I think about it while sitting at the meeting, why do you ask?

Two weeks ago James Turnbull brought up a creative advertisement for foreign language courses at Korea University. Titled "Get the Native Tongue"---eww---they unfortunately didn't consult with one---eww---before putting the ad together. About a week later I looked at a commercial for Wall Street Institute that showed how much fun it was to take classes there.



The woman is reading a book on her way to class, walks into a room, takes off her staid outfit and begins dancing around. Near the end of the ad the woman peeks out of the room and says "쉿! 지금은 수업중입니다." You can watch the video for yourself here. This is the point I made on my original post:

Given the tagline at the end of the 30-second TV spot---즐기면서 배우는 영어회화센터---the gist is that with WSI you can have fun and learn English, too. Nothing wrong with that, but if that's an acceptable angle, perhaps foreign teachers might be forgiven for wanting to have fun and teach English as well.

I'm not saying the commercial is obscene or anything, or that it's upsetting my Victorian sensibilities. I was just struck by that angle when you think about the resentment and cockblocking foreign guys sometimes deal with in Korean clubs, and the netizen anger at foreign teachers who hang out with Korean women. But, yes, one thing doesn't have to do with the other, and the marketing department of WSI is in no way affiliated with or responsible for the reader comments at the bottom of a news article. Interestingly, and perhaps revealingly, there are no foreign-looking men in the commercial, and though you don't need foreigners or native speakers to use English, their absence here is what drew my attention to the contrast in attitudes in the first place. English here is used to represent youth, fun, and a cosmopolitan sensibility, though it's curious to see it advertised without any indication of those most associated with using it.

But then again it's common to divorce the language from its speakers here, as practically all English-language material here has errors that render the piece anywhere from awkward to incomprehensible. Another advertisement for an English school has been making its way around the internet; actually, looking for it two weeks ago is what put me on the trail of the above WSI commercial in the first place. The esteemed Mithridates on his Page F30 blog snapped a few pictures of it in the subway station; here's one:



Confusing "How do you think about" with "What do you think about" is a common error, as is inconsistent capitalization. Every time I see incorrect English on signs, in books, on television, or wherever, I have two immediate reactions. The first is to shake my head at the misuse of my native language because, even though the errors were probably not intentional or malicious, their use demonstrates an indifference to doing it right. My second reaction is to wonder why on earth companies would spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours on an ad campaign, but not take two seconds to see if the language they use, and in this case the product they're advertising, is correct. I'll stop you right there and save you the trouble of telling me it doesn't happen only in South Korea or only in Asia, but the chronic inability to get it right is mind-boggling. In a Korea Times article last week on an English-language government website that's filled to the brim with errors, Kyung Hee University law professor Joseph Harte sums it up nicely:

Reviewing overall content, Harte said he had found numerous grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling and even typographical errors. ``Unfortunately, this suggests either carelessness or arrogance,'' he said. ``It also leads users to question not only the site's usefulness to its intended audience, but also, unfortunately, its reliability as well.''

He's talking about a particular website, and not bad English as a whole, but "suggests either carelessness or arrogance" is an appropriate explanation. I can't tell you how many awkward or incorrect pieces of English I've seen on English exams at school, even on the extremely important mid-terms and finals. Either the teachers writing the questions don't care about misusing the language, or more likely, they're so convinced of their abilities that they don't feel any need to ask me to proofread.

All this undercuts the stereotype that out-of-touch academics love to use to characterize Asian learners of English, namely that they're relative experts at grammar and reading, but struggle simply with speaking, a struggle that comes from the lack of emphasis on speaking in class and with a fear of making mistakes and losing face. Were that true we probably wouldn't find errors and sloppy mistakes on a high percentage of signs, posters, and plaques, and in far too many newspapers, magazines, commercials, and English textbooks. However this fear of being wrong doesn't seem to extend to creating signs with awkward English that end up posted all over town.

Of course, English isn't a language in Korea; it's a subject, a commodoty, a symbol. In this case the English is secondary. The attractive woman---who may or may not even be an English-speaker given the prevalance of Eastern European models here---is embarrassing the disheveled older man, telling us that if you don't study English you not only won't understand what's happening at the meeting, but you'll look like an idiot in front of hot white women.



And there are other things going on here, too. Mr. Jung's reaction---Why is she looking and talking at me???---would fit right into any of our students head during a class; in any classroom in the world, for that matter. The other men are clearly out of it and not paying attention, though you have to wonder whether they'd carry themselves the same way if not listening to a presentation by a foreigner, a woman, or a foreign woman.

And speaking of different reactions to foreigners and foreign women, we of course are familiar with the way we're perceived and treated in the English classroom, but commentor Sonagi drew attention to some young women making the V-sign in a picture with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton during her visit to Seoul last month.