By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
March 14, 2023
First of all, thanks to everyone who has subscribed already! Several of you have asked if I’ve had any unusual questions asked. I don’t know if this counts as unusual, but I found this query to be amusing. Someone who recently started watching Korean shows asked, “Do Koreans swear?”
Yessssssssssssssssssssss.
This question reminded me of when I was little. Some of my friends were fascinated that I could speak a language other than English. They were curious if I could, you know, swear in Korean. Back then, I could not. I came to the U.S. before I started kindergarten and my parents never cursed in any language. So where would I learn to swear, right?
But thanks to Korean dramas, I’ve become accustomed to all kinds of 욕 (yok). Here are some of my favorite Korean swear words that I’m going to share with you.
You’re welcome!
꺼져 (guh jyuh): You’ll hear this phrase the most. It’s a rude way of saying get lost.
미친놈 (me cheen nom): Crazy bastard.
새끼 (saekki): The literal meaning is young animal. The word is also often used to fondly refer to one’s own children. But depending on the tone and context, the word morphs from affectionate to angry.
개새끼 (geh saekki): 개 means dog in Korean. This phrase basically means son of a bitch.
씨발 (sshi bal): This is the equivalent of fuck and you’ll hear it in a lot of TV-MA shows (like Squid Game). You can even hear me say it on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. (To be fair, they were asking me to talk about Netflix’s subtitles and translations.) I’m only slightly exaggerating when I tell you this was the most commonly uttered word on the family-friendly reality fitness challenge Physical: 100. Every other word was 씨발, though Netflix opted not to include fuckkkkkk in its subtitles
씨 (sshi): This is a less foul version of 씨발. It’s more like saying dammit. 씨 sounds a lot like 쉬 (shwe), which isn’t a swear word at all. It basically means urinate and is used by young children when they have to pee.
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