Day 1 of 15~12 min말풍선, 내레이션, 화 and 회차: how a vertical scroll is read.
Romanisation help
컷, 말풍선, 내레이션, 효과음, 1화, 무료 회차, 연재 중, 완결, 휴재, 다음 화에 계속, 작가의 말, 댓글
A webtoon is a comic made for a phone: one long column of 컷 (keot), panels, that you scroll down with your thumb, released in numbered 화 (hwa), episodes. Today covers the parts of the screen, the words on an episode list, and the order a scroll is read in. By the end you can open a Korean webtoon and know what every label around the story means.
What is on the screen
Four things every scroll is built from:
컷
keot
panel
From English 'cut'. On a phone a 컷 often has no border at all, just a picture floating in white space.
말풍선
malpungseon
speech bubble
Literally 'speech balloon': 말 'speech' plus 풍선 'balloon'. The tail points at whoever is talking.
내레이션
naereisyeon
narration box
The rectangular caption, usually at the top of a panel. Narration is normally written in the plain -다 form, as in 내렸다 'it fell', not in the 해요 you use in conversation.
효과음
hyogwaeum
sound effect
The sound words drawn into the art itself, such as 쾅 'bang'. Day 3 is all about them.
Why it works
A printed comic page is read in a zigzag, but a webtoon has one column, so the only direction is down. Inside a panel, read the bubble nearest the top first, and where two sit side by side, the left one first, as with any Korean text. The white space between panels does the work of time: a short gap is the next moment, a long empty stretch is a pause, and the reader's thumb decides how long it lasts. Artists use that, putting a reaction face a full screen below the line that caused it.
Episodes and the list
The words on a series' episode list:
1화
ilhwa
episode 1
화 counts episodes and takes the Sino-Korean numbers, so 1화 is read 일화 and 12화 is 십이화 (sibihwa). 첫 화 (cheot hwa) 'the first episode' and 다음 화 (daeum hwa) 'the next episode' are just as common.
무료 회차
muryo hoecha
free episode
회차 is 'episode' as an item on a list, the word used when episodes are counted or priced. 무료 means 'free of charge'; its opposite is 유료 (yuryo), 'paid'.
연재 중
yeonjae jung
running, still coming out
연재 is serial publication, one instalment at a time, the way newspapers once ran novels. 중 means 'in the middle of'.
완결
wangyeol
completed (series)
The final episode is out. You will see it as a label on the cover image or next to the title.
Why it works
화 is a Sino-Korean word for 'story' or 'talk', and it pairs with the Sino-Korean numbers 일, 이, 삼 rather than 하나, 둘, 셋. Counters are fussy about which set of numbers they take, and there is no way round learning each one; 화 behaves like 층 'floor' and 월 'month'. 회차 is built from 회 'a round, a time' and 차 'place in a sequence', so it names an episode by its position, the way a list does. That is why 회차 turns up on buttons and prices, and 화 in titles and in speech.
One episode, top to bottom
An episode page written for this lesson, in the order you meet it as you scroll:
Title
12화. 비 오는 날
sibihwa. bi oneun nal
Episode 12: A rainy day
Narration
그날 밤, 비가 내렸다.
geunal bam, biga naeryeotda.
That night, it rained.
Speech bubble
지은아!
jieuna!
Jieun!
Sound effect
쾅
kwang
bang (a door slams)
Last panel
다음 화에 계속
daeum hwae gyesok
to be continued in the next episode
Below the episode
작가의 말
jakgae mal
a note from the author
At the bottom
댓글
daetgeul
comments
Why it works
The order is fixed: the story, then the author, then the readers. 다음 화에 계속 is the stock last line, and like much narration it has no verb ending at all, just 계속 'continuation', because a caption is not speaking to anyone in particular. 작가의 말 is a short note under an episode, often about a break or a deadline, and the 의 in it is said e, so jakgae mal. Below that come the 댓글, which day 12 covers. After a big episode many readers scroll straight to them to see who else was shocked.