minggukieology

[minggukieology]

Visiting Korea

Hey everyone, as I'm working on my itinerary for my upcoming trip to SK I thought I'd quickly share this resource with you: BTS ROAD*

I'm not sure how well known/unknown this website among international armys is but if you are planning a visit to SK at any point in the future, this website has all the fancafes/birthday ads and such with opening hours, address etc. They track not only fan events in Seoul but all over Korea. Highly recommend for fancafe tour planning!

(*Be aware that some knowledge of Korean is needed to navigate the website)

#army #bts #korea travel

[minggukieology]

Hi!

I was wondering if the translated lyrics of letter that are in the description of the live performance for festa are accurate? l've seen people still using the translated lyrics that was done by an army (I'm pretty sure) so I was curious as to which one is more accurate.

Thanks!

Hi, thanks for your message.

It depends solely on the translator and their preferred style. And it's hard to say which is 'accurate' and which isn't.

Lyrics are a special area of translating because you typically cannot carry over the same sentiment if you try to stick too much to the original wording vs. if you choose to rather convey the sentiment and poetic meaning, you can often only do so by changing the verbiage and not sticking so close to the original. There is simply always a trade off due to the fact that Korean and English are vastly different languages.

The English version of the lyrics under the live performance video appear to me to be the 2nd case of what I just described above. Rather than following word by word, they chose to translate it in such a way that it sounds and flows better in English.

Hope my explanation helped a bit!

#ask #jimin #letter

[minggukieology]

Hi I was wondering if you could give us a translation for jimins ment at yoongis concert yesterday? There was a part where he mentions according to the live translations on the stream "I've heard you guys are enjoying much more than yesterday ", and jimin solos have been trying to imply that he's shading jk here ? Which doesn't sound like something he would imply and when I first heard it I figured he was just talking about how they told him that the crowd has been more hyped during day 2 , which is why he followed it up by thanking the audience and asking them to continue supporting yoongi to the end. Sorry for bringing any negativity to the tl, but I have a feeling it's just solos trying to twist his words to fit an agenda. I've linked the speech down below so you can see. https://twitter.com/btspicstwt_/status/1687768043386990592?t=eo4mkm96oCIFSoQfHeyyKg&s=19

Hi, thanks for the message though I do not like to entertain solo stan narratives.

Jimin's solo stans have proven time and time again to undermine Jimin, go against his own wishes, throw his integrity and name into question, dismiss his words just to feed their hate boner towards other members, meanwhile Jimin remains the most supportive towards each and one of the members and their activities.

Without spending too much time on this answer, he said exactly what was written in the subs. He used the expression 제가 듣기로는 which literally translates as "From what I heard..." / "I was told that..." He was simply hyping up the crowd at (let me remind everyone) YOONGI'S concert. If anyone finds anything malicious behind this expression, I'd volunteer to finance their lobotomy.

That's all.

#ask #from now on these kind of messages will be ignored or responded privately #jimin

[minggukieology]

yoongi ending his live by "let's see each other in 2025 / see you in 2025" 💔💔💔💔

how to time travel...

#i miss my ot7 #that's all

[minggukieology]

Hello everyone, I have received many many messages asking me to do a deep dive on the conversations between Jimin and Jungkook based on the infamous JK in bed live (lol don't know what else to call it)

Please allow some time for me to put something coherent and well written together, I will be working on it in the upcoming days. Thanks a lot for your patience 🫶

[minggukieology]

Hi, I’ve been a BTS fan for a long time since 2014 and I got into kookmin around 2017. During my time in the fandom, I’ve noticed that other ships don’t have dedicated translators. I’m wondering why they are accounts dedicated to just translating jikook and why you decided to also translate the interaction between JM and JK.

Hi, thanks for your interesting message.

Hmm, I think the biggest reason was that I noticed many times Jikook moments were not addressed or translated properly. And most often than not, the context of their interactions requires more than just a simple tweet with a translation of what was said. So I originally started providing more cultural context on Twitter and that came hand in hand with translations. And with that I also started addressing mistranslations that were spread by jikookers to hopefully put at least some to rest, since there are plenty of heart-warming moments between Jimin and Jungkook without the need to alter any facts.

I'd say the other 'ships' have no dedicated translators because e.g. the biggest community around a ship in the BTS fandom is purely surviving on mistranslations and actively taking advantage of the linguistic and cultural gap between Korean and English. If they started actually understanding properly what was said, that would be no fertile ground for their narratives so it's understandable they are not quite interested in facts and well-informed discussions :)

Thanks once again for your message 🩷

#ask #jikook

[minggukieology]

Hii, hope you're doing well.

https://twitter.com/purpleminiiiie/status/1687155012252860416?s=20

I have a question regarding the context...the link i attached here jungkook says "Yes i saw this, i enjoyed watching this" so my question is would you be able to tell from the tone or like context exactly which video he might be hiting to??

Sorry of it's like a irrelevant question but i just wants to be sure before believing anything 😅 if you could help with it...

Thank you.

Hello there!! Thanks for the message and sorry for the longer wait for my response.

For context I'll attach the video here:

And the tweet which was pointing out what started autoplaying after:

It's actually pretty easy to distinguish if you know what he is saying. Sadly, here the English captions are a bit misleading.

As Jungkook is sitting back down he says:

"이거* 봤어" // "(I)'ve watched this*"

(*Here he includes 'this' verbatim, pointing to the video that came on as the previous finished. So yes he is directly saying he has seen THIS video- the one playing atm)

Then he continues with:

"네, 잘 봤습니다". // "Yes, (I) watched (it) well."

(Notice that here he doesn't use a subject, the 'it' [or 'this' in the case of Weverse subs] is added in English translation for basically making the sentence understandable. Korean doesn't really on such a frequent use of pronouns. I typically mark these words with brackets, to indicate they are not spoken in the original sentence)

And the meaning of 잘 봤습니다 or 잘 먹었습니다 (I ate well) etc. is basically to react to a just concluded action - Koreans like to express gratitude for a good experience with this type of a sentence. Most often in English this sentiment is translated as "I enjoyed doing xxx..." but again I like to keep the original essence of the sentence with my translation. So basically with this sentence Jungkook is reacting to having finished the previous video and saying he had a good time watching it. (He also says it in high politeness which is typical for this expression). The use of 'this' in the Weverse subs is a bit confusing here. He is referring to the previous video, not the current one playing. I would therefore use 'it.'

Hope my explanation makes it a bit clearer! It is more than obvious Jungkook stayed updated on all video releases during Jimin's promo time ☺️

#ask #weverse live #jikook

[minggukieology]

Hello. How are you? Thank you for your posts that helped us understand Kookmin's way of communicating. I have a small question about JK's word usage. That is the phrase 씻을 거 in the sentence 내가 갈게, 내가 씻을 거 챙겨가지고 갈게. I have read your post and you have translated it as “stuff to wash up”, but there are also some sources that translate as “my things that I need to shower” and “my shower stuff”. I'm a bit confused at this point. Does the word 씻 have a specific meaning in this context? Like “wash my face”, “take a shower” or some kind of wash? Thank you so much 😘

Hi, thanks for your message!

Since I'm short on time I'll reply rather briefly:

My translation is closer to the source.

Word 씻다 means to wash, to wash up. It can mean various things but if not specified it's just 'to wash'. His sentence didn't include anything specific or shower related. The shower meaning is just an assumption on behalf of the translator. While it 'can' be assumed washing up means showering (since there are other specific expressions for washing your face, teeth etc), in a sentence like the one Jungkook said it's not really needed to specify; the word was meant to refer to personal hygiene. What each person understands behind that can vary.

#ask #weverse live #jikook

[minggukieology]

Hi, do you mind translating this clip? Cos I’ve seen another version which was slightly different so I’m not sure which is more accurate: https://mobile.twitter.com/lovemazejikook/status/1641421413193220096

Thanks in advance!

Hi, thanks for your message 😊

Shortly, it seems to me that this translation is not correct. (explanation below)

Adding the inquired about translation for context:

and also the full clip for anyone interested (apologies for the quality, i just quickly screen recorded this off of twitter)

The issue here is that the translator incorrectly assumed the pronouns and thus misinterpreted what Jimin said.

My translation is as follows:

MC: What's the ranking in the team? Jimin: Our maknae decided the ranking and he decided for the lowest (rank) for (me). *pointing at himself*

MC: (You're) the lowest? *pointing at Jimin* Who's the top rank then? Jimin: The top rank? I think leader hyung-nim, his ranking is the highest.

The meaning becomes also obvious when you look at the added captions that say:

"[Jimin] Designated as BTS' lowest rank"

and then the MC asking him:

[Jimin-ssi] (you're) the lowest rank?

to which Jimin responded with agreement.

As always, here the pronouns have to be assumed as they are not spoken in Korean (I typically put the added pronouns into brackets in my translations), so these discrepancies can sometimes happen. Though I believe one should be careful to get the full context before issuing a translation.

-------------------------------

To add to this topic:

Funnily enough, I've already made a few posts on the whole ranking talk which has been a trope within the team ever since BTS has been formed. (I think this also stems from the fact the Korean society is hierarchical in nature, therefore in every team an important aspect is the dynamic according to the hierarchical order based on age and seniority)

The twist here is that from the very beginning Jimin was treated as the 'maknae' especially by Jungkook which Jimin once again acknowledges even nowadays 😆 If you are interested in learning more about the whole topic of "ranking Jimin the lowest' I am linking my previous translations and write-ups here and here. 😊

Thanks a lot for your question once again, I hope I was able to provide a sufficient answer!

#more on jikook's dynamic #even years later #thats it from me for now gn

[minggukieology]

Hello, I found this old quote from jimin and I’ve seen it translated elsewhere but I was hoping to get your take on it? It’s from this article

https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/415/0000001635?sid=004

지민_ 중학교 3학년 때부터 춤을 춰왔고 부산예고에 수석 입학 할 만큼 소문난 춤꾼이지만 동시에 매력적인 보컬로 방탄소년단만의 색깔을 만드는 데 큰 역할을 했다. 또 ‘짐드백’(지민+샌드백)이란 별명이 생길 정도로 팀 내 서열 꼴찌가 됐는데 어쩌다 이렇게 됐나.

▲ 춤뿐 아니라 보컬에 대한 고민도 많은 편이다. 보컬적인 면에서 아직 너무 부족하다고 생각하기 때문에 스스로 만족할 수 있을 만큼 노력해서 더 좋은 노래를 들려드리고 싶다. 서열 꼴찌인 건 인정한다. 막내 정국이한테 던져지고 나서 이렇게 된 것 같다. ‘정국 맘’이라는 별명이 있는데 이제 ‘정국 장난감’이 된 것 같다.(웃음) 반항할 수 없기도 하지만 그런 장난이 싫지 않기 때문에 어쩔 수 없다.

Hi, thanks a lot for your message.

Since it's quite a bit of text I will give a translation without much of explaining around it for the parts where it just mentions Jimin's history etc and focus more on the parts which I assume were the reason you sent me the message for.

Here I will also try to make it more fun for me (and for those who are maybe interested in going more in depth too) by showing multiple ways of translating certain words or phrases, ranging from 1st option marked as ¹ - 'closest to source' translation (which I typically provide to show what was said in original word as opposed to just transforming it to be more seemless and easier to understand for an English speaker) /2nd option marked as ²- close synonym (kind of middle of the two, optional) / 3rd option marked as ³- 'looser, more flexible' translation (might not be mirroring the source text 100% but brings the essence of the word, phrase closer to the English language and its context). This is just to show translations can vary depending on stylistic choice and preference. Naturally, this doesn't always apply though and there's many further nuances that can be discussed etc.

Note: if you wish to skip the (admittedly long) explanation and my weird number exercise, scroll to the bottom for clean translation.

지민_ 중학교 3학년 때부터 춤을 춰왔고 부산예고에 수석 입학 할 만큼 소문난 춤꾼이지만 동시에 매력적인 보컬로 방탄소년단만의 색깔을 만드는 데 큰 역할을 했다.

또 ‘짐드백’(지민+샌드백)이란 별명이 생길 정도로 팀 내 서열 꼴찌가 됐는데 어쩌다 이렇게 됐나.

"Jimin- You've been dancing since the third grade of middle school and were such a notorious dancer to the point that you got accepted to Busan Arts High School as the top student (*수석 입학), but at the same time, you also played a big role in creating BTS' own specific colors with your ¹attractive / ²appealing vocals.

Though on top of that, you came in ¹last position in the team ranking / ³were last in the team pecking order to such an extent that you ³earned yourself a nickname ¹'jim-deubaek' / ²'jim-dbag' / ³'jim-punchbag' (Jimin + ¹sandbag / ³punching bag), ¹how did it happen / ³how come / ³how did this come about?"

(*note: here of course the tone is playful and the meaning obviously isn't referring to any harmful violence, the question is posed in a way that it implies Jimin is both the top (skills, influence wise) and then finds himself at the bottom when it comes to certain power hierarchy in the group, like when they joke around together (even physically), to the point that not even the youngest regards him as a 'hyung' and rather plays around with him, which Jimin then refers to in the response accordingly)

춤뿐 아니라 보컬에 대한 고민도 많은 편이다. 보컬적인 면에서 아직 너무 부족하다고 생각하기 때문에 스스로 만족할 수 있을 만큼 노력해서 더 좋은 노래를 들려드리고 싶다.

서열 꼴찌인 건 인정한다. 막내 정국이한테 던져지고 나서 이렇게 된 것 같다. ‘정국 맘’이라는 별명이 있는데 이제 ‘정국 장난감’이 된 것 같다.(웃음) 반항할 수 없기도 하지만 그런 장난이 싫지 않기 때문에 어쩔 수 없다.

"Not only dancing, I tend to worry a lot about my vocals too. I think I am still lacking in the vocal aspect, therefore I want to try hard enough to be satisfied with myself and give you better songs.

I admit to being last in ³the pecking order. I think ¹it became/ ³I ended up like this after ¹being ¹thrown / ³tossed around by ¹the maknae Jungkook. I have the nickname ¹'Jungkook's mum' (*the word mum spelled in Korean) but now / from now on I think I am becoming ¹'Jungkook's toy' / ³'Jungkook's plaything'. (Laughter) I cannot ¹defy it / ²resist, but since I don't hate these kind of ¹antics/ ¹play / ²jokes / ²mischief, ¹there's nothing to do / ³I can't help it."

Concluding note: by giving multiple options I tried to show that there are always various ways to go about translations. Here I would say to avoid misunderstanding, it's better to try to convey the meaning of what was said with a bit more flexible translation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TLDR, clean translation:

Reporter: "(Jimin) You've been dancing since the third grade of middle school and were such a notorious dancer to the point that you got accepted to Busan Arts High School as the top student, but at the same time, you also played a big role in creating BTS' own specific colors with your attractive vocals. Though on top of that, you were last in the team pecking order to such an extent that you earned yourself a nickname 'jim-punchbag' (Jimin +punching bag), how did this come about?"

JM: "Not only dancing, I tend to worry a lot about my vocals too. I think I am still lacking in the vocal aspect, therefore I want to try hard enough to be satisfied with myself and give you better songs. I admit to being last in the pecking order. I think I ended up like this after being tossed around by the maknae Jungkook. I have the nickname 'Jungkook's mum' but now I think I am becoming 'Jungkook's plaything'. (Laughter) I cannot defy it, but since I don't hate these kind of antics, there's nothing to do about it."

(exerpt from 그 여름, 우리가 사랑한 방탄소년단, published 27.07.2016 by atstar1)

#a bit of an experimental answer but still a good read on the jikook early dynamic

[minggukieology]

How Jimin and Jungkook recollect their first meeting and how it became the epitome of the nature of their relationship ✍️

Q: Tell us the first impressions of each other.

Jimin: I remember it exactly. I saw (Jungkook) for the first time at the dorm. Back then (his) image was way different from the current one. Kind of like from a manhwa, a bright student that is smiling/laughing a lot kind of a feel?

Jungkook: When we met in front of the dorm's door for the first time, you thought I was your hyung.

Jimin: That's right, that's why I greeted you with "annyeonghaseyo" (*polite greeting)

Jimin: Aaah what kind of impression is thaaat (laughter)

Jungkook: So just.. that was my first impression (laughter)

After seeing this quote from an old interview on how Jimin and Jungkook described their first meeting it occurred to me just how perfectly it predicted the evolution of their whole relationship over the years. I just translated another exerpt the other day, in which Jimin describes how Jungkook treats him more as a play buddy and someone to fool around and use his strength with, rather than a hyung that is older and should be regarded as such 😄

All throughout the years we saw how the boundaries between them have been fluid (in the age-communication, behavior hierarchy sense) and how they became way more relaxed with showing that part of the relationship to us as well, in the last few years especially. The footage of Jungkook drawing a funny tiny+cute snowman figure as Jimin (emphasis on cute acc to Jungkook) closing it off by saying "But still I don't forget that he is my hyung, right..." (as if kind of referring to the way he was describing him up until that point- as someone cute + also drew him as someone super small (might be just bc of the theme but still cute)) This all just further reminded me of the same point.

full translation of Jungkook's description of Jimin:

Like.. *how to say* (Jimin's) expression is always cute

Also his eyes are kinda droopy and cute like this...

So (here is) Jiminie hyung (shows the drawing)

He must be cute in the eyes of ARMY for sure but Jimin-ssi is also extremely* cute in my eyes.

But still I don't forget that he is my hyung, right...

(*Jungkook uses '굉장히' -stronger version of very- to emphasize just how veeery cute Jimin is in his eyes too)

#reblogging for those who missed it and want to read up on this topic

[minggukieology]

Hi your so cool and I love your translations please never stop and your work is amazing!!! I appreciate it very much.

Hi, thanks so much for your lovely message ☺️

I wish there were more hours in the day so I could sleep more lol and have a bit more time for this blog too because these kinds of messages really motivate me.

Thank you once again, I really appreciate it!! 🫶

#ask #made my evening

[minggukieology]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CobP9TiPJcN/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

hiiii hope you’re doing well 💗 a jkkr friend showed me yesterday that in korean gay slang, the word top comes from the verb ‘to hit.’ i linked a graphic a korean queer artist made. it made me curious if when jm said he was scared jk would hit him if it could make sense he wasn’t just teasing jk about physically hitting him? i know you can’t tell me jm’s actual intentions, i just wanted to know if it would make sense grammatically. ty!

Hi there, thanks a lot for your interesting message.

I however see no connection with the topic you mentioned, grammar or any other sense wise. Jimin's comment was a play on the dynamic between him and Jungkook that's been a trope ever since their debut, which is characteristic of Jimin being the seeming 'maknae' instead of Jungkook, since from the beginning Jungkook tended not to treat him like a hyung but rather as a younger member. That applied to how they would play around with each other, where Jimin would end up being the one hit (jokingly, we are of course not talking about anything agressive or violent here). I have written in regards to this topic in a few posts such as this and this one.

I am not sure how much you know about being a part of the queer community in SK but I can guarantee you no one would ever dare to use these words publicly to describe themselves or insinuate them. These are code words for gay people to identify each other at bars in certain districts in Seoul for example. Being out in Korea means you are destined for a lifetime of bullying and discrimination at your workplace or anywhere you go, that is if you are somehow miraculously lucky enough to have an understanding and supportive family and friends. Of course the context for idols is a bit different but the principle stays the same.

#ask #weverse live

[minggukieology]

For this part of the live: https://www.tumblr.com/dstdes/724068219316584448/you-left-at-2-oclock-go-to-sleep-soon-right-i, does jimin say jk has to leave at 2 or did he say he left at 2 yesterday? Or is it ambiguous? I think this is the part that has gotten quite different translations.

Also, what’s your favourite part of the live? :)

Hi, thanks for the ask!

If you haven't seen it already I addressed this in this post.

My favorite part besides the beginning when Jimin was insisting on Jungkook uncovering himself (lol sounds even wilder when written down like this) was probably this moment:

Basically when Jungkook was directly talking to Jimin all informally like they weren't on an official broadcast and this particular part was just 😮‍💨

in low formality: "(Do I*) go? (Or*) not?"

(I understand it doesn't sound like much written like this but it just hits different in Korean if you get what I mean lol

Anyway the whole part was just insane, the way Jungkook addresses him so casually without any second thought and the way they easily slip into their satoori is just... It screams comfort and closeness)

And then probably when Jungkook said he was upset after Jimin said no 🥺

I don't really know if anyone has done a breakdown or a little closer look at the way Jungkook and Jimin talk to each other, based on e.g. this particular live. A lot of the detail gets left out in English because unfortunately English doesn't have the scope to account for the nuances in Korean speech. If anyone wants me to explain a bit more about the language, let me know.

Anyways, thanks for your message!

#ask #weverse live #jikook #last one before i go to bed

[minggukieology]

PSA

As a new work week approaches, the activity on this blog will also be slowing down. I will be keeping my inbox open for now but unless anything extraordinary happens, the answer time will be long.

Thanks everyone for your understanding 🙏

[minggukieology]

Definitely not level-headed and quite actually completely delusional, but could jimin’s comment saying he’s afraid of JK be taken to mean he’s afraid JK’s going to spank him?

I know hobi used the same verb when he told JK to hit jimin’s butt when he was upside down in the flying yoga episode of run bts.

LOL I don't think so.

He just said: (I*) think (you*) will hit (me*) / (I*) will get hit.

(*pronouns are not included in Korean sentences, added in English translations)

The verb 때리다 has various ways of usage. Yes, it can mean spank but without further context it is most likely hit.

This was just the typical playful banter not meant to be taken seriously between Jimin and Jungkook and their hyung-dongsaeng dynamic, also most likely with reference to Jungkook's body and stature (which he was very intentionally teasing about during the whole live 🫣)

#ask

[minggukieology]

art by jimin. for @avizou ♡ by mona & ems.

#amazing edit #i could stare at this for hours