Korean expressions
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How to suck at things in Korean
My Korean vocabulary was expanded recently when I learned the word 음치(eum-chi) meaning tone-deaf. I started thinking whether there was a connection because I once learned the word 길치 (kil-chi) from Talk To Me In Korean, and used to call my best friend 길치all the time because he had absolutely zero sense of direction. I…
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Stress
스트레스는 만병의 근원이다 – Stress is the main cause of all kinds of illnesses. This is a common saying in Korean and something my best friend used to say from time to time if I ever mentioned anything about being stressed. And he was right, stress is truly the root of all evil. Googling the…
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Korean hand gestures
Koreans use their hands a lot when they speak, but their hand gestures differ significantly from what we know from Western culture. I have no idea why I never thought about writing about this before but in the past few weeks I have experienced all most of these hand gestures first hand (haha, lame pun intended),…
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The sixth Korean sense: nunchi
Nunchi, spelled 눈치 in Korean and literally meaning ‘eye measure’, is a concept you’ll inevitably have to deal with when living in Korea. Nunchi is a set of unspoken rules governing interpersonal relationships and can loosely be translated as ‘awareness of your surroundings’ or ’emotional intelligence’. Generally speaking, you can use the word in five…
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The Korean mindset and locus of control
I’ve often heard Koreans say some version of “되면 하는 거고 말면 말고”, which directly translated means “if things work out we do so and so, and if things don’t work out we just don’t.” I believe that this ‘maybe, maybe not’ mindset to some extent explains why I oftentimes feel that I clash with…
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How to text in Korean like a pro
Texting, preferably done through the chatting app, KakaoTalk, is a crucial part of living in Korea. Even though you may be used to sending and receiving text messages in English or any other language, Koreans have a very special style when it comes to texting, which can be very confusing and sometimes impossible to understand.…
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Comedy in Korea
It’s nothing new that humor, comedy and what is generally considered funny is quite different from one culture to the next. Naturally, you’d then expect the Korean sense of humor to be quite different from Western humor, but honestly, I’ve come to realize that it’s a lot closer to what I consider Western humor than…
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Korean buzzwords: Gapjil
Korean media have been reporting heavily on gapjil (갑질) over the past few weeks. The word is a fairly newly coined term consisting of the word 갑 (甲) literally meaning the “first party in a contract” and 질 which refers to demonstrating a certain behavior. Put together as a colloquial expression it means the arrogant or…
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Writing emails in Korean – A quick guide
Several of you have requested that I do a blog post on writing emails in Korean. So, naturally, I’m happy to accommodate your kind request. I write emails in Korean almost every day, and while that alone does not make me an expert, I do have a few tips and points that I find shareworthy.…
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Back to school (…again)
This semester I thought I’d take advantage of having access to unlimited learning since I’m working at a university, so I decided to contact one of the teachers responsible for the compulsory course 읽기와 쓰기 (Reading and Writing) for all the freshmen at Sogang. I wrote an email to her asking if I could be…
Sofie to Korea 