호랑이도 제 말 하면 온다 (Horangido je mal hamyeon onda)

Literally: Even a tiger comes when you speak of it

Example: “민수 얘기를 하고 있었는데, 호랑이도 제 말 하면 온다더니 민수가 들어왔다.” — We were just talking about Minsu, and speak of the devil, in he walked.

English equivalent: Speak of the devil

Origin: Reflects a time when tigers were a real, common presence across the Korean peninsula's mountainous terrain, genuinely dangerous enough that talking about one nearby carried an actual, superstitious risk of somehow summoning the animal itself — speaking its name treated almost as an invitation. The proverb's practical use, though, has always extended past literal tigers: it's invoked whenever a person being discussed, often unfavorably, happens to appear at the exact moment their name comes up in conversation, treating the coincidence as an almost supernatural, faintly unsettling bit of timing. The near-identical English idiom "speak of the devil" builds on the same underlying superstitious logic using a different feared figure entirely — a devil standing in for Korea's tiger as the culturally specific thing you supposedly shouldn't casually mention out loud.