{"id":5320,"date":"2022-07-21T22:42:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T22:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=5320"},"modified":"2022-07-21T22:42:11","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T22:42:11","slug":"sunbae-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/sunbae-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunbae \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you need a term you can use to reference someone who may be older than you, or who may have seniority over you in some way? Perhaps there is someone in your office that you look up to as a work mentor? Do you have an elder idol that you need the perfect nickname for?<\/p>\n<p>If so, \u201csunbae\u201d is the term for you. This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this expression.<\/p>\n<h2>Meaning<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The term \u201csunbae\u201d, translated from Korean, means \u201csenior\u201d or \u201celder\u201d. It is used to refer to someone who may be older or more experienced than you, who you may look up to as a mentor or predecessor. But, this term is not typically used to refer to an older adult or an elderly person. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It uses \u201csenior\u201d and \u201celder\u201d to mean someone who has been doing a certain action for longer than you have. This could be someone who is in a higher grade in school than you or someone who has more experience at your job.<\/p>\n<p>In Korean culture, \u201csunbae\u201d is the informal version of \u201csunbaenim\u201d, and even in English, you would typically only use \u201csunbae\u201d in a more informal setting. While it can be someone who is of more advanced age, it typically means a person has more life or work experience than you. This also works in the creative or athletic field.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What is the meaning of Sunbae?\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sMpzay8TUSA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Example Usage<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cSunbae Trevor has been at this job for six years!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEmily is sunbae to me. She\u2019s a senior in high school and I\u2019m only a sophomore\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe K-pop band BIGBANG has been around longer than BTS, so BIGBANG is BTS\u2019 sunbae\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy shift manager is a very impressive sunbae, he teaches me everything possible to be effective in my position\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne easy way to get more experience in dance is to train with a sunbae during your off times\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Origin<\/h2>\n<p>The phrase comes from Korean culture. It can be used in a variety of contexts when you want to say someone has seniority over you at a certain thing. Korean students typically begin using the word while in middle school, though it is only used in social clubs to refer to members that have been in the club longer than they have.<\/p>\n<p>It is used more liberally in universities, where students refer to any one of a higher year than them as \u201csunbae\u201d. Some believe the term was actually inspired by Japanese colonialism, but that cannot be proven, so the credit of use for the word is given to Korean culture.<\/p>\n<h2>Phrases Similar to Sunbae<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cHoobae\u201d or \u201chubae\u201d, which means \u201cjunior\u201d in Korean<\/li>\n<li>Superiors<\/li>\n<li>Phrases Opposite to Sunbae<\/li>\n<li>Subordinate<\/li>\n<li>Inferiors<\/li>\n<li>Underling<\/li>\n<li>Beginner\/freshman\/newbie\/etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the Correct Saying?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cSunbae\u201d \u2013 \u201celder\u201d or \u201csenior\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Ways People May Incorrectly Say Sunbae<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cSunbae\u201d refers to anyone that has been at a school or job longer than you have. Therefore, try to use \u201csunbae\u201d to refer to someone who has been at that given place (again, school or work) for less time than you have. Saying something like, \u201cshe\u2019s my sunbae. I am a senior and she\u2019s a freshman\u201d or \u201che\u2019s a sunbae to me because I have worked here for five years and he has only been here for two\u201d would be incorrect because those people have not been at those places as long as you have.<\/p>\n<h2>Acceptable Ways to Phrase Sunbae<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>If you were to refer to someone at your job as \u201csunbae\u201d, you may say, \u201che\u2019s a sunbae to me, he has worked here for two years and I have only been here for six months\u201d or \u201cI am her sunbae, because I have worked here for eight years and she has been here for five\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>If you wanted to use this term for someone at your school, you could say, \u201cshe\u2019s a senior and I\u2019m only a freshman, so she\u2019s my sunbae\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-2\">Do you need a term you can use to reference someone who may be older than you, or who may have seniority over you in some way? Perhaps there is someone in your office that you look up to as a work mentor? Do you have an elder idol that you need the perfect nickname [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5320"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5718,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5320\/revisions\/5718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}