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[그렉의 한국 엿보기] It's All in a Name
"Oppa!" I'm late to meet someone but this word is said with such force I turn to see where it's coming from. Back home it's a term of endearment my German friend would use for her grandfather. Here, outside Lotte Department Store, it's flung from a young Korean woman towards a young Korean man. He's carrying her purse and they're walking slowly hand in hand so I can guess he's not really her older brother. Yet, I've learned that the same Korean word could be used in that context too, where a younger sister is referring to her older brother, or more loosely when a younger woman is talking to an older man she knows well. It's part of a network of words in Korean that define human relationships in a way, and perhaps with a clarity that words in English do not.
Sometimes special relatives receive additional terms in Korean. "Where do I put my big uncle?" is a question that sometimes comes up when making family trees in English class and reminds me that in Korean, unlike in English, all uncles are not created equal. In Korean, uncles and aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers, brothers and sisters are categorized in a hierarchy according to age. This suggests to me clearly defined roles within a family that resolve chronic problems in English, such as deciding which relatives will host Christmas dinner. Yet at the same time, such a seniority based system perhaps limits the number of opinions.
Other times a kind of relationship is more strictly defined. When I'm looking at pictures with a Korean friend of mine, I'm often curious about the other people he's with. "Is that your friend?" I ask. "No," he insists, "he's two years older than me." Or, "he was one year below me in university." "Girlfriend?" I want to try again, but that's a tricky one to answer in both languages.
 [그렉의 한국 엿보기] It's All in a Name 청취
'Friend', however, in Korean seems to have a much narrower or intimate connotation than the word in English. The English 'friend' can include a broad range of people one has met, even briefly. It is used in most circumstances to define a relationship, as words like acquaintance or colleague suggest a 'professional' distance between people. To be included within a Korean circle of friends seems to imply not only a bond of trust and loyalty but also that both people be of the same age and share the same circumstances. Otherwise you may be labeled a younger or older sibling or worse yet, fall outside the warmth of such a familiar bond.
With such formal and informal distinctions in my mind I pass out of earshot of the happy Korean couple and arrive at the pre-arranged meeting place next to the subway station. A foreigner says, "Hey baby," to his girlfriend on his cell phone as he walks past. A Korean climbs up the steps from the subway and I recognize him. How should I address him? Is he my acquaintance, or colleague, older brother or even friend? He's in front of me now and I make up my mind and take the easy way out. "Hey John," I say. "Ready to eat?" "Sure, buddy," he says. "Let's go."
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 / 입력시간: 2008. 04.22. 15:19
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