An Instagram video explaining the similarities between Korean and Hindi words has gone viral.
Uploaded by Jiwon (@korean.g1) on Feb. 6, the Korean and Hindi speaker wears a saree in the video while sharing five words and phrases with similar pronunciations and meanings between the languages.
“I found out that many Indians want to learn Korean,” Jiwon explained in the description. “So today I would like to teach you 5 similar words in Hindi and Korean.”
The five words Jiwon introduces are year, broom, hell, tea and sticky. When sharing the words, Jiwon alternates between the Korean and Hindi pronunciations and uses them in sentences as examples for her audience. Comparing the words for tea — “chai” in Hindi and “cha” in Korean — Jiwon uses the examples “chai piyenge” and “cha masillae,” which both translate to “Would you like tea?”
The video quickly attracted the attention of linguaphiles, reaching over 1.4 million views and 163,000 likes as of this writing.
“The first Korean drama I ever watched, I had to stop every couple of minutes,” one Instagram user shared. “My brain was picking up Hindi at first. I soon realized how similar both dialects are! It’s very cool.”
“I mean the way we call our parents amma and appa is very similar to how Koreans call their parents Oma and Opa right?” another user added.
Some Instagram users commented other languages that share similar features.
“And that narak means cute in thai,” one user wrote in reference to the Korean and Hindi words for hell.
“Cha (tea) is actually same in Gujarati,” another commented, expanding the word to the western coast of India.
