Slang you should know in South Korea

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Just like any other country, Korea has its own set of trendy slang words that are useful to know when you travel to Korea or youโ€™re just watching a Korean show.

Koreaโ€™s slang mainly consists of bigger words contracted together much like English slang. A lot of recent Korean slang also comes from English slang so you might notice some similarities.

Korean exclamations

1. ๋Œ€๋ฐ• โ€“ (Daebak)

Meaning: Thatโ€™s awesome!

Stars in Korean dramas and variety shows use this word frequently. It describes when something is awesome or it’s a way of showing enthusiasm. A lot of the time it also describes a state of awe or shock.

2. ์งฑ โ€“ (Jjang)

Meaning: Great or Amazing!

This is another way to say something is amazing or awesome in Korean. However, you can add this to describe a certain personโ€™s feature such as ์–ผ์งฑ (eoljjang), which means good looking or ๋ชธ์งฑ (momjjang), which means having a good body.

3. ํ— โ€“ (Hul)

Meaning: Oh My God!

This word expresses shock. Mainly something negative as opposed to daebak but it can be used both ways.

4. ์žผ โ€“ (Jaem)

Meaning: Fun

This is the shortened version of the word ์žฌ๋ฏธ (jae-mi, fun). This describes whether something or someone is fun or not. The word is used in two different ways. One way is to express great fun by saying ๊ฟ€์žผ (ggool jaem, literally honey fun) or you can express something is no fun at all by saying ๋…ธ์žผ (no jaem, no from English plus jaem).

5. ์ฝœ – (kol)

Meaning: Iโ€™m in or sounds good.

This is used when you’re either down to go to the movies or about to do something reckless. Itโ€™s that nonchalant expression that could be used to express that youโ€™re committing to a fun social activity or youโ€™re willing to go cliff jumping.

6. ํ™”์ดํŒ… – (hwaiting)

Meaning: Iโ€™m rooting for you!

This has been used countless times in Korean slang history. Used in sporting events or to encourage someone you care about.

Korean relationships & romance

1. ๋‚จ์นœ / ์—ฌ์นœ – (namchin / yeochin)

Meaning: boyfriend/girlfriend

This is a shortened way of saying ๋‚จ์ž ์นœ๊ตฌ (nam-ja chin-goo) and ์—ฌ์ž ์นœ๊ตฌ (yeo-ja chin-goo). This is similar to shortening boyfriend and girlfriend in English using gf and bf.

2. ์ธ – (ssum)

Meaning: Developing feelings between two people.

This describes a time between two people right before they officially start dating. Basically saying there is SOMEthing going on between them. It’s verb form is ์ธํƒ€๋‹ค (sseomtada) or ์ธ์„ ํƒ€๋‹ค (sseomeul tada). To describe the other person that is showing interest, you can use ์ธ๋‚จ (sseomnam) for men, and ์ธ๋…€ (sseomnyeo) for women.

3. ๋ฐ€๋‹น – (mildang)

Meaning: Push and pull

Literally putting the first syllables of push and pull together, ๋ฐ€๋‹ค (mil-da, to push) and ๋‹น๊ธฐ๋‹ค (danggi-da, to pull). This describes someone in a romantic situation who is being flaky or โ€œplaying games”.

4. ์• ๊ต – (aegyo)

Meaning: Acting cuteย 

This describes when someone is acting cute or baby-like. Used mainly among idols to display fan service but itโ€™s also seen as a way of flirting.

Bonus slang!

1. ๋ปฅ โ€“ (Ppung)

Meaning: Joke/lie

This word is commonly describes a joke or false information. It’s normally used like this: ๋ปฅ์น˜์ง€๋งˆ (Ppung-chi-ji-ma, “Donโ€™t lie to me” or “Stop joking with me”).

2. ์…€์นด – (selka)ย 

Meaning: Selfie

This is the shortened version of the two words ์…€ํ”„ (selpeu, self) and ์นด๋ฉ”๋ผ (kamera, camera). You can call selfie sticks ์…€์นด๋ด‰ (selkabong) in Korean.

3. ๋ฒ ํ”„ – (bepeu)
Meaning: Best friend

This is the shortened version of the Konglish (Korean English) phrase ๋ฒ ์ŠคํŠธ ํ”„๋ Œ๋“œ (beseuteu peurendeu, best friend).

4. ๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ์ ๊ฒŒ – (naega ssolge)

Meaning: Iโ€™ll pay/treat

Literally meaning “I’ll shoot”, these are words everyone wants to hear after a large meal. This is used to say that you will be the one paying as it is a common tradition in Korea that each person in the group takes turns paying for meals. The verb ์˜๋‹ค (So-da) actually means to shoot rather than using the verb ์‚ฌ๋‹ค (sa-da, to buy).

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