[Korean Listening] The MOST trending SMALL TALK topic in Korea

Hello, everyone. This is Kim Yeji from Talk To Me In Korean. How have you been? The weather in Seoul is really nice today. It's a very sunny and warm day. It rained yesterday and it was cloudy all day. So I felt bad for no reason. But the weather was so nice today that I almost danced on my way to work. I tend to feel better when the weather is nice. In today's video, as you saw in the title and thumbnail, I'm going to talk about the most popular small talk topic in Korea. It's not easy to do small talk in Korean, is it? In fact, there are many people who find small talk difficult. There must be a lot of people who are afraid of small talk. It could be more difficult to do it in foreign languages. But if you know this topic well today, you won't have any problems doing small talk in Korean with Koreans in the future. Because I really do a lot of small talk with this topic. As you are listening now, the word small talk is an English word. You can bring it from Korean and say it like this. Now, the small talk topic is MBTI. Do you know what MBTI is? Have you ever heard of MBTI? Then how about this? Myers-Briggs test Have you ever heard of Myers-Briggs test? I heard it's called full name in English. Is that right? In Korea, if you say Myers-Briggs test, I don't think you know well. You can say it with the word MBTI. How common is this MBTI topic? I searched it. I searched it on Google Trends. Compared to February 2020, In November 2021, the search volume of the word MBTI has increased by 100 times. Yes, compared to 2020, In 2021, MBTI has become a 100x more popular small talk topic and a popular conversation topic. Isn't it amazing? But I don't think this MBTI is just a trend. Because even in 2023, when I'm recording this video, I talk about MBTI every day. Yesterday, I met my friend's friend and played together. But I talked about MBTI again. So it's not just a trend. I think MBTI has become an expression of daily life. In fact, when I introduce myself, There have been a lot of cases where I introduce my MBTI. For example, Hello, my name is Kim Yeji. My MBTI is ENFJ. There have been a lot of cases like this. Not only that, When a company recruits a new employee, There are a lot of cases where they ask for MBTI. Or I'm looking for a certain MBTI employee. There were cases like this. I think I can say that MBTI has become a part of my daily life. Some of you may not know what this MBTI or Myers-Briggs test is. So I'll give you a brief explanation. MBTI is a personality type test. So everyone has a different personality. I tested this personality and divided it into various types. According to MBTI, there are a total of 16 personality types. As I gave an example earlier, The test results come out in four alphabets. In my case, ENFJ. This is my MBTI. Let me give you a brief introduction. E means extroverted. N is intuition. It can be said to be intuitive. F means feeling. The last J means judging. It means planning. So when you hear someone's MBTI, Oh, he's an emotional person. He's not planning, he's a little spontaneous. You can see it like this. Have you ever tested your MBTI? Or is MBTI popular in your country? As far as I know, I don't think MBTI is popular only in Korea. I know it's very popular in Japan. I'm really curious. Please let me know in the comments. MBTI, how popular is it in your country? In Korea, MBTI became popular with COVID-19. I looked it up. During COVID-19, you couldn't go out much. You couldn't meet a lot of people. Instead, I think you spent a lot of time at home learning about yourself. So when COVID-19 started, When COVID-19 was the most popular, MBTI was the most popular. But MBTI doesn't end there. It's still in our lives. Isn't it fun? It's my personal opinion. In Korea, it used to be a trend to classify personalities based on blood type. It's not a trend. I think there was a time when everyone talked about their personalities based on blood type. A type, B type, O type, AB type. There's a blood type. Each of the four blood types has a personality. Of course, this is not scientific at all. There was a story like that. Type A is a little timid. It's a timid personality. And type B is a little charming. Instead, it has a wind. It was this kind of image. Type O has a round personality. It's gentle. Human relationships are gentle. It was this kind of personality. And in the case of AB type, It's a little unique. It's funny to talk about it while explaining it. In fact, the classification of personalities based on blood type was not based on any research as I mentioned earlier. It was just a trend. So, according to the blood type, I know that we had a conversation by distinguishing four personalities. Actually, I'm not the generation that talked a lot about blood types. I don't know exactly. Anyway, they said they talked a lot like this. For example, my boyfriend is type B, so I think he has a little wind. I heard we talked like this. But now, it's not scientific to distinguish personalities based on blood types. Koreans have come to know that this is not believable. So I don't do any more personality-sharing with blood types. Of course, some people still think that it's fun to think and talk about personalities based on blood types. Anyway, the classification of personalities based on blood types was losing popularity. This is my personal opinion. This is not based on research. This is my personal opinion. As the classification of personalities based on blood types disappeared, I thought people were looking for a test that could replace them. There's something comfortable to talk about depending on your blood type. Because if you just say, I'm type A, I'm a little scared and I don't have the courage. I'm a little timid. There's a reduction in the effect of talking this long. So I thought people were looking for a different test. I thought people were looking for a different test that could replace this blood type. That's when MBTI appeared. So a lot of people did a lot of MBTI tests. I haven't seen anyone around me who hasn't done an MBTI test. Everyone knows their own MBTI. Why don't you try an MBTI test? It's not about how credible it is. I talk a lot about this topic. If you know about MBTI, I think it'll be very convenient for Koreans to do small talk. I'll give you some related expressions. It's a typical expression to ask what MBTI is. Yejin, what's your MBTI? You can ask me like this. Hyunwoo, what's your MBTI? Kyungho, what's your MBTI? If you ask me like this, you'll answer me. For example, I'm ISFP. And sometimes people use their MBTI to talk about their MBTI and tell you about their personality. For example, I don't like this seat because I'm a child. I talk like this. But if you don't know what MBTI is, Children? What does it mean to be a child? Is it a young child? You can think of it like this. But here, child means an introverted personality. I don't like this seat because I'm a child. I really like to hang out with a lot of people because I'm E. You can say this. And there's another very popular expression. It's 너 T야? I told you earlier that I'm F. F is feeling. It's a person who cares about emotions. The opposite alphabet of F is T. T is thinking. So it's a person who cares about thoughts. So people with F say they can relate well. When someone else talks, It's an ability to listen and feel and understand other people's emotions. Empathy But T doesn't have as much empathy as F. Instead, you can think rationally and logically. But I was talking to a friend. This friend doesn't sympathize with me. So I'm a little sad. What? Are you T? Talking like this became a trend and a meme. So if you know these expressions, When you talk to Koreans in Korean, I think it will be easier to understand. Of course, how scientific this MBTI is, How reliable it is, Everyone has a different opinion. And how do you divide a person's complex personality into 16? I need more types than that. 16 is not enough. There are a lot of people who think like this. On the other hand, MBTI is so popular. Prejudice against someone A fixed view of someone There's a lot of talk about being able to make it. So MBTI is 100% reliable. 100% scientific There are a lot of people who don't think like this. Still, the part I wanted to introduce MBTI is Like our title It's the most common and the most popular small talk topic right now. You should also test your MBTI. Oh, I'm ESFJ. Talk to your Korean friends like this. Then maybe with that MBTI I think we can have a lot of fun talking. Yes, everyone, today we talked about MBTI. Which small talk topic is the most common in your country? I'd appreciate it if you could let me know in the comments. And what else do you want to know about Korea? If there's a topic you want to talk to me about, Please leave it in the comments. Thank you so much for listening to the end. Thank you. Bye.