KoreanClass101.com Blog

Something really serious happened when I was home for vacation. My friend Josh, who also volunteers at the orphanage told me that some of the older boys were caught with stolen money! Apparently each kid is given 5,000원 (about $5) each month as “allowance.” I’m sure it gets spent immediately on 컵라면 and other unhealthy snacks. But sometime during the summer break, a few of the older stole 500,000원 (about $500) from a man in the neighborhood. You might think that they would have tried to hide it really well, but money really burns holes in these kids’ pockets. So four kids split the money amongst themselves, the older ones threating the younger ones within an inch of their lives to keep silent. It wasn’t long before the staff got really curious about how these kids kept having money to buy things. The older boys wouldn’t talk. But one of the younger ones fessed up, and finally the truth came out. They now have to forgo their allowance until the debt is paid.It really represents a larger problem there. Things get stolen quite frequently. But usually, they steal from EACH OTHER. In Korean society, being a little bit older comes with some real tangible benefits. And the kids at the home squeeze everything they can get out of it. There are middle school and high school students on the second floor, above the elementary kids. They often exploit their seniority. Here is one conversation I witnessed about a cell phone. Remember that I said some kids have parents. Some parents have bought cell phones for their kids.

고등 학생: 전기 줘! Give me your cell phone battery! (they have the same model)
4학년 학생: 왜? Why?
고등 학생: 형! Because I am your big brother! (no blood relation, but since he’s older, he is 형)

So the kid gave up battery. And he might not have seen it again. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Last weekend a 5th grader told me how he used to have a Nintendo DS. I have no idea how he managed to have one of those, but he did. Once the older boys found out about it, it was gone. They stole it, and probably sold it online! The same thing happened last year with someone’s Playstation Portable. The older boys throw down the age card, and there is nothing the younger kids can do about it!

오스틴

Well, most of the times, humor is not humorous any more once it has to be ‘translated’, but I think there can be a justifiable exception - which is, when you are studying a foreign language! It’s always good to know more about the culture, and understanding Korean humor can be another fascinating way to help yourself do that!

In Seoul, Korea, there’s a market place called 동대문, and this is where you can find a lot of ‘fake’ goods that look like the authentic ones, but really aren’t real. But what’s funny is, some of the fake goods have ‘proudly fake’ logos that anyone can see that this is a humor, so a lot of people end up buying those T-shirts, bags, caps, or whatever because they like the humor, even if the quality of the goods isn’t guaranteed.

One perfect example of this is the parodies of PUMA.

This is the original logo of PUMA, as you know, the sportswear brand.

And as you know, PUMA can be written as “푸마” in Korean, and there happen to be lots of everyday words that end with “-마”. So, naturally, there are lots of hilarious parody versions of “ㅇㅇ마” or some other words that have the “마” or “아” sound near the end.

Check these out.

PUMA –> PAMA

(파마 means a perm that you have on your hair)

PUMA –> TUNA

(Tuna 튜나 has similar vowel sets to 푸마)

푸마 –> 비만

( 비만 means obesity. Haha. Look at the picture)

푸마 –> 치마

(치마 means a skirt )

푸마 –> 피마

( the verb 피우다 or 피다 means ‘to smoke’ and the verb ending form ‘~마’ shows a will for an action and is often used toward younger people than oneself. So 피마 means “I’ll smoke.̶

PUMA –> PUNCH

( no explanation neeeded, right? Haha)

T.T

푸마 –> 피나

( 피가 나다 or 피 나다 means ‘to bleed’, so 피 나 means “I’m bleeding” in informal speech. )

푸마 –> 하마

(하마 means a hippo in Korean.)

푸마 –> 푸하

“푸하” is one of many ways to ‘write’ laughing sounds in Korean.

하하하, 아하하, and 푸하하.

Look at the laughing face of the PUMA.

PUMA –> PUMP

(This one is self-explanatory, too. Haha)

푸마 –> 자나

(The verb “자다” means “to sleep” and “-나?” is a way of asking questions often used by males in informal speech)

So 자나? means something like “Hey, you asleep?” or “Are you sleeping?”

This one is my personal favorite . Haha.

푸마 –> 푸#

# (sharp) is written in Korean as “샵” and a lot of Korean people like to shorten the word PUSH-UP(푸쉬업) to “푸샵”, so PU# means PUSHUP.

Look at the delicate single-handed push-up(PU#) that this PUMA is doing!

What was your favorite? Any quesions welcome!