There's this boy that I met that I kind of like. We've been texting back and forth everyday for about 3 months now. But he takes forever to reply to my messages so I decided to cut him off. Everytime I do he texts me back with a new question. Right before vacay I let the convo end, but about a week later he texts me back. I answer and he ignores my message for like a week and a half, before replying back to me and apologizing. ?!? I hate playing mind games, and I hate having to wait around for a reply. I can't tell if he's playing mildang or just keeping his distance. Because regardless the reason, I'd rather he just straight up tell me.
My wishlist is short... but some words that I wish I could use in English... Note: I use revised romanization...
밀당 (mildang)- means push pull. And refers to the push-pull in a relationship. It's a shortening of these two words. : 밀다 (milda) (push) and 당기다 (danggida) (pull).
Usage: Guy calls and the girl doesn't answer. That's mildang.
It would be useful in English because we often refer to this type of thing in conversations and people ask "Why?" instead of a long drawn out explaination, we can say, "You need more mildang."
So for example:
"You just got that number from him, you can't call him."
"Why?"
"He should call you to show he's interested."
"Why? I really like him."
Instead of saying, "Because you'll look desperate and then how do you know if he really likes you." You could sum it up and say, "Show him some mildang, then he'll stay interested in you."
See... it's shorter. Plus you don't have to call your friend anything. Just remind them it takes some push pull...
정 (jeong)- the feeling of a place being attached to you, or you being attached to a place. You could say to an effect that a place has psychometry over you. But it's more than just belonging, but that place calls to you in your heart and the fiber of your being. You can sometimes see people who are like this. Where if they go anywhere but home, they look absolutely lost, unconfident, and they feel like they stick out like a sore thumb.
The concept is already in English, but there isn't a way to directly talk about it. The closest we have is there is no place like home, but the feeling of Jeong goes deeper--that places call to people, to their mind/heart in such a way they can't help but feel attached to it.
Usage: Despite the years apart, seeing the corner liquor store, the smiles on Ms. Hisakawa's face, Kaleb knew what he was trying to escape from. The way the town sucked his being in. The way the town called to him. And he to the town. The feeling of jeong.
눈치 (noonchi) - literally means eye measure. You use this to read the situation and then figure out the best solution for it. It's like reading the air. It's more than just perception or just intuition, it's those two things combined to read the entire situation *and* engage your brain for the best solution AND come up with the best situation.
When you lack noonchi, then you're a dork. 눈치없다. (Nunchi eopda)
Usage: Lee Seung Ki is a really a dork. He couldn't realize that the solution to the puzzle was on his shoe the entire time.
He had really good noonchi. Not only could he see that everyone was mad, but that asking everyone to go to their favorite restaurant would solve the problem.
I'd personally vote against, "Han" 한 which is pretty much used to talk about collective suffering, but is pretty much talking about permanent collective victimhood for the rest of one's life (in a positive manner--it has no negativity associated with claiming it.) without trying to move on to the survivor, etc stage. Look, you get to be a victim only ONCE. That's before you speak. After you speak, you are a survivor. Don't hold onto victimhood. Because after that, you are whining. Work on thinking about how to overcome.
