- Aug 1

Trendy Lingo: How to Talk About One to One and Group Chats

#Trendy_Lingo

💎 What you'll learn in this post

📌 Heads up before you read

Overnight Sensation Words

⚡ Frequency of use by K-pop fans

★★★★★

⚡ Frequency of use in general

★★★★★

🎁 Essential insights into Korean culture

Must-Know Korean Culture

Korea's Top Chat App, KakaoTalk (카카오톡)

shortened to KaTalk (카톡)

If you're planning to visit Korea, there's one must-have app you need to know about - KakaoTalk! Around the world, different chat apps are popular in different countries, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and LINE.

But in Korea, KakaoTalk is the undisputed number one. Almost every Korean uses it! Whether it's chatting with friends, sharing photos, group chats, or even playing games and shopping, KakaoTalk does it all. Make sure you remember it!

갠톡 [gaen-tok]

One-on-one (KakaoTalk) chat, One-to-one (KakaoTalk) message

갠[gaen] is short for 개인[gae-in] (individual, personal), though it's grammatically incorrect. 톡[tok] is short for 카카오톡 (KakaoTalk).

So, [gaen-tok] is short for 개인 카카오톡 (individual, personal KakaoTalk). It refers to a private chat room with just me and one other person.

This word started with KakaoTalk but is now used for all chat messengers.

✅ 개인: Individual, Personal, Private

단톡 [dan-tok], 단톡방[dan-tok-bbang]

단톡: Group (KakaoTalk) chat

단톡방: Group (KakaoTalk) chat room

단[dan] is short for 단체[dan-chae] (group), 톡[tok] is short for 카카오톡 (KakaoTalk), and 방[bang] means room.

🖐️ 방[bang] is attached after the word 단톡[dan-tok], and in the process of making the pronunciation smoother, it changes to the pronunciation [bbang].

So, [dan-tok] is short for 단체 카카오톡 방 (group KakaoTalk chat room), which refers to a chat room where three or more people can have conversations together.

These words started with KakaoTalk but are now used for all chat messengers.

Let's look at the KakaoTalk screen

together and figure it out!