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Fan Speak: Must-Know Basic Korean Word-Successful Fan, 성덕

💎 What you'll learn in this post

📌 Heads up before you read

 

Real expressions of K-Fans

 

성덕 [seong-deok]

Successful fan

성덕[seong-deok], short for 성공한 덕후[seong-gong-han deo-ku]


[seong-deok] is someone who has had an amazing experience, like being face to face with their favorite star, or having the star know they're a fan, or having the star call their name, or any other dream come true moment.


🔎 When the verb 성공하다 (to succeed) modifies the noun 덕후 (fan), 하다 changes to 한.


 

💥 Why did this expression come about?


Koreans often create interesting expressions by manipulating words, including coining new words.


덕후[deo-ku] comes from the Japanese word 오타쿠[o-ta-ku]. In Korea, it was first pronounced as 오덕후[o-deo-ku] and later shortened to 덕후[deo-ku].


While 오타쿠 originally had a negative connotation in Japan, associated with social isolation and lack of sociability, the Korean adaptation, 덕후, has evolved into a positive word signifying enthusiasm and expertise in one's field of interest.


 

💡 See real-life usage examples through the drama Lovely Runner


Where does this expression appear in the drama?


Episode 3] In this scene, a 19-year-old high school student named Sol, who has traveled back in time to 2008, is having dinner with Sun-jae.

👩

No one can match the [seong-duk] like me... I am a [seong-gong-han deo-ku]!

나 같은 성덕이 어딨어, 진짜... 성공한 덕후라고!


※ The actual pronunciation of Seong-gong-han Deok-hu is [seong-gong-han deo-ku].

🧑

What does [deo-ku] mean...?

덕후가 뭔데?


Sol commonly used the word 덕후 in her original time period, but when she time traveled back to 2008, the word wasn't in use yet. As a result, Sun-jae has no idea what it means! 😂

👩

Oh, it's a word similar to 'fan'.

아, 팬이랑 비슷한 말이야.

 
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