#5 Basic Phrases

I tried to think of some useful phrases that might be useful at some point in your life.

여보세요 – (yoboseyo) hello (only used when answering the phone)

내일 만나요 – (neil manayo) see you tomorrow (literally, “meet tomorrow”)

다음에 또 봐요 – (daume ddo bayo) see you again next time

나중에 봐요 – (najunge bayo) see you later

잘 가요 – (jal kayo) take care (used when someone is about to leave)

수고했어요 – (sugo hessoyo) this one is hard to translate. It means something like, “good work” or “good job”.

조심하세요 – (joshimhaseyo) be careful

#4 As a Tourist in Korea – Greeting & Simple Conversation

Many Koreans may be afraid or shy to talk with foreigners because of their poor English skills. However, if you approach them to ask something with Korean language at the beginning of conversation, you would have a much higher chance to have a conversation with any Koreans.  For instance, you can start to make conversation “Hello, or Excuse me” in Korean, you will absolutely get their attention.

#3 Famous Children’s Song

There’s a very famous children’s song about butterflies that probably almost every Korean child knows. Here’s the video of the song with the lyrics below. For those of you who don’t know how to read Hangul yet, the pronunciation is in parentheses. The meanings are in brackets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN6jtj_63is

#2 Korean Greetings

Hello everyone!  Today we’re going to learn some important Korean greetings.  The most basic and frequently used greeting is an-nyung-ha-se-yo (안녕하세요).  An-nyung-ha-se-yo (안녕하세요) means hello.  You might be surprised to know that there is no separate greeting for good morning, good afternoon or good evening.  Whether it’s the morning, afternoon or evening, you just use the phrase an-nyung-ha-se-yo (안녕하세요).

There is one exception.  For the phrase ‘good night’ it’s more natural to use the phrase jal ja-yo (잘 자요).  This literally means sleep well.  Now some Koreans from time to time might use the phrase jo-un a-chim (좋은 아침).  Jo-un a-chim (좋은 아침) means good morning.  However, the predominant method for saying good morning is still an-nyung-ha-se-yo (안녕하세요).  I tell my students to just learn the phrase an-nyung-ha-se-yo (안녕하세요) because it’s easier to remember and the more common greeting that Koreans use to say good morning.

#1 Korea Unique Expression of Cheers!

Far from a battle cry, 화이팅 hwaiting is a commonly used word of encouragement, as well as a cheer. I’m told it made its way into Korean from its obvious English origin via the Japanese—and hence the unusual pronunciation. Language purists insist that it should be spelled 파이팅 paiting to reflect a closer approximation to the English word fighting. (As I typed 화이팅 above, and again here, the spell check tried to change it to 파이팅!) However, it’s universally pronounced hwaiting and so you will encounter both spellings. Although in use for decades, it’s inclusion into dictionaries has been met with some reluctance, still considered merely slang.