In Korea, there is a special type of love that really explains a lot about Korea. It is called jeong (정). It’s a really difficult subject to tackle, so Keith invited Hyojin from TalktoMeinKorean.com to help explain!
Jeong (in its Korean meaning) is a very broad concept in Korea and is a really important part of Korean people and culture. But it’s really hard to define (even in Korean!). It can be considered love, but that’s too simple of a definition. It also includes affection, compassion, sympathy, community, attachment, etc. And of course jeong is between humans, but it can also be felt towards objects. Jeong can even be felt toward someone you fight with constantly as there’s a sort of connection that builds up (called miunjeong). See the video!
Think you’ve felt jeong in your life? Write a comment and let us know!
Thanks again to Hyojin from TalktoMeinKorean for agreeing to help!
nice pound… and the video was alright too
Love your work guys! keep going 
Great video! Ironically, 6 hours after watching, I heard “우리 정” in a drama (돈의 화신). Thanks to your video, I was able to grasp the nuance of the conversation – not just the vocabulary. Learning the culture of a word or phrase makes it easier for me to remember. Thanks again! BTW, I love the Keith & Hyojin vids for TTMIE as well – very entertaining.
GOOD i will be going to korea so this website and videos are good…. Anything at all on korea i need to know!! you both are cute together think about dating or meeting!! SO DATE HER !!! BEAUTIFUL GIRL and HANDSOME MAN …. …its nice to know i went too far .. and there are a few people reading this going ….Yes You Did
[...] The reason this happens is because of the very Korean concept of “jeong.” It’s a difficult concept, but we tried to explain it best we could here: A Special Kind of Korean Love (jeong/정) [...]
Your comment… thanks guys – your videos helped immensely when I visited Seoul with my daughter last month! I experienced jeong when travelling on the subway with a suitcase. So many men (some older than me) grabbed my case & hauled it up or down the stairs, organised a T-money pass & even demanded people offer me a seat on the train. I thought it was because we were foreigners, but now I know it was jeong! And I feel a lot of jeong towards Sth Korea and already planning a return trip!
Nice video! I have a question about it
You Koreans use “우리” a lot, right? Like, even if you’re talking to someone who is not your sibling, you say “우리 어머니”, or someone who hasn’t attended the same school as you and you say “우리 학교”… is that a part of 정?
I’ve read you 한국사람들 use 우리 because it’s about that feeling of nation-family that is cultural to you, and while watching the video I could relate to 정.
Because, for example, about this “offering what you’re eating to others” we do that here in Brazil, but it’s basically about etiquette, while the feeling I have from this video is that is not just this, it’s more about empathy because you’re all a big family (한국) – even if you do it with 외국인들. Is that so? ^^
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Jeong sorta seems like community spirit mixed with affection??? anyway – whatever it is – I like it
[...] Face readers back in the day saw these marks their mommas gave them as signs of men who lack a certain type of Korean love (jeong – 정). Maybe that’s why if boys have a little mark under their eye, they’re also prone to [...]