How to write a letter to a Korean celebrity (Q&A 13)
Have you ever wanted to write a fan letter to your favorite Korean celebrity, but don’t know where to begin?
Perhaps you already know some phrases, or maybe you’re skilled at Korean, but you’d like some examples and more specific grammar tips to get started. This week’s video is just for you!
A lot of people have asked me for help writing letters in Korean, so today I present this new video to help you with that.
Feel free to send in your own questions and they might be featured in an upcoming video.
Tip #1 – Use Their Title
Whenever you’re saying a celebrity’s name in Korean, you need to add a title after it so it’s polite.
A few common titles are 오빠, 누나, 언니, 형, and 동생.
Some general titles you can use are also 가수 if they’re a “singer,” or 배우 if they’re an “actor” or “actress.”
To use a title, just take the celebrity’s first name and attach the title to the end. For a quick example, 철수 could become 철수 오빠, and 영희 could become 영희 누나, among other possibilities. Or if 철수 is a singer, you could also write 철수 가수, for example.
Tip #2 – Use Polite Korean
The 요 (yo) form in Korean is perfect for writing letters to celebrities.
I’d also recommend avoiding any slang. Korean slang is fine between close friends, but shouldn’t be used to people you haven’t even met yet.
Use proper expressions such as 안녕하세요, and avoid casual speech such as 안녕.
Another tip is to remember to use 저 to refer to yourself, and to not use 나.
An Example Letter in Korean
Let’s take a look at an example fan letter and learn some grammar that you can use. The complete letter appears at the bottom of this explanation. These are only examples but they should help to get you started. Feel free to copy parts if that’s what you wanted to say anyway.
You can start the letter by using their name, their title, and then 에게, which means “to.”
For example, 철수 형에게. This means “To Chul-soo.”
Then use 안녕하세요 as a greeting to say “hello.”
You can tell them where you are from. You can do this by saying 저는, then the name of your country, 에 살고 있는, then their name and title, 팬, then your name, and then finally 이에요 if your name ends in a consonant or 예요 if your name ends in a vowel.
Here’s an example: 저는 미국에 살고 있는 철수 형 팬 빌리예요. This means “I’m Billy, a fan of you, Chul-soo, and I live in America.”
It would be good to tell them how you know of them.
You can say 최근에, their name and title, the subject marker (이/가), 나오는, and then say where you saw them – such as in a movie or a drama. Then attach the object marker (을/를), followed by 정말 재미있게 봤어요.
Here’s an example: 최근에 철수 형이 나오는 영화를 정말 재미있게 봤어요. This means “I really enjoyed watching the recent movie that you, Chul-soo, appeared in.”
Next, you’ll want to say that they’re your favorite actor, or singer, for example. Here’s how to do that:
First say their name and title, followed by the topic marker (은/는), then 제가 제일 좋아하는, and then say 가수 if they’re your favorite singer or 배우 if they’re your favorite actor. Then end with 이에요 or 예요 like before.
Here’s an example: 철수 형은 제가 제일 좋아하는 배우예요. This means “Chul-soo, you’re my favorite actor.”
If you want to ask them to have a fan meeting in your city or country, you can use this phrase.
___에서도 팬미팅을 했으면 좋겠어요. Replace the blank space with the name of your city or country.
And to say something that you’re looking forward to, you can use this phrase.
___도 너무 기대돼요. You can replace the blank space with what you are looking forward to.
Here’s an example: 다음 작품도 너무 기대돼요. 다음 작품 means “the next work,” so this sentence means “I’m looking forward to your next work.” You could use this phrase to a Korean musician. You could also use 다음 앨범 instead to mean “next album.”
And here’s a useful phrase you can use to end your letter.
___에게는 ___[을/를] 응원하는 팬들이 있어요.
Replace the first space with their name and title, and replace the second space with just their title.
Here’s an example: 철수 형에게는 형을 응원하는 팬들이 있어요. This means “You have fans who are cheering you on, Chul-soo.”
그러니까, 항상 건강하세요! This means “So take care!” You can use this phrase exactly as it is written.
And here’s the entire example fan letter written in Korean, for reference. This letter was written to Chul-soo (a male Korean actor) by a younger female fan.
철수 오빠에게,
안녕하세요! 저는 미국에 살고 있는 철수 오빠 팬 키켓이에요.
최근에 철수 오빠가 나오는 드라마를 정말 재미있게 봤어요.
철수 오빠는 제가 제일 좋아하는 배우예요.
미국에서도 팬미팅을 했으면 좋겠어요.
다음 작품도 너무 기대돼요.
철수 오빠에게는 오빠를 응원하는 팬들이 있어요.
그러니까, 항상 건강하세요!
How you write your letter is up to you, but I’d recommend keeping it simple and short. Start with a quick self-introduction, say what you want to say, and finish it with a “thank you” and your name.
And this is kind of a secret, but if you add stickers, smiley faces and drawings on your letter, it increases the chances of them noticing it. But don’t tell them I told you this.
Good luck with writing your own letters! Be sure to let me know if you use any of these tips to write your own letters to your favorite Korean celebrities.
How would you find out where to send the letter?
Is it ok to use -씨 as a title? The person im sending a fan letter to is older than me
Typically 씨 wouldn’t be very personal, but it’s better to use a regular title. I don’t know the celebrity or your relationship with them, but I’d recommend using one of the professional titles I give in the video.
씨 is mostly used between normal people. (like your neighbor) it’s more polite to use 오빠 or 누나 or 님 as a title
If they’re younger than me can i use “너”/”너의”/”네가” to call him in some sentence or it’s not impolite?
So, what should I use then..?
And If they’re younger than me and I put “씨” or “오빠” after theirs name
it’s not too weird , right?
Here’s a video I made about this question: https://youtu.be/Jo-e9JQZ-RY
thank you very very much <3
i have 2 questions , first one: how do you say im a fan of yours since 2017
second one: im sending gifts & a letter to my favorite korean singer. but i want the letter to be personal , not the usual basic letters from fans. his songs really helped me & gave me lots of comfort while i was staying in hospital for 6 months. i want to thank him & show my support.
what is the acceptable length of such Letter??
do you have any idea if they actually read Fans Letters ??
Sorry but I don’t know a good length to recommend to you, or whether they read fan letters or not. I think it completely depends on the group, whether they have the time to do that or not. I’ve never tried sending a fan letter to a K-pop group before.
Thank you for this post. Is it really OK for a title to just use first name (and not his entire name) followed by 가수 for a singer? He is a male who is younger than me and I am a female. Is there a better way to address him that i should use thqn first name followed by 가수?
Thank you.
You could also use whatever his/her “fan name” is, if there is one. For example, some people also use their name with 오빠 if it’s a guy.
What title would i use if they are a rapper in a Kpop group?
Do you know where I can send my letter to if I want to send it to my favorite Korean actor? Because I’ve been looking it up for at least 30 minutes now and I still have no clue where I am supposed to send it to or if I can even send it at all.
You’d have to do research on that yourself. I don’t know the addresses of any actors’ managers.
hi am new this thing is there a good way to write a letter to someone you don’t know
Not to sound stupid or beat a dead horse, but, if addressing the entire band, would you just write:
오빠들 에게 ? Or is there a better way?
What about if you want to say “from, ____”?
You can write “(name) 드림.”
Hello i have a question. im writing a letter to a idol and i used google translate, but i noticed that many words are wrong and i don’t have time to learn that much of korean. i can speak korean for a couple years now, but what i want to write is personal and not really a basic letter. So i don’t really know what to do.
Google translate (and other free online translators) aren’t accurate. It’s better to use simpler Korean than to use a translator, to avoid mistakes.
i get that, but the problem is that i want to write something personal and my korean writing is bad, so how can i do that?
Thank you for answering my previous question
OK!! i am a foreign fan and a person who doesn’t know even the ‘K’ of korean and how to write it so what do i do. can i use google translate. or can you help me.
There’s a video on my YouTube you can learn to learn the Korean alphabet (Hangul), so you can start from there 🙂
but what if we’re the same age? Can I add the suffix 씨 instead of 오빠? For example, 정국씨께 Am I correct? Thank you in advance!!
You can, yes 🙂
So, if I’m writing to someone younger than me, I should use the title 동생. For example, 민호 동생에게? Should we not use their family name, too? And when I refer to him in the rest of the letter (instead of “you”) I should use 민호는….? Maybe it’s because I haven’t heard it often, I mean, I don’t live in Korea, but I feel like I never hear 동생. It’s already someone younger using 형, 누나, etc. I guess I’m just a little confused on how to both address people and refer to people (to them or to someone else about them).
You can use 씨 (“Mr./Mrs.”). Or since it’s a celebrity you can still call them 오빠 if you wan’t even if you’re older than him. Many Korean people do that in this case too. Grammatically it’s wrong though, and 씨 would be the grammatically correct answer.
hello can you help translate my message in korean. i will give thjis letter to lovelyz mijoo
Do you have examples of writing a short note or post-it that attach to the celebrity’s gift?
Your tips are amazing! I was actually wondering about 안녕하세요 and 안녕. What if I wanted to write a letter to a band? Is it okay to list all of them one after one (i.e. Dear Onew, Taemin, Minho…), or is it more polite to refer to them as one? Would it be bad if I also wanted to address the trainers and managers in the same letter (that they are doing great with taking care of the group)? Don’t want to upset them 🙁
You can write the letter to the entire band, or to each of them individually. I think it might be easier to mention them all once, then use their band name for the rest of the letter (so it doesn’t sound repetitive).
Thank you so much! 감사합니다! I would write à little bit more, i’ll do my best. Good day
Thanks you for helping me I understand Korean now.
Hi thank you for giving us some advise for how to write a korean because i need to learn how to write korean to my lovely korean fan! And i am big fan of korean celebrities. I know it is really hard to learn korean letters, they are like some icons that put them together to become a word! But i am very happy to find at least great tips on this webite and tahnk you billy for sharing this! Ill come back sometime to check on new article and please keep up with great work Billy!