김신영이 흉내내는 김연자 성대모사 한 장면

What does “성대모사” mean in Korean?

Korean has a gloriously literal word for doing a spot-on voice impression: 성대모사 (seongdaemosa). Pull it apart and it reads “vocal-cord copying” — 성대 is your vocal cords, 모사 means reproduction or copying. It covers mimicking a celebrity’s voice, a cartoon character, even a barking dog. On Korean variety TV a killer 성대모사 is a prized party trick, and plenty of comedians have built whole careers on one.

Both halves are Sino-Korean: 성대 (聲帶, “sound-band” = vocal cords) and 모사 (模寫, “copy-depict”); the compound itself was coined in Japanese and borrowed into Korean. You’ll usually hear it as 성대모사(를) 하다, “to do an impression,” and a gifted mimic is a 성대모사의 달인 — a “master of impressions.” Here the comedian is mid-성대모사 of trot legend Kim Yeon-ja, booming out her stage voice before joking that if Lee Hyori has “Ten Minutes,” then trot has Kim Yeon-ja.