안녕하세요 여러분! Today I have a new kind of lesson for you all: it’s about Hanja! If you don’t know what Hanja is, it’s “Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation,” according to Korean Wiki Project. Korean words that feature the same borrowed character often have a shared meaning of some sort, which is why Hanja is good to know! If you know the meaning of one word with a character, you might be able to figure out another word with the same character without even using a dictionary!
To start this series of lessons, I wanted to start with the character 최; I got an ask about some words starting with it and thought it’d be helpful to make a short lesson about it :) I’m also going to post this on my Instagramsoon as well, so go check it out there too! Let’s start!
I hope this short list of words has been helpful – let me know what you think and if you’d like to see more of these! Maybe in the future I can break down the entire word – instead of just explaining what 최 means, for instance, I can explain what 애 means too, for example. Lmk your thought! See you in the next lesson! 다음에 또 봐요!
Recently I have been interested in the military draft system in Korea, so I wrote a small explanation of some of it and am leaving it here :) In Korea I often met people who did special work instead of military service, or had exemptions for various reasons I didn’t completely understand. So I did some research, and it’s pretty interesting, in my opinion.
Draft Assignment
This conscription system is called a 징병제, and the military service is called 병역. Those who are drafted either get drafted into active duty(현역), or into non-active duty. Being drafted into active duty is referred to as 징집, while being drafted into another service is called 소집. Those non-active duty services include the reserve(예비역) and what is referred to as ‘supplemental duty’ (보충역) which includes a variety of alternative services (대체복무).
Those in active service go into the army (육군) or the marine corps (해병) for 21 months, the navy (해군) for 23 months, or the air force (공군) for 24 months.
The types of 대체복무 are as follows:
1. 공익근무요원 Public Interest Service Personnel
2. 국제협력봉사요원 International Cooperation Personnel
3. 예술·체육요원 Arts and Sports Personnel
4. 산업기능요원 Skilled Industrial Personnel
5. 전문연구요원 Technical Research Personnel
6. 국제협력의사 International Cooperation Doctor
7. 공익법무관 Public Service Advocate
8. 공중보건의사 Public Health Doctor
9. 징병전담의사 Draft Physical Doctor (ie, a doctor who gives draftees physical examinations)
1&2 serve for 24 months, 3&4 serve for 34 months, and 5~9 serve for 36 months.
Obviously, those who qualify to do service in these special 대체복무 categories are exceptional, highly-skilled individuals. The most hotly-contested among them is the 예술·체육요원 category which applies to athletes who receive any Olympic medal, athletes who win gold at the Asian Games or other major sport events, artists who win first or second place in specific art contests and artists who receive education in intangible cultural artifacts (traditional Korean music, dance, etc). The reasoning behind giving special treatment to these athletes are artists is simple: they deserve exemption because they have done amazing feats to bring glory to Korea and Korean cultural on an international scale. But why does that reasoning apply to some artists and not others? A Korean idol group ranking first on the Billboard Artist 100 chart also brings glory to Korea on an international scale, and yet those idols don’t receive special treatment in regards to military service. So fans are understandably upset about the nonsensical reasoning behind this particular law.
There are seven levels of health one can receive in the initial physical examination. Those ranked 1~3 go to 현역, and 4 to 보충역. High schools dropouts (or those who didn’t attend high school at all) go to 보충역 even if they are ranked 1~3.
Those who rank 5 receive “time-of war” status (전시근로역) also known as “second eligible conscription status” (제2국민역), which means that they receive exemption and would only be drafted in the case that an emergency mobilization order is sent out at a time of war. Those in this category only need to undergo civil defense training (민방위 훈련) and not the official military training.
Anyone who ranks 6 or lower (ie, is in very poor health) receives exemption and does not need to undergo any training at all.
The other special circumstances for receiving an exemption from military service (면제) or eligibility for 전시근로역/보충역 are as follows:
1. 생계유지 곤란사유: Those who have a certain number of dependents they must take care of > 전시근로역
2. 수형사유: Those who are convicts > 전시근로역
3. 고아사유: Those whose parents died before the age of 13 and had no other family to care of them, or otherwise spent 5+ years living in an orphanage facility > 전시근로역
4. 귀화자 사유: Those who became naturalized in another country > 전시근로역
5. 전.공상자 가족: Those who have a parent or sibling who died in battle or suffered an injury in battle ranked 6 or higher in severity > 6 months in 보충역
6. 성전환자: Those who’ve had sex-reassignment surgery > 전시근로역
7. 군사분계선 이북지역 이주 사유: Those who live north of the Military Demarcation Line > 면제
8. 질병/심신장애: Those who have a serious disease and/or a mental or physical disorder > 면제
Draft Evasion (병역비리)
Those who refuse to go to the military for moral reasons are called conscientious objectors (양심적 병역 거부자) and are sent to prison for 3+ years, making them eligible for 전시근로역 as convicts. Some argue that people with religious objections to violence should receive exemption from the draft without being sent to prison, but alas, this is a difficult exemption to create because anyone who doesn’t want to go to the military for any reason at all could use it under the guise of fabricated moral outrage.
There are also those who go out of their way to evade military service through deceptive means. This ranges from forging documents, pulling out one’s teeth, eating oneself into obesity, faking addictions/mental health problems, purposefully damaging tendons/ligaments/bones etc.
I highly recommend this article about how Korean celebrities who had draft evasion scandals suffered a bigger hit on their reputation (and went to prison longer) than those who had scandals related to sexual misconduct, drugs, gambling and drunk driving. Basically, being a draft evader is one of the worst things you can do as a Korean celebrity (or any Korean person).
Imagine you hear some unfortunate news, and you feel a jolt feeling in your heart (almost like lightning struck your heart). You may feel uncetain and scared about what happened or what may happen next. This idiom can also be translated into a similar meaning to “one’s heart sinks” and can also be seen used like 가슴이 철렁 내려 앉다.
Example sentences: 1. 고향에 태풍이 온다는 소식을 듣고 가슴이 철렁했어요. I was shocked (with fear) when I heard a typhoon was headed for my hometown. 2. 헤어지자는 그녀의 말에 가슴이 철렁 내려앉았어요. My heart sank when she said we should split up. 3. 제 할아버지가 응급실에 실려간다는 소식을 듣고 가슴이 철렁했어요. I was shocked when I heard my grandfather is being rushed to the emergency rooom.
Vocabulary: -고향: Hometown -태풍: Typhoon/hurricane -소식: News -헤어지다: To break up -응급실에 실려가다: To be rushed to the emergency room
사회적 거리두기 – social distancing 마스크 착용 – wearing a mask 마스크 미착용 – not wearing a mask (손) 소독제 – hand sanitizer 확진자 – confirmed patient (someone who’s tested positive) 검사 – test 음성 – negative 양성 – positive 격리 – quarantine 재택근무 – working from home 밀접 접촉 – close contact 비접촉식 체온계 – contactless thermometer
