The Lingo

It occurred to me during the radio show I did recently that I could do to provide you all with a list of words and phrases commonly used in the sauna. I will put the English meaning first, then the Korean characters, lastly my best spelling in Roman characters for pronunciation.

Please keep in mind that there are standard romanizations but not everyone sticks to them and they may be different from what I provide, so if you see rominized Korean printed somewhere it may be slightly different. (Such as the spelling of jjimjilbang/zzimzilbang, jeon/jun, Busan/Pusan, and so on. A special note is that "u" really shouldn't be used since it could sould like either "eo" or "oo" but it's often used anyway.)



         English term           Korean term-Hangul         Pronunciation
GENERAL

bath	탕	tang
room	방, 실	bang, shil
men / men's~	남자 / 남~	nam-ja / nam~
women / women's~	여자 / 여~	yeo-ja / yeo~
bathing area	사우나	sa-oo-na
resting/clothed area (room)	찜질(방)	jjim-jil (bang)
hot (bath)	열(탕)	yeol (tang)
warm (bath)	온(탕)	ohn (long /o/) (tang)
cold (bath)	냉(탕)	neng (tang)
bathroom	화장실	hwa-jang-shil
resting area	휴게실	hyoo-gae-shil
traditional kiln sweating cave/room	불가마	bool-ga-ma
sleeping room	수면실	soo-myeon-shil
entrance	입구	ip goo
the way to the~	~가는 길	~ga neun gil

ITEMS

towel	수건	soo-geon
outfit for resting area	찜질복	jjim-jil-bok
key / locker key	열쇠 / 로커 키	yeol-sway / lo-kuh kee
shampoo	샴푸, 세발	sham-puh, sae-bal
conditioner	린스	rin-suh
soap	비누	bee-noo
toothpaste	치약	chee-yahk

SERVICES

body scrub	세신	sae-shin
cucumber*	오이	o-ee
massage	마사지	ma-sa-jee
oil massage	오일마사지	o-eel ma-sa-jee
aromatherapy massage	아로마마사지	a-ro-ma ma-sa-jee
foot / back massage	발 / 등 마사지	bal / deung ma-sa-jee

*Cucumber facial often accompanies the body scrub service for a small additional charge. It's totally worth it!




SPECIFIC ROOMS / BATHS

yellow soil (loess) room	황토방	hwang-to-bang
charcoal room	숯방 / 참숯방	soot-bang / cham-soot-bang
salt room	소금방	so-geum bang
jewelry room	보석방	bo-seok bang
ice room	아이스방 / 어름방	i-ee-suh bang / uh-reum-bang
forest room	산림욕방	san-lim-yok bang
pine room	소나무방	so-na-moo bang
oxygen room	산소방	san-so bang
artemesia (mugwort) bath	쑥 탕	sook tang
waterfall (massaging) bath	폭포 탕	pok-po tang
event* bath	이벤트 탕	ee-ben-tuh tang

*Event baths often feature a special herbal or mineral additive in the water.

Here's a link for some basic Korean phrases if you want more.


As always, if you have a request for further information or know something I've left out, please leave a comment below. Finally, I'm not perfect~ if I've made any mistakes in the above info, feel free to help me out!^^