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시즌 3, 1화. 야근하고 먹는 음식
S3 EP1. Late Night food after working late
Story
제가 몇 년 전에 한국에 살았을 때 저는 회사원이었어요. 그런데 그 때 야근을 정말 많이 했어요. 대부분의 한국 회사들은 아침 9시에 출근하고 저녁 6시에 퇴근해요. 그런데 우리 회사는 야근이 많아서 저는 자주 10시나 11시에 퇴근했어요. 그래서 회사에 다닐 때 건강이 꽤 나빠졌어요. 왜냐하면 보통 야근을 하면 저녁을 안 먹기 때문이에요.
저녁을 먹으면 일이 더 늦게 끝나요. 그래서 퇴근하고 나서 집에 도착하면 정말 배가 고파요. 그래서 야근 하는 날에는 집에서 야식을 먹었어요. 보통 여동생이랑 같이 치킨과 맥주를 시켜서 먹었어요. 가끔 떡볶이나 김밥을 먹을 때도 있었어요.
그런데 늦은 시간에 야식을 먹으니까 다음 날에 얼굴이 많이 부었어요. 그리고 소화도 잘 안 되었어요. 그러니까 야식은 안 먹는 것이 좋은 것 같아요. 하지만 가끔은 야식을 참기 어려울 때가 있어요.
여러분은 보통 언제 야식을 먹어요? 그리고 어떤 야식을 좋아해요? 한번 적어보거나 말해보세요.
Translation
A few years ago, I used to be an office worker when I lived in Korea. Back then, I worked lots of overtime. Most Korean companies start work at 9 AM and leave around 6 PM. But my company had a lot of overtime work where I often left work at 10 or 11 PM. That is why my health condition got worse while I was working. Because I usually don’t have dinner when I work overtime.
If I have dinner, then my work will end later. Therefore, when I get home from work, I am really hungry. On days I work overtime, I have dinner late at home. I usually order chicken and beer with my sister. Sometimes I have tteokbokki or kimbap.
However, as I have late-night food, my face gets puffy the next day. Also, I couldn’t digest well. So, I think it’s better not to eat late-night food. But sometimes, it’s hard to resist a late-night food
When do you usually eat late-night food? And what kind of late-night snack or food do you like? Write it down or say it.
How was it? Were you able to understand it? Even if you didn’t, it’s totally fine because we will see the meaning together now.
All right, then, let’s break down some useful expressions together.
제가 몇 년 전에 한국에 살았을 때 저는 회사원이었어요. 그런데 그 때 야근을 정말 많이 했어요. 대부분의 한국 회사들은 아침 9시에 출근하고 저녁 6시에 퇴근해요. 그런데 우리 회사는 야근이 많아서 저는 자주 10시나 11시에 퇴근했어요. 그래서 회사에 다닐 때 건강이 꽤 나빠졌어요. 왜냐하면 보통 야근을 하면 저녁을 안 먹기 때문이에요.
Yes, 야근 is one of the working cultures in Korea. Now I’m an individual business owner who works as a Korean teacher, so I work as a freelancer now, but when I used to work for a company in Korea, I used to work late, 야근을 많이 했어요. Sometimes I had to work until 1 or 2 AM when a project due date came. I must say that I suffered from chronic fatigue then.
Working late is quite common in Korea. So if there’s a company that has 칼퇴 문화 which means “leaving work sharply (on-time) culture,” that company is usually sought-after by so many candidates in the labor market, even though they might offer them less salary than others competitors where have 야근 문화. Here the word 칼퇴 is an abbreviation of 칼 knife, which is a symbol of sharpness and 퇴근 leaving from work. So 칼퇴근 is shortened to 칼퇴. You can also use this word as a verb if you add 하다 to do. So 칼퇴하다 means leaving from work right on time.
There are many reasons why Korean society has 야근 문화. CEOs want employees to work hard. Some of them believe working a lot means being competent for working. Also, the heavy workload for each one of the workers can be blamed. Of course, younger Korean workers don’t love this culture, so today, it can often be seen that many companies try to get rid of this culture. However, there are still some conflicts and misunderstandings between those young people and the baby boomer generation who made rapid national development and believes in working hard. 야근 were the main source of development of Korea from the second poorest country in the world to one of wealthiest, global power player within 50 years.
Every culture has pros and cons. Although there are many good working cultures, I believe this is one of the problems in Korea. How is the working culture and environment in your country? Please share it with us in Korean.
Now let’s see the main vocabularies that are used in this part
회사원 office worker
야근 working late / 야근하다 to work late
출근 going to work / 출근하다 to go to work
퇴근 leaving from work / 퇴근하다 to leave from work
칼퇴 leaving from work right on time / 칼퇴하다 to leave from work right on time
건강이 나빠지다 one’s health gets bad
Next part
저녁을 먹으면 일이 더 늦게 끝나요. 그래서 퇴근하고 나서 집에 도착하면 정말 배가 고파요. 그래서 야근 하는 날에는 집에서 야식을 먹었어요. 보통 여동생이랑 같이 치킨과 맥주를 시켜서 먹었어요. 가끔 떡볶이나 김밥을 먹을 때도 있었어요.
여러분은 야식 좋아해요? Do you guys love late-night food? 저는 야식이 몸에 안 좋은 걸 알아요. I know having late-night food is not good for my health. 그런데 가끔은 야식을 못 참아요. But sometimes I can’t help myself but have late-night food.
In this part, let’s break down the word 야식, which literally means (밤)야 night 식(사)meal. This word is created by hanja 한자, which is Chinese characters. As some of you already know, some Korean vocabularies are made of Hanja like this word 야식. It is similar to various European languages vocabularies rooted in Greek and Latin. If you know the meaning of the origin of the word, it can help you easily memorize the words that are made of it.
The syllable 야 has other meanings, but the meaning that we learn today is “night”. 야 means night.
Let’s see the words that used this syllable in this text.
야식 late-night meal (literally night meal), 야근 working late (literally night work).
Do you see the pattern? Right? It’s a lot easier to memorize them.
Then let’s see the other common words that used the syllable 야 meaning night.
야간 night time, (literally, a time duration of the night), 야경 night view (literally, nightscape) 야시장 night market
See? All of these words starting with 야 have night-related meanings. Also, usually, the rest syllable combined with Hanja can be another Hanja. So if you remember that, it will help you memorize other related words as well.
All right! Now let’s see the main vocabularies that are used in this part
늦게 late
치킨 (mostly) fried chicken / 닭 chicken / 닭고기 chicken meat
맥주 beer
떡볶이 Tteokbokki (Stir-fried Rice Cake with chilly paste sauce)
김밥 Gimbap (Korean dried-seaweed rice roll)
Next part!
그런데 늦은 시간에 야식을 먹으니까 다음 날에 얼굴이 많이 부었어요. 그리고 소화도 잘 안 되었어요. 그러니까 야식은 안 먹는 것이 좋은 것 같아요. 하지만 가끔은 야식을 참기 어려울 때가 있어요.
여러분은 보통 언제 야식을 먹어요? 그리고 어떤 야식을 좋아해요? 한번 적어보거나 말해보세요.
야식을 먹으면 다음 날 피곤해요. 그쵸? We feel restless the next day when we have late-night food, right? 우선 다음 날 얼굴이 부어요. First of all, our faces got puffy the next day. 그리고 소화가 안 되요. We get bad indigestion. 또 계속 야식을 먹으면 결국에 살이 쪄요. So, if we keep eating late-night food, we will eventually get fat.
What is your favorite late-night food? According to a survey in Korea, the most beloved late-night foods for Koreans are 라면 ramen, 치킨 fried chicken, 중식 Koreanized Chinese foods, 족발 pork trotter, 떡볶이 tteokbokki.
Once in a while should be okay, but there’s a famous Korean saying about being excessive—과하면 독이다. If anything is excessive, it can be poison.
Since we learned late-night food-related vocabularies, use them and write about your favorite late-night snacks.
Lastly, let’s see the main vocabularies that are used in this part
얼굴이 붓다 one’s face got swollen/puffy
소화가 안 되다 to have bad indigestion
참기 어렵다 to be hard to resist
