I really loved this movie, but there was one joke I didn't get. It was the way the villagers were laughing at Smith's name ("Seu Miss"). Does it mean something in Korean?
shareif a Korean who cannot speak english tries to speak "SMITH" for the first time it sounds like "Sssiu-miss-ssse" or something like this. So it is the sounds which makes them laugh.
shareI'm sorry, I know this question was posted quite a while ago, but the only response it got was bugging me.
Korean names are generally broken into three sounds, such as: Jae-yeong Jeong or Ha-kyun Shin (taken from the Welcome to Dongmakgol imdb cast list). In Korean, these names would be said Jeong Jae-yeong, and Shin Ha-kyun as family/last names go in front followed by your "first" name. Soo, going back to Smith, they might've thought that his full name (last and first) was, "Seu Mii-suu" which is just weird /funny for a name from a Korean perspective. T'is all, I believe.
Well, Koreans cannot say SMITH so they called him "SUE MISS SUE" which is technically a girls name and thats why the villagers laughed
shareobviously most of the people who are replying don't really know korean country side dialects... I guess unless u lived there and knew people who were from the country side, u wouldn't get the joke.
when "smith" is pronounced with Korean accent, it sounds like "Soo Mi Soo", which sounds like "Soom It Soo". "It Soo" is a country side dialect for "Do you have?". Formal Korean word for it would sound like "It da" or "It soyo".. but "It soo" would be a dialect of country side often used in Korean dramas and movies to depict that the speaker is either naive or ignorant.
the word "Soom" is "breath". Therefore in country side, "smith" would sound like "do you have a breath?" So one of the villagers laugh and joke and say "Nado It Soo" meaning "I have it too". And another villager says "Moh It Soo?" meaning "What do you have?".
If you listen to it again, you can hear the villagers saying "Soom It Soo?" "Moh It soo?" "Nado It Soo". They don't say "Seu Miss", they put a vowel at the end.
Imagine some foreigner with a name that sounds like "Gottabreath" and Americans going "Har har, ur name is gottabreath?" "I gottabreath too" and "you gotta what?". *laugh* *laugh*
Haha, too funny! Thanks for that explanation leoan.
shareUh, no. Being Korean, I can straight up tell you that is not it - although I do appreciate the interpretation. The reason the villagers were laughing was purely because "Smith" when broken up as "Sseu-Mi-sseu" is just an uncommon, funny sounding name to Koreans. It would be like for a random foreigner introducing himself in America as something like, I don't know, Blarblabo or something. Simple as that.
shareI'm Korean and although my father is a city boy and my mother was a country girl, neither spoke like that. However, leoan is right as my family's close friends are from the country-side and they talk like that. Yes, normally for my family, we would say "It suh" to say do you have? It's not just for this word but for almost any ending. It's no different than saying the southern accent of English pretty much.
shareIn Seoul, its It suh
In Kyunggido, its It soo
In Kangwondo, its It sa
In ChoongChungdo, its It syu
In Kyungsangdo, its It se
In Jeju, its It si da
LOL
I assume you are a 2nd generation korean living in america? or no?