Hello everybody and welcome back to Your English Fix, where we do our best to help you fix your English, one expression at a time. And we’ve got a good one for you today.

Today’s expression is a very common mistake among Korean ESL learners. It’s actually so common that it has become a Konglish expression, even appearing in several K-pop songs and K-dramas.

For those of you who aren’t sure what Konglish is, it’s when English is used in Korean, but not in the same way it is used in English. For example, ‘cunning’ (커닝) instead of ‘cheating’, or ‘health’ (헬스) instead of ‘gym’.

We’ll be talking a lot more about Konglish terms in later articles, but today we want to talk about the expression ‘cheer up’.

I know some of you may think ‘cheer up’ means to cheer for someone when they are competing in a sport or attempting to do something difficult. In fact, another popular Konglish term in this situation is ‘fighting’, which many people think is the same as ‘cheer up’. Unfortunately, that is not correct.

‘Fighting’ is something Korean people say when they are ‘cheering someone on’ which means praising them or encouraging them in their efforts to do something. But we don’t actually say “cheer” when we ‘cheer someone on’. We would say something like “Let’s go!”, “Come on!” or “You can do it!”

However, ‘cheer up’ is used in a completely different context. We say “cheer up” to someone when they are sad or upset about something. It still has the meaning of encouraging someone, just not for sport or competition. It’s more about making someone feel better emotionally.

For example, if your friend just did poorly on a test, or they had an argument with their girlfriend or boyfriend, you could say “cheer up” in a comforting way. Or better yet, you can try doing something to cheer them up, like complimenting them, or giving them something delicious to eat. I know that delicious food always cheers me up.

But if someone is about to do something difficult or stressful, like give a presentation or try to do something physically challenging, you can tell them “You can do it!” the same way you’d use ‘fighting’ in Korean.

So if you are guilty of using this expression the wrong way, cheer up. You are not alone, and now you know when to use it correctly, as well as some new expressions to use instead of ‘fighting’.