If "girlfriend" is 여자 친구, how do you say "female friend" in Korean?

ANSWER: 여자 사람 친구, which is abbreviated to 여사친

In English, the word "girlfriend" implies a romantic relationship, especially if the relationship is between a man and a woman, but "female friend" does not. In Korean, 여자 친구 translates as "girlfriend," and 여자 사람 친구, which literally means "female person friend," translates as "female friend." Of course, 여자 사람 친구 is too long for the average Korean teenager, so they have abbreviated it to 여사친, formed using the first syllable of each word.

Likewise, "boyfriend" implies a romantic relationship, but "male friend" does not, so Koreans would say 남자 친구 if there was a romantic relationship and 남자 사람 친구, or just 남사친, if there was not.

Would you like to know a secret tip for learning Korean?

Get a good Korean-English print dictionary and read it. I like "Dong-a's Prime." Two great things about reading a dictionary is that you don't have to look things up, and you don't have to start from the beginning. It is perfect for those long bathroom breaks.

Everything in a Korean-English dictionary is worth learning, if your plan is to become fluent in Korean. There is so much more in a Korean-English dictionary than many people may realize. For example, you might know the first definition of a word in the dictionary, but do you know its second, third, fourth, or fifth definitions? Are you paying attention to the words and phrases in the backets […] of a definition? Are you paying attention to the word's Chinese characters? If you are not, then you missing a great deal of information.

What's the opposite of 다가오다?

ANSWER: 다와가다

가다 means "to go," and 오다 means to come." One of the differences between Korean and English is that if your friend asked you in English, "Are you coming?" you could answer, "Yes, I'm coming," but in Korean you would have to answer, "Yes, I'm going" (응, 간다), not "Yes, I'm coming" (응, 온다).

다가오다 means someone or something is "coming near you" but is not there, yet. So, if you are on your way to visit a Korean friend and your friend calls you on your cell phone and asks, "다가오니?" it means "Are you almost here?" You cannot answer your friend by saying, "응, 다가온다" since you are still headed toward your friend and must, therefore, use 가다, not 오다. Instead, you could say, "응, 다와간다," meaning "Yes, I'm almost there." In written Korean, you would have to write it as "다 와 간다" since it is still considered a phrase, not a single word.

So, where does the "와" in "다와가다" come from? Here is my theory:

If you had just arrived at your destination when your Korean friend called and asked, "다가오니? ("Are you almost here?"), then you would have answered, "응, 다 왔어," which literally means "Yes, I've come (all the way)" but would be translated into English as "Yes, I'm here." Since you had arrived at your destination and were no longer "going toward it," you could no longer say 다와간다 since it uses the word 가다 (to go).

So, 다와간다 means you are near your destination but are still headed toward it, and 다 왔다 means you have arrived at your destination. That suggests that 다와간다 is a shortened version of "(거의) 다 와서 (아직) 간다," literally meaning "I've come all the way, but am still going."

So, what about the "가" in "다가오다"? Is it a shorted version of "(거의) 다 가서 (아직) 온다," literally meaning "He has gone all the way, but is still coming?"

What does 과공비례 (過恭非禮) mean?

ANSWER: "being too polite is impolite"

The following story is used to teach that sometimes “being too polite or deferential (과공 過恭) is impolite (비례 非禮).”
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As her daughter’s wedding draws near, a mother instructs her daughter on the proper respect to show her in-laws:

Mother: “Even though they are younger than you, you must always use “nim”(님) to show respect. So, address your sister-in-law’s husband as “Seobang-nim” (서방님) and your unmarried brother-in-law as “Doryeon-nim” (도련님). And never yell at them in front of adults. In fact, don’t even yell at the animals, like the dogs and pigs, in front of adults. Do you understand?”

Daughter: “Yes, mam.”

A few days after the wedding, the new daughter-in-law is outside when the family dog attacks and kills a chicken. On hearing the commotion, the mother-in-law comes outside and asks what happened. The daughter-in-law answers as follows:

“갯님이 닭님을 물어 닭님이 돌아가셨어요.”

“The honorable dog bit the honorable chicken, and the honorable chicken passed away.”

What does 경진무과 mean?

ANSWER: 1460 Military Service Exam

In the 6th year of King Sejo (1460), an unusually large number of people (1,800) passed the Military Service Exam (무과 武科) in Pyeongyang, suggesting that standards had been lowered that year. After that, people would make fun of soldiers who couldn’t ride a horse very well or shoot an arrow straight by saying that they must have taken the “1460 Exam” (경진무과 庚辰武科).

Using the 60-year-cycle calendar, 경진 (庚辰) refers to the year 1460, and 무과 (武科) refers to the Military Service Exam.

Today the expression is still used to make fun of soldiers and public officials who mess up.

Naver Dictionary