Episode transcript
한국인이 쓰는 진짜 표현 Korean Slang School 현주입니다. Welcome back to Korean Slang School! In this episode, you can listen to cultural insights in English with Korean expressions. It is recommended for beginners. You can find the full Korean version in the previous episode.
Hello everyone! It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? The last episode was uploaded back in August, so it’s already been two months! During that time, I took a short trip to Korea. I spent some quality time with my family, 가족, and friends, 친구. We traveled together, 여행했어요, and ate a lot of food, 음식 많이 먹었어요. How was your summer? 여름 잘 보내셨나요?
Now I’m back in the Czech Republic, and the weather here is already quite chilly, 쌀쌀해요. These days, I often crave something warm, like a nice cup of tea or coffee. 커피가 땡겨요. Oh, by the way, “땡기다 (ttaeng-gida)” is a very common Korean expression. It means “to crave” or “to suddenly want to eat something.” For example, if you say “케이크가 땡긴다,” it means “I’m craving cake.” Or “떡볶이가 땡긴다” means “I really want tteokbokki.” So, in this cold weather, I feel like 커피가 땡겨요.
But did you know that in Korea, even in the middle of winter, people still drink iced coffee? There’s even a funny phrase you might have heard before: “아아 주세요.” Do you know what “아아” means? It’s actually short for “아이스 아메리카노 (iced Americano)”!
In Korean cafés, many people order iced Americanos so often that they just shorten it to “아아.” For example, you might hear someone say “아아 하나 주세요,” which means “One iced Americano, please.” Do you like “아아” too? When I lived in Korea, I used to drink one every morning. So when I first came to the Czech Republic, I went to a café and tried to order an iced Americano, but they didn’t have it! That’s when I realized that iced coffee isn’t as common in other countries as it is in Korea.
Koreans really love their iced Americanos. There’s even a slang expression: “얼죽아.” It’s short for “얼어 죽어도 아아,” which literally means “I’d still drink an iced Americano even if I freeze to death!”
So yes, even when it’s freezing cold, some Koreans would rather drink iced coffee. That’s how much they love it! And they love coffee in general too.
But coffee wasn’t always a part of Korean culture. The first record of coffee entering Korea dates back to 1861 천팔백육십일년, during the Joseon Dynasty, long before modern Korea existed. At that time, a French Catholic priest named Simeon-François Berneux 시메옹 프랑수아 베르뇌 brought coffee to Korea while working as a missionary. In one of his letters, he requested 20 kilograms of coffee beans to be sent to him, which is how historians estimated when coffee first arrived in Korea. Of course, it’s unlikely that one person drank all that coffee alone. He probably shared it with local scholars and officials.
Interestingly, the king of Joseon at that time, King Gojong, became a huge fan of coffee in the late 19th century. Gojong was actually the last king of the Joseon Dynasty. During his reign, Korea was caught in a difficult political situation among Japan, China, and Russia. After Queen Myeongseong, Gojong’s wife, was assassinated by Japanese forces, Gojong fled to the Russian Embassy for safety, where he lived for about a year.
It was during this time, in 1896, that he met Marie Antoinette Sontag 마리아 앙투아네트 손탁, a woman who worked at the Russian Embassy. She helped the king with diplomatic matters and often prepared European snacks and drinks for him. One of those drinks was coffee. King Gojong loved it so much that even after returning to his palace, he continued to drink coffee regularly.
There’s even a dramatic story that someone once tried to poison his coffee in an assassination attempt! Gojong stopped drinking it halfway through, but his son finished the cup and became seriously ill. Thankfully, he survived. Despite that terrifying incident, Gojong kept drinking coffee. I don’t think I could ever drink it again if that happened to me, but I guess that’s how much he loved it.
It wasn’t until the 1920s that coffee became more common among the general public. Back then, it wasn’t sold in modern cafés like today, but in “dabang,” which were traditional Korean-style coffee houses.
For reference, Seoul’s first café opened in 1902 inside the Sontag Hotel, named after the same Marie Antoinette Sontag! After helping King Gojong, she was granted land and built a hotel that included a small café, Korea’s very first. Unfortunately, neither the hotel nor the café exists today. After Sontag left Korea, the property was sold, and later the site became part of a nearby school.
So that’s quite a journey from royal courts to modern cafés today! It took a long time for coffee to become such an essential part of Korean life. What started as a royal luxury is now something most people enjoy every day. And with phrases like “아아” and “얼죽아,” it’s clear that coffee has become deeply embedded in Korean culture and even in the language itself.
What about you? What kind of coffee do you like, a warm latte or an “얼죽아”-style iced Americano? Today, we explored the history and culture of coffee in Korea, but in the next episode, I’ll be back with another fun story about Korean culture.
Until then, stay warm and maybe treat yourself to a nice cup of coffee. See you in the next episode! ☕️
