After a few more episodes of SangDoo, I realized the sunsingyim bomb is getting dropped everywhere. The teacher is sunsingyim. The doctor is sunsingyim. The principal is sunsingyim. I'm just going to think of the word as meaning "honored person." Hopefully, sometime in the near future, I'll get to the bottom of it...

Then there's ajumma as a greeting, ajumma as an entreaty, ajumma as a title, ajumma as a description. I feel as if I've learned the two most useful words in Korean even though I couldn't properly define either one if I tried!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ajumma as a greeting? I don't understand.

Seonsangnim is "teacher" and it's used as a title of honor. Usually you say "doctor teacher" to the doctor. Also, police officers can be seonsangnim.

Ajumma means "auntie" and is used when speaking to middle aged women. Ajosshi, uncle, is used for middle agged men.

Halmoni and halabeoji are used for grandmother and grandfather--elderly people.

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