To my wonderful veteran expat readers - 'Life in Korea' posts are aimed at the newer expats among us. Think of these as the Idiot's Guide to Life in Korea - helpful for some, and a review for others. Please feel free to contribute what you know in the comments!
UPDATED 4 September 2009 9:32am: Some more updates / corrections / improvements from the comments - hat tips to Gomushin Girl, The Sanity Inspector, and asadalthought. While this post was not meant to be encyclopedic, I'm humbly accepting further suggestions :)
UPDATED 3 September 2009 10:29am: Some minor updates and corrections, as noted in the comments - hat tips to Paul Ajosshi and Alex for their help.
Presenting some more Korean words to add to your Korean vocabulary. Check out part 1 here.
The directions
Important: just like in English, one needs to add a number before the unit of measurement. Also remember that in Korean, there are two different kinds of numbers - the 'Korean' numbers (hana, dul, set) and the 'Chinese' or 'sino' numbers (il, i or ee, sam). (HT to Gomunshin Girl for pointing that out).
UPDATED 4 September 2009 9:32am: Some more updates / corrections / improvements from the comments - hat tips to Gomushin Girl, The Sanity Inspector, and asadalthought. While this post was not meant to be encyclopedic, I'm humbly accepting further suggestions :)
UPDATED 3 September 2009 10:29am: Some minor updates and corrections, as noted in the comments - hat tips to Paul Ajosshi and Alex for their help.
Presenting some more Korean words to add to your Korean vocabulary. Check out part 1 here.
The directions
- 왼쪽 - Win-jjok - left
- 오른쪽 - O-reun-jjok - right (HT to asadalthought for catching the typo)
- 직진 - Jik-jin - straight. Just 쭉, or jjuk, also counts. (HT to asadalthought for catching the typo)
- 북 - buk - north
- 동 - dong - east (HT to Alex for catching the typo)
- 서 - seo - west
- 남 - nam - south
Important: just like in English, one needs to add a number before the unit of measurement. Also remember that in Korean, there are two different kinds of numbers - the 'Korean' numbers (hana, dul, set) and the 'Chinese' or 'sino' numbers (il, i or ee, sam). (HT to Gomunshin Girl for pointing that out).
- 년 - nyeon - year (when referring to a date)
- 세 - se - year (when referring to age)
- 월 - wol = month, as in which month it is (1월 = January, 2월 = Feburary, and so on). For counting months, 개월, preceded by a number, is used - for example 3개월 means 3 months (HT to asadalthought for the clarification)
- 일 - il - day
- 시 - shi - hour as in the time (use Korean numbers) or 시간 as in 'how long' or when counting time (HT to asadalthought for pointing that out)
- 분 - bun - minute (use Chinese numbers)
- 초 - cho - second (HT to asadalthought for catching the typo)
The terms of endearment
Some disagreements over terms of endearment in the comment - if your significant other happens to be Korean, feel free to clarify for the rest of us!
- 애기 - ae-gi - 'baby' or 'honey', said by a guy to a girl (Gomushin Girl suggests it's "not a very common endearment, and is more often used as an atypical pronuciation of 아기 which means the kind of baby that is a child, not your girlfriend.")
- 자기 - ja-gi - 'darling', said by a girl to a guy (HT to Alex for suggesting 자기 literally means 'self' - I can't speak for the dictionary, but Google Translate shows 'darling' as 사랑스러운 사람, which when translated back means 'lovely people'. My head's beginning to hurt...
- 여보 - yeo-bo - 'darling', from one spouse to another
- 있어요 iss-eo-yo - to exist; when asking if someone has something. For example, asking 방 있어요? (bang isseoyo) asks 'Do you have a room?' (literally, 'room exist') (HT to Alex for catching the typo)
- 없어요 - eob - seo - yo - doesn't exist, usually a response to the previous word.
- 거의 - geo-ui - almost, more or less
- 아차 - a-cha - 'oops'
- 아이고 - a-i-go - 'geez' or 'come on' - (perhaps "its nearest equivalent is the Yiddish "Oy!" - HT to The Sanity Inspector)
- 마트 - ma-teu - mart (Konglish) - a store to most of us. Try to pronounce more like 'mat' than 'mart'.
- 사거리 - sa-geo-ri - 4 way intersection (note the first syllable determines how many roads meet, thus 사, or 4 roads)
- 할인 - har-in - discount
- 입구 - ib-gu - entrance
- 출구 - chul-gu - exit
The curses (use with caution and only when absolutely necessary!)
- 바보 - ba-bo - stupid / a fool
- 냅둬 - naep-dwo - leave me alone / bug off (might also be pronounced 맵도 - I think the person you're speaking to will get the idea either way - HT to asadalthought)
- 뻐꾸기 - bbeo-ggu-gi - literally 'c***sucker'
- 새끼 - sae-ggi - similar to 'motherf***er' or 'bastard'
- 씨발놈 - pronounced sshi-bal-lum - 'f*** you' or 'f***ing bastard' (HT to Paul Ajosshi and asadalthought for the correction)
- 미친놈 - mi-chin-nom - 'crazy guy / bastard'
- 입닥쳐 - ib-dak-chyeo - 'shut the f*** up'
Perhaps best saved for a bar or the times a local really pisses you off.
33 last time, 34 this time, and 34 to go in part three - stay tuned!
© Chris Backe - 2009
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