김家네
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008Hi everyone. Back with another Korean 간판(signboard). This is not “funny” but very interesting.
I live just across the street from my university so it’s very convenient whenever I receive a last-minute phone call to cancel an appointment and also when I want to meet someone around school.
One day, a friend of mine from Australia called me and asked,
“Do you want to have lunch together?”
So I said,
“Yes, where shall we meet? Where do you want to go?”
So she said that she wanted to go to “김네” but I had never heard of such place near my university so I asked her back, “김네? (wondering what it could mean) Where is it? I don’t think I know the place.”
She sounded surprised that I didn’t know this place because it was literally just around the corner from my house. And the place she took me to was this place in the photo.
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Do you get it now?
My friend had been in Korea only for a few weeks and she wasn’t really aware of the fact that a lot of Korean words can be written in Chinese characters as well, although we pronounce them differently from how the Chinese or Japanese do. (Learn more about this in this newsfeed)
So basically MOST Korean people, if they look at this name “김家네” and read it as “김가네” because家(가, meaning ‘house’ or ‘family) is one of the basic Hanja(Chinese character) words that they learn in elementary school, and get to see everywhere. I’m not trying to say that my friend was ignorant of what she was supposed to know, and actually her Korean got really better during her stay. When I saw this shop again on my way home the other day, I wanted to share with you all of you readers how 한자(Hanja) is very commonly found in Korea.
And this is a very clever name too, because 김(as in 김밥=Kimbap) means laver (and I’m sure you know what 김밥 is. If you don’t, please see the photos below.)
“네”, when it’s attached to “a family name + 가(家: house/family)”, means (again) “house” or “family”. And “김” happens to be the word for both “laver” but also the most common family name. So if it weren’t a shop name, 김가네(金家네) means [Kim’s family] or [the Kims].
The “ㅇ가네” expression is not so commonly used these days, but it’s still a clever restaurant name to give people a very familiar and intimate feeling, while being very obvious that they sell as well.
Alright. Thank you for reading, and see you next week!
Posted by Hyunwoo in Humor in Korean |
January 16th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I think this idea of words connoting a “feeling” is really interesting. In America, a bar or café might be called something like “Donald’s Place” or simply “Michael’s” which I think is kind of parallel. However, I certainly don’t think of such a place as being especially welcoming or intimate.
Yet in Korean words really carry a lot of emotional weight. This isn’t to say they don’t in English, but that it shows up more often in Korean. My favorite example is “우리”which means “us”, or “our.” It gets used in a lot of situations. You may be familiar with someone saying “우리 집” or “우리 엄마” (my house / my wife)… even when an English speaker would say “my house.”
Here’s another case where “우리” is used. A teacher, when addressing the whole class might say something like “우리 현우 시험을 잘 봤죠?” (literally Our Hyunwoo did really well on his test, didn’t he!?) In English, a teacher wouldn’t say “Our” but when 현우 hears that, I think it makes him feel like he’s part of the class. Ir reinforces the group mentality so prevalent in Korean culture.
As for “Our wife”….? Well, it’s just something to get used to!
January 16th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Yeah, a very interesting point, Austin!
우리 엄마, 우리 집, 우리 아빠, 우리 선생님 all meaning my mother, my house, my father, my teacher in Korean can be a very new concept for a lot of foreigners.
And as for “my wife”, a lot of Korean men say “우리 집사람” but since the word “집사람” literally means “house + person”, more and more younger people are starting to use the word “와이프” instead. So it becomes something like 우리 와이프…
But no one really gets it wrong and it’s always interpreted as “my wife” so I’d say it’s safe to say 우리 와이프 in Korea.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:14 am
아..’김家네’라는 이름,진짜 좋네요~
저도 ‘김飯네!!’라는 이름을 생각해 보았는데..
아..재미없네..
January 17th, 2008 at 8:38 am
‘김飯네!!→‘김飯이네!!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:40 am
하하 . 좋은 생각이네요. “김반이네”?
그런데 한 가지 작은 문제는..
한국 사람들은 飯라는 한자를 잘 몰라요 ㅠ.ㅠ
January 17th, 2008 at 9:02 am
그래요?ㅠㅜㅠㅜ
근데 제가 생각한 이름은 ‘김밥이네!!’이었는데..
飯（めし）→→밥.
잘못 했지?
飯（めし）→→밥.ㅎㅎ
어렵다~~.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:09 am
좋은 생각인데, 飯은 한국어에서 “반”이라고 읽히기 때문에 사람들이 모를 수가 있어요.
金밥이네! 는 어때요? ㅎㅎㅎ
김밥이네!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:39 am
넵! 金밥이네!, 좋네요.ㅎㅎ
김밥이네!!
역시 저 잘 못했었네요.
飯라는 한자는 ‘반’이라서 밥이 아니네요.
다시 좋은 것을 가르쳐 줘서 정말 고마워요
January 17th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I too experienced many people who were new to speaking Korean (including me!) call 김家네 just “김네” when I spent time in Korea.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Hyunwoo Sun!
It was very interesting! I want to go there too. :grin
S_R_C
January 18th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Jeff
you experienced that too? Heh heh. Many of my friends would say something like “oh, I didn’t even know there was something written between 김 and 네.” 
Sindy! Thank you.
If you ever come to Korea, I’ll take you there!
January 26th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Dear god look at that 김밥 ……. *drools*
January 26th, 2008 at 9:13 am
hehe Tali, do you like 김밥?