Is 방정 a good thing or a bad thing?

 ANSWER: If it is the Sino-Korean 방정 (方正), it is a good thing, but if it is the pure-Korean 방정, it is a bad thing. Besides meaning "square" or "direction," the Chinese character 方 (방) can also mean "honest" or "fair," so since the Chinese character 正 (정) can also mean "honest" or "upright," the Sino-Korea word 방정 (方正) could be translated as either "honest and upright" or "fair and square," which is a good thing. The pure-Korean 방정, on the other hand, refers to "rash or careless behavior," which is a bad thing.

Koreans seem to use the good 방정 (方正) only on special occasions, but they seem to use the bad 방정 quite frequently. Nevertheless, how can you know which 방정 is being used in conversation? Well, one way you can tell is that if 떨다 or 맞다 is attached to it, that's the bad 방정.

So, 방정떨다 means "to act imprudently or rashly," but what word do you use when someone is acting REALLY imprudently or rashly? Then you can say 오도방정을 떨다.

In the following video, the guy is talking and using the expression 오도방정 떨다, which the girl believes should be pronounced 오두방정 떨다," though she never corrects the guy. So, who is right, the guy or the girl?

So, is the girl right or the guy right in the above video?

ANSWER: They were both right. 오두방정 is just the "큰말" of 오도방정, which means that though both words have the same meaning, 오두방정 gives the word a stronger feeling. So, even though 방정, 오도방정, and 오두방정 all essentially mean the same thing, the feeling 방벙 gives off is weaker or smaller than that 오도방정, and 오도방정 is weaker or smaller than that 오두방정."

By the way, the word 발광 (發狂) means "insanity," "madness," or "craziness," but if 오도 or 오두 is attached to 발광 to form 오도발광 or 오두발광, it gives off a stronger feeling of craziness.

In the following video, you can see what people look like when they are acting "imprudently" (오도방정 떨다), and you can also see that the two women who gave the correct answer of 오도방정 got screwed when they were told that their answer was wrong.

And for further reference, there is this video:

What skin color are Koreans?

ANSWER: Apricot?

The Korean word for "flesh" is 살, and the Korean word for "color" is 색, so together 살색 (pronounced 살쌕) means "flesh color," for which Koreans also use the word 살빛. But a problem arose when foreign workers started coming to Korea with skin colors very different from that of Koreans, and some of those foreigners claimed that the word 살색 was racist, and many Koreans agreed, so in 2002, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea decided to replace the color 살색 with the word 연주황색 (軟朱黃色), which literally means "light (軟) orange (朱黃) color (色)." That suggests that Koreans considered their skin color to be "light orange." So, after that, everyone was happy, right? Wrong!

Some Korean grade school kids did not like the new name for the color because it was Sino-Korean and therefore too difficult to remember, so in 2004, they petitioned Korea's National Human Rights Commission to change the color from 연주황색 (light orange color) to either the pure Korean word 살구색 (apricot color) or 복승아색 (peach color). The Commission accepted their argument and decided in 2005 that the color would be called 살구색 (apricot color).

So, in Korea, avoid using the racist word 살색, and if you need a new pet name for your Korean girlfriend, you might try "My Sweet Apricot."

 

Does 시쳇말 mean "dead language," "poetic language," or "popular language of the time"?

ANSWER: 시쳇말 is defined as "그 때에 유행하는 말," which could be translated as "popular [or fashionable] language [or expression] of the time."

시쳇말 is a combination of two words: 시체 and 말, which are connected with a 사이 시옷 (ㅅ). The 말 part of the word can be translated as "language" or "expression," but what does the 시체 mean? My Korean-English dictionary shows three possible choices: 1) "verse style," 2) "dead body," and 3) "the fashion of the day." In the case of 시쳇말, the third choice is the correct one.

 
Besides meaning "body," the Chinese character 體 (체) can also mean "form" or "style," so since 時 (시) means "time," the word 시체 (時體) can literally translate as "the time (時) style (體)."

The Korean video below says that 유행어 and 요샛말 are synonyms of 시쳇말 (時體말), but neither 유행어 nor 요샛말 have the "그때" (that time) in their definitions, so to use 유행어 to refer to "past" popular expressions (유행어)," one would have to say, "그때에 유행어."

The reason I am being so picking about the word 시쳇말 is that I recently came across it while reading a book entitled "내 몸 사용설명서" (YOU, The Owner's Manual). Here is the passage to which I am referring:

In the above paragraph, the writer refers to 꽃미남 (a young man as handsome as a flower) as 시쳇말, which seems a little vague to me. In other words, is the writer is referring to 꽃미남 as "a popular word" these days or in the past? If the writer is referring to 꽃미남 as a popular word these days, then I think it would have been clearer if he or she had written 요샛말 instead of 시쳇말 since 요새 means "recently" or "these days." Or maybe I just do not understand the use of 시쳇말 well enough.

By the way, what is a 시체양반 (時體兩班)?

ANSWER: It refers to rich, successful businessmen.  Already in the Korea of the 1930s, the "new yangban of the time" (시체양반) were the rich capitalists, the people with the money.

In his 1934 novel "고향," the author 이기영 wrote the following: "그는 아주 훌륭한 시체양반이 되였다," which could be translated as, "He has become a respected businessman." In old Korea, businessmen did not get much respect and were not usually called "yangban" (양반).
  

Finally, in the above video, the word 초주검 is mentioned. Since 초 (初) can mean either "first" or "the beginning" and 주검 means "corpse" or "dead body," the word 초주검 can literally translate as "the beginning of a dead body," implying that a person is near death.

What does 용빼다 mean?

ANSWER: "큰 힘을 쓰다," which could be translated as "to use great strength."

By the way, why isn't 용빼다 in the dictionaries I normally use? It isn't in my Dong-A Prime Korean-English Dictionary or my 동아 새國語辭典. It is not even in my giant Si-Sa Elite Korean-English Dictionary (엘리트 韓英大辭典). I thought I had forgotten how to look up words in a dictionary until I finally found the word in a dictionary I hardly ever use.

Finally, in my 국어용례사전 (Korean Sentence Example Dictionary), I found 용빼다 defined as "큰 힘을 쓰다."

There is even a Korean idiom that uses the word: 용빼는 재간이 없다, which I would translate as "to be beyond one's ability to do no matter how hard one tries."

Again, why isn't 용빼다 in my other dictionaries? The first example under the word in my "Korean Sentence Example Dictionary" comes from a book entitled 馬上淚 (마상루), which was published in 1912. So, is the word 용빼다 just too old fashion for modern Korean dictionaries?

Why should you think of the 병 that means "sickness" and "disease" (病) before you think of the 병 that means "bottle" (甁)?

 ANSWER: Because out of the 133 keywords listed under 병 in my Korean-English dictionary there are only 5 that start with the 병 (甁) that means "bottle" but 60 that start with the 병 (病) that means "sickness" and "disease."

Keywords that start with the 병 (甁) that means "bottle":

1. 병 (甁) bottle [under this keyword is listed 병맥주, which means "bottled beer"]
2. 병마개 (甁--) bottle cap
3. 병목 (甁--) the neck of a bottle
4. 병배 (甁--) a bottle-shaped pear
5. 병술 (甁--) bottled liquor

Here are the keywords that start with the 병 (病) that means "sickness" and "disease." By the way, words that start with the "sickness" and "disease" 병 (病) are pronounced with a long vowel sound, so /벼영/:

1. 병 (病) a sickness; an illness; a disease
2. 병가 (病家) a patient's house
3. 병가 (病暇) sick leave
4. 병객 (病客) a sick person; a patient
5. 병결 (病缺) absence on account of (due to) illness
6. 병고 (病故) an illness, a sickness, a disease
7. 병골 (病骨) a sickly person; a feeble person
8. 병구 (病軀) a sick body; ill health; a sickly constitution
9. 병구완(病救援)하다 to nurse (a sick person). [Note: 병구완 was originally pronounced 병구원.]
10. 병균 (病菌) a germ; a virus
11. 병근 (病根) the cause of a disease
12. 병나다 (病--) 1) to get sick; 2) to be out of order, to break down
13. 병내다 (病--) 1) to make a person sick; 2) to put out of order, to cause a breakdown
14. 병독 (病毒) disease germs; the virus poisons
15. 병동 (病棟) a hospital ward
16. 병들다 (病--) to get sick
17. 병력 (病歷) the case history (of a patient)
18. 병리 (病理) the pathology (of a disease)
19. 병리학 (病理學) pathology
20. 병리 해부학 (病理 解剖學) morbid (pathological) anatomy
21. 병마 (病魔) the demon of ill health; (the curse) of a disease
22. 병막 (病幕) a quarantine station (camp); an isolation hospital
23. 병명 (病名) the name of a disease (malady)
24. 병몰 (病沒) death from sickness = 병사 (病死)
25. 병사 (病死) death from disease; a natural death
26. 병사 (病舍) an infirmary; a hospital
27. 병상 (病床) one's sickbed
28. 병상 (病狀) the condition of a patient
29. 병상병 (病傷兵) the sick and wounded (soldiers); the invalid soldiers
30. 병색 (病色) a sick complexion; a sickly appearance
31. 병석 (病席) a sickbed = 병상 (病床)
32. 병세 (病勢) the condition of a disease (of a patient)
33. 병소 (病巢) a focus (a localized area of a disease)
34. 병소감염 (病巢感染) focal infection
35. 병신 (病身) 1) a deformed person; a cripple; 2) a sickly person; a chronic invalid; 3) a stupid person; a fool; a dunce; 4) an incomplete (a defective) thing; an odd set
36. 병신 구실 (病身 --) unworthiness; uselessness; behavior to be expected of a defective
37. 병신성스럽다 (病身--) (be) foolish; silly; stupid; moronic
38. 병실 (病室) a sick room; an infirmary
39. 병약 (病弱) weakness; infirmity; delicate constitution
40. 병와 (病臥) to sick in bed
41. 병원 (病院) a hospital; an infirmary; a nursing home
42. 병원 (病原) the cause of one's illness; the origin of a disease
43. 병인 (病人) a sick person
44. 병인 (病因) the cause of a disease; an etiological cause (factor)
45. 병자 (病者) a sick person; a patient
46. 병적 (病的) morbid; diseased; unsound; pathological; abnormal
47. 병점 (病占) [a fortuneteller) predict (foretell, prognosticate) the course of a disease
48. 병주머니 (病--) a person with many (chronic) diseases; a bag of woes
49. 병중 (病中) during one's illness
50. 병증 (病症) the nature of a disease (an illness)
51. 병집 (病--) 1) a weakness; the trouble with (a person); a flaw; 2) the cause of a disease
52. 병주기 (病--) a sickly person; an invalid
53. 병충해 (病蟲害) damages by blight and harmful insects
54. 병태 (病態) the condition (of a patient)
55. 병통 (病--) trouble (with a thing); malfunction; something wrong (with); a hitch
56. 병폐 (病廢) disablement (deformity) by an illness or disease
57. 병폐 (病弊) an evil; a vice; evil practices; abuses
58. 병해 (病害) blight (농작물의)
59. 병환 (病患) [your, his] disease; illness
60. 병후 (病後) convalescence; the convalescent stage

Besides the 5 병 (甁) that mean "bottle" and the 60 병 (病) that means "sickness" and "disease," there are also 40 keywords that start with the 병 (兵) that means "soldier" or "weapon." That means that those three 병s make up 105 of the 133 keywords in my Korean-English dictionary that start with 병. And of remaining words, only one is a pure-Korean word: 병아리 (a chick). The rest start with one of the following 병:

• 병 (丙) the third; the third of ten Heavenly Stems
• 병 (竝) together; side by side
• 병 (倂) merge; combine

Finally, the 병 in all the keywords are pronounced as /벼영/, except for the words that start with the "bottle" 병 (甁), the "soldier" or "weapon" 병 (兵), and the pure-Korean 병 in 병아리.

Also, for fun, 병아리오줌, which literally means "chick urine," translates as either "a chickenhearted person," "a dull conservative person," or "a stick-in-the-mud," but a better translation would probably be "chicken-poop" but with the S-word replacing poop. Chickens do everything from one hole, including laying their eggs.

REMEMBER: I have only listed the 병 keywords that are in my Korean-English dictionary. My Korean dictionary has a few others. 

How many 되s make a 말?

ANSWER: Ten 되s make a 말 (mal). And since ten 홉s make a 되, 100 홉s make a 말. And, by the way, 10 말s make a 섬, which is a big straw sack. So, five 말s of rice is equal to half a sack (섬) of rice.

섬, 말, 되, and 홉 were measurements used in Korea to measure grains. They are all pure-Korean words. Their Chinese character equivalents are 石 (석), 斗 (두), 升 (승), and 合 (합).

The Sino-Korean word 오두미 (五斗米) literally translates as "five (五) mal (斗) of rice (米)" but is used in Korea to mean "a small salary," referring back to a time when Korean government officials were paid in rice and other grains. Five mal of rice is equal to half a sack (섬) of rice. Imagine trying to live off of that for a year.

By the way, when Sino-Korean words start with the character 五 (오), the 오 is pronounced with a long vowel sound, so 오두미 (五斗米), for example, is pronounced as /오오두미/. Here are other Sino-Korean words that start with of 오 (五), which means the 오 is pronounced as /오오/.

• 오각형 (五角形) a pentagon
• 오감 (五感) the five senses
• 오경 (五經) the five classics (of ancient China)
• 오계 (五戒) the five Buddhist commandments (against murder, theft, adultery, falsehood, and intemperance)
• 오곡 (五穀) the five grains (rice, millet, beans, wheat, and barnyard millet)
• 오관 (五官) the five sensory organs
• 오뉴월 (五六月) May and June of the lunar calendar
• 오대양 (五大洋) the Five Oceans
• 오대주 (五大洲) the Five Continents
• 오륜 (五倫) moral rules to govern the Five Human Relations (of master and servant, of father and son, of husband and wife, of brothers, of friends)
• 오리 (五里) five ri (Korean miles)
• 오리무중 (五里霧中) literally means "five (五) ri (里) in a fog (霧中)" but is used to mean "utter bewilderment."
• 오만 (五萬) literally means "fifty thousand," but is used to mean "innumerable."
• 오만상 (五萬相) a distorted [frowning, wry, puckered)] face; a grimace; a scowl
• 오미 (五味) the Five Tastes (of sour, bitter, pungent, sweet, and salty)
• 오배 (五倍) five times (as many as), fivefold
• 오복 (五福) the Five Blessings (longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue, peaceful death)
• 오분 (五分) 1) to divide into five parts, 2) five minutes
• 오색 (五色) the five cardinal colors (blue, yellow, red, white, black); variegated colors
• 오색잡놈 (五色雜놈) a reprobate; a rogue; a scamp
• 오십 (五十) fifty
• 오언절구 (五言絶句) a quatrain with five Chinese characters in each line
• 오열 (五列) the Fifth Column; secret agents
• 오월 (五月) May
• 오일 (五日) five days; the fifth day of the month
• 오장 (五腸) the five viscera (of the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys)
• 오장육부 (五腸六腑) the five viscera and the six entrails (of gall bladder, stomach, small and large intestines, the paunch, the bladder, and the bowels)
• 오채 (五彩) the five colors
• 오체 (五體) the (whole) body; the whole frame; the limbs
• 오촌 (五寸) one's cousin's son (daughter); one's father's cousin
• 오층 (五層) five stories (floors, levels); the fifth floor
• 오행 (五行) the Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth)
• 오현금 (五絃琴) a five-stringed musical instrument; a pentachord

What does 열 일 mean?

 ANSWER: "All work," "all things," or "everything."

The 열 in 열 일 is the pure Korean word for "ten," and 일 is the pure Korean word for "work," but the 열 in 열 일 is translated as "all," not as "ten." Why? Because when you count from 1 to 10 on your fingers, 10 is "all" of your fingers. It is similar to saying 만사 (萬事) or 백사 (百事), which literally mean "ten thousand things" and "a hundred things," respectively, but are translated as "all things." By the way, be sure to put a space between the 열 and the 일 when writing "열 일."

The Korean idiom 열 일을 젖혀놓다 can translate as "to put all work aside," implying that one does so in order to focus on something else. The verb 젖히다, which is pronounced as /저치다/, is a little strange since it has four very different meanings in my dictionary, but the meaning used in the idiom here is the fourth one. If you do not like the verb 젖히다, you can substitute the verb 제치다, which seems to be more popular.

Here are some example sentences from Naver's Korean-English dictionary:

• 그는 내가 어려울 때면 열 일 제쳐 두고 도와 주러오곤 했다.
  He would drop everything else and come running to help me in my hour of need.
  
  
• 나는 열 일을 제쳐 두고 그를 찾아갔다.
  I put aside all my work to go see him.
  
  
• 오늘은 열 일을 제쳐 놓고 잠부터 자야겠어요.
  Today, I am going to sleep before I do anything else.

Did Koreans used to feed their dogs in the morning or the evening?

 ANSWER: Probably in the evening.

개밥 means "dog (개) food (밥)," and a 바라기 is "a small porcelain food dish," so 개밥바라기 literally translates as "a small dog-food dish," but Koreans use the phrase to refer to the planet Venus. Why?

Venus can also be called either "the evening star" or "the morning star," depending on when it appears in the sky. In the early evening, it appears in the western sky and can then be called "the evening star." In the early morning, it appears in the eastern sky and can then be called "the morning star."

Koreans use 개밥바라기 to refer to Venus when it appears in the western sky in the early evening, so that suggests that Koreans normally used to feed their dogs in the evening, probably with food scraps collected throughout the day. Besides 개밥바라기, Koreans also refer to "the evening star" as 어둠별 (dark star), 태백성 (太白星), and 장경성 (長庚星).

The word that Koreans use to refer to Venus when it appears in the early morning sky is 샛별, which is probably an abbreviation of 새벽의 별 (morning star) since 샛바람 means "an easterly wind." Another name for "the morning star" is 계명성 (啓明星), which literally means "opening (啓) bright (明) star (星)," but since "bright star" (明星) is just another name for "morning star," it can literally translate as "opening morning star."

What is the Sino-Korean word for "seasickness"?

 ANSWER: 선훈 (船暈)

The pure Korean word for "seasickness" is 배멀미, which literally means "boat (배) nausea (멀미)," but the Sino-Korean word is 선훈 (船暈), which literally means "boat (船) dizziness (暈)." Interestingly, at least to me, the Chinese word for "seasickness" is 暈船 (훈선), which literally means "dizzy (暈) boat (船)." The character 暈 (훈) can also mean "halo."

By the way, there are not many Korean words that start with 섣, which is pronounced with a long vowel sound, so /서어ㄷ/.

What does 잡아떼다 and 시치미떼다 have in common?

ANSWER: They can both mean "to feign ignorance" or "to play innocent."

잡다 means "to grasp" or "to take hold of," and 떼다 means "to remove" or "to take off," so 잡아떼다 literally means "to grab [something] and remove [it]." So, why can 잡아떼다 also mean "to feign ignorance" or "to play innocent"? In other words, what is the relationship between "removing something" and "playing innocent"?

ANSWER: 잡아떼다 is just another way of saying 시치미떼다, which literally means "to remove a 시치미." But what is a 시치미?

A 시치미 was an identification tag that Koreans who hunted with falcons used to attach to a tail feather of their falcons. The tag identified the owner of the falcon and where its owner lived in case the falcon ever got lost. Anyone who found the lost falcon could then return it to its owner.

However, apparently some people who found a lost falcon would sometimes remove the 시치미 and keep the falcon. If the real owner later came along and asked the person who found the falcon if the falcon had had an identification tag on it, the person who removed the tag would lie and say, "No."

I have read that although 잡아떼다 and 시치미떼다 both essentially mean "to lie," 잡아떼다 is a more determined lie.

Are 강권 (强權) and 강권 (强勸) pronounced the same?

 ANSWER: No.

This morning, I noticed a mistake in my Korean-English dictionary, in regard to the Korean words 강권 (强權), which literally means "strong (强) authority (權)," and 강권 (强勸), which literally means "strongly (强) recommend (勸)." So, what is the mistake?

ANSWER: The mistake is that the phrases 강권발동, 강권정치, and 강권주의 should be listed under 강권 (强權), not under 강권 (强勸).

Some may say, "So? What's the problem? 강권 (强權) and 강권 (强勸) are both pronounced the same, so the underlying Chinese characters would not make any difference in conversation. But the problem is that the words are NOT pronounced the same.

강권 (强權) is pronounced /강꿘/, and 강권 (强勸) is pronounced /강권/, so the phrases 강권발동, 강권정치, and 강권주의 should be pronounced /강꿘발똥/, /강꿘정치/, and /강꿘주의/, respectively.