How to Speak KPOP: Mastering the Most Popular Korean Words from K-POP and Talking Like a Real Fan

By Jungho Park

Wouldn't it be amazing if you could understand what your favorite Kpop idol says to you or the jokes from your favorite Korean drama on Netflix?

How to Speak KPOP is all about helping you to understand Korean words from the pop culture without getting into too much Korean grammar or any boring language textbook type of study.<

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cambridge Dynasty Press LLC
• Release date: Nov 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781735784410

Jungho Park

Jungho can usually be found dancing quietly to KPOPa songs in his kitchen. He is a native Korean speaker from the beautiful harbor city of Busan, South Korea. Tutoring both Korean and English was a big part of his life, and writing fun and accessible book for the Korean language & Korean culture enthusiasts was always on his bucket list. Eventually, with How to Speak KPOP it has become a reality. When not absorbed in grooving and goofing around, Jungho loves flying a small plane all over Boston shorelines with the privilege of his private pilot license, traveling to new places with his husband, and telling dad jokes to their fur-daughter Jindo Snowy, rescued and adopted from Korea.

Book preview

About the Author

Jungho can usually be found dancing quietly to KPOP songs in his kitchen. He is a native Korean speaker from the beautiful harbor city of Busan, South Korea.

Tutoring both Korean and English was a big part of his life, and writing a fun and accessible book for Korean language & Korean culture enthusiasts was always on his bucket list. Eventually, with How to Speak KPOP it has become a reality.

When not absorbed in grooving and goofing around, Jungho loves flying a small plane all over Boston shorelines with the privilege of his private pilot license, traveling to new places with his husband, and telling dad jokes to their fur-daughter Jindo Snowy, rescued and adopted from Korea.

How to Speak K-POP

Introduction

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could understand what your favorite Kpop idol says to you or the jokes from your favorite Korean drama on Netflix?

How to Speak KPOP is all about helping you to understand Korean words from the pop culture without getting into too much Korean grammar or any boring language textbook type of study.

Here is the truth.

Korean language and KPOP language are two very different things. Korean pop culture has an exceptionally unique language and it still evolves further as the K-POP, K-Drama, and K-Movies have been expanding to other countries and beloved by other language speakers. Some KPOP words wouldn’t be easy for even a native Korean speaker to even guess what they mean. That’s because it requires a deep understanding of the cultural background first before anything else.

How to Speak KPOP is the most straightforward guide book to learn Korean words from Korean dramas, movies, and pop culture. It uniquely combines the most popular Korean slang words and trendy phrases that cannot be found in the ordinary Korean language textbook. And it will give you a full explanation of the cultural background of the word and help you to understand why it is being used like that.

This book will give you a fun and easy way to learn the most popular Korean words one by one.

It will also help you to know how the word is pronounced with the Romanized alphabet. Please don’t forget to read and say a word from the examples. The examples are thoughtfully picked to sound just like a native and a true KPOP fan who knows what KPOP language is all about.

Try out words you learned to your Korean friend or write a fan letter with them to your favorite idol star. They will be pleasantly surprised.

Learning a foreign language is very rewarding, and learning a cultural background even opens your eyes and heart to a whole new experience. You will get both from this book!

Goma-wayo!

(Thanks!)

Learning a foreign language without understanding the culture behind is like trying to love someone without knowing that person.

- Jungho Park

Table of Contents

About the Author

Introduction

Essential Korean Alphabet

How to Use This Book

How to Speak K-POP

Appendix

Bonus Track

Author’s Note

Essential Korean Alphabet

Before we get into all the words and phrases, let’s cover the essential things of the Korean Alphabet first. This is so simple but very important. You can read anything in Korean and pronounce everything in Korean when you know 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Total 24 sounds in the Korean alphabet, That’s it! How easy is this, right?

There are additional vowels and consonants derived from those 24 sounds, but once you know the basic 24 sounds first, others come easy. Let’s look into it!

14 Basic Consonants

10 Basic Vowels

And these are the 5 additional consonants called tense consonants. They are doubled from the basic consonants. So they are like supersized consonants pronouncing harder and stiffer voice. You may find it hard to differentiate when you hear the basic consonant and tense consonant because there is no such thing in English. But just remember that tensed consonants are a much harder sound.

5 Tense Consonants

And finally, 11 additional vowels are combined of two basic vowels together and they are called diphthongs. They are pronounced as two basic vowels combined simultaneously.

11 Diphthongs

This is it! It’s not that crazy, right? These are everything you need to know to read and pronounce any Korean words. If you memorize the first 24 basic Korean alphabets first, then additional ones, it will be much easier for you to understand the Romanized alphabet and pronounce it.

These essential components won’t make you speak Korean perfectly right away.

However, it will get you all the tools you need to read, write, and pronounce every single Korean word.

How to use this book

Each word consists of 3 parts:

Title

Explanation

Example

1. TITLE

2. Explanation

금손 is an antonym of 똥손[poopy hands]. It is an honorific slang to call a person being skillful and competent. The literal meaning of 금손 came from The Hands of Midas, which is about the Greek mythological king Midas with his special power turning everything he touches into gold. 금손 is a compliment for having superior and extraordinary skill sets.

(The main body part is the full explanation and the cultural background of the word. It gives the