Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nukeday]

[Tropic of Cancer]

Could be that they mean it as, like, an assessment of an overall condition � la "Situation: Critical" or "System: Down"--"Cheer: Up," as opposed to "Cheer: Down" or "Cheer: Neutral."

Or like a Level Up, in video games.

Who knows. Lots of wacky stuff said 'round these parts.

[Triban]

[nukeday]

^

Haha, you did. Sorry. My brain must occasionally auto-filter posts including cartoon avatars.

[Chanoong]

the korean translation for cheer up is usually, 힘내라 which basically means "have strength." Conversely, if something is very hard or tiring they will say, 힘들어 or literally strength is leaving me. I don't know if this helps at all, but when they say cheer up, instead, imagine them saying, "Have strength! Fighting!"

[mellow-d]

"Cheer up" is a common expression in North America, it's just not used the way it seems to be here. For example, I kept a student during break and made him copy out a page about "Respect" word for word. After he finished, he wrote, "Cheer up" at the bottom of the page. It really irked me to see that!

[runthegauntlet]

I've gotten told this a number of times, too.

It's actually really starting to irritate me.

Every time someone has said it to me it's caught me off guard and I'd spend the next few seconds wondering if I look sad or something and that irritates me as well.

Just the other day I was getting up from the lunch table and smiling and saying goodbye to everyone and someone said 'cheer up' and I was like....'what'?!

What's worse are the people that don't speak English who go around saying it to me like it's a greeting or something.

I don't know why, but it's a bit grating.

I think it's because if I were actually sad or upset or something I'd probably have a legitimate reason and wouldn't want someone making some pedantic statement like 'cheer up' to me.

This isn't really something I ever think about aside from the actual occurrences but now that it's been mentioned.....

[Mr. Peabody]

Hey Canucks fans! Cheer up!!!

[schwa]

[Triban]

[Draz]

I never heard it used back home unless the person was kidding with you. It's a familiar jokey deliberately irritating kind of phrase, as someone mentioned before it's like when you tell a complete stranger to "smile!". Totally grating.

That's probably why it bothers so many people to hear it all the time. Try explaining to people that using this phrase all the time is the English equivalent to speaking in the familiar form in Korean to someone you don't know very well. Because it is. They probably won't listen, but well... yeah, they probably won't listen.

I don't hear it very often so I still find it amusing.

[Who's Your Daddy?]

Korean's seem to love to tell other people what to do, or what to think, or what to feel. The reason it bothers me is usually 1) they no nothing about the situation, 2) it's none of their business.

This is why I can't stand being around Korean men. I get unsolicited "advice" on my life, or my wife. They don't know WTF they're talking about, and think you're an idiot.

[wintermute]

I have heard "skill-up" when talking about gaining levels or improving character skills in a computer game.

Maybe they are using it the same way, and informing you that they are taking their cheering to the next level!

[Triban]

[kimchi_pizza]

I'm just bumpin an old thread to tell everyone that's already in a good
mood to simply...

Cheer up!