[Korean Culture & Language] Escaping Solo

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Koreans love romance. Many K-dramas, music, and TV shows center on romance. Korean couples display their love with 시밀러룩 (matching ‘couple looks’) and celebrate Valentine’s Day and White Day with their significant others. 

Photo by Oziel Gómez on Unsplash

Because not having a girlfriend or boyfriend, or ‘being solo’ is regarded as ‘sad’ in Korea, it is completely normal for someone to respond with worries and ask “Why don’t you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? You are such a good looking man/woman!” when you mention that you’re not dating anyone. Also, one of the most typical ice breaker questions Koreans ask is ‘남자친구/여자친구 있어요? (Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend?’

The video below illustrates a few stories of how some people got into a relationship. A girl talks about how her crush asked her out.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0tu5nKDdtU&t=4s

김짝남 (Kim Crush)

좋아요 means like

누르는 means press

사람 means person

올해 means this year

쏠로 means solo

탈출 means escape

The girl’s crush posted on Facebook, “If you hit ‘like,’ you’ll be able to escape from being single this year (and have a girlfriend/boyfriend/be in a relationship) lol”.

As soon as she ‘liked’ the post, the guy sent her a 카카오톡 (KakaoTalk, also known as KaTalk in South Korea, is the most popular mobile messaging app for smartphones) 메시지(message) and said “좋아요 눌렀네? (You liked the post!)”. She replied, “나 이제 솔로 탈출 하는거야? (Will I have a boyfriend now?)”. He read the message and called her right away. On the phone, he said “내가 너 솔로 탈출 시켜준다 (I’ll help you ‘escape’ from being solo),” “오늘부터 1일이다 (Today is our first day of relationship)”. She responded, “장난치지 마 (Stop joking with me)” and then hung up. They have been together for almost a year now.

Are you single? How important is ‘솔로 탈출(escaping solo)’ to you this year?

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