The safest Korean toolkit here is not a giant medical vocabulary list: describe → disclose → clarify → confirm.

At a clinic, understanding 70% is not a fun listening challenge. If the missing 30% is the instruction, ask again. This guide is communication practice only—not diagnosis, treatment, or medicine advice. Any medicine directions should come from the clinician or pharmacist, and if you did not understand them, the useful Korean skill is to stop and confirm.

Four moves worth memorizing

  • Describe: say what hurts or what you are experiencing in simple language.
  • Disclose: state important information you already know about yourself, such as an allergy.
  • Clarify: ask the professional to repeat, slow down, explain, or write something.
  • Confirm: check that your understanding of what they told you is correct.

The fourth move is easy to underestimate. In a stressful appointment, “Did I understand correctly?” can be more useful than knowing the Korean name of every body part.

Describe: say what hurts simply

For basic pain/location descriptions, the pattern …이/가 아파요 is extremely useful.

  • 배가 아파요. — My stomach hurts.
  • 머리가 아파요. — My head hurts / I have a headache.
  • 여기가 아파요. — It hurts here. This is useful when you can point to the location.
  • 어제부터 아파요. — It has hurt since yesterday / I’ve been in pain since yesterday.

These phrases describe what you feel. They do not identify the cause, and you do not need them to. Your job in the conversation is to give the professional information, not to diagnose yourself in Korean.

Questions you may hear

A clinician may ask questions such as:

  • 어디가 아프세요? — Where does it hurt?
  • 언제부터 아프셨어요? — Since when has it been hurting?

If you understand the question but need a second to answer, a short pause is fine. If you do not understand the question, move immediately to the clarification toolkit below instead of guessing.

Disclose: say important information you already know

For an allergy you already know about, a useful pattern is:

  • 알레르기가 있어요. — I have an allergy.
  • 저는 ___에 알레르기가 있어요. — I am allergic to ___ / I have an allergy to ___.

Fill the blank only with information that is true for you. This article is not telling you whether something is an allergy; it is giving you the Korean to communicate an allergy you already know about.

Clarify: make “please say that again” automatic

These are the phrases to rehearse until they come out without negotiation:

  • 다시 말씀해 주세요. — Please say that again.
  • 천천히 말씀해 주세요. — Please speak slowly.
  • 이게 무슨 뜻이에요? — What does this mean?
  • 적어 주실 수 있어요? — Could you write it down?

Asking again is not a failure of Korean. It is successful communication.

A register mistake worth fixing

다시 말해. is grammatically valid casual Korean. A listener understands “Say it again.” But with a clinician or pharmacist you do not know, it can sound too casual or direct for the relationship. If your intention is a polite request, 다시 말씀해 주세요. is a safer choice.

The same contrast applies to 천천히 말해. versus the more polite 천천히 말씀해 주세요. The casual versions are not universally “wrong”; they belong in different relationships and registers.

At the pharmacy: ask the professional, do not infer

When a pharmacist is explaining a medicine they have given you, these questions help you ask for their instructions clearly:

  • 이 약은 어떻게 먹어야 해요? — How should I take this medicine?
  • 하루에 몇 번 먹어요? — How many times a day do I take it?
  • 식전에 먹어요, 식후에 먹어요? — Do I take it before meals or after meals?

The article deliberately does not answer those questions. The answer depends on the medicine and the professional instructions. If you miss the answer, use 다시 말씀해 주세요, 천천히 말씀해 주세요, or ask them to write it down.

Confirm: read your understanding back

A simple confirmation phrase is:

제가 이해한 게 맞아요? — Did I understand correctly? / Is my understanding right?

You can use it after repeating back what you think the professional said. The goal is not to sound sophisticated. The goal is to give them a chance to correct a misunderstanding before you leave.

Practice: describe, disclose, clarify, confirm

Say your Korean answer before opening the model. These exercises practice communication only; the model answers do not provide medical decisions.

Situation 1: simple symptom + time

Your stomach hurts and it started yesterday.

Show a model answer

배가 아파요. 어제부터 아파요.

Two short sentences are completely fine. Clear beats complicated.

Situation 2: you need slower speech

The clinician is speaking too quickly for you to follow.

Show a model answer

죄송하지만, 천천히 말씀해 주세요. — Sorry, but please speak slowly.

The core phrase is 천천히 말씀해 주세요. The opening 죄송하지만 adds a polite “sorry, but…” and is optional.

Situation 3: disclose a known allergy

You need to tell the professional that you have an allergy, using the blank for the relevant known allergen.

Show a model answer

저는 ___에 알레르기가 있어요.

Use this only to communicate information you already know about yourself.

Situation 4: medicine instructions were too fast

The pharmacist explained how to take the medicine, but you did not understand. What do you say?

Show a model answer

다시 말씀해 주세요. 적어 주실 수 있어요? — Please say that again. Could you write it down?

This is safer than guessing what you heard.

Situation 5: ask about frequency

You want the pharmacist to tell you how many times a day to take the medicine they are explaining.

Show a model answer

하루에 몇 번 먹어요?

The phrase asks the professional for the instruction; it does not supply the instruction itself.

Your five-line communication card

For broader language-learning practice, you can explore FunFluen. The link opens the general product home; it does not open a preloaded medical-Korean lesson.

The useful skill is not pretending you understood

At a hospital or pharmacy, your Korean does not need to be elegant. It needs to help you describe, disclose, clarify, and confirm.

If you missed something important, ask again. That is not the awkward part of the conversation. Guessing is.

Explore more language-learning guides in Media-Based Language Learning.