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Korean for K-pop fans
The vocabulary of K-pop fandom: the words for fans, releases and members, what happens at a concert, and how to write a message to an artist that is warm without being overfamiliar.
Much of fandom Korean is English borrowed and reshaped, 컴백 and 팬미팅 among it, so it is easier than it looks once you can read Hangul. The part that needs care is politeness, since fans are writing in public to someone they have never met. Day 23 of the daily course covers saying what you like and day 70 is a lesson on talking about music.
Fan words
The vocabulary every fan community uses:
컴백 (keombaek) does not mean a return after a long break: it means any new release and the weeks of promotion that go with it, so a group can have two comebacks in a year. 막내 (mangnae) is the youngest of any group of people, a family or an office as much as a band. 최애 (choeae), Sino-Korean for 'most loved', is your favourite member, and asking someone's 최애 is a normal opening between fans.
Talking about music
Saying what you like, with day 23's two patterns:
좋아해요 takes 을/를 and says what you like; 좋아요 takes 이/가, often dropped in speech, and says something is good, which is the split day 23 explains. 너무 (neomu) once meant 'too much' and in everyday speech now mostly means 'very', which is why it is in so many fan comments. -고 싶어요 from day 22 turns any verb into a wish.
At a concert
What fans bring, learn and shout:
응원 (eungwon) is cheering someone on. The fan chant, 응원법 (eungwonbeop), is a set of words fans shout at fixed points in a song, often the members' names in order, and agencies usually publish it around a release so fans can learn it in advance. A crowd singing along to a whole song is called 떼창 (ttechang). Official light sticks, 응원봉, are made for one act, and at many concerts the venue changes their colours in sync. 앵콜 is how fans spell and shout 'encore', although the dictionary form is 앙코르.
Writing to an artist
A message that is warm and polite:
The safe level for a message to an artist is polite 해요체, even when you are older than them, because it is a public message to someone you have not met. -(으)ㄹ게요 is a promise (day 45), which is why 항상 응원할게요 is on so many fan letters. 건강 잘 챙기세요 is the standard caring line, since artists' schedules are famously punishing. Skip 반말 and pet names: an overfamiliar message from a stranger reads badly in Korean however kindly it was meant.
Special days
Birthdays, anniversaries and the end of a show:
Birthdays are big events in fandom, marked with fan-funded advertisements and pop-up birthday cafés, and debut anniversaries are celebrated almost as much. 사랑해요 (saranghaeyo) passes freely between fans and artists in a way it would not between acquaintances, often with a finger heart. 수고했어요 after a performance thanks the artist for the work that went into it, and fans post it after every show.
These phrases get built into real conversation in the daily lessons. The first thirty days need no account, and the Hangul course will have you reading every sign in the guide.