아파트?

Apateu

Apartment

The term ‘아파트’ originates from the English word ‘apartment’ and in Korea, it generally refers to multi-story residential buildings that are sold to individual owners and are commonly used for multiple households living together.

‘Apart.’ meaning as a type of buildings and living environment

An 아파트(Apateu, apart.) is a type of multi-family housing where a building with two or more floors is divided into multiple units, allowing each household to live independently.

In Korea, an apartment refers to a multi-family housing complex with buildings of five or more floors, typically including multiple buildings of ten or more floors, parking lots, landscaping, playgrounds, and commercial areas. It is considered a stable living environment that most people ultimately aim for. Therefore, an apartment is the most common type of ‘home’ in Korea.

‘Apart.’ meaning as a drinking game

Apartment is a popular drinking game in Korea. The game starts with participants sitting in a circle. When the host shouts ‘Apart., Apart., Apart.!’, the participants stack their hands on top of each other like building an apartment.

Then, the host calls out a specific floor number, and participants start removing their hands from the bottom one by one. The person who removes their hand corresponding to the called floor number has to drink. This game is simple yet fun and perfect for livening up a drinking party.

‘Apart.’ meaning the old 1980s a Korean pop song

Yoon Soo-il’s song ‘아파트’ is a Korean rock song released in 1982. The lyrics reflect the apart. boom in the Gangnam area of Seoul during the 1980s, capturing the social atmosphere of the time.

Written and composed by Yoon Soo-il himself, the song features a fast beat that contrasts with its melancholic lyrics. It gained immense popularity, topping KBS’s ‘Gayo Top 10’ for five consecutive weeks. The song is also frequently used as a cheer song at sports events and has been remade by various artists.

Most middle-aged and older people used to think of this song when they heard ‘Apart.’ Recently, with the hit song by Rosé & Bruno Mars, people have started referring to this new ‘Apart.’ as a newly built apartment and Yoon Soo-il’s ‘아파트’ as an old built apartment, spreading the meme that it has successfully undergone reconstruction. in Korea.