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B1 Korean listening practice · Jeolla Korean · Curated for intermediate learners
What does “식구” (sikgu) mean in Korean K-drama slang?
식구 (sikgu) is a Korean word that traditionally means “family member” or “people who eat together,” from 식 (sik, “to eat”) and 구 (gu, “mouth, person”). It’s an old, warm word for the people in your household. But Korean crime films and gangster K-dramas borrowed sikgu and gave it a second life: in those genres, sikgu means “crew” or “gang” in the mafia sense. Asking “너 어디 식구야?” (“which crew are you?”) is a classic K-drama gangster line.
This clip plays both meanings: a man runs into his ex-girlfriend at a café and the conversation slides into gangster-coded slang, including age-tag pairings like “팔팔” (a person born in 1988). The mix of sikgu and 88-er (palpal) places the scene in the world of K-noir.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this B1 Korean listening practice listening practice?
General Korean frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B1 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Korean crime and gangster films (A Bittersweet Life, New World, Asura)
- ▸In K-dramas about gangs and revenge (Vincenzo, My Name, The Worst of Evil)
- ▸In Korean rap and hip-hop lyrics (Jay Park, BewhY)
- ▸In Korean stand-up and parody sketches about gangster films
- ▸In Korean dialect content from Busan and Daegu (often gangster-coded in films)