11
votes
Accepted
한국어로 "Koreaboos"
Koreaboo means people who are great fans of Korean pop culture, almost maniacal. But unlike 'K-pop fan', Koreaboo has a little bit of a disparaging nuance.
In Korean, 팬 just means a fan. When ...
- 1,564
10
votes
Accepted
How do you count Korean age
The traditional way of counting age is like this:
You are 1 years old (한 살) when you're born.
You gain a year on January 1st.
So technically, a baby born in December will become 두 살 - two years ...
- 6,004
10
votes
Easy Korean Poems for Beginners
Okay, while @ting-choe has my gratitude for something that may level me up (my wife says I will "never understand" 김소월의 진달래꽃 - I think some "easier" poems (for my level) are in order here (and my ...
- 3,285
9
votes
Easy Korean Poems for Beginners
진달래꽃 - 김소월
나 보기가 역겨워
가실 때에는
말없이 고이 보내 드리우리다
영변에 약산
진달래꽃
아름 따다 가실 길에 뿌리우리다
가시는 걸음 걸음
놓인 그 꽃을
사뿐히 즈려밟고 가시옵소서
나 보기가 역겨워
가실 때에는
죽어도 아니 눈물 흘리우리다
If someone doesn't know this poem, he or she is not ...
- 957
8
votes
How do you count Korean age
Koreans consider newborns to be one year of age. So, anyone born in 2016 would be one year old. Furthermore, everyone turns a year older every New Year's day.
In the event that a baby is born on ...
- 999
7
votes
Why is the Korean name 이 often Romanised as 'Lee'?
The name is written in Hanja as 李 which is pronounced as Lǐ in Chinese.
Wikipedia has some information on why the spelling Lee is so common
Though the official Revised Romanization spelling of ...
- 2,954
7
votes
Accepted
Addressing someone on the street you have never met and who is of ambiguous age
For strangers being approached in real life, 반말 is never an option. 존댓말 is obligatory, and is mostly 해요체 - informal (as this isn't a business meeting) but polite.
However, whether you need ...
- 2,378
6
votes
Accepted
How do you say "None of your business" in Korean?
Of course, "nunya" and "it's none of your business" are pretty impolite even in an informal setting, but should you wish to offend and defend, this is the way:
남이야 "nunya&...
- 3,285
5
votes
How do you say "None of your business" in Korean?
In addition to WEBjuju's answers, if you want to sound polite, you can say "제가 알아서 할게요" (I'll take care of it myself).
It's not always applicable, and in some situations it may still hurt the other ...
- 7,352
5
votes
Accepted
Does ~ 스럽다 mean "worthy of ~"?
Before starting my answer, I would like to mention I don't have a professional knowledge in Korean, but I would like to share what I think as a native speaker.
For the first question, whether ~스럽다 ...
- 66
5
votes
Accepted
Five-colored strings on a fishing boat?
That's an old song, I think.
To understand the phrase, you should note that the five colors (red, black, blue, yellow and white) represent Five Elements. Affected by religions such as Taoism and ...
- 3,238
4
votes
How do you count Korean age
Others already wrote good answers. I will just add two more equations to help calculating Korean age from international age.
Your Korean age is:
(1) if your birthday has been passed, your ...
- 1,658
4
votes
How are 선배 and 후배 classified in Korean (age, position or both)?
선배 and 후배 are normally used with someone who is attending the same school or a member of the same organization or company.
Then, 선배 is used for someone who has been at that school or organization ...
- 6,004
4
votes
When learning Korean, is it better to learn formal only?
For conversational Korean between adults in informal situations, I would agree with HK Lee that the most useful style to become comfortable with is the haseo / haeyo style. This can be called 해요체 ('...
- 13.5k
3
votes
The way to respond to 안녕하세요?
As a Korean, I can translate it into English like this:
Oh~~~ hello
You can just respond "안녕하세요", but "네~ 안녕하세요" sounds more friendly and is used more often.
In this expression, '네' is basically ...
- 31
3
votes
How do you say "None of your business" in Korean?
Just to add, a very strong but directly translated phrase is
"너 알 바 아니야."
(pronounced as [너 알빠 아니야])
You should only use this phrase to friends, and only when you want to express anger or distress.
...
- 528
3
votes
Accepted
What is the appropriate way to ask for a spot while weightlifting?
Asking for someone to do spotting for you isn't inappropriate(of course), but ask your trainer/coach(if there is one) or someone you have become friendly with, rather than asking some random person.
...
- 528
3
votes
Apart from 새배 (new year's bow), when is it appropriate to do a '절' (deep bow)?
It is depends on family. In 설날 there is moment that elder family start putting money to empty envelope.
Elder family IMO (30 year old above or have a job at least) usually give kids some pocket money.
...
- 595
3
votes
Accepted
Apart from 새배 (new year's bow), when is it appropriate to do a '절' (deep bow)?
'세배'is special type of '절'.
Having '절' at '구정'(Jan first in luna calendar) is called '세배'.
So I'll interpret 'deep bow' as '절' from now on.
Here is description for '세배' in korean dictionary.
아침 ...
- 214
3
votes
What is the natural way to refer to in-laws of an unexpected gender?
There wouldn't be a simple single word that someone of Korean cultural assumptions would understand to mean what you want.
You'd probably have to be explicit and say 고모의 와이프/고모의 아내 for
'Father's ...
- 13.5k
3
votes
What does "가가가가가." (the sentence) mean?
Apparently there are a bunch of these - based on 경상도 dialect.
The first one in that video, 가가가가:
가 - equivalent of conventional '걔', "that person" 가 - subject
particle 가 - equivalent of ...
- 13.5k
3
votes
Accepted
Korean child was not accepted to college, what's next for her?
If a student fails to gain entrance to college, he/she has several choices:
재수 means "study again" literally,
유학 means "go abroad to study", or
취업/취직 means "take a job".
The Korean college ...
- 244
3
votes
Accepted
Peace of parents vs Gaming
There are Korean expressions which mean that the opponents' parents passed away. For example, you can ask a question, "Are your parents well?" It seems that the sentence is very normal, but the ...
- 259
3
votes
How precisely can one define what "trot/ 트로트 / 트롯" music is?
There have quite a few studies in Korean and in English of the rise of the modern South Korean entertainment industry, with particular emphasis on the now global rise of K-pop.
As with most musical ...
- 2,378
3
votes
How practical is it to live in Korea without a "Korean name"?
The widespread use of Roman letters does not mean that Koreans can pronounce non-Korean names properly. In addition, there are various languages that use Roman letters; how can a person distinguish ...
- 3,238
2
votes
Why is the Korean name 이 often Romanised as 'Lee'?
I always considered it an 'English distortion effect' when trying to nail down the sound from Korean to English as close as possible.
Words in English that don't have any consonants look weird (이 -> ...
- 258
2
votes
What is the appropriate way to ask for a spot while weightlifting?
Just as an alternative, a friend suggested to use the word 보조하다 in this context, so something like
벤치프레스 보조 좀 해 주시겠어요?
- 1,145
2
votes
Accepted
Types/classes of meat 고기 종류
Interesting inquiry.
Generally, in Korea, there does not exist a differentiation between meat based solely on its appearance i.e. color an or texture. Rather, each separate sections of meat can be ...
- 321
2
votes
Accepted
Manners: chopsticks and spoon simultaneously
Yes, the "proper" table manner is to use the spoon and chopsticks separately. However, when people eat ramen, they don't usually care about table manners, just like people don't look for forks and ...
- 7,352
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible