Korean military's '-da or -kka' language

Go Ara, who was the heroin of TV drama "Reply 1994," has drawn attentions with her unusual language right since her debut in 2003. Unlike other celebrities of her age who would greet by saying "an-nyeong-ha-se-yo" (hello in Korean), she would speak with formality such as "an-nyeong-ha-sip-ni-kka" and "jo-sim-hi deul-eo-ka-sip-si-yo," which means "goodbye" in Korean. Her language style was influenced by her soldier father. She was used to finishing every sentence with either "-da" or "-kka" as in "-haet-seup-ni-da" and "-ip-ni-kka."

In "Real Men: Female Soldiers Special 2," a popular entertainment show in Korea, some participants are often punished for failing to use the "-da" or "-kka" expressions. Singer G.Na who was born in Canada asked if "da-na-kka" was a name of a song and was called "ignorant of military." Amber of (f)x, another participant who is a Taiwanese-American, made mistakes trying to use appropriate military language on top of her un-fluent Korean, and her mistakes became trendy words. When talking to the platoon leader, at a loss for words, Amber said with a panicked face, "geu-nyang it-eu-si-oh" or "it-eu-si-oh," which means "just forget it" in Korean, has become viral shortly after the broadcast. Korean-American rapper Jessi also made the platoon leader angry by failing to appropriate military language when counting the number of push-ups she did.

Having to speak in such language suddenly feels strange to every man when they enter a basic military training center in Korea. It is natural to feel strange when you get rid of natural expressions, such as "ahn-nyeong-hui-joo-moo-se-yo" ("good night" in Korean) and "il-eo-na-se-yo" ("wake up"), and start using strange sentences such as "ahn-nyeong-hui-joo-moo-si-ji-mal-ip-ni-da" and "il-eo-na-syeo-ya-ha-ji-mal-ip-ni-da." Recently, the Ministry of National Defense gave an instruction to some bases that lower ranking officers can use "-ha-sip-si-oh" (verb suffix for formal imperative) when talking to a higher ranking officer. The instruction is an effort to reform the military culture where many soldiers abuse their subordinates and cause troubles.

Even though any article on the language cannot be found at Korean army, navy, and air force regulations, the strange military language has been accepted as if it was the official language, and nobody makes an objection. Forcing soldiers to speak in such an old-fashioned language would not help disciplining them. I hope the TV show becomes a trigger to eliminate the "-da or –kka" language that gives soldiers unnecessary inconvenience.

고미석기자 mskoh119@donga.com