Funny Korean stories for learners

What are 꿀꺽 and 삐뚤빼뚤? Sound words in the comedies

Korean has a large stock of sound-symbolic words: 의성어 imitate a sound, 의태어 picture how something moves or looks. Comic writing uses them for timing, the way a cartoon uses a sound effect. Here a small dog disposes of a pastry:

• 삐뚤빼뚤, crooked and wobbly: the handwriting on a mysterious note in the same series, 아주 크고 삐뚤빼뚤하다 (very big and wonky).
• 반짝, glinting: 오늘도 빨간 토마토가 햇빛에 반짝인다, the red tomatoes shining in the sun just before they start disappearing in 달빛 빌라 (Moonlight Villa), A2.
• 살짝, lightly or softly: 누군가 문을 살짝 노크한다, someone knocks softly, in the same chapter.
• 흥얼거리다, to hum, built on the sound word 흥얼: a grandmother humming trot songs in 새벽의 레시피 노트 (The Dawn Recipe Notebook), A2.

Many of these come in pairs that differ by a vowel or a doubled consonant, and the change shifts the size or force of the image. You will meet them in every genre, but the comedies use them most freely.

How do Korean comedies get their laughs?

Mostly by timing. The narration lays out a situation in short, flat sentences and lets the last one turn it over. In 새벽의 레시피 노트, a young baker finds a stranger's tip scribbled in her late boss's recipe book. She tries it, it works, and that is worse:

Dialogue adds exclamations that textbooks barely mention: 아이고 (oh no, good grief), from a stallholder whose gas has been cut off in 시장의 법칙 (Market Law), and 어머 (oh my), from Grandma Malsun on the park bench in 벤치의 비밀 작전. Both are everyday Korean, and comedy is where you hear them in the right tone.

Which Korean comedy should I read first?

• A1: 벤치의 비밀 작전, two dogs playing matchmaker; 시장의 법칙, a weekly sabotage war between a tteokbokki stall and a gimbap stall at Gwangjin Market; or 착한 로봇 지우의 하루 (Jiù the Good Robot's Day).
• A2: 누가 똘똘이를 데려갔나? (Who Took Tol-Tol?), a missing alley cat and twelve suspects, or 우리 마을 합창단 (The Village Choir), a mismatched country choir with a new conductor from Seoul.
• B1: 반쪽의 맛 (Half the Flavor), two bickering siblings, one torn recipe book and their mother's tteokbokki shop.
• B2: 드라마 뒤의 드라마 (Drama Behind the Drama), feuding actors and a crew that leaks gossip to the press, or 골목의 눈 (Eyes of the Alley), a neighbourhood watch that solves crimes before the police arrive.

The flagship, 달빛 빌라, is a comedy at all four levels, so you can keep reading it as your Korean improves. Or browse every Korean series.