K-Talk Tuesdays: DAEBAK, FIGHTING and other Korean expressions. (Part 1)

안녕 하세요~! I hope you guys haven’t missed me too much!

This week I’m going to be making you sound just that little bit more authentically Korean with some common expressions and idioms used by Native Speakers! If you’re a K-drama buff (like myself) you may have heard a couple of these words before! You may already know some words such as Annyeong Haseyo – 안녕 하세요 (Hello) , and Kamsahamnida – 감사함니다 (Thank you) – But here are a couple more words to add to your Korean vocab.

DAEBAK – 대박 – Jackpot!

This expression is often used when something awesome has happened or if something impresses you. It’s like a parallel word for the English expressions “Awesome!”, “Cool!” or “Hell yeah!”. Basically, Daebak is a word of exclamation!

So how do you use it?:

“I got a high distinction for my assignment! DAEBAK!” (In all honesty, I only scraped by with a low pass)
“The Wonder Girls just won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award! DAEBAK!” (They didn’t really, but I wish they did)

FIGHTING! – 화이팅~!

A battle cry! You all know this one! It’s so overused and every single drama (that I’ve ever watched) has incorporated it in some way. Basically, other than the fact that it’s a sort of battle cry, it’s a term used to encourage someone and to get them to do the best they can. It’s often (or always) accompanied with a little fist pump like this :3

Fighting~!

You go, success kid! :’) Anyway, here’s how you’d use it:

“We’re going to win this football match tonight! FIGHTING!”
“I know you can get through this! FIGHTING!”

I should also point out that Koreans pronounce this word as “hwaiting” as it is spelled that way phonetically in hangeul (화이팅!)

OMO – 오모 / AIGOO – 아이구 – Oh My Goodness!

OMO! Omo and Aigoo both basically have the same meaning as the English expression “Oh My Gosh!” Once again, I’m sure the drama buffs already use “omo” a lot. Although the words have the same meaning, they sort of have different connotations (I think). I’m not entirely sure but I think Aigoo is more interchangeable than Omo. Aigoo changes meaning depending on the context, for example, you’d use Aigoo if you spilt boiling water on yourself, or if you’re exasperated, or sympathising with somebody. Omo has more of a positive connotation to it. It’s pretty much like saying OMG.

“Aigoo, that’s no good! You poor thing.”
“OMO! Lee Sin and Gyu Won just kissed!! Omo, Omo, Omo!!! 

SNSD’s Jessica – “Aigoo! Stress!!”

JEONGMAL – 정말/ JINJJA – 진짜 – Really??

Like Aigoo and Omo, Jeongmal and Jinjja both mean the same thing: “Really”. It can be used as a statement or a question depending on how you say the word. If you were to ask the question “Really?” you’d raise the end of the word, otherwise you’d just say it straight. Basically, these words can be used as sentences all on their own. Besides that, here are some examples of how you’d use it in sentences taken from my little bible: “Korean For Dummies”.

“Jinjja gyosunimkkeseo sukjega eopdago hasyeoseoyo!”
“진짜 교수님께서 숰제가 엎다고 핫여서요!”
” Really, the professor said there was no homework!”

“Jeongmal oneuldo yageunieyo?”
“정말 오늘도 야근이에요?”
“Really? I’m working overtime today?”

Another way to say “really” is the word cham 참  but it is closer to the english word “sure”.
(Btw, I’m not sure if the hangul for those last two sentences are right, so please correct me if I’m wrong.)

Omo! Jinjja, Bom?

Anyway, have fun using these words guys! I’ve almost resurfaced from under all my assignments (Aigoo! Stress!) and I’ll be updating the blog often again. Give me about two weeks.

I’ll give you guys more words to use next week! Fighting!

안녕!