Enlistment and discharge messages in Korean: 6 fan-card lines

건강하게 잘 다녀오세요, come back healthy. 다녀오세요 comes from 다녀오다, to go somewhere and come back, the same verb Koreans use when someone heads out the door in the morning. So the send-off has the return built into it: it says see you when you're back, not goodbye. Military service is mandatory for most Korean men, so for many fans of male idols, enlistment day, 입대, comes sooner or later.

We ran send-off messages in six languages, English, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Thai and Indonesian, through the pipeline that turns fan messages from 28 languages into Korean. “I'll wait for you” came back with 기다리다, to wait, in all 18 runs that had it, and Indonesian fans' slang wamil, short for wajib militer, was read as 군 복무, military service, 3 of 3 times. The send-off itself was less settled. 다녀오다 appeared in only 5 of the 21 runs; more often the line was built on 돌아오다, to come back (6 runs), or on 군 복무 잘하다, to do your service well (4). All of them are correct Korean, but only 다녀오다 holds both the leaving and the coming back in one verb, so 다녀오세요 opens this list.

The same things people write to anyone far away: 잘 지내고 있길 바랄게요, I hope you're doing well, and a line that says your support hasn't changed. Fans call the stretch without the member 군백기, a blend of 군대, the military, and 공백기, a gap in activity. Our translator did not reach for that word. “The military hiatus is finally over” came back as 군 복무 휴식, a military-service rest, in 3 of 3 runs (as 휴식기, a rest period, in 2), and 군백기 never appeared. 휴식 makes service sound like time off, so if you want the fan word on your card, add 군백기 to the Korean text.

The army itself translated without trouble. English “in the army”, French “à l'armée” and German “beim Militär” all came back as 군대에서 in 9 of 9 runs, and German “Ich vermisse dich” became 많이 보고 싶어요, I miss you a lot, every time. The two lines below leave 군대 out on purpose, so they also fit an idol who serves as a social service agent instead of in uniform. This page covers only what to write; for how a letter reaches an idol in service, check the official fan club notice before you mail anything.

전역 축하해요, congratulations on your discharge, followed by 그동안 고생 많았어요, you've been through so much. 전역 is the official word for finishing active duty; 제대 is the everyday word with nearly the same meaning. Our translator picked 전역 whenever the message named the discharge: English discharge, Japanese 除隊, Chinese 退伍, Russian slang дембель, Vietnamese xuất ngũ and Thai ปลดประจำการ came back as 전역 in 21 of 21 runs, never 제대. When Spanish and Portuguese messages said “finished your military service” instead, 전역 appeared in 0 of 6 runs, and the Korean said 군 복무 마치다, to finish military service. If you want 전역 on the card, name the discharge itself.

Idols who serve as social service agents, 사회복무요원, finish with 소집해제, literally a release from call-up, and that is the word headlines use for them. Our translator never produced it: “alternative service as a social worker” came back as 사회복무요원 in 2 of 3 runs and as 사회복지사, the profession of social worker, in 1. If that is your idol's case, change 전역 to 소집해제 in the first line below. The last line is the welcome back. Across nine welcome-back messages, the translator split almost evenly between 반가워요, glad to see you (13 of 27 runs), and 돌아와 줘서 고마워요, thank you for coming back (12 of 27). We put the thank-you on the card, because after the wait that is the part worth saying.