알바: The Korean Word for 'Part-Time Job' Took a Detour Through Berlin
Korean 아르바이트 (alba) means 'part-time job' — but the word is German. Here's how Arbeit traveled via Japanese into K-college slang.
“The word got more specific the further it traveled — which is the opposite of what usually happens to loanwords.”
A Korean college student looking for shift work is, etymologically, looking for Arbeit.
The word
아르바이트 — a-reu-ba-i-teu. In any actual conversation, clipped to 알바 (al-ba).
Meaning: a part-time, hourly, usually-student job. Bussing tables, working a convenience-store register, handing out flyers at a subway exit. Not a career — a shift.
Origin story
German Arbeit means "work," full stop — any kind of work. In the late 1800s, students in German-speaking Europe used the term as casual slang for the side jobs they took between classes. Japanese students picked it up around the 1910s, transliterated it as アルバイト (arubaito), and quietly narrowed the meaning to "part-time student work."
That Japanese form is what reached Korea during the colonial period (1910–1945), rendered in hangul as 아르바이트. Korea kept the narrower Japanese sense and ran with it. A German speaker uses Arbeit for any job, including a salaried corporate one; a Korean uses 알바 strictly for hourly gig work. The word got more specific the further it traveled — which is the opposite of what usually happens to loanwords.
What actually gets said in 2026
Almost no Korean under 30 says the full 아르바이트 anymore. Job ads read 알바 구함 ("part-timer wanted"). Workers call themselves 알바생 (alba-saeng, roughly "alba kid"). The four-syllable original now reads as formal or generational — something a parent or a news anchor would say. Use 알바 in conversation, and save 아르바이트 for writing if you want to sound your age.
Use it
- 알바 구해? — Are you looking for a part-time job?
- 카페에서 알바해요. — I work part-time at a café.
- 내일 알바 있어. — I've got a shift tomorrow.
The fastest way to make 알바 stick: say it out loud to someone who'll actually respond. Try ConvoRight free →