My language partner and I only met once before the spring break. In fact, out last meeting was quite interesting. We did the topic of Korean slangs. Both Brenda and I believed that learning slangs is very helpful while learning a new language. By learning slangs, I believe that I can learn more about the development of language during modern times and how young people like to use their language in their daily life in a up-to-date style.
At the very beginning of our meeting, Brenda introduced her favorite Korean slang “꾸안꾸”. It is the short version of “꾸민듯 안꾸민듯”, which means that you tried to dress up but it looks like you didn't try. This is the highest level of fashion in people’s daily life. Everyone wants themselves to look fashion by wearing pretty clothes and make up. “꾸안꾸” means your well-thought-out fashion looks like something you've done very casually to others. This is exactly the highest level of fashion. South Korean people like fashion a lot. This “꾸안꾸” style of fashion is very popular among Korean people. If you search “꾸안꾸” on Instagram, you will see a lot of posts about what young Korean women or men wear in their daily lives. They like to tag themselves with “꾸안꾸”.
There are many more abbreviation-stylized slangs like “꾸안꾸” in Korean. A very popular one is “아아”, which is the abbreviation of “아이스 아메리카노 (ice americano)”. Ice Americano is Korean people’s favorite drink in daily life. So they use this abbreviation to order drinks in café. Another popular slang related to “아아” is “얼죽아” which is the short version of “얼어 죽어도 아이스 아메리카노”. It means that even if I freeze to death, I will drink ice Americano. This shows how much Koreans love ice Americano. In fact, “얼죽…” has become a fixed form of slang. We can add whatever we like after “얼죽” to express their enthusiasm and madness for something. Korean also have slangs in English letters. For instance, JMT is a Romanized acronym for the compound word “존맛탱” (jonmattaeng) and describes something that is “really tasty”. “JMT” appears frequently in Korean TV shows. Others like “TMI” and “TMP” are also Korean slangs, although they stand for “too much information” and “too much passion” which are totally in English. But actually, it is Korean people the first to use this kind of abbreviations.
Certainly, abbreviation is not the only style Korean slangs have. Korean people call these slangs “신조어” which means “new words”. Brenda and I also watched a interesting video about “신조어” during our last meeting. I want to introduce one of those new words I have learned from the video. It is so funny that I can’t stop thinking of it during and after out meeting. It is “뜨또”, which is Justin Bieber’s tattoo. The reason is Justin Bieber has a tattoo on his arm which is the Korean words of his last name Bieber. The Korean is “비버”. The interesting thing is that if Justin Bieber raise his arm parallel to the ground. The tattoo “비버” will change from vertical to horizontal, then looks like a totally different Korean word “뜨또” that is meaningless. Therefore, Korean people use “뜨또” to represent Justin Bieber’s tattoo.
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