#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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#73. 외계어 -- The Korean Pig Latin

Derived languages such as Pig Latin are great for communicating secretly. You're either in on the secret, or you're not. And it's a great way to feel that you belong in a group. For example, many young people speak it to each other, hoping that the adults don't understand.

Korean also has an equivalent of Pig Latin. It's often called "외계어" or "도깨비어".

The suffix "-어" means "language." For example, "영어" is English (language of "영국"), "프랑스어" is French (language of "프랑스"), and so on.

"외계" means "out of this world." Both letters forming this word come from Chinese. "외" means "outside" as in "외국" (abroad -- outside of the country) or "외출" (to go out). "계" means "boundary," as in "세계" (world -- all the boundaries) or "한계" (limit). So, "외계" means "outside the boundary," and it often gets interpreted as being outside of our world. For example, "외계인" means "aliens (the noun meaning beings from outer space)."

So, "외계어" is the language that is not from this world. Similarly, "도깨비어" means the "language of the hobgoblins," which should be equally incomprehensible to the humans.

Here's a clip of some girls speaking this Korean Pig Latin. In the clip, they call it "도깨비어."

And here's how you speak the Korean Pig Latin like these girls on the clip.

1. Pick a consonant. "ㅇ" is not a great choice, but anything else is. Let's pick "ㅂ".
2. Pick a phrase that you'd like to convert into 도깨비어. Let's say that I want to convert "안녕하세요."
3. First, take each letter, and lengthen it into two syllables by prolonging the pronunciation on each word. For example, "안" becomes "아안", "녕" becomes "녀엉", "하" becomes "하아", "세" becomes "세에", and "요" becomes "요오." Literally just drag out each letter, and write down how it sounds!
4. Now, replace the first "ㅇ" in the second syllable by the consonant of your choice. So "아안" becomes "아반," "녀엉" becomes "녀벙," "하아" becomes "하바", "세에" becomes "세베", and "요오" becomes "요보."
5. And that's it! You just put all of these words together. So, "안녕하세요" becomes "아반녀벙하바세베요보."

With practice, just like Pig Latin, it becomes pretty easy to understand the 외계어. For example, here's a conversation you might have with your friend:

A: 너 외계어 할 줄 알아? (Do you know how to speak the Korean Pig Latin?)
B: 으븡, 하발주불아발아바. (from 응, 할줄알아 -- Yes, I know how to speak it.)

Of course, you could have picked another consonant, say "ㅅ," and the phrase "응, 할줄알아" would become "으승, 하살주술아살아사."

As for the clip above, I shall leave you, the readers, to pore over it! Leave a comment if you think you can understand even a fragment of it -- otherwise, you have a teaser for this week's listening exercise, to be published at 10pm EDT on Saturday, as always! :)

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#71. 맘충 -- Your kid is NOT the best

Some parents... should not be parents. I often find myself raging (internally, because I'm a loser) at parents who cannot control their kids not to kick the seat in front of them in planes. Then there are parents who let their kids run around screaming in restaurants, and so on.

Korea is a breeding ground for such parents. This is because Korea is not a society built on just law. Because of the influence of Confucianism (유교 in Korean), the Koreans also expect that there should be some kind of warmth when dealing with one another. Doing things exactly by law makes you seem a bit heartless to the Koreans' eyes.

If you're renovating your home and making a lot of noise? It's not required by law, but it's nice to visit your neighbours with a bit of snack and apologize in advance. Eating lunch with someone your junior? If you can afford it, it's nice to offer to pay for her. If you're a shopkeeper and an adorable and well-mannered child walks in with his mother? Not required, but you would often feel compelled to give out a piece of candy for the child for free.

To the Koreans, these kinds of gestures (usually given out from the one who holds a bit more power to the one who is weaker) make you human, and in many cases, these kinds of gestures are expected.

But here's one case where this becomes a little hazy. Usually, elder people extend these courtesies to the younger people, because they are the ones in position of power. Or if you're being a bother, you extend these courtesies to the person you are bothering. But, what if a child is bothering the others? It's a child, and children are cute, so should everyone else be courteous and do favours for the child, or should the child make some kind of gesture since she is bothering the others?

To most of us, the answer is clear. If the child is being excessively annoying, the parents should apologize on the child's behalf, and make sure that they are preventing everything that they can. However, you can see that certain self-centered people might think that since they are with a child (read: helpless but really cute things) other people should be extending courtesies to make their lives easier.

For example, see the snippet of a text conversation below (translation follows):

 

A: Hello, I would like the baby crib ("나눔" means "sharing," but in this context, it means "giving away for free.")
B: Sorry?
A: My due date is approaching ㅠㅠ If you're not using the baby crib, could you give it to me?
B: Where did you see it? I'm not giving it away, I'm trying to sell it.
A: I saw it on 중고나라 (Korean version of Craigslist). I don't have a lot of money.
B: Oh, I'm trying to sell it because I don't have a lot of money either.
A: ㅗㅗㅗ (note that the Korean vowel "ㅗ" looks like the middle finger. This is the quickest way to say f*ck you.)

Here, the person "A" (in gray) expected the person "B" (in green) to extend the courtesy, because she will have a baby soon. In normal context, this is not unusual to expect in Korea. If your neighbour is having a baby, and you have a bunch of old baby stuff that your child grew out of, you might reasonably offer to give all of these things to your neighbour without getting a penny. But of course, this depends on your decision, and your neighbour should never expect it from you, or even ask you for them (although they might be secretly hoping for it). Unfortunately, as this kind of behaviour happens fairly frequently in the Korean society, some people started taking things for granted, like the woman in the above text.

The problem is that 1) the person A is demanding these things (very rude), and 2) they are strangers. Furthermore, 3) person B was selling the bed and A wanted it for free. Seriously, wtf? I'm pretty sure that Confucius would not approve of this behaviour.

Unfortunately, Korea seems to have a lot of mothers who behave in an unreasonable way (yes, fathers also do it too, but thanks to Confucianism still rooted in the society, there are many more full-time moms than full-time dads, and so a stereotype has stuck that mothers are unreasonable.)

Koreans have an appropriate word for someone like her. They call her a "맘충." Person B might tell her friend:

"오늘 맘충이 나한테 문자해서 침대를 공짜로 달라고 하더라." (Today, a 맘충 texted me asking for the baby crib for free.)

 "맘충" is made up from two words.

"맘" is the English word "mom" written in Korean.

"충" means "insect" in Chinese. For example, "곤충" means "insect", and "해충" means "pest (but just the insects).

So, the Koreans have taken to calling the terrible moms such as A a "맘충," or "the insect of a mother."  Remember that "-충" is a good suffix to attach to the object of scorn, such as "급식충" or schoolchildren. So this is pretty much the worst insult you can hurl off to a mother who is behaving terribly, using her child as an excuse. You'd have to be pretty upset to use it in anyone's face, although if you're talking behind someone's back with your friends, you might use it a bit more liberally. I guess that is the case with most insults.

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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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#64. 먹튀 -- Dine and dash

The Korean internet has been pretty heated the past couple of days.

A news story broke two days ago, which simply stated that a business CEO has been called in by the prosecutors on the charge of blackmailing a celebrity. It was said that the CEO demanded about $160,000 USD from this celebrity, telling her that if she doesn't comply, her nude video will be released to the public. This outraged the Koreans, and the CEO was called by all sorts of names, the milder of which included "인간 쓰레기" (human trash).

Soon enough, the name and the face of the CEO was released, as well as the name of his business (As an aside, the Koreans are very very good at internet sleuthing. They are often able to track down a person much better than the police, even!) The CEO, no longer having anything to lose, requested an interview with the Korean media and told his side of the story.

This is 손태영 (Tae-Young Son), the CEO of Coffeesmith, a coffee franchise in Korea. He is 48 years old.

According to him, he and the celebrity were dating for about a year and a half. During this time, he claims that he spent over a million dollars USD on his girlfriend ($180k USD for moving costs, $90k USD for her credit card payments, $50k USD for her rent payments, $270k USD for shopping costs, $40k USD as cash present, $180k USD for vacation costs, $90k USD for various gifts, and $50k USD for miscellaneous grocery costs). For whatever reason, he believed that they were going to marry, so he was not stingy with his money.

He then said that when he proposed to her (Koreans don't always propose; in his case, he says that he just asked her whether they were getting married or not), she stopped responding to his calls. And so, in a burst of anger, he messaged her telling her that if she did not give him back everything he had given her, he would destroy her career. He then said that after he regained control of himself, he returned the $160k USD his girlfriend had sent.

In time, the name of the celebrity became known too, although how the Korean internauts found out, I will never know (of course, it has not been officially confirmed, but she also hasn't denied it). The identity of the celebrity was particularly ironic, because she appears as a panel member in a gossip show called "용감한 기자들 (brave reporters)" where entertainment reporters share the juiciest gossip of the celebrities that they know of while not releasing the names of the celebrities. She generally appears in the show while shaking her head at these terrible celebrities!

Her name is 김정민 (Jung-Min Kim), aged 29. She is suspected to be involved in the blackmail scandal currently raging through Korea.

So a debate started raging between the Korean internet users. Who was in the wrong?

A part of the Korean internet users think that the CEO was in the wrong. The celebrity was never obligated to marry him, and he should have been grateful that a beautiful 29-year-old even dated a 48-year-old like him. Koreans are fairly sensitive about age, and when a man dates a woman significantly younger than him, they are often called "thieves," or "도둑놈" in Korean ("도둑" means "thief," and "-놈" is a diminutive suffix, which conveys the feeling of disdain).

Another part thinks that the celebrity was wrong and led him on for the money. It's an extreme version of dine-and-dash. In the past two days, her action has been condemned as being a "먹튀," which is a shortened form for "먹고 튀다."

"먹-" comes from the verb "먹다" meaning "to eat."

"-고" goes between two verbs, conjugating the first verb. "A -고 B" means to do A then B.

"튀다" is a verb meaning "to run away." This is slang of the more standard verb "도망가다." The word "튀다" is used to describe the bounce of a spring, or the scattering of popcorn when they are being popped. Both actions are very quick, and this is where the slang derives, that you are quick as a popcorn or a spring when you're running away.

So since this celebrity "ate" a lot of the CEO's money then "ran away," she has committed an act of "먹튀," which has a very negative connotation. According to the CEO, there is a lawsuit underway, in which he has sued the actress for having committed a marriage fraud, and in which the actress claims blackmail.

In the meantime, the celebrity posted an instagram update (although quickly deleted afterwards) that simply said: 

"Thank you. I'm so sorry, and also grateful. I will be strong and I will work harder. I will not disappoint unni (it's unclear who she is referring to) who believed me, and those who encouraged me."

 It seems that many Koreans are of the opinion that she is simply trying to achieve some 정신승리 through this post, unfortunately.

Here are some more examples of when you can use "먹튀" in a sentence, though:

During a video game, one user drops an expensive item on the floor, and another user grabs it and disappears off the screen. In your astonishment, you might exclaim:

저사람 지금 아이템 먹튀했어! (That user just did a 먹튀 on an item!)

You might have invested some money into a questionable venture, and although the result of the venture dictates that you should have gotten some money back, they never contact you, nor can you contact them. You might complain to your friend:

나 투자했던거 먹튀당했어 (Someone pulled a 먹튀 on what I had invested.)

So you use "먹튀하다" when the subject is the one doing the stealing, and "먹튀당하다" when the subject lost something due to fraudulent behaviour.

While the word "먹튀" itself has some vulgar nuances, it is widely known in Korea, and you can use it with anyone!

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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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#58. 미만잡 -- You don't reach my standards

There are many ways to entertain yourself in the Korean internet scene. You could, for example, engage in the hobby of 어그로 끌기 (usually by saying something controversial and enraging many people at once, which is not unlike trolling), you could produce a lot of funny 드립s to bask in the glory of your witticisms, or you could play a little game of 낚시 to spread false information and see who falls for it.

Here's one other way to be annoying on the Korean internet without bringing on a full-scale keyboard war. Suppose that you found someone who was bragging about her achievements. She is talking about how she is a student of 연세대학교 (Yonsei University, often regarded as one of the top schools in Korea), how her relatives gave her a new iPhone for her birthday, how people say that she looks like a well-known k-pop girl group member, and she is going on and on.

While you don't feel that you have the energy to get into a fight with her, you want to annoy her a tiny bit. So as she is writing things about herself, you start adding these little comments to her writing. When she writes that she goes to Yonsei University, you comment:

대학은 서울대 미만잡.

The word "미만잡" comes from two Korean words. The first part, "미만" means "less than." For example, the inequality "2 < 5" is translated to "5는 2 미만이다." It also gets used in sentences such as "You will not be offered admission if your score is less than 70," which is translated to Korean as "70점 미만의 점수로는 입학허가가 나지 않습니다." The second word, "잡," has been written about before. It comes from the word "잡종" which means "mutt." Korea used to have a caste system, and people belonging to the lowest caste were often called "잡것" (mutt thing). So the word "잡" carries a very negative connotation and is insulting when you hear it.

This means that the word "미만잡" signifies something along the lines of "anything less than a given standard is a mutt thing (i.e. useless and irrelevant)." Therefore, by the above quote, you are saying that "no matter what university you go to, unless you go to Seoul University, you are nothing more than a mutt thing."

In this case, it's more humorous than anything, since everyone knows that Yonsei University is actually a great school. But by saying the above phrase, you are just being annoying, and slightly insulting the girl for not having made it into Seoul University (Seoul University is almost certainly more elite than Yonsei University in the Korean system.)

You can continue to annoy her, by saying the following things too. When she brags about her new iPhone gift, you can say:

선물은 현금 미만잡. (Any gift less than cash is irrelevant)

When she talks about her beautiful face, you can tell her:

얼굴은 김태희 미만잡. (Any face less than Kim Tae Hee's face is irrelevant)

This is 김태희, often considered the most beautiful actress by many Koreans.

 While you are obviously setting a very high standard and no one is expected to meet all of them, if you keep saying things along these lines, you are sure to be annoying! By the way, there is a verb for behaving in this kind of subtle annoying way: you can say that you are "깐족거리다." (For example, the girl that you are annoying might tell you, "깐족거리니까 진짜 짜증나네." -- you are annoying because you are "깐족거리다.")

Of course, there is another context in which you can use the word "미만잡." Suppose that you are a fan of a k-pop group (for convenience, let's just say that we're all fans of IOI.) In order to advocate how great your group is, you could tell everyone:

IOI 미만잡 (Anything less than IOI is irrelevant).

 The difference between the two meanings are always clear depending on the context.

IOI was a girl group produced via a survival program. They were very popular although they disbanded after a year.

 This is of course a slang popular among the younger generation of Korea. As you traverse up in age group, the word "잡" is more and more offensive (because the older generation probably remembers the days of the caste system more clearly). With your friends, you should be able to use this word without offending people (although it depends on what you do with the word!) while I would stay away from using this word with the people of the older generation.

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#54. 성지순례 -- Making an internet pilgrimage

Back when religion occupied a larger part of our lives, many people dreamed of journeys of the spiritual sort, where they travel to the religiously significant places, be it Mecca, Vatican, or Temple Mount. They travel not only to quench their curiosity about the important place where their religion flourished, but they probably thought that their gods were more present in these holy places. I can easily imagine them having a small personal prayer in the hopes that their gods will be more attentive in their mecca.

Mecca

If you think about it, though, it is increasingly becoming the case that the most important aspect of our lives is no longer religion, but rather items of convenience, such as the internet. So, doesn't it make sense that we should try to take our own pilgrimages, and find what is the most sacred and holy in the realm of the internet?

Well, I can tell you that the Koreans have already started. While the word "성지순례" means pilgrimage ("성지" means "holy site" -- "성" is "holy" as in "성서 (bible)," "성인 (saint)", and "지" means "place" as in "지구 (earth)"), it is now also used as a slang term for particularly notable posts on the Korean internet. And you can take your cyber-journey to these sacred places and even make a wish!

What do I mean by notable posts? There are a few different possibilities.

First, this blog is dedicated to the Korean internet slang. They get created somewhere, and in the case where the origin is clear, the posts that created the particular slang can be the 성지 of the internet.

Secondly, and more commonly, there are posts on the internet that predict the future. Often, these posts predict the upcoming celebrity scandals (there will soon be an article on how so-and-so is dating so-and-so). While people rarely believe these things when it first gets posted, sometimes they really do prove to be true!

Thirdly, some keyboard battles are so epic that they get preserved as a 성지. Of course, these are pretty vulgar and it's maybe not the kind of 성지 that you want to visit!

It is quite fun to try to find and visit some of these places. You see the marks of the other pilgrims in the form of 댓글 (comments), like this holy site here.

In the 수능 subreddit of DC Inside (remember that 수능 is the most important test of the life of any Korean!), one user posted the following a few days before the actual test. She asks in the title, "In the written section of the math part of 수능, how many times does 0 appear as an answer?" She then writes in the body that she will "guess 0 for all of them."

Just as a background, while most questions are multiple-choice, there are some questions where the test-takers are required to write in the answer (but not how you arrived at the answer).

Amazingly, in this particular year's 수능, all of the answers in the math section were actually 0. Goosebumps, anyone?

 

 And so this post became a holy site. Even to this day, many internet users flock to this particular post to share their wishes. Here are some of the wishes that the Korean internet users left in the comments:

 Many of them wish for a high score in the 수능 exam (1등급 is the highest), because really, if the god of 수능 existed, that god must live here. But you occasionally also see other wishes such as "please let my crush like me back."

Here is the actual link to the 성지. Make a wish yourself, if you believe in the god of the internet!

While the word "성지 (holy site)" or "성지순례 (pilgrimage)" are clearly Korean internet slang in this context, it has caught on, and media has been seen reporting using this word in the context of slang. If an opportunity arises in real life, you can try using it without offending anyone!

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#49. 정신승리 -- Well, I was right anyway

I really really like getting into arguments. I like respectful debates where I try to change the other person's perspective, and the other person is doing the same to me. I usually come out having learned something, and my opinion also changes more often than you'd expect.

That being said, I cannot stand getting into an argument without any logic. Unfortunately, online debates, on average, have worse quality than in-person debates. The other day, I got into a heated argument online with a conspiracy theorist (call him JU for Jong-Un, because, who else could he be?) about whether North Korea is a utopia or not (Yes, I know, I spend way too much time on the internet -- I swear I'm trying to cut down!)

I provided proof upon proof that there are serious issues with human rights in North Korea, citing statistics and interviews from the North Korean refugees, and photos taken in North Korea. JU basically didn't listen to anything that I said. Every time I try to show him a concrete fact, he would flatly tell me that there was no proof that they weren't fabricated. What was I to judge North Korea, without any proof that these "facts" were real?

Okay, I guess he might have a point. But more likely than not, he is just so caught up in his own world that no amount of proof can penetrate his mental defense. In other words, JU is invincible, thanks to his mentality.

I won't lie, the whole time, I was telling myself:

와, 저사람 정신승리 정말 대단하다. (His mind victory is incredible.)

The word "정신승리" literally means "mind (정신) victory (승리)." Because in his own world (inside his mind, or 정신), JU is truly invincible and thus will be the victor every time (승리). It's an extreme form of rationalization.

We see a milder kinds of people who achieve 정신승리 every day by making lame excuses. When someone loses in a video game, she might say:

랙걸려서 진거야. 원래는 내가 너보다 잘해 (I only lost because my internet connection was lagging. If it weren't for that, I'm better than you.)

By the way, notice that when the internet connection is lagging, the Koreans use the verb "걸리다" to say "랙 걸리다/랙이 걸리다." Anyway, you know that you're definitely better than her, so you're thinking to herself (or telling herself outright):

정신승리 하고있네 (You're just giving yourself a mind victory.)

In addition to this, millions of scenarios where someone can achieve 정신승리. They might just curse you out; they might refuse to listen to the content of your argument, instead focusing on grammatical and small discrepancies of your arguments, basically stagnating the debate; or loudly declare you to be the 어그로꾼 and 낚시꾼 (the suffix -꾼 denotes the person who is carrying out the act of 어그로 or 낚시); or they might even walk away from the argument entirely, accusing you to be incapable of carrying on a debate, when in reality, they are the ones who can't distinguish facts from blind beliefs.

For some reason, the Korean internet seems to have a surprising number of 정신승리 happening every day. When you spot them, be sure to call them out! The other users will appreciate the 사이다.

To finish, of course the word is sarcastic. You should only use it when you're picking fights (of course you shouldn't fight! But in the land of the Korean internet, sometimes it is just inevitable, and at the end of the day, it is all in good fun...)

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#48. 어그로 -- You're provoking it!

It's been a while since I did a post on a Korean slang word that originates from video games, so here is a fun one.

Koreans play a lot of MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). Some of the really popular ones, among many others, include Lineage (리니지 in Korean) and World of Warcraft (WoW, or 와우 by pronouncing the abbreviation in Korean).

One feature of these MMORPGs is that each character comes with a bunch of stats. One of these stats is called "aggravation," which measures how belligerent your character is. The higher your aggravation stats are, the likely you are to draw the attention of the non-player characters (such as monsters prowling nearby) and be attacked. So gamers often talk about the "aggro stats." In Korean, "aggro" is pronounced "어그로," not exactly sure why, but this is what stuck.

But Korea, being the unofficial gaming capital of the world, is probably the only country that brought this gaming word into mainstream usage. Even outside of these gaming settings, if a particular user seems to be acting belligerently, or acting in a fashion that would attract fights, the Koreans would say:

저 분 어그로 끄시는듯 (This person seems to be asking to be attacked).

For some reason, the act of provoking others as a verb is "어그로를 끌다." Although it is not entirely clear to me why the correct verb would be "끌다," but my guess is that this comes from another slang of a similar meaning. In an earlier post, I had talked about how certain Korean internet users troll for reaction. In Korean, such an act could be described as "낚시를 하다" or "go fishing."

Nuance-wise, "어그로를 끌다" is more of a large-scale trolling, whereas "낚시를 하다" is more in the scale of a small practical joke. Well, large-scale fishing would be done by casting a net into the sea. In order to get more fish, you would drag the net. "To drag" in Korean is "끌다." So, that's my guess.

The above picture is pretty well-known in the Korean internet circles as an example of "어그로를 끌다." If you read the caption, it is definitely anger-inducing. It shows a segment of the Korean TV news. The title of the article is "월요일이 무서워요... 월요병 해결방법은?" (I am afraid of Mondays... How to cure the Monday sickness).

The solution offered by the news source? "심할 경우 일요일 출근해 잠간 일하면 도움돼" (If the Monday sickness becomes too much, showing up to work for a little while on Sundays helps). And this infuriated a lot of Koreans, especially considering that this is coming from a national news source! Many Koreans watched this news and probably said to themselves:

어그로 한번 제대로 끌었네 (That was a proper display of "aggro").

This word, as it comes from video games, is definitely safe to use with your peers, but likely the elders won't understand it. It's not particularly offensive, although it is definitely vulgar.

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#45. 막장 -- That k-drama sucks as if there is no tomorrow

K-dramas, as addictive as they can be, are full of clichés. If you take a step back, the majority of the plots can be described by the same sentences. An orphaned but optimistic girl meets a rich and handsome prince. The man's family, rich and huffy, can't accept this relationship and they try their best to sabotage it. Then the man's family hires assassins to kill the girl too, because actually, the man's family was responsible for the girl's parents' deaths. But then it turns out that one of the assassins hired to kill the girl is the girl's childhood sweetheart. Now they're in a love triangle... "Ugh!" you scream. "I've had enough of this ridiculousness!"

And it turns out that he girl's mother was actually not dead. She emerges out of nowhere to curse out her boyfriend, and slaps him with some kimchi.

Yes, I get it. The Koreans get it, too. But for some reason, you can't stop watching the drama, although you'll complain about it until the drama comes to an end.

Koreans do the same thing, actually. Except that dramas of this sort are so common that they have a word for it. The Koreans would complain:

이 드라마 줄거리 정말 막장이네. (The plot of this drama is really 막장.)

Informally, when I see the word "막장," I understand it as "having gone so far with the ridiculous plot that there is no way to salvage the drama from ever being respected again.

There are two interesting theories of where this word came from, though.

The first is that this word comes from "the end of the market day." The letter "막" is a Korean prefix that means "last." For example, "막차" means "the last car (bus) schedule of the day." And "장" means "market," mostly in the traditional sense of an open outdoor market that happens every few days. At the end of these market days, the vendors, not wanting to be stuck with spoiled goods, start calling out ridiculously low prices for their goods. The prices can sink as low as they want, just like the quality of the plots of some k-dramas. This might be where the word "막장" comes from.

The second is a little bit darker. Between 1950s to 1970s, Korea was a pretty terrible place to live. The country was just starting to recover from the destruction of the Korean war (and also, the Japanese occupation has just ended some 10 years ago), and Korea was very poor, at least as poor as most of the third world countries nowadays.

During this era, coal mining was one of the biggest industries that sustained the country. Korea exported a lot of coal to the US, and most Korean homes were heated by using 연탄 (or 구공탄, because it has nine holes: "구" means "nine" and "공" means "hole"), which burned more slowly than wood, and thus more convenient (This feels like ages ago, but I still have memories of going to my grandparents' house, which was in the outskirts of Seoul, and they burned 연탄 until the mid-90s. Some places, even in Seoul, still use it!)

Pre-usage, it's black. Once it's all burned off, it turns into white ash. You could use tongs to insert into the holes, so that you could transport them easily into the fire.

Thus, the production of coal was very important. However, as we all know, mining is a very dangerous business. For one, your life expectancy as a miner was drastically decreased, not only from the bad air in the mines, but also from the fact that being in the mine itself was very dangerous. It could collapse any minute, and the smallest accidents led to catastrophic results. In particular, the deeper in the mines you worked, the more dangerous risks you ran.

The deepest of the mines were called "막장." If you were working in the "막장" of the mines, you were regarded as someone who had nothing to lose. There was almost no oxygen, and if any part of the mines collapsed, you were sure to be buried in. Although the compensation was greater, you'd have to be in a very deep financial trouble to want to volunteer to work there. To this day, in the mining villages of Korea, the word "막장" is taboo.

Nonetheless, the Koreans feel that this describes the state of some terrible k-dramas. They've degenerated so far and all respect has been lost, that they have nothing to lose by creating another ridiculous plot twist!

As for the usage, this is pretty common. Of course, because of the derogatory nature of the word, you don't want to use it in any situations that could offend anyone. But if you called a k-drama "막장,"it likely won't be much of a problem in an informal company (unless you had a die-hard fan for that drama!) Look for this word in the comments of internet news articles describing the plots of some k-dramas!

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