🇺🇸 Translation
Minji unnie is at Grandma’s place..🧸
📙 Lesson point
How to say “Minji unnie is at Grandma’s place” in Korean
Hello, everyone! We’re going to learn four things today. First, we’ll learn about the commonly used Korean word ‘언니,’ and how to naturally use relationship or status based terms. Next, we’ll learn how to address one’s older siblings with words like ‘형,’ ‘오빠,’ ‘언니,’ ‘누나.’ Next, we’ll learn how to call younger siblings in Korean. Finally, we’ll learn about a very interesting Korean word ‘댁,’ which can have different meanings depending on its use.
After reading today’s post, not only will you be able to learn how to say “Minji unnie is at Grandma’s place” in Korean, but you’ll also understand how this Korean expression is grammatically formed. Moreover, we’ll look into the actual expression that New Jeans used for their Instagram post. Let’s begin!
Korean relationship or status based terms
First, let’s learn some Korean terms related to one’s relationship or status. The term introduced in NewJeans’ post was ‘언니,’ which means ‘older sister.’ Let’s talk about the context of when relationship based terms are used in Korea.
When Koreans call each other or refer to each other in dialogues, we use terms that are based on the dynamic of the relationship we have with the person we’re referring to. For example, if you want to talk to your teacher, you don’t call that person by their surname like ‘Mr. Spencer’ or ‘Ms. Potter’, instead you’d just call your teacher ‘선생님’ which is literally the word that means a ‘teacher.’
When you want to call a restaurant owner, you’d say ‘사장님’ which literally means a ‘business owner.’ You’d call your taxi driver ‘택시 기사님’ which literally means a ‘Taxi driver.’
Same rule applies when you’re at work. It feels natural for people to call others by their job-positions. You’d call the designer of your company ‘디자이너님’ and the company lawyer ‘변호사님’.
The only rule here is to add ‘님’ at the end of the word to make it polite. ‘님’ is a respectful way of referring to a person. You can add this to people’s names as well. You can call ‘민지’ just ‘민지’ if you’re friends with her, but you can refer to her as ‘민지님’ if you want to sound politer.
If you ever develop an emotional bond with someone and get really close to them, you will start calling them by relationship-based terms. This would be referring to someone as your brother or sister. Even if that person is not blood-related family, it is natural that Koreans use these terms.
If you’re the same age as the person you’re close to, usually you call them by their first names and refer to them as your friends. If there’s an age difference, calling them your ‘bros’ or ‘sis’ is way more common. Even if you’re close to your friends, it is not considered polite to call them solely by their first names if you’re younger then them.
Korean terms referring to “older sibling”
In Korean, there is no gender-neutral term for ‘Older sibling.’ There are 4 different words that you can use for ‘older bro’ or ‘older sis.’
형 (speaker is male - the older bro is also male)
오빠 (speaker is female - the older bro is male)
누나 (speaker is male - the older sis is female)
언니 (speaker is female - the older sis is also female)
You can use these words independently, but you can also add these terms at the end of people’s names. Much like how ‘민지 언니’ is ‘Minji (name) + Unnie (older sis).’ Here, we can know that the speaker is younger than ‘민지’ but they are close to each other. We can also know that both the speaker and ‘민지’ are female as the term ‘언니’ is used.
How to say “younger sibling” in Korean
Now, let’s move a step further. Let’s look at how to address ‘younger sibling’ in Korean. ‘동생’ is the expression that means ‘younger sibling.’
This word is a gender-neutral word. Therefore, it doesn’t specify the gender of the younger sibling nor the gender of the person saying the word. However, you can make this word gender-specific by adding a prefix that refers to a specific gender. Examples would be ‘남’(male) and ‘여’(female).
남동생 (younger brother)
여동생 (younger sister)
How to say “Grandma’s place” in Korean
Now, let’s look at the word ‘댁.’ It has mainly two meanings, but let’s first focus on the first meaning. ‘댁’ is the honorific version of the word ‘집’ (house). It is a respectful way of addressing someone else’s house or home. Let’s look at some of the most common examples of how this word is used.
할머니 댁 - Grandma's place
할아버지 댁 - Grandpa's place
선생님 댁 - Teacher's house
할머니 댁에 가는데 3시간 걸려
= It takes three hours to get to the Grandma's house
너희 이모 댁은 어디야?
= Where is your aunt's house?
에릭은 선생님 댁에서 수업을 받아요
= Eric takes lessons at the teacher's house
The other meaning of ‘댁’
Now, let’s look at the second and a less common use of the word ‘댁.’ It can be used as a second-person pronoun in some cases.
When it is used to mean ‘you’ in the sentence, the use gives a very old-fashioned, traditional vibes. You will most likely hear this word from K-drama period pieces. This is because it was used as a way of respectfully calling someone who belongs to the lower social hierarchy than yourself. Hence, using this word in the modern Korean society can sound condescending in a way.
댁은 대체 누구요?
= So, who the heck are you? (Sounds archaic)
댁의 남편은 어디에 있소?
= Where’s your husband? (Sounds like a Chosun-dynasty person)
New Jeans says: “민지 언니는 할머니 댁에..”
To conclude, let’s take a look at what NewJeans posted on Instagram. ‘민지 언니’ would be NewJeans saying “Minji,” but adding ‘(언니) unnie’ because Minji is older than the other NewJeans members who posted this. ‘댁’ in this post would be the first meaning, so ‘할머니 댁’ would mean ‘Grandma’s house.’ Therefore, as Minji is absent in the picture they posted, they seem to be telling their fans that Minji is missing in the picture because she’s at her Grandma’s house.