#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!)