Ahjussi Meaning: Why Koreans Stopped Calling Strangers Ajumma
6-minute video · EpicKor
The biggest Korean film of 2010 was called Ahjussi — in English, just "Mister" — and its star, Won Bin, was thirty-two. Its female counterpart, ajumma, ranked as a more hated way to be addressed than ahjussi in a 2022 survey of 1,652 young Korean part-timers. We open the dictionary, meet two celebrities born the same year who get very different titles, and end on the word Koreans now use instead of all of them.
Read the full guide
Chapters
- 0:00A film called "Mister"
- 0:31What ahjussi means in the dictionary
- 1:04Ahjussi, the 2010 film
- 1:53Oppa, samchon or ahjussi?
- 2:34Same age, born 1988: Lee Sun-min and G-Dragon
- 3:20The titles people hate most
- 3:44Ajumma
- 4:25Why ajumma stopped fitting
- 5:06Jeogiyo: what Koreans say instead
Sources
- National Institute of Korean Language, Standard Korean Language Dictionary (표준국어대사전): 아저씨, 아주머니, 아줌마
- Korean Film Council, KOBIS 2010 yearly box office (Korean films) and the film record for 〈아저씨〉
- Statistics Korea, 2025 Marriage and Divorce Statistics, table 3: average age at first marriage 1990–2025 (19 March 2026)
- Albacheonguk survey of 1,652 part-timers (October 2022), as reported by Newsis, Hankyung Job&Joy and Edaily (12 October 2022)
- MBC Hangout with Yoo (놀면 뭐하니?), 16 May 2026, as reported by MyDaily and Sports Chosun
- JTBC Knowing Bros (아는 형님), 19 June 2021, as reported by JoyNews24
- SBS Power FM Cultwo Show (컬투쇼), 21 September 2026, as reported by TV Report
- Won Bin's acting gap since 2010: TV Report (8 September 2026)
