“Do You Text in Korean? Here’s How to Make Your Texts Friendlier”

Just one of the many clever blog posts from Seoulistic.com

Original content by Keith of Seoulistic.com

If you’re living in Korea, texting in Korean will become a part of daily life. Make sure you do as the Koreans do and  make your texts are friendly and cute so you don’t seem like a jerk. Here’s a few simple ways you can make sure your texts seem nicer:

Add a tilde (~)

If you’re an English texter, you probably don’t have much use for the tilde (the squiggly line next to  the number 1 on keyboards). But if you’re going to text in Korean, you’ll find yourself using this in no time as it  adds a tiny bit of friendliness to any statement you make. It essentially represents stretching of the vowels (think 잖 아-jana). Watch and learn:

미워 (miweo) – I don’t like you.

(Potential reaction: Darn! Why you gotta hate yo!)

미워 ~ – I don’t like you~

(Aww… why you gotta be like that?)

Add ㅎ or ㅋ to the end of anything:

ㅎ and ㅋ are the equivalent to “haha” in English. They’re the sounds people  make when they laugh. So even if you’re not laughing at anything, just sticking it in there will make your texts seem  lighter in nature. See what a few simple ㅎ or ㅋ can do to a sentence:

식물이 죽었어 (shikmuli jukeosseo) – “the  plant is dead”

(Geez, you don’t beat around the bush do you?)

식물이 죽었어 ㅋㅋㅋ – “the plant is dead hahaha”

(haha, dead plants are funny!)

Add an Emoticon to the End of your Statements:

Have you checked out Seoulistic.com’s list of Korean emoticons?  It’s crazy helpful. But for this, if you don’t want to express any specific emotion via text and just want to make  yourself seem friendlier, use the most generic Korean emoticon: ^^. Even a sad face, the most common being ㅜㅜ,  is well appreciated by Korean texters. Watch people love you more when you use emoticons:

오빠 취소해서 미안 해 (oppa chwisohaeseo mianhae) – Sorry for canceling.

(Whatever…)

오빠 취소해서 미안해 ㅜㅜ – Sorry for canceling.

(Aww… she’s being genuine!)

오빠 취소해서 미안해 ^^ – Sorry for canceling.

(Oh, it’s all good baby girl!)

A Q&A with Keith!

Q: How long do you spend on each article? Is it all based on your observation / experience?

A: I watched a lot of Seinfeld as a kid and tend to over analyze every little thing that happens. So I think that helped [me] analyze every little bit of living in Korea and ultimately helps me with coming up with ideas. Ideas don’t take too long to come up with; the writing part does! I do it by myself so sometimes the longer ones can take up to  7 hours including the research. And I still have typos!

Q: What else do you do in your free time in Korea?  

A: I used to go clubbing and to the bars pretty often, but now I get tired more easily. These days ive been playing a  lot of screen golf and playstation. It’s a Korean-American bachelor lifestyle 🙂

Q: We read on the blog that you work for UNESCO.  How did you get involved?

A: I just got lucky! I’m the English editor, which is a part-time gig and ironic considering all the typos on seoulistic.com. It was only supposed to be a temp job, but they liked my work so I’m still there 🙂 the inspiration for this blog is based on my previous experience and success on the web (used to run a site teaching Korean on a  podcast – koreanclass101.com).

Keith is an entrepreneurial Korean American living in Seoul. Check out his website and some of the other blogs  that he recommends! My friends: talktomeinkorean.com – for teaching Korean language. Seouleats.com – restaurant reviews in Seoul. Koreabang.com – Korean news translated into English.