유행어

I told myself not to be distracted but I just can't help it. I should be concentrating on brushing up my Korean but yet recently I have been wasting time surfing the web searching for explanation for some of the newly-coined Korean words. These words can't be find in the dictionary and neither will they come out in test. I guess I am bored to be doing this. Anyway, here are my "loots" after rummaging through numerous Korean websites.

훈남 (薰男) means a warmhearted guy. It is an abbreviation of 훈훈한 남자. A pre-requisite of 훈남 is that he must not be handsome, otherwise he should be called 미남 (美男). 훈남 has a lot of heart and if you are looking at him, you will develop a sense of warmth. My friend, Aini, likes to classify guys into two types - the cheesecake and the chocolate brownie. In her words, 미남 is cheesecake and 훈남 is chocolate brownie. 훈녀 (薰女) or warmhearted girl is also used but not as frequently as 훈남. I guess one reason is that most guys are only interested in 미녀 (美女).

완소 (完所) means the most treasured or the dearest. It is an abbreviation of 완전 소중한 (完全 所重). The word was first used among fans of the MBC drama, 궁 (宮-野蛮王妃) or the "Princess Hours" but soon found its way into the mainstream pop culture. These days, to use "보고 싶은 오빠" instead of "완소오빠" is not keeping up with time.

지름신이 강림하셨다 is an popular expression used to explain a person's act of impulsive buying. 지름신 means the god of impulsive buying and 강림하다, the descent of. 지름신이 강림하셨다 can thus be literally translated as the descent of the god of impulsive buying. The root words of 지름신 are 지르다 and 신 (神) or god. To explain 지르다 (or 저지르다) a little more - it is used to mean committing some negative act like a mistake, an error or a crime. 지름 is the nominalised form of 지르다. The situation to use this expression is when you are trying to give a reason or excuse for buying a lot of things on impulse which you have no use for. For example, 지름신이 강림하셔서 다 샀어요 (I bought all of them because the god of impulsive buying had descended upon me). Other expressions like 지름신이 다녀가셨다 and 지름신이 오셨다 mean exactly the same thing. If you feel a sudden urge to buy things, that sudden urge can best be described as 지름신이 강림하신 느낌.

I wish I can hand this up as my Korean homework. I am still quite behind in my homework. Kyunghee's Intermediate 2 workbook is more difficult than I thought. I just wonder where I found my gut to take TOPIK Intermediate last year. I was probably either too brave or too stupid. There are yet many more things to learn at the Intermediate level but somehow I am quietly confident that I will pass my TOPIK Intermediate this year. In addition, I shall try to repeat my "fooly" last year by taking TOPIK Advanced. ^^;