What does “돌려서 얘기하다” mean in Korean?

돌려서 얘기하다 means to say something indirectly — to hint at it rather than state it outright, the way English “beat around the bush” does. It’s built from 돌리다 (“to turn”) plus 얘기하다 (“to talk”), so literally you “turn the words around” before speaking. In Korea, softening a blunt message this way is often the polite, face-saving move, not evasiveness — a small window into why so much gets left unsaid.

The phrase opens the clip: a guy grumbles “운동하라는 얘기를 뭐 저렇게 돌려서 얘기하냐” — “why’s he beating around the bush so much just to tell me to work out?” — only to glance down and realise the hint landed. 얘기하다 is the everyday, spoken contraction of 이야기하다, so 돌려서 얘기하다 sounds casual; the more emphatic 빙빙 돌려서 말하다 (“talk round and round”) cranks up the same image. Swap in 직접 말하다 (“say it directly”) for the opposite, and you’ve got both sides of a very Korean balance between honesty and tact.