땡땡이 as cute as it sounds as a slang expression, is a term used to refer to the action of skipping school or work to play and muck around instead. For example, Student A has a class to attend but he doesn’t feel like going. Instead Student A just wants to play truant and go to the PC 방 (internet cafe) to play with his friends. So he would say to Student B, “오늘 땡땡이 칠래?” which carries the meaning of “Shall we just skip school today and chill/hangout instead?”
땡땡이는 해야 하는 일을 하지 않고 게으름을 피우는 것이에요. 수업이 있는데 학교에 가고 싶지 않거나 회사 업무 시간에 밖에서 놀고 싶을 때 사용할 수 있어요. ‘땡땡이’는 ‘치다’ 동사와 만나서 ‘오늘 땡땡이 칠래?’, ‘땡땡이 치지 마세요!’라고 말할 수 있어요.
농땡이 on the other hand, is a term often used for those who are present at work or school, but aren’t focused on either their work or studies. The closest English terms to best explain this slang expression are ‘slack off’ and ‘laze around’.
In Korean we would say in casual speech, “농땡이 피우지 마!” which translates to “Don’t slack off!”. If you’re undertaking the Korean language program with us, please make sure that you don’t “농땡이” or muck around. Of course, we hope our students would play hard and enjoy their stay in Seoul, but also study just as hard. No pressure. 😉
‘농땡이’는 ‘땡땡이’와 의미가 비슷하지만 조금 달라요. 땡땡이는 학교나 회사에 아예 가지 않는 것이고 농땡이는 그 장소에 있지만 일을 제대로 하지 않는 것이에요. 둘 다 조금 귀여운 느낌을 슬랭이에요.
