잰말놀이: Korean Tongue Twisters!

Tongue twisters are something that seem to pop up in every language.

In English, we have classics like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” and “She sells seashells on the seashore”. Well, turns out Korea also has tongue twisters! Which end up being even harder tongue twisters for Korean learners 😂

So, we’ll go over the more famous tongue twisters and what they mean!

잰말놀이

First things first: tongue twisters in Korean are called 잰말놀이. This is a breakdown of the following:

• 잰 = 재다 (to be quick / fast) + -은 (adjective modifier) — this is not really used as a word itself and you’d most likely hear it used in idioms like “손이 재다” (quick hands — fast and skilled at something)
• 말 = words / speech / language
• 놀이 = 놀다 (to play) + -이 (noun modifier)

So, overall 잰말놀이 means “fast word game”. Pretty accurate!

The soy sauce manager

Let’s just place the tongue twister out there first and deal with the consequences later! Give it a try if you’ve never seen it before then try reading it even faster the next time!

간장 공장 공장장은 강 공장장이고 된장 공장 공장장은 장 공장장이다

Okay, so clearly the sound that is making the most appearance is 장. Let’s see the various uses it appears in:

• 간장 / 된장 = soy sauce / soy bean paste — this 장 refers to the sauces or pastes
• 공장 = 공 (work, craft, labor) + 장 (place) — this 장 is the workplace / factory
  • Other common examples of 장 in this use are: 헬스장 (gym), 수영장 (swimming pool), 주차장 (parking log)
• 공장장 = 공장 (same as before) + 장 (manager / chief) — manager of the factory
• 장 = someone’s last name, e.g., Mr. Jang

So, all in all the 잰말놀이 is saying:

The soy sauce factory manager is Manager Kang, and the bean paste factory manager is Manager Jang.

The giraffe drawing

Again, with no context aside from the subtitle, let’s just try to say the tongue twister!

내가 그린 기린 그림은 목이 긴 기린 그림이고, 네가 그린 기린 그림은 목이 안 긴 기린 그림이다

진짜 어렵지? (Really difficult right?)

For this one, the tricky sound is the combination of 그 or 기 and either 린 or 림. Here are what the combos mean:

• 그린 = adjective form of 그리다 (to draw) — similar to “…that I drew”
• 기린 = giraffe
• 그림 = drawing / painting
• 긴 = adjective form of 길다 (to be long)

That should get you through all of the tricky parts, but make sure to distinguish between 내가 (I) and 네가 (you). The easy way to remember is that it is the same as 나 (me) and 너 (you). That is ㅏ is to ㅐ the same way ㅓ is to ㅔ.

So overall, here is the breakdown:

The police agency

This one is, in my opinion, the hardest one for non-native speakers to say due to the combination of ㄹ and ㅊ sounds in such short succession.

경찰청 철창살은 외철창살이고 검찰청 철창살은 쌍철창살이다

Yeeesshhh…

Alright, so the operative sounds in this one are the “ch” and “l” sounds of the ㅊ and ㄹ, respectively.

• 경찰청: National Police Agency (경찰 = police + 청 = government bureau/agency)
• 검찰청: Prosecutors' Office (검찰 = prosecution + 청 = agency)
• 철창살: Iron bars (of a cage or cell)
  • 철 (iron) + 창살 (window bars)
• 외-: A prefix meaning "single" or "one"
• 쌍-: A prefix meaning "double" or "twin" (like in 쌍둥이 (twins) and 쌍꺼풀 (double eyelids))

And here is the full breakdown of the 잰말놀이:

Which one tripped you up the most?