It's fun to see a video about this. I got introduced to Korea by (prepare your cringes now) an app game called Mystic Messenger, and the characters there were asking you if you ate 2-3x daily. Westerners playing the game were so bemused by it that it became kind of a meme, but I really liked it because the focus on food encouraged and reminded me to eat at a time when I was living alone and extremely ill. It felt nice because they'd always ask "have you eaten breakfast?" in the morning and when I said "no" they would lecture me about the importance of breakfast or give me easy-to-make recipes, some of which I actually wound up making (baby's first omurice). It was a time in my life where having food and being able to eat was not a guarantee, and I think from that I was able to immediately feel that this was a Korean way of asking after my wellbeing. It also felt more genuine because when an American asks "how are you" you're really only allowed to say that "you're fine" or "a little tired" at worse. It's awkward if you actually say you're not well, because generally they're not actually asking how you are, it's more of a greeting.
@@whitneysmiltank Awww, thank you for saying so. Yeah I actually didn't discover kpop or kdramas until the game got me curious, and I started learning Korean at that time so I could play the game in the original language since the translation... well it got better once it became popular but at first the translation was very awkward and hard to understand in places lol. Before then, my only introduction was a Korean restaurant I'd gone to nearby... not realizing it was Korean... It's embarrassing but I had no idea what Korea was back in like the early 00s when I moved out of the house. I ate at the restaurant because it was nearby, but the waiters did not speak English and the menu was 100% in Korean (I learned later it was there because a car factory nearby had a lot of Korean workers). I was just ordering things at random and trying to figure out how to eat them LOL. Imagine my surprise when I recognized the "strange language" from the restaurant as being in this game. X"D
oh man i was obsessed with this game, but back then i wasn't interested in korean culture at all so i didn't really notice anything like that. but then i decided to play it again, this time in korean, but realized that my korean still wasn't good enough and there was more that i didn't understand than what i did so i postponed it until later when i get better:(
The “I’m fine, thanks, you?” reply is very English as well. ‘Stiff upper lip’ meant never showing emotion (ie wobbly lip = about to cry) even a broad smile was looked down on though not any more. Except for “the haunted pencil”, Jacob Rees Mogg, (English MP “for the 18th century”) most people are more comfortable showing a full range of emotions, though honest about them only with very close people and even then often only after much alcohol. I like the Korean way. I’m always forgetting to eat and need people greeting me like this!
I agree with my fellow commenter, that it's not cringy at all but rather sweet actually. It gave you a little ray of sunshine when your days felt full of clouds,so that's nice
The street interviews are certainly some of my most favourite videos of yours, because it feels like learning about culture and also acquiring more native-like speech patters as well! I love listening to both you and natives speak in korean.
oooh I've seen Korean fans asking idols this on lives, I didn't know it was more of a casual greeting than an actual question, that's cool thank you for the video
That’s why I love this country this culture and people ! It doesn’t seem to me strange at all because they are very caring people They went through tough times and they appreciate the food! Thank you Billy for letting us know more things for their culture ! Great video 🥳🥳🥳 !I Please make moreeee ! 💕Thumbs 🆙
Basically 밥 = rice = meal 밥 먹었냐? = Did you eat? = How are you doing? 밥맛 없는 놈 = That guy makes my rice taste bad = What a douchebag 밥은 먹고 다니냐? = You don't skip your rice, do you? = Are you doing well? 언제 밥 한 번 먹어요 = Let's have a meal together sometime = Let's meet again -> We never meet actually tho 밥벌이는 하냐? = Do you earn your rice? = Do you make money and bring bread and butter on your table? 밥값은 해야지 = You should earn your rice = No work, no food 밥이 안 넘어가 = I can swallow my rice = I'm so worried or anxious or stressed that I can eat my meal 밥심 = Rice power = Koreans' main energy source Rice is sacred in Korea. If you flip a bird in front of them, they would get mad; If you stub out your cigarette in a bowl of rice? You'll be hanged.
If I recall from learning Mandarin, this is also the standard greeting in Mandarin. Perhaps some cultural connection there or, as mentioned in the video, a common thread of past wars with limited food.
I also seem to remember this from my one year of Mandarin in college. But I also learned ‘Ni hau ma?’ (Are you doing well?)(sorry for no characters) on the first day of class.😊
I speak Chinese (mandarin, Cantonese, and Shanghainese). Nowadays, it is a social norms that we use food to make conversations with people. For example: when you see your friend/ friend and his or her family, you can (1) use that as a determining factor to judge if you shall make the conversation longer/ shorter. (2) excuse to end the conversation. (3) invite your friend to have a meal/ drink together. (4) ask what food they ate/ are going to eat, and if the restaurant has a promotion. I mean the majority of the Asians lives in cities. So it is a norm that we always see our friends at the shopping area/ restaurant districts. Therefore, “eating” is a good angle to start a conversation when we social. Assuming that your friend would tell you that they have eaten, then it is our indirect way to ask what they are doing, without being rude/ direct/ nosy. So, your friend could possibly say we are (example) “shopping for a suitcase and winter clothes because my family and I am flying to Norway to see the Northern Lights”. And then, you guys can extend the conversation and keep blah blah blah.
I never really thought about it until now but I really prefer when people say ‘잘 지냈어요?’ to me. Most of the Koreans I know greet me like this but maybe that is because I kind of set the precedent by saying it first
I've noticed Korean podcasters who do beginning listening content for learners starting out with "하루를 잘 보내셨나요?" which seems like kind of a concession to the English-speaking expectation to start with something like that. I figured it's probably not something Koreans would actually use regularly.
So about the expression, yes I heard it before and I think I even read or watched something about how it is a common way to ask "How are you?" but I didn't realize that "잘지냈어" was kind of obsolete? Or did I misunderstand something? In any case, it was super interesting to see the possible motives behind this being the go-to option to ask someone how they're doing. Anyway, I wanted to say thank you so much for putting both english and korean subtitles, I know it must've taken more time and I really appreciate it! It really helped me visualize the sentence construction and also hear the way you and the interviewees were enunciating the words, so I could see where y'all were sort of contracting the sounds/words and how the intonation went. I replayed parts of it several times, so it was extremely helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
It's not obsolete, but you don't use it often. It's more like asking someone "How have you been doing? Give me an update." We wouldn't say that in when meeting friends we just saw a few weeks ago. But it is still used. It's more common to just say "What's up?" or "How's it going?" and in Korean these are often expressed in other ways, such as asking if they've eaten (among others).
I always loved that little tidbit about Korean culture, it's a sweet gesture. I wonder though, is that something the older person would ask a younger one, or is it acceptable the other way around too?😂
I never liked the greeting "how are you" - it's a rhetorical question - not actually to be answered with a health report which can be a bit awkward if you do have health issues, yet some people actually get offended if you don't give an exact ANSWER to a rhetorical question. The old school "how do you do" would get the same reply from the other person - and "howdy" is the shortened version. My personal choice is a simple "hello" between the two meeting people - so simple!!
I always wondered but wow yeah, that makes a lot of sense that it's because past generations found it hard to eat/were less fortunate so it just became a normal thing to ask which has been passed down until now.
Actually, it was the thing I asked a fellow friend who ‘s learning Korean, 먹었어요? Which is direct translation from Chinese, it seemed natural for me to ask it as a greeting, without even knowing it was a thing in Korean, until watching this video. 你们都吃饱了吗？？ 😊😊
My first time walking with a good Korean Soldier friend in Itaewon, he decide to prank me on how to salute a Korean female saying Hi to her...lol... "Kimchi Yepoyo" ...She is start laughing almost crying😂😂😂
Another question. Recently I went over a blog listing pronunciation rules and there was one about consonant clusters with ㄹ (in the case of double 받침) and it said that in such cases, the ㄹ is ignored while the other consonant will be pronounced. However, in the video, there's a person saying "젊은" and she pronounces both ㄹ and ㅁ, and I checked with Naver and indeed both are articulated it seems. Is ㄹㅁ an exception and we are supposed to always pronounce both of them when they're together?
That's just due to the letter ㅇ which acts like an empty space and lets the letter flow through, so you get 절+믄 and there's no issues reading it :) I explain this in my free course: ua-cam.com/video/sx0yyQqkpqo/v-deo.html
@@GoBillyKorean Oooh thank you! And thank you for the link, man, I have so much to catch up on since I've just started seriously studying Korean, and I can't wait to check your videos :)))) Thank you so much!
I wanted to dissect every sentence to get a better grasp of the sentence pattern but I came across something that puzzled me from the very beginning. Why did you say 미국에서는 사람들이 instead of maybe 미국 사람들이? Sorry I am still a low beginner/entry level, this is probably a silly question 😅 is it because you needed to bring the focus to the origin of the people?
That’s super interesting. I’ve noticed kpop idols asking that when they’re chatting on apps with fans, but I didn’t realise it was a thing across Korean culture 😅 When someone asks that, should you answer literally saying whether you have eaten recently and ask if they have too?
It's fun to see a video about this. I got introduced to Korea by (prepare your cringes now) an app game called Mystic Messenger, and the characters there were asking you if you ate 2-3x daily. Westerners playing the game were so bemused by it that it became kind of a meme, but I really liked it because the focus on food encouraged and reminded me to eat at a time when I was living alone and extremely ill. It felt nice because they'd always ask "have you eaten breakfast?" in the morning and when I said "no" they would lecture me about the importance of breakfast or give me easy-to-make recipes, some of which I actually wound up making (baby's first omurice). It was a time in my life where having food and being able to eat was not a guarantee, and I think from that I was able to immediately feel that this was a Korean way of asking after my wellbeing. It also felt more genuine because when an American asks "how are you" you're really only allowed to say that "you're fine" or "a little tired" at worse. It's awkward if you actually say you're not well, because generally they're not actually asking how you are, it's more of a greeting.
Lol that's cool and way less cringey than you make it seem, or at least compared to being introduced to korea because of pop culture...
@@whitneysmiltank Awww, thank you for saying so. Yeah I actually didn't discover kpop or kdramas until the game got me curious, and I started learning Korean at that time so I could play the game in the original language since the translation... well it got better once it became popular but at first the translation was very awkward and hard to understand in places lol. Before then, my only introduction was a Korean restaurant I'd gone to nearby... not realizing it was Korean... It's embarrassing but I had no idea what Korea was back in like the early 00s when I moved out of the house. I ate at the restaurant because it was nearby, but the waiters did not speak English and the menu was 100% in Korean (I learned later it was there because a car factory nearby had a lot of Korean workers). I was just ordering things at random and trying to figure out how to eat them LOL. Imagine my surprise when I recognized the "strange language" from the restaurant as being in this game. X"D
oh man i was obsessed with this game, but back then i wasn't interested in korean culture at all so i didn't really notice anything like that. but then i decided to play it again, this time in korean, but realized that my korean still wasn't good enough and there was more that i didn't understand than what i did so i postponed it until later when i get better:(
The “I’m fine, thanks, you?” reply is very English as well. ‘Stiff upper lip’ meant never showing emotion (ie wobbly lip = about to cry) even a broad smile was looked down on though not any more. Except for “the haunted pencil”, Jacob Rees Mogg, (English MP “for the 18th century”) most people are more comfortable showing a full range of emotions, though honest about them only with very close people and even then often only after much alcohol.
I like the Korean way. I’m always forgetting to eat and need people greeting me like this!
I agree with my fellow commenter, that it's not cringy at all but rather sweet actually. It gave you a little ray of sunshine when your days felt full of clouds,so that's nice
The street interviews are certainly some of my most favourite videos of yours, because it feels like learning about culture and also acquiring more native-like speech patters as well! I love listening to both you and natives speak in korean.
oooh I've seen Korean fans asking idols this on lives, I didn't know it was more of a casual greeting than an actual question, that's cool thank you for the video
Billy, do more street interviews with both native Koreans and foreigners living in Korea. Keep up the good work!
That’s why I love this country this culture and people ! It doesn’t seem to me strange at all because they are very caring people They went through tough times and they appreciate the food! Thank you Billy for letting us know more things for their culture ! Great video 🥳🥳🥳 !I Please make moreeee ! 💕Thumbs 🆙
Basically 밥 = rice = meal
밥 먹었냐? = Did you eat? = How are you doing?
밥맛 없는 놈 = That guy makes my rice taste bad = What a douchebag
밥은 먹고 다니냐? = You don't skip your rice, do you? = Are you doing well?
언제 밥 한 번 먹어요 = Let's have a meal together sometime = Let's meet again -> We never meet actually tho
밥벌이는 하냐? = Do you earn your rice? = Do you make money and bring bread and butter on your table?
밥값은 해야지 = You should earn your rice = No work, no food
밥이 안 넘어가 = I can swallow my rice = I'm so worried or anxious or stressed that I can eat my meal
밥심 = Rice power = Koreans' main energy source
Rice is sacred in Korea. If you flip a bird in front of them, they would get mad; If you stub out your cigarette in a bowl of rice? You'll be hanged.
That's a great collection, thank you! Last one should be "can't swallow" though right?
@@Smittenhamster Oh yeah! Thank you for pointing that out - it's can't as you said.
If I recall from learning Mandarin, this is also the standard greeting in Mandarin. Perhaps some cultural connection there or, as mentioned in the video, a common thread of past wars with limited food.
I also seem to remember this from my one year of Mandarin in college. But I also learned ‘Ni hau ma?’ (Are you doing well?)(sorry for no characters) on the first day of class.😊
I speak Chinese (mandarin, Cantonese, and Shanghainese).
Nowadays, it is a social norms that we use food to make conversations with people.
For example: when you see your friend/ friend and his or her family, you can (1) use that as a determining factor to judge if you shall make the conversation longer/ shorter. (2) excuse to end the conversation. (3) invite your friend to have a meal/ drink together. (4) ask what food they ate/ are going to eat, and if the restaurant has a promotion.
I mean the majority of the Asians lives in cities. So it is a norm that we always see our friends at the shopping area/ restaurant districts.
Therefore, “eating” is a good angle to start a conversation when we social. Assuming that your friend would tell you that they have eaten, then it is our indirect way to ask what they are doing, without being rude/ direct/ nosy. So, your friend could possibly say we are (example) “shopping for a suitcase and winter clothes because my family and I am flying to Norway to see the Northern Lights”.
And then, you guys can extend the conversation and keep blah blah blah.
I've heard it's used in Khmer (Cambodian) also.
밥친구 😮
Judging from translations from K-dramas, the "eat well" seems to also be used as "I love you" mainly in parent child relationships.
It can be used in parent child relationships, but that's not mainly how it's used.
I never really thought about it until now but I really prefer when people say ‘잘 지냈어요?’ to me. Most of the Koreans I know greet me like this but maybe that is because I kind of set the precedent by saying it first
I've noticed Korean podcasters who do beginning listening content for learners starting out with "하루를 잘 보내셨나요?" which seems like kind of a concession to the English-speaking expectation to start with something like that. I figured it's probably not something Koreans would actually use regularly.
So about the expression, yes I heard it before and I think I even read or watched something about how it is a common way to ask "How are you?" but I didn't realize that "잘지냈어" was kind of obsolete? Or did I misunderstand something?
In any case, it was super interesting to see the possible motives behind this being the go-to option to ask someone how they're doing.
Anyway, I wanted to say thank you so much for putting both english and korean subtitles, I know it must've taken more time and I really appreciate it! It really helped me visualize the sentence construction and also hear the way you and the interviewees were enunciating the words, so I could see where y'all were sort of contracting the sounds/words and how the intonation went. I replayed parts of it several times, so it was extremely helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
It's not obsolete, but you don't use it often. It's more like asking someone "How have you been doing? Give me an update." We wouldn't say that in when meeting friends we just saw a few weeks ago. But it is still used. It's more common to just say "What's up?" or "How's it going?" and in Korean these are often expressed in other ways, such as asking if they've eaten (among others).
@@GoBillyKorean Oh I see!! Thank you so much for clarifying!
사람들 의견이 다 달라서 재미있네요! Interesting to so many different perspectives...!
it's to marvelous to learn korean with you.💙💙💙
I always loved that little tidbit about Korean culture, it's a sweet gesture. I wonder though, is that something the older person would ask a younger one, or is it acceptable the other way around too?😂
I never liked the greeting "how are you" - it's a rhetorical question - not actually to be answered with a health report which can be a bit awkward if you do have health issues, yet some people actually get offended if you don't give an exact ANSWER to a rhetorical question. The old school "how do you do" would get the same reply from the other person - and "howdy" is the shortened version. My personal choice is a simple "hello" between the two meeting people - so simple!!
I really like this format! Thank you!
I always wondered but wow yeah, that makes a lot of sense that it's because past generations found it hard to eat/were less fortunate so it just became a normal thing to ask which has been passed down until now.
영상 잘보았습니다! 👍
Asking whether you have eaten is a common greeting in many Asian cultures. China and Thailand are two examples.
Actually, it was the thing I asked a fellow friend who ‘s learning Korean, 먹었어요? Which is direct translation from Chinese, it seemed natural for me to ask it as a greeting, without even knowing it was a thing in Korean, until watching this video. 你们都吃饱了吗？？ 😊😊
My first time walking with a good Korean Soldier friend in Itaewon, he decide to prank me on how to salute a Korean female saying Hi to her...lol... "Kimchi Yepoyo" ...She is start laughing almost crying😂😂😂
Another question. Recently I went over a blog listing pronunciation rules and there was one about consonant clusters with ㄹ (in the case of double 받침) and it said that in such cases, the ㄹ is ignored while the other consonant will be pronounced. However, in the video, there's a person saying "젊은" and she pronounces both ㄹ and ㅁ, and I checked with Naver and indeed both are articulated it seems. Is ㄹㅁ an exception and we are supposed to always pronounce both of them when they're together?
That's just due to the letter ㅇ which acts like an empty space and lets the letter flow through, so you get 절+믄 and there's no issues reading it :) I explain this in my free course: ua-cam.com/video/sx0yyQqkpqo/v-deo.html
@@GoBillyKorean Oooh thank you! And thank you for the link, man, I have so much to catch up on since I've just started seriously studying Korean, and I can't wait to check your videos :)))) Thank you so much!
I just saw this expression watching a K drama. Now I know why!
I love that "rice power" 😅
Is it ok to ask this from older people as an addition to a greeting ? 🎉
Awww that’s so nice I had the feeling there was history behind it 😊 hey if they’ll take me out to eat I’ll say all day long😂😂❤
I wanted to dissect every sentence to get a better grasp of the sentence pattern but I came across something that puzzled me from the very beginning. Why did you say 미국에서는 사람들이 instead of maybe 미국 사람들이? Sorry I am still a low beginner/entry level, this is probably a silly question 😅 is it because you needed to bring the focus to the origin of the people?
"People who live in America" vs "Americans."
That’s super interesting. I’ve noticed kpop idols asking that when they’re chatting on apps with fans, but I didn’t realise it was a thing across Korean culture 😅
When someone asks that, should you answer literally saying whether you have eaten recently and ask if they have too?
It's a literal question too, so you can answer if you've already eaten :)
very funny