tells you a really funny joke, you can say

"ㅋㅋㅋ 너 정말 골때린다." (I feel as if you just hit me in the head.)

In this case, this expression serves as a bit of a compliment, because you're acknowledging that his joke was completely unexpected, and it had an impact on you (as if you've been hit in the head.) The context makes this phrase almost a compliment, and your friend will remember your comment with pride.

"새끼" is a derogatory way to denote a person. "새끼" originally means young animals. So, "that person" is not only young (in Korean, treating someone your age or older as if they're younger than you is a huge insult), but also is nothing but an animal. Apparently, the guy in the picture has been surprised by someone to the degree where he feels hit in the head.

You have to be very careful of when you use it, though. For example, say that you went to a karaoke room for the first time with your friend. And your friend's singing is hilarious in a bad way. It's just not what you expected at all (maybe her singing voice is funny, or she is so absorbed in her emotion that she looks a bit ridiculous, or whatever. Just you did not see it coming at all and it's really bad.) Then you could say:

"너 노래 정말 골때리게 부른다." (I feel as if I've been hit in the head by your singing.)

She'll probably get really mad at you, and you'd have deserved it if you say it, because she didn't intend to surprise you with her singing. So this is not a good place to use this phrase.

However, if your friend was just being rude at the karaoke, not letting you take your turn, jumping in when you're actually singing really well and overpowering your voice with her voice, or god forbid, turn off your selection mid-way, then you could say:

"너 노래 정말 골때리게 부른다." (I feel as if I've been hit in the head by your singing.)

 This time, her manners were not what you were expecting, and you are offended by it. You would say it with a straight face, and with no trace of smile. She would still be offended, but hopefully upon reflection, she will understand that she's behaved badly with you.

While it's a subtle phrase to completely understand, it is also pretty versatile. Even the same sentences can have a completely different effect on people depending on how you say it (notice that even though I gave you four examples, same sentences were spoken twice.) And this is very common in Korean. Depending on your nuance, the same sentence could be the highest compliment, or the worst insult.

In general, however, I would refrain from using this phrase with elders, although they should know it (it's one of my dad's favourite phrases!) It doesn't feel right to me, and I don't see myself ever using it in front of my dad. I guess if we were both severely offended by the same person in the same situation, maybe I could try to make my dad feel better by bad-mouthing that person to my dad by saying

"저사람 정말 골때리네." (I feel as if I've been hit in the head by that person; That person is ridiculous.)

But so far, this situation hasn't happened yet.

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#68. 핑거프린세스 -- Can't you do it yourself?

I will admit that most of my time on the Korean internet is actually spent on mostly male-dominated sites. I'm not really sure why; I just find the blunt humour that is characteristic of the male-dominated websites a lot funnier than the female-dominated ones. As a result, a large number of slang that I have covered in this blog are used more frequently by men than women (Also, many women's websites are login only, where you are only accepted as a user if you can prove that you're female, so accessibility is sometimes an issue.)

That doesn't mean that I don't spend any time on the female-dominated websites. And these websites often have their own slang.

"핑거프린세스" is one of such slang, used almost exclusively by women. This word is broken up into two parts like many Korean slang, as "핑거" and "프린세스." Both words are English; "핑거" is "finger," and "프린세스" is "princess."

A: 나 내일 남자친구랑 롯데월드에 놀러가는데, 날씨가 좋을까? (I'm going to Lotte World with my boyfriend, do you think it will be nice tomorrow?)
B: 좋겠네. 잘 놀고 와! (You must be excitd, have fun!)
A: 날씨가 좋아야 잘 놀텐데. 너 내일 날씨 어떤지 알아? (I can't have fun if it's not nice out. Do you know the weather tomorrow?)
B: (핸드폰에 검색후) 내일 날씨 좋다네.  (Searching on phone Apparently it will be nice tomorrow.)
A: 다행이다. 근데 롯데월드에 지하철타고갈건데 혹시 몇호선을 타야 가는지 알아? (That's good. By the way, I'm going there by subway. Do you know what line goes there?)
B: 잘 모르겠는데. (I'm not sure.)
A: 나 지하철 자주 안타서 걱정되는데, 혹시 좀 알아봐줄수있어? (I'm really nervous because I don't take subways often. Do you think you could find out the directions for me?)
B: 야, 핑거프린세스짓 그만하고 니가 직접 검색해봐. (Hey, stop being a finger princess and look it up yourself.)

Knowing the meaning of each part, and a context in which this word might be used, can you guess what it means?

I sometimes link my 핑프 friends to this website.

"핑거프린세스," "핑프" for short, means that the person in question is such a princess in the fingers that they refuse to search the internet for themselves. These are the people who ask very straightforward questions (usually online) whose answers can be found out by a very quick Google search.

Here are some more examples of how to use this word in context:

The girl from the above example might see her boyfriend the next day on her way to Lotte World, and tell him:

"나 어제 핑프라고 욕먹었어." (Yesterday, I was insulted to be a 핑프).

Or, on an internet forum, someone might see this word for the first time, and make a post to ask about its meaning:

Netizen A: "핑프가 뭐에요?" (What dose 핑프 mean?)
Netizen B: "너요." (That would be you.)

Here, "너요" is a very sarcastic reply, because the first half of this short sentence "너" is an informal denotation of "you," while the second half "요" is formal honorifics. By writing out a sentence in informal speech except the very end, you can give off a very sarcastic vibe, like in the above example. Many websites require its users to use honorifics at all times, so Netizen B is trying to get away with as much non-honorifics as possible, managing to be sarcastic and disrespectful at the same time!

"핑프" is definitely an internet slang known to only the young people of Korea. It came into use not too long ago, I would estimate it to be maybe 3-5 years old. It is fairly popular among the young women, although it is, of course, designed to insult. It seems that some men try to use this as well by calling their male friends "핑거프린스 (finger prince)" but it hasn't caught on so much.

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#67. 현타 -- Just what was I doing?

Sexual references are rife in the Korean internet scene. Some of them are hilariously clever, while some of them are downright foul and makes the listeners cringe. If you think that English profanity is bad... Well, make sure that you stay on the squeaky clean side of the Korean internet!

But there are also some expressions that are almost cute, like the expression "현자타임."

The meaning of this expression, originally used by only men (I'll explain why in a second), can be easily guessed by any Korean. It breaks up easily into two parts, "현자" and "타임."

"현자" means "wise man." The letter "현" is Chinese for "wisdom," as in "현명" meaning "wise." The letter "자" is Chinese for "man." For example, "기자" means "reporter." Although this word is very rarely used in everyday life, you would often see this word appear in fantasy novels, for example, to describe the man who lives alone in the wilderness, leading an austere life, in search for truth. The protagonist probably needs to pay a visit to this man at some point in order to realize something very deep.


"타임," of course, is the Koreanization of the English word "time."

So, putting the two words together, the slang word "현자타임" means "the time of the wise man." You can also tell that it probably has a humorous nuance, because it combines an English word and a Korean word (since there are almost no standard Korean word that should mix with English, when these kinds of combinations appear in Korean slang, the Koreans are almost always trying to be funny. They're kind of trying to play the part of the dumb arrogant jerk, who opts to use simple English words -- for example, "time" -- in lieu of a Korean word -- "시간.")

Now, this word was originally used by the Korean men to describe the feeling of calmness and the lack of sexual libido right after ejaculation. Of course, the wise men would abstain from worldly sins such as sex (they probably don't ever feel the need to have sex, right?), and every man gets to feel just as holy and austere as the wise men right after having ejaculated.

I'd say that Yoda qualifies as a wise man. Learned, insightful, wise, and probably doesn't care about trivial things like sex.

So, the Korean internet users, in their usual vulgar manner, would often type out:

"현자타임 왔다." (The hour of the wise men has come.)

Which was initially taken to mean that they had just masturbated (after perhaps seeing a particularly lewd post somewhere on the internet).

Sometimes, 짤방 like this will substitute the word "현자타임."

But here's the thing. If you think about what's going on here, this expression really should apply to a wider variety of situation than just sex or masturbation. In both cases, you're basically having a moment of insanity/euphoria/clouded judgement, and after that moment passes, you regain your sanity and your perspective on the things around you. It doesn't have to be sex; it could be the moment of wild partying, maybe you went crazy with your makeup experiment, or you were really hungry and you devoured everything in your sight.

Then at some point, you realize that you were slightly crazy, and the feeling of slight shame creeps in.

And the expression "현자타임 왔다" was just too good not to use.

In a delicate balance between not wanting to use such a sexual expression, and the desire to use such an appropriate expression, the Koreans seem to have decided to use its abbreviation, "현타." Most Koreans, in non-sexual context that describes a moment of insanity and the ensuing feeling of guilt, would say:

"현타 왔다."

Of course, this word is still also used to describe the post-coital calmness/sadness/whatever, although it seems that the full neologism "현자타임" is often used in sexual context, and "현타" is often used in a more general context (partly because you could also claim that "현타" means "현실자각 타임," or "coming to terms with reality time"). In any case, I don't think there will be much confusion with regards to what the speaker is talking about.

As for when this word is appropriate, I would say that with people close to your own age, "현타" is always a safe bet. If you're male and you want to use the word in a sexual context with your male friends, "현자타임" should also be fine. In other contexts, maybe I'd be a little wary of using it depending on my familiarity with the listeners just to avoid awkward moments (although it's not really that offensive). In any case, this is real slang that started (and mostly stayed) among the younger generation who spend a significant portion of their days on the internet.

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#65. 까방권 -- No one gets to badmouth you. Ever.

In the world of K-entertainment, there are a few things that can drag even the most-loved superstar of the highest popularity down into the mud in the blink of an eye.

The two biggest reasons that can end your career are 왕따 scandal and 병역 scandal ("병역" means "military duty" -- "병" is chinese for "army," as in "병사 (soldier)" or "병력 (strength of the army)," and "역" means "duty," as in "역할 (given responsibility).")

Being the instigator to ostracize someone is of course terrible, as so many Koreans have been on the receiving end of bullying and ostracizing. Once you are involved in such a scandal (most notably, T-ara, whose story I will write about in the next week or so), you gain a lot of haters (anti-fans, Koreans call them) and your K-entertainment career is more or less over.

Avoiding active military duty is along the same lines of thought. Given the situation with North Korea, all Korean men must serve full-time in the military for about one year and nine months, putting their lives on hold. You must enlist between the ages of 18 and 30, although for most Koreans, you are not given a choice of when to enlist. You go when you are served a notice. Therefore, if someone manages to avoid this duty using sketchy means, this brings on the rage of all Korean men, their mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, and relatives (aka all Koreans).

This is an example of the South Korean military barracks. Although not all barracks are like this (and even those are only a minor improvement, however), you may end up in one that looks like this. No wonder people try to avoid active military duty if they can!

The thing is, it is really hard for the celebrities who are at the height of their popularity to drop everything, put their lives on hold, and disappear from the public eye for almost two years. They are probably afraid that they will be forgotten, and that they will never return to the same level of popularity when they are discharged. So many celebrities are still caught trying to avoid the military duty (including PSY, who tried to get discharged early; he ended up enlisting twice.)

Not only this, the military is known for its terrible living conditions, and for its tradition of bullying and hazing -- Korean society is already hierarchical; add the military structure which is even more hierarchical, and the rest is left to your imagination!

Nonetheless, few good posts exist; you could be a public servant (공익근무요원) and commute from home; you could also join the publicity team of the Korean military, which is significantly less demanding physically, and in terms of hierarchy. Because of their social statuses, many celebrities end up going to one of these posts, and this is constantly the target of ridicule and hatred of the Korean public.

This is 오종혁 (Jong-hyuk Oh), who was a member of the K-pop group Click-B in the 90s. He is now better known as T-ara Soyeon's ex-boyfriend. He volunteered to serve in the special search team of the Korean marines, which has a reputation for being difficult. Later on, he was accidentally caught on TV smoking, but the Koreans did not want to hate on him like they normally would because of his military records.

On the other hand, there's a twist. If a celebrity at the height of his popularity successfully completes his term of military duty, serving as an active soldier (as opposed to a public servant or a publicity team member), they can win the admiration of the Korean public. Of course, this is a difficult route to go to. They would be mingling with random members of the public, and they would be watched all the time by the other members of their squadron. Should they slack off, or be less than exemplary, you can be sure that the story will make it to the internet. Essentially, they are signing themselves up for nearly two years of hard labour in which you are not allowed to slack off, ever.

When a celebrity does this feat, they achieve what the Korean internet users call "까방권," which is short for "까임방지권."

"까임,"which is noun form for the verb "까다," means "badmouthing." This is a widely used slang, although not appropriate for polite company.

"방지" means "prevention," and it is standard Korean.

"권" is Chinese for "right," as in "권리 (right)" or "여권 (passport, literally your right to travel)."

This is 유승호 (Seung-Ho Yoo), who is a popular Korean actor. He chose to enlist in his early 20s, and served as a military instructor, which is said to be one of the more difficult positions. He is seen crying on this photo, taken on his discharge day. Although his filmography since his discharge hasn't been particularly impressive, the Koreans still cheer for him.

In short, when a celebrity completes an exemplar military service, he gains "the right to be never badmouthed again." When a celebrity is honorably discharged from active military duties, the Koreans will say:

"까방권 얻었네. 축하한다!" (You gained a 까방권; congratulations!)

Suppose that a celebrity with a 까방권 commits a minor fault, say he spoke to someone older using the informal speech instead of using honorifics. Usually, this would get the Koreans pretty upset, but for this celebrity, the Koreans might say:

"군대에서 열심히 생활한 사람이 일부러 반말을 하진 않았을거야. 까방권 있으니 봐주자. " (He was a model soldier during military service, and he probably didn't do it on purpose. Since he has a 까방권, we should let it slide.)

This is a pretty astounding right, because the Korean internet users are known for being vicious! And unless you commit another high-profile error (such as 왕따, DUI, or drugs), your 까방권 lasts for life.

Why don't more celebrities do it? I think it speaks more to the difficulty of being in the Korean military. When you get a chance, you should ask the Koreans about their military experience. You will be astounded at some of the answers you get!

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#62. 종특 -- I expected nothing less from you people

You might have noticed that the Koreans can be slightly insensitive about racism and the ensuing stereotypes. I like to attribute this to the fact that Korea is originally formed exclusively of Asians, and it has not been long since the "foreigners" have started moving to Korea to live.

I, for one, had not seen any non-Koreans until I was about seven or eight, and when I first saw a non-Korean, I was genuinely shocked and amazed that this person was so different from everyone else I knew. I knew it was rude to stare, but I definitely stole way too many glances at this foreigner.

This maybe seems pretty close-minded and negative, but I think that there is also a good side to this. I grew up with almost no preconceived stereotypes about ethnicity, because this was not a topic that ever came up in conversations. After all, we were all descended from the same person according to mythology, and no one knew a lot about cultural differences! So when I did move to North America to live, I was mostly unaware of the racism or racial tension. And when I did start to learn about stereotypes, I was old enough to immediately tell that they were wrong, and these ideas were much easier to reject.

Nevertheless, now that Korea has become a lot more multicultural (we of course still have a long way to go!), these stereotypes began forming a bit. There isn't a particular widely used word for racial stereotypes in Korean (maybe it could translate as "인종적 편견" but again, the history of stereotypes in Korea is relatively short), so the Korean internet users made up a new one. For example, the following sentences might be seen on the Korean internet:

"한국인의 종특은 스타크래프트이다." (The 종특 of Korea is Starcraft.)

(On seeing a good-looking Arab man) "우와, 아랍인 종특 나오네!" (Wow, he's exuding the Arab 종특!)

(On seeing a charming Italian) "이탈리아 종특 부럽다." (I'm envious of the Italian 종특.)

(On seeing an outgoing American) "천조국 종특 경외스럽다." (I'm awestruck by the American 종특.)

Maybe from these contexts, you can guess what the word "종특" is supposed to mean -- it means a particular characteristic -- often stereotypical in nature -- of an ethnicity. Koreans are good at Starcraft, Arab men are good looking, Italians are good with words, and Americans are extroverted and friendly.

The word "종특" is a shortened form of "종족의 특징." The word "종족" is a bit funny, because it is almost never used in real life. It means "species, tribe, or a particular strain," and it gets used in fantasy novels or games for the most part. For example, the Hobbits are a 종족, as are the elves, goblins, and dwarves. The word "특징" just means "characteristic," although in the Korean usage, it might be better to translate it as "defining characteristic."

So "종특" really means "characteristic of a species." In a way, it is slightly derogatory because the humans are, of course, a single species. Insects and animals have multiple species, so it almost brings everyone (including that of the speaker) down to the level of non-humans, and talks about the defining characteristic. So I suppose its nuance borders vulgarity and humour.

Of course, you can easily imagine that this word can be used negatively as well. Interestingly enough, most negative usages of the word I've seen come from Koreans being critical of themselves. For example, Koreans might say:

성격이 급해서 새치기를 하는건 한국인 종특인듯 (One characteristic of the Korean species is that they are impatient and they often cut the line)

김치 먹어봤냐고 물어보는건 한국인 종특이냐? (Is it characteristic of the Korean species to ask everyone whether they have tried kimchi?)

But for some reason, I rarely see this word being used to be critical of other ethnicity that are not Korean. While I think stereotyping is not healthy (and the Koreans also seem to be aware of it, as they would probably never use it in real life unless they were with very close friends), maybe this makes it slightly better?

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#61. 짤방 -- Pictures included

In case you haven't noticed, I have a new page on my website, which is an alphabetized list of the Korean slang that I have covered so far, and you can find the link on the sidebar for desktop, and if you scroll down on mobile. Alternatively, just click here for the Korean Slang Dictionary. I plan to add to it as I add more posts here!

If you have spent any time on the Korean internet, you have surely seen the word "짤" or "짤방." It's not too hard to figure out what this is supposed to mean, as the posts are often titled in a straightforward way; for example, a post might be simply titled "웃긴 짤" (or "funny 짤" in English). When you open the said post, it often contains a single photo and nothing else.

Whatever "짤" is supposed to mean, we end up guessing that "짤" means either a photo or a gif after browsing through the internet for a few moments.

Although I knew the meaning of this word for a long time, I only recently found out where this word comes from -- the letter "짤" really has nothing to do with the Korean words meaning pictures. The natural choices would have been "사진" or "gif," after all!

It turns out that the word "짤방" comes from "짤림방지." And "짤" is a further simplification of "짤방." The word "짤림" is already slang for "잘림," which means "being cut."

If you're fired from work, or if you didn't pass the audition, you can say

나 짤렸어 (I got cut).

By the way, the phrase "나 잘렸어" is almost too formal, and most Koreans would actually use the slang "나 짤렸어."

Here's another context where you can use the word "짤리다." In a moderated website, contents not meeting the requirements of the websites can get censored by the moderators. It could be violent/explicit content, but it could also be an arbitrarily imposed rule. In fact, many Korean websites stipulate that you must include a picture with your posts, in order to increase readability and reduce haphazard posts (In fact, DC Inside automatically inserts a photo!)

So Koreans started inserting random pictures into their posts to prevent ("방지" in Korean) being cut ("짤림" in Korean). And when you post pictures unrelated to the content of your post, you would often just explain that the photo is there to prevent censorship, by typing out:

사진은 짤림방지 (photo is preventing censorship)

And from this phrase, the usage degenerated into "사진 = 짤림방지 (photo = preventing censorship)" and people started calling "사진" as "짤림방지," soon shortened as "짤방" or "짤."

This usage is incredibly common online, although only among the younger people. On the bright side, it is a non-offensive usage!!

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#59. A rose can bloom even in a garbage dump

It's been over two months since this blog started; over two months of learning internet slang for you!

If any of you have tried venturing into the Korean internet forums, you have probably still found it difficult to understand many posts. This is because the Koreans use a lot of profanity, I have not covered all the slang that are used frequently yet, and new slang is born all the time. Besides, you want to ease into the Korean internet, and not start off in the lawless lands like DC Inside's baseball gallery or ilbe, where things get really ugly.

Instead, consider spending a little bit of time in the Plants Gallery of DC Inside (식물갤러리, or 식갤 for short in Korean)

In order to tell you about what is special about this Gallery, I have to first tell you a little bit about DC Inside (디씨인사이드 or 디씨 for short). I have always explained DC Inside as being Korea's Reddit. This explanation is partly true; DC Inside is split into many sub-forums called "Galleries"  (갤러리 or 갤 for short), much like the subreddits. For most interesting topics (or many celebrities, even), there exists a gallery, or "gall," dedicated to it.

But there is one major difference; each "gall" acts as if they are an independent nation (remember, Koreans really care about belonging to a community!) Many galls are either in alliance or at war with another. And sometimes, users of a particular gall "go to war" with another gall (here, you don't use the word "전쟁하다" which means the actual war; the word you want to use is "털다," which is closer to "to plunder.") You accomplish this by invading your target gall with hundreds or thousands of other users, and putting up 도배글 all over their gall. Then the original users of your target gall are annoyed, they fight with you, and when the users from your gall have largely taken over their gall, you have won. This is the largest scale of 어그로 you will see on the Korean internet, and it happens more frequently than you would think.

If the celebrity 민호 insults another celebrity 준영? Well, the users of 준영갤러리 are probably gearing up for a plundering of 민호갤러리 (they probably tell each other, "민호갤러리 털러가자" or "let's go plunder 민호갤러리.") Even if there are no outside catalysts, people do it just for fun. Sometimes one person can singlehandedly take over a gall if they're good at pulling an 어그로.

Even without all these plundering, the users of DC Inside are known for being rough. They are often rough with their choice of words, and they often egg each other on to do stupid things (daring each other to eat insects, and posting picture proofs, and so on.)

For these reasons, Koreans often describe DC Inside as a garbage dump. They are more or less correct with this description.

With the exception of 식물갤러리. The users there do not use profanity. Even when someone is trying to rile them up, they are so courteous that the 관종 regains his senses, and becomes ashamed of his behaviour. The users of 식물갤러리 (often called "식갤러" meaning plants gallery-ers) just really love trees and plants, and that's all. One Korean has eloquently described it as "the national park amongst the dumpsters (쓰레기장속의 국립공원)." There are many instances where 식갤 proved its worth, but I would like to show you just a couple of very short ones. Consider it another round of 성지순례!

성지 #1. A user, upon hearing that 식물갤러리 is very clean, takes it upon himself as a challenge, and tries to troll the gall-ers, by writing a 낚시글.

He writes, "Hey Plants Gall-ers (식갤러), I just plucked a flower and threw it out" as his title. In the body of his post, he simply writes "부들부들?" which describes "shaking in anger" (since he put a question mark, he really means, "Are you shaking in anger yet?") He expects that everyone will be upset, and that they will start swearing at him to get him off their gall.

 

Contrary to his expectation, he gets the following comment in his post. One of the 식갤러 has written:

"Normal people only look at the flower when they look at plants, and don't look at the leaves or the stem. For this reason, even though the others might judge you harshly by this one post, I will imagine that your inside (내면) is beautiful (just like how stems and leaves might still be beautiful with an ugly flower). I hope that at a later time, your flower can also be beautiful, so that you can be loved by the others."

He probably apologized at this point and just left the gall, because how do you troll something like that?

성지 #2. Korea's weightlifter 장미란 has won a gold medal in the Olympics. As a celebration, the Korean internet users decide to plunder 식물갤러리, because her name contains the word "장미" which is a plant (yes, totally a valid reason to plunder a gall). Many people spontaneously gather in 식갤 and start posting random things on their gall.

Instead of cursing them out or being annoyed, the original 식갤러 are excited that their gall is so active! So they decide to share the things that they love the most. One gall-er posts some pictures of beautiful roses (장미) for the plunderers, because he wants to celebrate 장미란's win.

 And the internet users, who had originally thought of plundering the gall, instead leave heartwarming comments and disappear. It's really hard to troll in the absence or reaction! Most of the sentences below are standard Korean, so you should be able to translate them, but I will give you the words that are slang below, so that the translation is easier.

횽 is slang for 형, meaning "older brother." In this case, they are calling each other by a respectful form (it doesn't usually happen on the internet, but you're on 식갤).

대인배 means a generous person.

상투스 is not a slang, it is the Latin word "sanctus," meaning "holy." They are talking about holy hymns often sung in large-scale masses.

정화 is also not a slang, but it gets used a few times -- it just means "to purify."



So, this is not a bad place to start your exploration of the Korean internet forums. Firstly, they are not vulgar, so understanding them is a lot easier than understanding other internet users. Secondly, they are so courteous, and if you had decided to try out using your Korean, I would imagine that they would very respectfully help you with it. Finally, maybe you'll learn a thing or two about plants!

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