# 노래짱 - 노래짬



## popotla

All these words, I think, refer to what in English is often called a karaoke room: 노래방,  노래장, 노래연습장, 노래궁, 노래짬. Am I right? 

The fourth one, 노래궁, as represented by the sign on a rundown, four-storey building in a side street of a small provincial town might have been "the owner's dream". How about 노래짬? A Korean native speaker I asked said "Never heard of it. I've been out of the country a long time." I've found this word on the internet but am not sure if it's the same as a 노래방.

Please comment.


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## user829220

We don’t use 노래장 노래짬 노래궁 
I have never heard of this words. 
99% of chance, we say just 노래방. 
You can see that 노래연습장 as billboard, but we don’t use this in conversation.


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## boomluck

노래방 is the most commonly recognized word meaning a karaoke room. The rests are very rare and little bit awkward.

I have seen a karaoke room whose name is 궁. The karaoke room had the word 노래 atop the word 궁 or underneath, I can't clearly recall. It looked like 노래궁, but it was just the brand name 궁 with 노래 in smaller text.

노래짬 is not a dictionary-word, but I am guessing it might be a slang that is used in the military. 짬 means time one has spent for a certain period of time. It is unusual but possible for the soldiers to ask like "너 노래짬이 어떻게 되냐"? They measure the time they have spent by checking the titles of songs. For example, when I was in the military in 2003, there was a song named 아틀란티스 소녀, sung by Boa. A year later, in 2004, she released another song named My Name. At the moment the latter song was released, I had my subordinate(I am not sure if this word fits here. I wanted to express someone who is lower in grade than me.). Then, it can be said that the subordinate had shorter 노래짬. I am not sure if 노래짬 has anything to do with 노래방.



popotla said:


> The fourth one, 노래궁, as represented by the sign on a rundown, four-storey building in a side street of a small provincial town might have been "the owner's dream".



I didn't understand the "the owner's dream" part. Was the name of a karaoke room "사장님의 꿈"?


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## popotla

choikj33 said:


> We don’t use 노래장 노래짬 노래궁
> I have never heard of this words.



"노래짬" is causing some difficulty and I intend to check on this when I'm next in the area in which I think I saw it. As for
노래장 and 노래궁, well, someone uses them because they're there on signs in this city. Perhaps you mean that we don't use them in conversation to refer to what's called in English a karaoke room. As for 노래궁, this would be, I think, the equivalent of an English-language sign saying "SONG PALACE". The owner of that place has, in other words, decided to give his business the name "Song Palace", in the same way that the owner of a fried chicken joint might decide to call his business "The Chicken Shack" etc. etc.



boomluck said:


> 노래짬 is not a dictionary-word, but I am guessing it might be a slang that is used in the military.



This is interesting ... and "subordinate" fits OK.

_popotla said: ↑

The fourth one, 노래궁, as represented by the sign on a rundown, four-storey building in a side street of a small provincial town might have been "the owner's dream".


I didn't understand the "the owner's dream" part. Was the name of a karaoke room "사장님의 꿈"? 
_
I'm sorry this was unclear. "PALACE" is a "big name" suggesting a big, fancy (luxurious) sort of place but this one, judging from its outside appearance, wasn't that at all. The sign was on "..._a rundown, four-storey building in a side street of a small provincial town ..." _so I was saying that perhaps the owner wished or dreamt or imagined that his place was a palace. We see this kind of thing here and there, in many countries: the "supermarket" that in reality is a small corner shop offering a small range of goods, the bus offering "Luxury Executive Express Service" that has bald tyres and in fact can only just about make it to the next corner, and so on. Hence "the owner's dream".
_
_


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## popotla

Sherlock Holmes has solved the "노래짬 mystery". In fact this word is "노래짱" (with the double ㅉ). I found the same sign again and realised that the final bit, the ㅇ, is in fact that and not ㅁ. The writing is quite heavily stylised and it was snowing and I was also busy taking photos, and I made this mistake. My apologies.


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## boomluck

A perfect way to learn new vocabulary it is. I believe that memorizing things with a short story or an episode remains longer in one's memory.


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## popotla

Yes, I think so too.


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