Wednesday, May 23, 2007

사전에 안 나온 단어

My electronics dictionary has decided to call it a day recently. The cause of it was leaking battery. After it was gone, I was missing its convenience everyday. As much I am "crippled" in my Korean study, I guess I need to move on with life. I have since "activated" the back-up mode which is the thick and cumbersome dictionary.

Armed with a dictionary, it doesn't mean that I will find the meaning to all the Korean words out there. Just like any language, there are bound to be words used commonly in daily conversation but are not proper enough to be found in the dictionary. In my Korean class in KHU, there was one period of lesson that was dedicated to Korean sok-o (속어-俗語). Sok-o are one example of words which meaning cannot be found in the dictionary.

Here are some of the sok-o which we were taught during the lesson.

간지나다 - Charmingly beautiful
뻥치다 - To lie
열공하다 - To study hard
짝퉁 - Fake or imitation goods
생까다 - To ignore

It is so much easier to say 뻥치마 (don't lie) than to say 거짓말하지마. Also, saying 열공해 is more effort-saving than to say 열신히 공부해요. The lesson on sok-o was an "ear-opener" for me.

Then there is this thing called the vulgar language which is also not found in the dictionary. "신발" as I know does not only mean footwear, it is also used as a F-word by some people. "신발" originates from the word "씨발" which has its origin in another word of the same pronunciation (I am censoring the original form). In whatever form, they all mean the same F-word.

Vulgar language like sok-o exists in probably all languages. There will always be two sides to everything. I am open-minded about learning both the good and bad part of the Korean language. I will try to apply the good part of the language while keeping vigilant when foul language is used against me.

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