[Korean Culture & Language] 텅장


Hello, this is Uptempo Marketers! 

https://post.naver.com/viewer/postView.nhn?volumeNo=26874959&memberNo=38753951

Does the Plankton’s face above seem familiar to you?

It reads, “잠깐, 이럴 리가 없는데,” meaning “Wait, This is not possible(I can’t believe it)”.
It portrays someone’s face when they realized that they are suddenly broke..


The second picture on the right reads:
Paycheck logged in. 
Card A: Taking it ♥
Card B: Taking it ♥
National Pension: Taking it ♥
Card C: Taking it ♥
Medical Insurance: Taking it ♥
Transportation: Taking it ♥
Paycheck logged out


According to Wikipedia, with a serious economic inequality in Korea, low-income workers make up to 40% of South Korea’s total labor force, and the highest income earners make up only 1-1.3% of the labor force.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequality_in_South_Korea#:~:text=Economic%20inequality%20in%20South%20Korea%20is%20a%20major%20issue.,1.3%25%20of%20the%20labour%20force.

Because there are so little high-income workers and many low-income workers, more people can relate to not having much money left in their pocket, especially close to their pay date. These memes reflect this 웃픈 (‘웃픈’설명 있는 이전 article과 link 시킬 것) situation with a humor. 

Many fun words were created related to this phenomenon. 

텅장 is one of them. 텅장 originally comes from the word “통장,” which means a “Bankbook”. “텅” comes from “텅텅,” which is a mimetic word to describes an emptiness. Combining the two words together, it becomes “an empty bankbook”. Younger people use this word to describe the phenomenon of how fast money vanishes from their pocket. 

When you type in “텅장” on your Kakao, you get tens of emojis. 

These memes and emojis illustrate a phenomenon where you get paid, but the money vanishes faster than you expected. They are extremely popular, sadly because many people can relate to them. Many, especially younger ones, agree that there isn’t much left to spend after paying for their fixed expenses like rent, phone bills, insurance, and etc.

How quickly does your 통장 become 텅장?

Where Did All Your Money Go? Me Musta Shat It Away 🤷🏻‍♂️ | Meme on ME.ME

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