How many times have you heard Korean female celebrities squeezing out ‘oppa’ in a high-pitched, thin tone while they blink their deer-like eyes? Or shaking their shoulders towards the oppa’s? Putting their two fists below their chin and again, opening their eyes wide open and blinking it several times? Yes, you have seen these girls’ ‘aegyos.’

韓國女明星有一些招牌動作：扭著身體，用極高的音調，眨著小鹿一般的眼睛對男生喊「偶吧」；對著「偶吧」們聳動肩膀；用手掌捧著下巴，用力眨眼睛——韓語裡面，這些品質可以被歸納為「aegyo」，用中文來說，就是「好可愛啊」。

Aegyo(애교), a combination of two Chinese characters love(愛) and beautiful(嬌) is a term used to describe a high-affectionate, cute way that Korean girls use through their exaggerated facial expressions, gestures and baby voices. Aegyo can be compared to the Japanese equivalent of kawaii.

Aegyo的漢字是「愛嬌」（應該就是撒嬌賣萌的意思）。這個詞被用來形容韓國女生的可愛——她們往往通過誇張的面部表情、手勢以及講話的孩子腔來鞏固自己「可愛」的形象。Aegyo和日語中的kawaii基本是一個意思。

Aegyo is so deeply rooted in Korean culture that it is used as a personality category to describe people. Generally girls with a lot of aegyo would be preferred over those who are seemingly cold-mannered. (*Aside: The editor, as a Korean girl, has been forced to show some aegyo to her previous Korean boyfriends. Their assertion was, it makes me sound cuter!)

Aegyo深深植根於韓國文化之中，也被用於形容人的性格。有很多aegyo的女孩（應該就是很會撒嬌的女孩吧）會比高冷的女生更受歡迎。（補充: 韓國小編也曾經被迫向自己的前男友展現自己的aegyo。因為這樣會讓我聽起來更可愛！）

怎麼樣才算Aegyo呢？

What categorises as Aegyo? Here are some lists of typical aegyo behaviors, but a video would better help your understanding.

接下來我們就來分析一下典型的Aegyo行為。附上一個video，你就明白是怎麼回事了。

01    Creating a fish face. Blowing air into your both cheeks and pushing your lips out to look cute (做出金魚表情——臉頰像吹氣球一般鼓起，嘴巴一定要撅起來)

02    Poking their cheeks with one finger (用食指戳自己的臉蛋)

03    Putting both fists under the chin, creating a flower shape and shaking heads (用手掌拖臉做出花的形狀，搖頭晃腦)

04    Raising voice higher than your original pitch to make sound cuter(捏著嗓子提高聲調，讓自己聽起來可愛)

05    Blinking eyes slowly, looking directly into someone’s eye. Blink Blink!(慢慢眨眼睛，直勾勾地盯著某人的眼睛（當然是男人）。Blink Blink!)

06    Baby talk. Talking like a child and lengthening it out. Examples include ‘Oppaaa~~~,’ ‘Jebal(Please),’ ‘Siro(I don’t want to),’ ‘Sajo(buy it for me),’ ‘hing(onomatopoeia used to express sadness).’ (學小孩子的聲音，記住尾音一定要拖拖拖。比如「偶吧～」「拜託啦～」「不要啦～」等等)

Example of Aegyo:

Girls’ Day Hyeri blasts out aegyo in TV show ‘Real Men’

Aegyo can charm men and elders if used in the right situation. Men would give in to girls and show their weak side when girls start aegyo-ing to them. Nowadays though, due to the abundance of flower boys in Kpop idol groups, it is common for young guys to use aegyo, a feminine trait, to older girls. In the west, where independent girls are appreciated, such submissive behavior like aegyo would be seen in a different point of view. Is there such a term as aegyo in your country? If not, what do you think about Korean girls and their aegyo?

男性以及長輩對Aegyo相當受落。當女孩子開始用Aegyo撒嬌，男士們馬上就投降了。現在因為韓流花美男正在盛行，男孩子也會向年長的女性Aegyo呢。不過在西方，女性都更加獨立自主，Aegyo的行為應該會很受女權主義者批判吧。在你所生活的國家，Aegyo也盛行嗎？你又是怎麼看的呢？

All photos via tumblr.com

TEXT: JISU J
CHINESE TRANSLATION: SUGARCOAT
GRAPHICS: SUKI Y/ HOKK FABRICA