#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!

Read more

#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!

Read more

#63. Beware of the vixen (Shamanism 3)

Gather around with your roasted chestnuts and a blanket, lie on the warmest part of the stone-heated floor, and I'll tell you some stories from my childhood that my grandparents have told me. Through the "folklore" series of this blog, you will get to meet the Korean deities and the demons, which form the basis of the modern Korean shamanism as well. I will upload a folklore every Wednesday.

There are several aspects of the ancient shamanism that survived up to the modern day Korea.

One aspect is called "풍수지리." It can be decomposed into three parts: 풍 + 수 + 지리.

• 풍 means "wind" in Chinese. For example, you will see on your fan the option "강풍" meaning "strong wind," as well as "약풍" meaning "weak wind, or breeze."
• 수 means "water" in Chinese. "수요일," or "Wednesday" is the day of the water. "생수" means "mineral water" and "약수" means "water that's good for you like a medicine."
• 지리 means "geography."

In the Korean shamanism, "풍수지리" refers to the belief that the geography (how your house is situated, for example) is linked to your luck and misfortune. Sounds crazy, but some people believe it to this day.

Another aspect is called "관상." This word means that depending on how your face looks (each type of face is called a "상,") your fate is already determined by the heavens. Sounds crazy, but people still believe it. A very light usage of this classifies the Korean women into "강아지상" and "고양이상," i.e. a puppy-type face and a kitten-type face. But there are hundreds of different "상"s in the study of 관상 ("관상학," it's called.) The Korean shamans are said to be able to look at someone's face, and read off their future.

The left is considered a clear puppy-type face, the right a clear kitten-type face. Do you agree?

The Koreans learn about these things through various folklore. I was never taught any of this, as my family was a fairly strict Roman Catholic family. But my grandparents still told me these stories, from which I learned how the shamanism worked.

Here is a story about the shamanism, and a vixen ("여우"). Just like in the western folklore, foxes are usually portrayed as negative beings, presumably because they were always killing livestock. In the Korean folklore, however, foxes are always female. They can transform themselves into humans (often beautiful women, although not always), and they are very good at misleading humans into thinking that they are seeing things. The phrase "여우에 홀리다" is something that many Koreans grow up hearing. The Korean vixen are often malicious, magical, and evil. Unlike the 도깨비, you want to stay away from them. If you do encounter them, you want to try your hardest to kill them, because otherwise they will kill you.

Thus begins another story of my childhood, through which I learned about 풍수지리, 관상, and 여우.

========================================================================

Once upon a time, there lived a father with his three sons. The father was very ill, and he soon passed away. The sons were preparing for his funeral in their sorrow, when a Buddhist monk ("중") passed by. Being faithful in heart, the three brothers invited him in, and fed him, to show their respect for the Buddha.

The monk, in his gratitude, offered to the three sons:

"I learned a little bit of 풍수지리 during my meditations. If you'd like, I can tell you where to bury your father so that your family will prosper through the coming years."

The sons gratefully accepted this offer, and the monk looked around their village with the three sons. The monk stopped at one spot. He hesitated for a while, looked carefully at each of the brothers' faces, then said to himself, "I believe that the youngest can withstand it."

He then told the three sons, "this plot here is very good (in Korean, such a good plot to bury the dead in your family is called "명당" -- if you manage to find such a plot, your family will prosper), if you can keep your father here." The three sons were confused about why they might not be able to keep their father there, but as the monk had claimed this plot to be 명당, they went ahead and buried their father there.

That night, the eldest son had a dream. Their father appeared in his dream and begged, "I can't sleep peacefully here. Please bury me somewhere else." The eldest son, upon waking up, told his two brothers about his dream, but as the two brothers still believed the monk, they decided to keep their father there.

The next night, the second son had a dream, in which the father begged him to please move him elsewhere. Again, the three sons talked, but the youngest son convinced the other two to keep the father at the plot.

The next night, the youngest son had a dream. His father appeared in his dream and begged him, "I already begged your brothers to move me, but they will not listen. Will you please tell your brothers to move me?"

The youngest son, being suspicious, said, "as you are standing in the dark, I cannot properly see you. Will you please come out and let me look upon your face one more time?"

The father then said, "I am already beginning to look terrible. But I will let you hold my hand, like how you used to when I was alive." The youngest son agreed, and the father held out his hand.

The youngest, holding tightly onto the hand, called out his servants, and called out:

"The dead cannot come back to life and walk. This is surely a demon pretending to be my father. Bring your clubs and kill this thing!"

When the servants came with their clubs, it seemed to them that the youngest son was holding onto their long-dead mother. They hesitated to lift their clubs against their old mistress and a woman, but the youngest was adamant, and the servants eventually clubbed the mother to death.

As soon as the woman breathed her last breath, the woman turned into a dead vixen.

In their astonishment, the three brothers sought out the monk and told him of their experience. The monk said, "The 명당 that I had sought out for you had one fault; a vixen was living in it. I knew that the vixen would try various things to get the plot back and also to harm you. But I also knew, upon looking at your faces, that the youngest son would be match enough for the vixen."

Thus they were able to bury their father in a 명당, and true to the monk's word, their family prospered for a long time after that.

========================================================================

Lastly, notice how a Buddhist monk also knew 풍수지리, which is an aspect of shamanism! Through its long history, a lot of the Korean religions mixed with one another to create a unique brand of religion. This is fairly common to this day.

Read more

#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?

Read more

#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!!

Read more

#60. 교과서 튜닝 -- Improving your school experience

One of the most striking thing when I moved from Korea to North America was the fact that you don't own your textbooks (called 교과서 in Korean). In North America (at least, in my experience!) the textbooks in schools are bought in bulk in hardcover, and rented to the student for the semester. If you damage it, you have to pay a penalty or replace it, so you take very good care of your textbook.

On the other hand, in Korea, you are provided all of your textbooks (free of charge, if I remember correctly), which are paperbacks and quite small -- the textbooks are smaller not because Koreans learn less in school, but because they have many more subjects, often around 15 or so. I've also found that the North American schools pick and choose the units being covered from the textbooks, while the Koreans tend to cover everything that is in the textbook. The Korean textbooks are often very dense and to-the-point as well.

A set of grade seven textbooks. From the top, Math, Social Studies, Korean 1&2, Music, English, Career Studies, Physical Education, Health, Informatics, Science, Home Economics and Technology, and Appendix to Social Studies.

Anyway, you own these books, and you are free to take notes, or write on your textbooks as you please. What do the Korean 급식s do when you suddenly get a bunch of free books that you don't really care about?

Well, you set out to create an internet legend. The practice of "교과서 튜닝" or "textbook tuning" has been popular for several decades, and it is still going strong. In Korean, "튜닝" or "tuning" almost exclusively means "doing some modifications to improve the object." It is often used in the context of cars, but in this case, it is applied to textbooks.

Usually, your goal is to modify a page (or the cover) of the textbook to make it funnier. If you do a good job, your post achieves the fifteen minutes of internet fame. Here are some examples of what the Korean students do in their free time.

Left is original, right is modified. She looks more stylish, for sure!

Left is original (wearing the Korean traditional clothing called 한복), and right is modified.

The title reads "torture and massacre (already twenty people)." You have to think a little, but the original title of the textbook was "과학" meaning "Science." Some words were added in to make "고문과 학살."

The original textbook was called "문학 (하)," or "literature (volume 2)." The title has been changed to "항문 학대, 고문(하)자." This means "abusing your anus, let's torture." Can you imagine carrying this around for the entire year?

You can be as creative as you want with these textbooks, and almost everyone does it at some point. Ask your Korean friends about their experiences with 교과서 튜닝, and you'll hear some amusing answers!

Read more

Listening exercise with transcript #10: Aggravation

In a previous post, I had talked about hostile behaviour against many people, in order to provoke them and create a fight (= internet entertainment.) Such a behaviour is called "어그로," or as a verb, "어그로를 끌다." I also gave an example of such a behaviour, done by a national news outlet.

Here is another example of 어그로, also done by a national news outlet MBC (one of the three largest broadcasting companies in Korea.) Although it's been a long time since this clip was broadcast, the content of the clip propelled it to a legendary status, and it is still talked about in the Korean internet. As always, transcript and explanation follows:

20여명의 학생들이 컴퓨터 게임에 몰입해 있는 또 다른 PC방.
곳곳에 관찰 카메라를 설치한 뒤 게임이 한창 진행중인 컴퓨터의 전원을 순간적으로 모두 꺼 봤습니다.
(Dialogue already subtitled).
순간적인 상황 변화를 받아들이지 못하고 곳곳에서 욕설과 격한 반응이 터져나옵니다. 폭력게임의 주인공처럼 난폭하게 변해 버린겁니다.
(Interview already subtitled).

The news outlet wanted to make the point of the harmful effects of video games. In order to prove its point, it heads out to an internet cafe (called PC방 in Korean, meaning PC room) and shuts down the power for a moment. The people playing games in the internet cafe are of course frustrated and start yelling out and swearing. This quite clearly proves the point that gamers turn violent... yes?

I chose a news clip for this week, not only for its entertainment value, but also because this is one of the best sources to practice your Korean if you wanted to hear clear Korean. Try following along, as the reporter speaks quite slowly and clearly!

A few years later, SNL Korea did a parody of this clip (mostly subtitled):

Read more