Korean Text Message (SMS) Slang

I taught a couple of my students some English SMS (text message) abbreviations the other day - btw, idk, brb, ttyl, etc. - and they in return they taught me a little bit about the art of the Korean text message. Many of these I knew already, but I did pick up a few new tricks.

Some of these are common in spoken language as well, but this is primarily a list of slang expressions used in chat rooms and text messages.

If you know of any more, please add them in the comments!

ㅎㅎ 
ㅋㅋㅋ 
ㅋㄷㅋㄷ 
Laughing

ㄷㄷㄷ  
Trembling from fear, maybe the sound of teeth chattering (deu-deu-deu). [from 덜덜]

ㅂㅂ
Bye-bye.

ㅇㅋ
OK

ㅇㅇ
Yes / I understand / I agree / Shut up  (ng ng)

ㄴㄴ
No no.

ㅎㅇ
Hi. Short for 하이.

ㅗ
This can be used as a middle finger.

ㄱ ㅅ
Thanks (short for 감사합니다).

ㄱㅊ
It's OK (short for 괸찮아).

쩐다
Expression of anger, excitement, happiness, or any intense emotion. Kind of like "damn!", though it's not a bad word.

샘
Teacher (short for 선생님).

Korean Emoticons

(Used often by girls in particular)



^^
Happy face. By far the most common Korean emoticon in existence.

ㅠㅠ or ㅠ.ㅠ
Sad / Crying face. Perhaps a close second to ^^. Korean girls are very dramatic.

OTL
This is an entire crying person, who is so distraught he's on his hands and knees.

ㅡ ㅡ
Angry face.

ㅇㅅㅇ
Cute face.

(ㅡ_ㅡ)Zzzz

Sleeping.

This funny clip from 거침없이 하이킥 (High Kick) explains a few more in detail.

Get Travel Directions in Korea

I've seen some questions lately in Korea forums about getting directions.

If you don't know already, there is a FREE travel helpline for foreigners in Korea (in English, Chinese, and Japanese).

(Area code) + 1330

They can give you information from bus timetables to Mexican restaurant locations nearby, and in my experience they are generally on - or very close to - the money.

You MUST dial the local area code (02 for Seoul, 054 for Gyeongbuk, etc.) + 1330.

If you're dial the wrong area code, they won't be able to help you. If you're in Seoul and call 052-1330, they will tell you to hang up and call the Seoul extension.

Korea area codes

Seoul 02
Gyeonggi 031
Incheon 032
Gangwon 033
Busan 051
Daegu 053
Jeju 064
Daejeon 042
Ulsan 052
Gwangju 062
Gyeongnam 055
Gyeongbuk 054
Jeonnam 061
Jeonbuk 063
Chungnam 041
Chungbuk 043

Publish Your Travel Articles

You can find more places to publish travel writing in an updated post here. 

If you've ever considered publishing your travel writing but never knew how, here are some guidelines for magazines who want to publish your articles in print or online.

It's divided into three sections: General Travel, Asia Travel, and Korea.

Check back for updates.

General Travel

Matador Network
"The world's largest independent travel magazine" consists of 12 blogs, each with a different focus such as sports, traveling for change, and destination guides.

To contribute, read the full submission guidelines and upload an article on their contributors' page.

Draft guidelines:

1. Write an original draft that does not exceed 2,000 words.

Do not send an article that has already been published somewhere else, including any work that has been published as a blog.

2. Check your spelling, punctuation, grammar, and — important — facts. Submissions sent with numerous errors are unprofessional and will not be considered for publication.

3. Submissions received without all the accompanying information requested on the submission form will not be considered.

4. Do not include photos in your submission. If you have photos you’d like the editors to consider, please include a link to an online photo album in your draft. The same applies for photographers interested in submitting materials for a photo essay.

Matador Network pays $25 (Paypal) for published articles.

BootsnAll
A "one-stop indie travel guide," BootsnAll.com publishes 

• Feature Articles ($50)
• Expert Travel Articles ($30)
• Travel Essays ($20-40)

(Click on the links for guidelines specific to each.)


BootsnAll is looking for feature articles related to travel, which appeal to a wide audience (rather than an audience specific to people researching one destination). Articles can certainly be about one specific destination, as long as the theme or topic might interest a broad group of people. Large and famous cities and places do have some potential if your angle is really unique and attention-getting, but lesser-known places just don’t have a large enough audience on our site.

Feature Article Requirements & Rights Information

• Word Count: 1200-1600 words is preferred, though the word count will actually relate more to the topic of the article and to the number of points covered within it. We will generally accept anything from 1200-2800.
• Pay: $50 upon publication.
• Photos: One big, beautiful, eye-catching photo (that tells the same story as the text) is required for each item on your list. The photos don’t have to be yours - they just need to be Creative Commons licensed.
• Publication Rights: We are only interested in articles that aren’t yet published, and BootsnAll owns all future rights to the paid pieces you publish through us. If you prefer to maintain future rights, please submit your article through our unpaid articles program.

Asia Travel

Action Asia
"At the forefront of adventure travel since its inception in 1992, Action Asia is a 'must read' for outdoors types who want to do more with their time off than simply hang out on a crowded beach."

Action Asia does accept unsolicited submissions but please note the following points on the content:

• It should be based in Asia (though we stretch the definition to take in Australia, NZ, Siberia, Central Asia and even parts of the Middle East).
• It should be adventure-based - bikes and hikes not buses and trains; boarding in the surf not boarding a cruise.
• Great pictures are crucial. They need to be available as large files too. At 300dpi, a typical double-page spread pic is tens of Mb and even small spot pics are 1-2Mb minimum.
• It should be as edgy and off-the-beaten-track as possible eg. no general travelogues on the 'adventure' of discovering Thailand please. It has been discovered. Tell me how you biked the entire coastline or helped open up some new climbing routes. As a further pointer, places such as much of China and India, Central Asia, Papua New Guinea and the more remote Indonesian and Philipine islands would all make good subjects.

If you have a story that fits these requirements, send the text and some sample low res pics to Steve White (Editor-in-Chief) at aa@bluincmedia.com.


Action Asia typically pays $100 per page for a package of words & photographs.

Korea

10 Magazine

From their submissions page:

If you would like to become a contributor for 10 Magazine’s blog or website, just send an email to contribute@10magazine.asia, and tell us how you would like to contribute. Some ideas:

Article photography

Writing Articles

Blog entries

Website management

Vlogging

Video editing

Here are some additional guidelines from Assistant Editor David Carruth:

1) We prefer receiving a query first to establish the possibility of an article but will consider completed article submissions. However, interested writers should know that they may have to edit their article considerably to meet our standards and formatting requirements.

2) We're looking for anyone who is passionate about living in Korea and sharing their experiences and expertise with others.

3) Most of our feature articles are written by volunteers and freelancers. Other content is usually written by the staff.

4) As most of our writers and photographers are not legally able to be compensated for their submissions, 10 Magazine does not generally pay its contributors, though we do sometimes offer gift certificates of various kinds.

Article length depends on the content and its location in the magazine, but they generally accept pieces between 500 and 1500 words.

Marco Polo In the Classroom, or, "Oh my God there's so much blood!"

It started innocently enough. I just wanted to plan a simple classroom game that got the students to move but required them to use English to play.

If you never played "Marco Polo" in the swimming pool when you were younger, well, you probably didn't grow up in America. Marco Polo is a blind-man tag game based on hearing only. In the game, one kid - eyes closed - is "It". Whenever he yells "Marco!" the rest of the players must yell "Polo!", unless they are underwater. When "It" finds and tags another player, that kid becomes "It" and the game continues until Mom is ready to go home or someone wants to play a better game like "Sharks and Minnows".
 

Cartoon used by special permission
off the mark / one-a-day calendars

I thought this was a great set-up for an English-speaking game in the classroom. In "Classroom Marco Polo", one kid is "It". Everyone moves around in a designated space until "It" yells "Stop!" Then "It" must ask a practiced question like "What's your name?" or "What's your favorite food?" The other players must answer as many times as the question is asked.

"It" can take one giant step in any direction to try to tag another player. The other players can move their bodies to avoid being touched, but if they move their feet they become "It".

In the cut-throat version of the game, whenever a student is tagged, he becomes "It" but then must leave the game after tagging another player. The last player left without being tagged is the winner.

Unfortunately, whenever you let repressed, over-disciplined high school students - especially boys - loose in a game that involves blindness and physical contact, accidents are bound to happen. Glasses will get knocked across the room; kids will fall down; and one boy will swing his hand around wildly until he punches another boy in the mouth and splits his lip, which erupts into a crimson geyser across tables, chairs, and the floor. Seriously. So much blood.

I slowed down the bleeding with a wad of toilet paper and took the boy to the teacher's office, where they called his mom. All I really understood from the rushed conversation was "waygook shigan", or "foreigner time", so I had to fill in the rest of the conversation for myself. It went something like

"Hi, this is I-dong High School. Your son was in class with our foreigner-in-residence and now he's bleeding to death. Please come pick him up."

Personally, I didn't think the cut looked that bad. It just bled a lot. But I saw him the next day, after his visit to the hospital, and his lip was bandaged up so heavily he could barely speak.

Classroom Marco Polo Rule #1: No punching.

Pohang Polar Plunge 2011

To celebrate the beginning of a new calendar year, I convinced a group of 9 intrepid English teachers in Pohang to jump in the ocean on January 2nd.  It was a blast, and not as torturous as you might expect swimming in freezing water to be. After we got out, we were all quite exhilarated and happy, and only mildly cold.


Pohang Polar Plunge 2011 from jonnyontheroad on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

I celebrated the start of 2011 by climbing Jirisan to watch the sunrise.

Here's a video:


Sunrise on the Summit from Jonny ontheroad on Vimeo.