Korean for fun: Call a doctor!

— Here are some words and phrases that you might need when you need some medical attention. We start with some necessary vocabulary, such as ‘hospital,’ ‘doctor,’ etc., learn names of body parts, and check some of common words that you might hear around a hospital.

Some information about the Korean medicare system:
The word for hospital ( /pyung-won/) is used for both large hospitals–with a number of doctors and equipment–and small clinics run by a doctor.
Pharmacists can not only sell medicine but also write prescriptions to make medicine. It has been a serious dispute between phrmacists and doctors for a long time. Pharmicists are also allowed to practice some Chinese/Korean medicine. It is partially because the role of pharmacists had been very crucial (and still is in some regions) from the time they did not have enough doctors.

1. Basic nouns

pyung-won	hospital; clinic
ui-sah	medical doctor
kahn-ho-sah	nurse
ung-goop-shil	emergency room
yahk	medicine, drug
yahk-kook	pharmacy; drug store

 

Now, you can say such phrases as ‘Where is the hospital?,’ or ‘Let’s go to the hospital.’

pyong-won “hospital”

uh-tee “where”

issuh-yo “is…?”

Where is the hospital?

 

pyong-won “hospital”

. kah-yo “go”

Let’s go to the hospital.

2. Basic body parts

muh-ree		head
ul-gool		face
	noon	eye
	k’oh	nose
	ip	mouth
	kui	ear
mohm		body; torso
	mohk	neck; throat
	uh-gae	shoulder
	kah-soom	chest
	pae	stomach
	toong	upper back
	huh-ree	lower back
	yup-koo-ree	side body
p’ahl		arm
sohn		hand
ung-dung-ee		butt
tah-ree		leg
pahl		foot

 

Now, the smart phrase:

muh-ree “head”

ap’ah-yo “… hurts.”

My head hurts. (= I have a headache.)