Dazzled By Korean #5
I keep getting surprised not matter how much age I eat.
I love expressions.
Some translate well into other languages. Some don’t. They are a window into how the subtle beauty of a language and its culture.
The way people speak transpires through the way they speak day after day, often without even realizing it.
This is something I spent the past month implicitly feeling as I translated conversations during family meals into English for my Burmese sister-in-law. While no particular example stuck out for me in my personal life, this Korean podcast episode suddenly made me realize the gymnastics I was doing in my head daily.
And, as an interesting coincidence, I listened to it while walking to a class that turned out to be all about Korean expressions.
But what caused that realization in the first place?
Well, the podcaster said “[…]그 때, 나이를 먹… 그 때, 나이가 들수록... .” It made me smile as I recognized the podcaster was trying to make her content more accessible to Korean learners who might not know this expression.
Indeed, the verb “to age” or “to get older” in Korean is officially 나이가 듣다 (nai-ga deudta, “to take age”) but everybody uses: 나이를 먹다 (nai-leul meokda) instead.
To eat age.
This is a very common expression. But there’s more. So much more.
It’s all about food
“To eat age” wasn’t the first food-related Korean expression I discovered on my Korean journey.
It was the salutation 밥 먹었어? (bab meokeosseo?)
“Have you eaten?”
If you’ve ever studied Korean, you’ve likely come across it. You might know this without having ever studied Korean too. And you might have even looked it up online out of curiosity.
This expression means what it translates into but it’s commonly used as a salutation. An equivalent to “Hi” or “How’ve you been?” that became common during the Korean War, when food was scarce and having eaten meant we were well. While it is all about food, the real question was always hidden behind it.
To be honest, I haven’t heard it much these days but I reckon older generations still use it.
Now now now, if you thought that was it, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is Dazzled By Korean. ✨ Not Curious about Korean.
There are so many more. Some I’ve now known for years. Some I recently first heard and could understand from context. Some I didn’t understand at all.
Here are some easy ones first:
마음을 먹다 (maeum-eul meokda) → To make up one’s mind
Literally, “to eat mind/heart”
욕을 먹다 (yok-eul meokda) → To be scolded, to be criticized
Literally, “to eat swear words/curses)
더위를 먹다 (deoui-leul meokda) → To suffer from the heat, to get heatstroke
Literally, “to eat heat”
겁을 먹다 (keob-eul meokda) → To be scared, to be frightened
Literally, “to eat fear”
한턱을 먹다 (hanteok-eul meokda) → To be treated by someone (to food or drink)
Literally, “to eat a treat”
친구를 먹다 (chingu-leul meokda) → To become friends
Literally, “to eat friends”
So far, so good, right? If you know the vocabulary, you can get it from context. Some are interesting to picture mentally, such as eating friends, but nothing too crazy.
Yet.
Here are a few more I definitely would not have gotten on my own:
미역국을 먹다 (miyeokguk-eul meokda) → To fail an exam
Literally, “to eat seaweed soup”
Seaweed is traditionally eaten by Koreans on birthdays so this may imply a fresh start after a failure
국수를 먹다 (kuksu-leul meokda) → To get married
Literally, “to eat noodles”
Noodles are often served at weddings in Korea, which is why older generations often tell the younger ones not yet married “언제 국수 먹게 해줄거야?” (When will you make me eat noodles?)
까마귀 고기를 먹다 (kkamagui kogi-leul meokda) → To be forgetful1
Literally, “to eat crow meat”
It seems to originate from a Korean folklore belief that crows could erase memories and that eating its meat would also cause memory loss.
I remembered this expression with a simple mnemonic: Even kids remember not to put their hands in fire so you’d have to be extremely forgetful to keep eating crow meat.
I discovered these three expressions during my Korean-French Interpretation and Translation class I recently started. I loved how the two firsts turned a culturally-ingrained habit into an expression very clear to those who know of it.
As for the third, I mean, how could you not remember it once you’ve heard of it?
I’m sure there are many more I’ve yet to see.
This all got me curious about my own language, French. Did we also have expressions related to food? None came to mind so I asked my buddy ChatGPT. Turns out, we do!… but most were expressions that were actually related to eating or the mouth, such as “manger sur le pouce” (to eat on the thumb) for “to eat quickly”; or “manger ses mots” (to eat one’s words) for “to mumble” or “to regret something said.”
Still, a few others less used and that sounded somehow familiar came up, such as:
Manger à tous les râteliers → To seek profit from multiple sources2
Literally, “to eat from every hayrack/manger”
En manger sa cravate → To be extremely frustrated (and regretful)
Literally, “to eat one’s tie”
It was good to be reminded of these as I hadn’t heard them in a while and wouldn’t have been able to come up with them on my own. I love to discover about my own language while studying another!
Anyway. This is Dazzled by Korean, not Dazzled by French. French sure rocks, true, but—wow—Korean really takes the cake3 when it comes to food-related expressions!
After all, their expressions are all very—very— common ones.
Know more Korean expressions related to eating? Let me know!
And let me know if you know some weird ones like “to eat crow” in any other language too!
Cheers for reading,
Mathias
Fun mind-blowing-to-me fact, it seems this expression exists in English too! According to Wikipedia, it “means humiliation by admitting having been proven wrong after taking a strong position.”
There’s a very negative connotation to it. It’s really about taking advantage of every opportunity or situation for one's own benefit, nothing like having a side hustle for example.
Pun very much intended 😁