milkcocoahkorean: Today’s word is 진상. This isn’t really word that you use everyday, but

milkcocoahkorean:

Today’s word is 진상. This isn’t really word that you use everyday, but I love this word. You can find it in the “open” never dictionary under 진상 손님 (rude customer). It’s a slang word, often shortened to “진상” to refer to a rude customer, but it’s a bit stronger. It’s kind of between a normal word and a swear word. 

For example, someone who is yelling, rudely asking for a manager, throwing things, swearing, or passive aggressively harassing the employees. It’s even someone who is too drunk in a restaurant. It’s basically someone who makes the employee’s life harder.

Here is a translation of the little comic.

First picture.

월요일 오후 2시 Monday 2PM

커피가 왜 아직 안 나왔냐구우우우?! (I asked) why hasn’t my coffee come ooout?!

집에 갈래…I wanna go home.

저 아저씨가 완전 진상이야..That man is such a rude-ass customer.

알바생이 불쌍해…That poor part-timer.

소리 지를 필요는 없지…Yeah, there is no need to yell.

알바생이 불쌍하다 literally means “the part-time worker is pitiable,” but I think that English speakers tend to say “poor part-timer/poor kid/poor girl” a lot more often in the same context. Korean uses both 불쌍한 알바생 (poor part-timer) and 알바생이 불쌍하다 quite often. 

Second picture.

월요일 오후 3시 Monday 3PM

오빠가 너무 했다. 미안하다. (I) Big brother was a little too much. Sorry.

전화 번호를 좀 줄래? Would you give me your number?

ㅅㅂ 그만둘래…F**k I wanna quit…

헐 진상 아냐, 미친 ㅅㄲ야! Oh my god…he isn’t a rude customer. He’s a crazy bastard.

ㅅㅂ and ㅅㄲ are both ways of censoring Korean swear words in webtoons or texts. Many webtoons have to be clean to some extent because children can read them, so authors often avoid censorship by using the first letter of each syllable in the swear word or some variation of the pronunciation. 

People don’t always want to swear, so it’s pretty common in texts too. My friends use these shortened phrases quite often in text, and use the full words when they really mean it haha. ㅅㅂ is close to the F word, and ㅅㄲ is like a bastard, but it’s used more often than the English word “bastard" in my opinion. 미친 person (crazy person) also has a much more negative nuance in Korean. So, it’s actually much stronger than it’s English counterpart. I’d be a little more careful using it.

Here are some more examples of 진상.

어제 카페에서 알바했을 때 진상이 와서 너무 힘들었어요. I had such a hard time when I was working at my part-time job in a cafe yesterday because some jerk customer came in.

내 친구가 말해줬는데 저 사람 진짜 진상이래. My friend told me this, but (she says) that guy over there is a super rude customer.

커피가 잘못 나왔지만..그냥 마시지 뭐..진상 떨기 싫어. My coffee came out wrong, but…I’m just going to drink it…I don’t want to act like a rude customer.

진상 떨다 is a slang for “to act like a rude customer.”

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