A lot of people love beer. It’s no different in Korea. Although soju is the number one alcohol in Korea, people love their beer here. Beer in the Korean language is simply 맥주 (maek-ju).
When I first arrived in Korea in 2009, the only brands of beer you could find here were the major Korean brands like Cass and Hite (which are terrible IMO). Craft beers were unheard of, and the only foreign beers you could find would be be at pubs and bars and they were expensive.
The word for chicken in Korean is very easy to learn.
Let’s start of with the word ‘닭’ (dak). This is mainly used to describe the animal itself and certain dishes that are chicken based.
So for example if you actually saw a live chicken, you would use this word.
For dishes, here are some common Korean dishes that are chicken based and use the word 닭.
닭갈비 (dak-gal-bi) = This is a chicken dish that is grilled right in front of you. Veggies like green onions, sesame leaves, sweet potatoes, and kimchi are usually added. This is my favorite dish in Korea.
닭도리탕 (dak-do-ri-tang) = This is a spicy chicken stew that features chicken, onions, potatoes, and carrots.
닭발 (dak-bal) = Chicken feet. You can order with or without the bones in the feet. They are also spicy.
불닭 (bul-dak) = This literally means fire chicken and is chicken served up with heavy spices that will turn your mouth into hell. Pretty good, but not for the faint of heart. Also make sure you are free the next morning as you will probably make a few trips to the toilet.
찜닭 (jjim-dak) = This is braised chicken that features noodles, potatoes, and sometimes hot peppers.
통닭 (tong-dak) = This is basically a whole chicken that has been fried. This was really popular back in the day and most places will call it 엣날통닭 which roughly translates to the chicken from the past/a long time ago.
For the next word, 치킨, this will usually refer to fried chicken in Korea. Fried chicken is very popular in Korea and is usually eaten with beer and other side dishes like fermented radishes (called 치킨무).
Occasionally, you may hear this word used to describe the actual animal itself as well.
Wanna become a pro at learning Korean? Check out these books we recommend:
Basic info
Title: √Root Korean: A Dictionary of Korean Root Words (Hanja)
Author: Andrew Livera
Pages: 725
Price: $10.99 on Kindle and PDF
*Please note that I received a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Intro
Many learners of Korean are not familiar with the Hanja relationship that many Korean words have. Just like many English words have their roots in Latin, many Korean words are based on Hanja characters.
Most don’t study these characters extensively (as it can be quite boring), but knowing many of them can help you remember vocabulary easier and quicker as you can quickly see the deeper meaning of a word and its relationship to other words.
For example, the Korean word 입구 (entrance) can be written in Hanja as 入口 where 入 means ‘to enter’ and 口 means ‘opening.’
Another benefit to learning Hanja is it will give you some knowledge to help you when traveling around countries like China and Japan. Many characters that you will learn are used there (with some slight differences).
Koreans learn hanja during their school years (but many forget) and most Koreans know how to write their name in hanja (it’s sometimes needed for certain documents). Hanja is also still used in many newspapers and restaurants when ordering.
The Book
So here’s where √Root Korean comes in. The author, Andrew Livera has compiled quite a bit of info in this book.
In this book, there are two sections. It is broken down into the Korean-Hanja dictionary, and the Hanja-Korean dictionary. If you know the Korean pronunciation but not the Hanja, you would use the Korean-Hanja dictionary. If you know the Hanja but not the Korean pronunciation, you would search in the Hanja-Korean dictionary.
All words contain the simplified Chinese character of a Hanja word, its pinyin reading, its Hanja, the Yale romanization, it’s stroke count, and finally, its definition. (See images below)
The information in this book is very thorough and extensive containing over 700 pages of information. It may be overwhelming to beginners just starting out (however I’d still find it very useful), but can be very helpful for those are deep into their Korean studies.
I myself found it very useful as I never really focused on learning any Hanja outside of the most basic ones I would see throughout my daily life here in Korea. I still haven’t had near enough time to get through even a quarter of the book, but I plan on using it to search for words as I continues to build my vocabulary.
I’ve even created a separate section in my study notebook for Hanja characters that I plan on studying/reviewing once a week or so.
You can purchase this book on Kindle over at Amazon. A paperback version will be released soon and we will update this page when it does.
This is a word that you will come across often in real life and in dramas/kpop. Who doesn’t wanna say “cute!” when they see a baby, dog, or other furry little animal. For some reason, cute in Korean sounds cuter (not trying to make a joke) than its English counterpart. Maybe it’s the way Koreans say it as they have a tendency to really like cute things or make things as cute as possible.
Let’s start with the basics:
귀엽다 (gwi-yeop-da)
This is the basic dictionary form of cute. It literally means to be cute and you can often just say this as it is in most situations. However unless you’re pretty sure of how to use it, you will need to conjugate it.
Let’s take a look at the different forms you can use.
Formal Version: 귀엽슴니다 (gwi-yeop-seum-ni-da)
This is the formal version of saying cute. It’s not very likely that you will use cute in a formal situation though. For instance I highly doubt you would call your boss or teacher cute to their face. It really sounds kind of awkward even if you’re not using it towards someone older or higher in position than you.
Standard Version: 귀여워요 (gwi-yeo-weo-yo)
This is the standard version that you will want to use around people who you are not close to or people older than you. Notice the 요 ending.
Casual Version: 귀여워 (gwi-yeo-weo)
This is the one that you will probably hear most often and it is used around your close friends, family, and people younger than you.
Remember when in doubt, just use the standard version to be safe.
At the bottom of our infographic, you will see another word – 귀요미 (gwi-yo-mi)
This is a Korean slang word used to describe someone who is cute or acts cute. You could use this to describe a baby, child, pet, significant other etc. It’s a very versatile slang word.
Some people also use this to describe someone who uses a lot of aegyo (cute actions or noises). Hyo likes to use this for me when she jokes around.
Corny Joke for cute in Korean:
What do you call a cute person with no ears? 귀 없다!
귀 = ears
없다 = verb that means to be without
귀 없다 = to be without ears
Now here is a simple word that you should know in any language. You don’t want to be caught in an awkward situation where you want to tell someone no, but don’t know how to.
Like many other phrases we’ve covered, there are formal and informal ways to say no in Korean as well as other variations.
Let’s start with the ones we covered in the infographic.
