#33. 왕따 -- Bullied and ostricized

Here's a heavy topic. Korean schools are a pretty dangerous place. Let me start by saying that there is no such word that describes a place like Korean schools in English. The word bullying just doesn't cut it. The only other language that I know of that has a word with a similar nuance is Japanese. They call it ijime (苛め/虐め). A quick look around Wikipedia seems to suggest that some European cultures such as the French, Italians, and the Germans...

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#32. 기승전 -- Always returning to the same topic

Here's a slightly nonstandard way to tell a compelling short story. Start by introducing an attention-grabbing scene. For example, a hare makes fun of a tortoise for being slow. Immediately, we are annoyed with the hare, sympathize with the tortoise, and we are emotionally invested. We are setting the stage for the story to rise up to its full potential. In Korean, the Chinese letter "기" means "to rise." For example, "기립" means to "stand up," and "기상" means "to wake up." You must then continue and develop the scene further, so that there is a...

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#31. Five slang words NOT to use if you want to appear cool

I decided to look around the internet for the English writings on the Korean slang today. And honestly, some of the posts that I found made me cringe. Not because they're incorrect, but because the slang that they introduced were so horribly outdated that even my parents wouldn't use them. Korea is a very small country. There are very few major channels on TV, there are very few major TV series, and because the culture is reasonably homogeneous, everything spreads quickly. If a celebrity makes an appearance on TV and says something catchy, it...

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#30. Creatively complaining about your dinner (where's the meat?)

A friend of mine posted a picture of his dinner on Facebook, that looked a lot like the following picture: This is one of those things that everyone will either love or hate. The banchan (반찬, the side dishes aside from the rice and the soup) are all made up of spring herbs. They might look delicious and very seasonal to some people. But to most Koreans, where vegetarianism is not as common as in North America, it will look like there is not enough...

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Listening exercise with transcript #5: A quick lesson in makeup

Here is a short video of a girl named Sulli, who goes through her makeup routine. She speaks in very short sentences, but to me, her speaking seems a lot more natural than what you normally see captured on video. Enjoy! 안녕하세요! 설리입니다. 지금 칸쿤에 와있습니다. 먼저 미스트. 뭘바를까? 이색깔. 짠! 무슨색깔이 어울릴까? 세번째! 복숭아 메이크업이에요. 어떻게 하냐면... 이렇게 하면 뽀뽀치크! 짠!  During this short segment, she uses two neologism. First, "복숭아 메이크업" means a makeup that reminds you of a peach. A peach is often white and pinkish red, and it seems popular in Korea to follow this colour scheme...

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#29. 관종 -- Craving attention

In English, we call them "attention whores." In real life, these people are willing to do anything to make sure that they are always in the centre of attention: they fake illnesses, and they scream, cry, and storm out in rage when they're not getting the attention they want. Online, they provoke by making outlandish statements, harass other users, and spread falsehoods. In Korean, the word "attention" can be translated as "관심." The phrase "giving...

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#28. 호구 -- The giving tree

I have already talked about how the game of Go (바둑) is nationally loved by the Koreans in a previous post. In case you have never tried playing it, the game works as follows. Two players, one playing black stones and the other white stones, take turns placing one stone each on the game board. The object is to surround as much territory on the game board as possible with your stones. When your stones is surrounded completely by your enemy's stones,...

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