K-Dictionary Vol.02 : 教你甚麼是「건어물녀」和「초식남」！

on October 11, 2014 at 10:30 am

These might sound weird at first, but yes, they actually exist. Two popular terms sprang up among young Koreans to categorize men and women according to their characteristics. In this episode, we explain to you, the ‘dried fish girl’ and ‘herbivorous guy’.

一開始聽起來很奇怪，但他們真的存在。這兩個詞在突然在韓國年青人之間流行起來，並以此來分辨男男女女。這一集，我們將會為大家講解一下「乾物女」與「草食男」。

건어물녀 | geon-eo-mul-nyeo |

She is a smart, talented young woman at work, but after work, she neither has dinner plans nor dates and instead, goes home straight away and changes into pajamas or sweat pants, ties up her hair high and opens up a can of beer and mumbles on dried fish.

She is tired from work and spends a great amount of time resting at home, so she has no chances to date anyone. Eventually, she became a ‘dried fish girl.’

乾物女(건어물녀)：在工作上，她是個聰明伶俐的年輕女性，但工作過後，她沒打算弄個晚餐又或是約會什麼的，馬上就回家！然後穿上睡衣或運動褲，綁起長髮，拿著啤酒喝，吃著魚乾。因為工作忙碌而經常留在家休息，連約會的時間也沒有，最後就成為「乾物女」。

초식남 | cho-sik-nam |

초식남 草食男，韓國文化，韓國教學，韓語教學，korean learn, korean lesson, 學韓文，免費韓語教學，韓國雜誌，건어물녀, 초식남,韓國潮語

He is calm, soft and sweet, like a herbivorous animal. Don’t take him wrong, he might not look like the ‘flower boy’ you have in mind, like Kim Hyunjoong and Park Yoochun, but he is a mild-mannered nice guy. He might be mistaken as a girl since he is neat, emotional, and delicate. His interests may include but not limited to – cooking, fashion, shopping and art. He does not appeal his manly side so many people mistake him as gay, but he’s not. It’s just that he’s not that interested in girls and would rather prefer to spend time for himself.

草食男(초식남)：他們看起來安靜、溫馴、友善，就像草食性動物一樣。別誤會了！他可不是你想像中像金賢重和朴有天那種花美男！但他是個脾氣很好的人，有時候他會因為整潔、感性和脆弱的性格而被誤會是女生。他對煮食、時裝、逛街和藝術充滿興趣，毫無男性吸引力的他甚至會被人誤以為是同性戀，但實際上他不是，只是他對一眾女性無甚興趣，寧願與自己相處。

Both terms originated from Japan, one from comics and the other one from a Japanese columnist. However, these terms gained popularity in Korea about five years ago and people still use it. One similar term to these two terms might be an impregnable(solid wall) girl/guy(철벽남/녀), which, as you can tell from the name, is someone who has such high standards that it is almost impossible to date anyone.

這兩個詞同是出於日本，前者出於漫畫《螢之光》，後者則出於日本作家深澤真紀，早在五年前這兩個詞已在韓國非常流行，至今仍有不少人使用。韓國亦有個類似的用詞，稱為「攻不破的男女」(철벽남/녀)，就如名字般，這些人有很高的標準，幾乎沒可能約會。