A young shaman can hurt people.

Hi all. My colleague who was battling with the floods came back to work this week. When he saw me, he thanked me again for my prayers and told me it really worked. :) And he asked me to send my prayers to the people in the north Queensland who is anxiously waiting for a category 5 cyclone, Yasi, to hit the towns. Maybe I should be a professional prayer. But then again, I remembered this expression. :)


A young shaman can hurt people.
선무당이 사람 잡는다.


선무당이, sunmoodangyi, inexperienced shaman + suffix
사람, saram, person
잡는다, jabnunda, catch


선무당이 사람 잡는다.
sunboodangyi saram jabnunda.


선 in 선무당 is a suffix meaning clumsy, inexperienced or insufficient. As another example, 선잠 means broken sleep. 무당 is a shaman.

You can imagine what could happen when a shaman have no clue what he or she is doing. Nothing good, for sure. :) "사람 잡는다" is explained here.

Here are some such situations.

A: Can you believe that the new "young" boss is changing every process?!
B: 선무당이 사람 잡는군.

A: My friend recently made a lot of money from the stock market. He told me this is going to go up!
B: Be careful. 선무당이 사람 잡을 수 있어.

As related expressions:
선무당 작두 타듯 한다. -> It looks as nerve-racking as watching a new shaman dancing on the straw cutters.(The situation is so nerve-racking)
작두 타기 is a special ceremony performed by some shamans in Korea.

선무당 마당 기울다 한다. -> An inexperienced shaman blames the uneven yard for the failure of ceremony. (Someone is being unprofessional and blaming the situation)

Avoid 선무당 even if you are in trouble and desperate for help. 선무당 brings only more trouble. :)

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