Hi. 현우예요. How was your week, everyone? 일주일 동안 잘 지냈어요? I want to talk a little bit about the word ‘마음’ in this blog post today.

If you like listening to Korean pop songs, 마음 is like one of the top ten frequently appearing words in the lyrics – which is more than natural because most of the songs are basically talking about 마음.

마음 is a very interesting word – it can not only be translated in many ways into English, but it also has a lot of meanings even in Korean. So for all the phrasal verb lovers out there, I’ll go through some of the most common expressions that contain the word “마음” in them that cannot easily be translated into English word by word.

마음 can be mind, heart, feeling, emotion, or even interest. If you eat your 마음 (마음을 먹다), you ‘make up your mind’. And after you’ve made up your mind (마음을 먹은 후에) if your 마음 is changed(마음이 바뀌다), you have a second thought. And while you’re still debating what to choose among many options, if something ‘enters your 마음’ (마음에 들다), you like it. But if you misplace and lose what you found likeable (마음에 든 것을 잃어버리면), your ‘마음 is not good’ (마음이 안 좋다), and that means you’re feeling sad and depressed, and your ‘마음 isn’t comfortable’ (마음이 안 편하다) – you’re worried and not relieved. But when you find the thing again, your ‘마음 is put down’ (마음이 놓이다) and that means you’re relieved from the worry.

Of course everybody has 마음, but if ‘you have your 마음 in a particular person’ (마음이 있다), you are interested and like that person as a possible date, but sometimes when you are really nervous, you say things that ‘are not in your 마음’ (마음에 없는 말을 하다) – and that means you end up saying things that you didn’t really mean. Your friends tell you to let bygones be bygones, but you still ‘can’t grab your 마음’ (마음을 못 잡다) and that means you’re still very anxious about it and can’t pull yourself together.

Like this, 마음 has a lot of meanings and phrasal verbs related to it (like in English the word ‘heart’ does) and I’m sure there are more. I’ve recently started listening to more K-pop songs and I’ve realized once again how often I hear the word 마음 🙂 all in different contexts. So I hope this short blog post will be of some help and ‘enter your 마음’ ^^

And a bonus: when someone bugs you about your decision, the way you’re dressed, or whatever, and you want to say “I make my choices. It’s none of your business”, you can say “내 마음이야!”  : )