Tuesday, October 30, 2018

What does 안부 좀 전해주세요 mean?

ANSWER: "Please say 'hello' for me," or "Please send my regards."

Today I came across a video (See below) of a young Korean man who apparently teaches English expressions on YouTube. His name is Jeon Dae-ho (전대호), but you have to listen carefully to hear it when he introduces himself in Korean because he is a fast talker. I could only hear "안녕하세요, 여러분? ***입니다," so I had to look at the title of his video to get his full name.  I am not sure why some Koreans introduce themselves so quickly in Korean, but I used to have to tell my Korean students to slow down their introductions in English because knowing the names of the people they are talking to are important to Americans, and business cards are not commonly exchanged. Anyway, in his video Mr. Jeon teaches the expression "안부 좀 전해주세요," which reminded me of something I wanted to write about the expression and the word 안부.

My Korean-English dictionary defines 안부 (安否) as safety, welfare, health, or well-being, but it also defines it as news or tidings. The literal meaning of 안부, however, is comfortable or not. The Chinese character 安 (안) means comfortable or well, and 否 (부) means not, so since 좀 means please and 전하다 means convey or communicate, the expression 안부 좀 전해주세요 literally means "Please convey comfortable or not," which suggests the expression is an abbreviation of a longer expression. The longer expression is essentially one of the following two:

Polite:
"(부모님께) 안부를 여쭈었다고 좀 전해주세요."
"Please tell (your parents) that I asked how they were doing." 
Friendly:
"(동생한테) 안부를 물었다고 좀 전해주세요." 
"Please tell (your younger brother) that I asked how he was doing."
As for Mr. Jeon and his English lessons, listening to his rapid-fire explanations might be a good way to practice Korean listening skills.



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