Sofie to Korea

I’ve been an avid fan of this epic tv show for as long as it’s been around, and I still remember how I used to learn English watching and rewatching DVDs (yes, I’m that old) of Friends in middle and high school. I progressed by first watching with Danish subtitles, then switching to English before finally watching without any subtitles at all. There are still so many situations where my husband and I quote Friends in our everyday lives, and we always instantly know what we are talking about.

With my husband out of town for business for a week, I’ve had time to rewatch Friends on Netflix when I haven’t been out with my friends or busy exploring Seoul on my own. I’ve seen each episode more times than I can count, which is hardly something to be proud of thinking of all the writing or any other creative activity I could have spent my time on. Nonetheless, to me, this show will always be something that I associate with laughter, comfort and something that just feels safe and familiar.

However, watching the show this time around, I feel like I may just have stumbled into something really great Korean-learning-wise. Since I live in Korea, I have the Korean version of Netflix, and thereby access to Korean subtitles. So, for the past week, I’ve been watching with Korean subtitles, which has been so much fun. For advanced Korean learners, this is a great way to increase your vocabulary to say nothing of your reading speed since the lines fly pretty quickly in this show.

Here are a few words and expressions I picked up the latest episode I watched today:

못난이 벌거숭이 ugly naked guy

형편없다 lousy

이두박근 bicep

아담하다 tiny

기겁하다 freak out

허풍 bluff

항복하다 to give up/ back down

걔들이 안다는 걸 우리가 안다는 걸 걔들은 몰라 They don’t know that we know that they know

If you’re a hardcore Friends enthusiast like myself, I challenge you to guess which episode I was watching. Feel free to write your answer in the comments. Then maybe I’ll watch just one more episode before getting ready for bed.