A-Gahp-ta!

Date: 11/24/2010

Last week I went and played pocket-ball (aka pool) with some of the Korean teachers at my school.  As a very bad pool player, a couple of times, I went "damn" after I missed a shot. It didn't take the teachers long to figure out that "damn" was a "bad word" and they immediately started mimicking me.  It's a little strange to hear a bunch of people yell, "DAMN!" in a public place, but it was good fun--and since it was all for fun--nothing serious, we just had a good time.

Well, I wanted to know the Korean equivalent to the English word, so they taught me, "A-gahp-ta!"  So soon, we were throwing around Korean and English words and it was great fun!

Yesterday, I learned that "a-gahp-ta" does not have a direct English translation.  It encompasses much more than just "damn."  Here's the story:

So, we were driving from the afterschool inter-city teacher's volleyball tournament (only in Korea, right?) to dinner.  The drivers here are crazy and someone pulled out in the middle of a red light and we had to swerve to hit them!  Tae-hee spouted off some rapid Korean, and I immediately went, "A-gahp-ta!"  

The car became surprisingly quiet as the teachers (Tae-hee--"my brother", Wisdom, and Sung-Sik) looked at me in surprise.  Then they burst out laughing, yelling, "No no no!", and waving their hands in my face.  Wisdom turned an interesting shade of red she was laughing so hard.  In broke English they tried to explain that "a-gahp-ta" was not the right word to use in this situation; that "we-hum-eeh" was more appropriate.  We-hum-eeh means "dangerous!"  They couldn't explain why a-gahp-ta was wrong--it was quiet complicated.  I ended up just nodding and repeating "we-hum-eeh" about 10 times so they understood that I understood it was the right answer.

Wellllll, I get to school this morning and I start asking Ms Kim about some of the food I ate last night.  This prompts Tae-hee, who is sitting right across the walk way from Ms Kim's desk--like 4 ft away--to perk up and clip off in rapid Korean.  I hear my name, the words "a-gahp-ta" and from Ms Kim's sudden laughter, I presume that he is retelling the story.

Ms Kim is laughing pretty hard and I start laughing again.  After a little bit, she explains the scenario a little more.  In the scary-Korean-driving situation, if you were to say, "a-gahp-ta" it would loosely mean that you wanted to hit the car, or that you hoped the car crashed.  It is not exactly wishing bad will on a person, but it's not exactly a nice thing to say.  This would be the American equivalent to road-rage, which, so far, I haven't really seen in Korean (they have a very "well, it's how we drive, we can't change it, it's just bad, we better watch out for each other so we don't have accidents" attitude.)  It is more appropriate to say the "we-hum-eeh" which just means, "they were driving dangerously!"

Which, this is a very neat situation for me because it is a perfect example of how culture is imbedded in a language.  (Hang on, tangent time!)  Saying "a-gahp-ta" in the "scary driving situation" shows a negative face in Korean viewpoint.  Negative emotions (or face) is not acceptable.  In public, you are to be as neutral as possible, and if not neutral, than at least positive. You are not suppose to be too positive--a nice, even middle is the perfect goal.  So, to show anger (say "a-gahp-ta") is totally inappropriate not because it is the wrong word, but because it is gives a person a bad face in public!  By saying, "we-hum-eeh" you are preserving your own face, and you are being quiet kind to the other person.  I mean, we could have hit this car, so I could think of many other things I would have wanted to say to them, but by just saying, "You're driving is dangerous," it gives the person an ever-important Out so that they can apologize and save face.

So...there is your linguistic and cultural lesson on Korea today.  I hope you enjoyed!  I have to go to teach probably the worst class of the week now.  Thank gosh for Ms Kim--she usually tells me to leave 1/2 way through because they are so bad.  And then she assumes her Mean Teacher Voice!  I run from the Mad Teacher Voice!