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Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

The service of free kimchi

by Philip Gowman posted updated 27 Feb 2013
in | . < 1 minute read

ServiceIn restaurants, when a waiter brings you a free dish, why do Koreans say "That's service" when they mean "That's on the house"? #

One thought on “The service of free kimchi”

    • caliconotebook: That’s a direct interpretaton of how Koreans say in the same situation (in Korea). Just a colloquial habit, I would say.
    • Young Kim: We tend to use the loanword ‘써비스’ (‘service’) in that manner. The original meaning might have changed a bit when it travelled to Korea, I guess. (^^;)
    • Michelle B. Hong: I guess the mentality is they are serving something (for free), so ‘to serve’ -> ‘service’. It IS good service :-). Interesting point about it having changed meaning in Korea because when we say ‘서비스가 좋네요 (it’s good service), we use it correctly.

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