Posted by Before our trip to South Korea last month, we tried to learn simple Korean words that we thought may be helpful in our daily conversations. So we learned to say “Gamsahamnida” which means thank you, and “Annyeonghaseyo” which means hello. It’s funny that the Korean greetings for hello sounds like the Tagalog inquiry of “Anong sa ‘yo?”
We don’t watch Korean dramas so we don’t know much of their language. Though my daughter know BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, which is a very popular South Korean boy band. Of course my son is dating a South Korean gal who came with us on this trip, so he can understand some words and even learning to read and write in Korean.
We were in Jeju and we stopped at a grocery store one day to buy food supplies for our stay. We stayed in a couple of Airbnb homes during our one week stay in Jeju. One home was near the Sunrise Peak or Seongsan Ilchulbong, which is near the eastern coast, and the other home was in Seogwipo-si which is in the southwestern coast of Jeju island.
While in the grocery store, my wife bought cooked corns on the cob, and she bought plenty of them. As she received the bag from the stall vendor, who is an older gentleman, she said “thank you” in Korean. Or at least that was what she thought she said.
The vendor smiled sheepishly and he went on to wrapped several pieces of Korean peanut-bread, called ddangkong-ppang. These are bite-sized pastry, baked in small molds shaped like peanuts, that features a golden, waffle-like dough with whole peanuts inside. They are actually a tasty snack. The vendor then handed it to my wife and said it was all free.
My wife was so happy to receive the free snacks and we were very impressed how kind and generous the Koreans are. As we were driving home to the Airbnb place, we kind of wondered what my wife did to deserve such a generous act from that elderly vendor.
My wife told us that all she did was say ‘thank you’ to the elder gentleman, so she said “Saranghamnida.” My son’s girlfriend who is Korean, started laughing. We initially did not understand why.
Apparently, as my son’s girlfriend explained, that what my wife actually told the older man was a formal, and highly respectful way to say “I love you” in Korean.
No wonder we got the free pastries!
(*photos taken with an iPhone)