Happy pride month! A while ago I mentioned briefly how gay Koreans would use certain terms to refer to a partner/romantic interest and I want to delve deeper into the culture! Both with some points on Korean LGBTQIA+ culture and life, and some great vocab!
If you’ve learned some words associated with school or education like 학교 you might have noticed the reoccurring 교 theme, that’s because a lot of school and educational words use Sino-Korean!
One great tip for practicing and learning Korean on your own is using your phone AI like Siri to practice Korean! With Ai assistants for modern phones you can switch it to accept Korean (or even be bilingual and accept English and Korean) and practice some commands or fun questions and answers.
A key thing if you want to visit South Korea is knowing some basic directions in Korean to get around so let’s get into it! Asking directions in Korean is vital to avoiding becoming lost and also can be key to discovering some interesting spots you would of never would have found yourself!
A lot of fans dream is to use Kpop to learn Korean, and while obviously that’s not entirely possible it can certainly help. I remember one of the first phrases I learned was “머리부터 발끝까지” or from head to toe because someone pointed out how common it was in songs!
Let’s go into emotions in Korean and how to describe your feelings. There’s not too much to say about this and I don’t feel like dragging it out and meeting a seo word count… Of course you already know why it’s important to know how to express yourself so let’s just get on with the list.
Let’s get into some Sino-Korean with the 인 from 인간! 인간 is derived from the Chinese character 人 which means person. This is one if the simplest characters with minimal strokes and it looks like a stick mans legs so it’s easy to remember!
Now Koreans don’t solely use these terms for people related to them, they are used freely! People call the woman running the restaurant 이모, boys call their older friends 형, etc. These terms are used to show how close and familiar you are with others (and for the ‘aunt’ at your favourite K-BBQ to warm up to her and maybe get extra side dishes haha).
Happy Valentine’s Day! Maybe your partner is Korean, maybe you want to use your partner and subject them to Korean and your study progress or maybe you’re looking to get in the Korean dating scene. These terms, phrases, and words are commonplace and related to romance in Korea, let’s get into it!