Badass Korean
You're cool like Korea... You’re a real BADASS, so learn to speak like one!Learn some Korean slang from the GreyRat before you become the linguistic equivalent of a 99-pound weakling.
노가다 will get you nowhere!
The picture gets your attention. The expression is the real punchline. Here is the meaning and the scene behind it, straight from As Much as a Rat’s Tail.
노가다
[no-ga-da]
to do hard work needlessly toil
Working hard today? Forced into needless toil – 노가다! … Just too much work! Soooooo tired! Too tired!
Meaning & context
본래는 공사판에서 하는 막일을 의미한다. 하지만, 속어적으로 이것은 모든 힘든일을 일컬 을 때 비유적으로 사용된다.
Originally meaning “construction work,” but expanded in the lexicon of young people to mean any kind of hard work or arduous endeavor ahead of them. Nogada is most often used for what one might consider menial work or a pointless effort. Synonym: 개고생 [gae-go-saeng] an unnecessarily difficult task (lit. a dog’s endeavor)
From As Much as a Rat’s Tail · book pages 70–70. Original published text; historical references and usage are retained.
STORY TIME
See it in conversation
Korean
류 교수
English
Professor Lew
류 교수 수업 넣었어? 으, 안돼!
You have professor Lew? Oh, no!
뭐? 왜?
What? Why?
완전히 노가다야. 좆나 노가다!
Absolutely nogada. Fucking nogada!
진짜? 젠장.
Really? That sucks.
그래, 여자친구, 술 마시는 것, 모든 것을 잊어야 해. A학점 받길 원한다면, 아니, 단지 네가 패스하길 원한다고 해도 그의 수업에서 살고 숨 쉬어야 해. 불쌍한 창현! 노가다는 네 운명.
Yeah, forget girlfriends, forget drinking, forget everything. You want an A, hell, you just want to pass, you’ll have to live and breathe his class. Poor ChangHyun! Nogada is your destiny.
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