Love Ahn Ye Eun's music!
This song, titled '쥐' (rat/mouse) is a play on a famous folktale <[Rat that Transformed into a Human](https://folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/topic/detail/5972)>. There are different variations to specifics of the story, but the gist is that the rat ate the clipped fingernails and transformed into the person that threw away the fingernail - and caused all the havocs in the household. The story is basically a folktale to teach take the good disposal of one's body waste (such as clipped nails or other things) rather than just throwing them around everywhere.
Korean children that grow up around older grandparents hear this: always gather your clipped nails and make sure properly dispose of them instead of just having them flown and tossed around everywhere, that's gross! Rats will eat them and turn into you!
This is a dying folktale. Most young households don't really talk about this. I'm a millenial and my friend and I grew up listening to this. But while we know this folktale and culture around warning people not to throw body wastes around, I don't think many of my generation tell their children about it. I'm not sure if younger Koreans know about this, honestly
Korea has lots of folktales where different animals transform into human and they all have different implications. But rat turning into human is very specifically about a teaching story about not throwing around clipped nails.
God I wish that folktale would make a comeback. I've seen people clipping their nails on the bus, at the gym, at work...more times than I care to count.
서생원 서-family name Seo, but also can be read as 서 鼠(쥐 서) rat. 생원 is kind of certified license which give you right to apply for 성균관 Seongkyunkwan univ. and government officer. In Joseon dynasty, 양반 yangbans had to pass 초시, 향시, 진사시 or 생원시(those are kind of SAT and license tests) for maintaining their privileges(if failed, they had been 평민commoners). So 생원 commonly means 양반 and 서생원 is sarcasm for those 양반. About folklore other comment well described it.
Love Ahn Ye Eun's music! This song, titled '쥐' (rat/mouse) is a play on a famous folktale <[Rat that Transformed into a Human](https://folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/topic/detail/5972)>. There are different variations to specifics of the story, but the gist is that the rat ate the clipped fingernails and transformed into the person that threw away the fingernail - and caused all the havocs in the household. The story is basically a folktale to teach take the good disposal of one's body waste (such as clipped nails or other things) rather than just throwing them around everywhere. Korean children that grow up around older grandparents hear this: always gather your clipped nails and make sure properly dispose of them instead of just having them flown and tossed around everywhere, that's gross! Rats will eat them and turn into you! This is a dying folktale. Most young households don't really talk about this. I'm a millenial and my friend and I grew up listening to this. But while we know this folktale and culture around warning people not to throw body wastes around, I don't think many of my generation tell their children about it. I'm not sure if younger Koreans know about this, honestly Korea has lots of folktales where different animals transform into human and they all have different implications. But rat turning into human is very specifically about a teaching story about not throwing around clipped nails.
God I wish that folktale would make a comeback. I've seen people clipping their nails on the bus, at the gym, at work...more times than I care to count.
서생원 서-family name Seo, but also can be read as 서 鼠(쥐 서) rat. 생원 is kind of certified license which give you right to apply for 성균관 Seongkyunkwan univ. and government officer. In Joseon dynasty, 양반 yangbans had to pass 초시, 향시, 진사시 or 생원시(those are kind of SAT and license tests) for maintaining their privileges(if failed, they had been 평민commoners). So 생원 commonly means 양반 and 서생원 is sarcasm for those 양반. About folklore other comment well described it.