I'm trying to understand this a bit better: I visited the site and it's all in Korea. If you can read Korean, there's an overwhelmingly good chance that you're living in Korea, and thus don't need to visit it. Who are they targeting?
Sorry, but how is Korea calling 2010-2012 "Visit Korea Year" any worse than you guys calling it 2 years? 2010-2012 is actually 3 years (2010, 2011, & 2012). At least they can fall back on the excuse that English isn't their native language! Your excuses?
Jacob: If you spend a whole year in North Korea, you're either a deserter from the US Army, prisoner of Kim Jong Il or one of his proofreaders.
Eat: Juche in Tourism!
Kevin: Good point. 2010-2012 could easily be construed as two years: a) I will be at university from Sept. 2009-Sept. 2011. Was I really there for three years. b) The dash could suggest that it refers to a period of time from Jan.1, 2010 to Dec.31, 2011. From 2010 to 2012. Not including. c) It is so typical of Koreans to use insults as a basis for re-defining the meaning of a word in English. A year, in English, is a span of 365 1/4 days and 1.0987654321 seconds or something like that. It is not two year, nor is it three. That would require the noun to be pluralized, someting with which Koreans are rarely bothered. Good thing you married her, you might as well sleep with the person brainwashing you.
I think it's referring to three years. If you go to the website, allow the pop-up, and open the .pdf file, you'll see they have previews of upcoming conferences and festivals and stuff.
Kevin, nice try. But this is example about 173,459 . . . this year . . . of why it's necessary to have native speakers proofread the English that comes out of Korea. There's no way around that.
Kevin, you're right of course. However, it's a simple error when thinking of it as:
Jan 1 2010-Jan 1 2011 (1 year in time) Jan 1 2011-Jan 1 2012 (another year in time)
Of course Koreans aren't going to put down the gongs on Jan 1 2012. They'll continue until Dec 31, 2012 which then will make it about 3 years.
Anyway, the insanity really is every few years Korea pronounces it "Visit Korea Year". There tends to be about 3 "Visit Korea Years" per decade. It seems some wiseacre has decided to simply batch them all together and have a 3 year Visit Korea Year and maybe be done with it for the roaring 10s.
Although I suspect they'll bookend the decade with a Visit Korea year 2017-2020 (which will of course be four years).
THis slogan is everything that's wrong with Korea.
Korea has amazing energy, and an insatiable appetite to increase it's precieved global image. It has the resources to brand itself among the best in the world.
But all of this comes to naught if they don't put all of that energy in the right direction.
For example, for all the money that Korea spends on educating it's citizens in English, they can't even get a national slogan that makes sense in English. It's funny and sad at the same time.
Look, I love this country, it's my second home. But sometimes I think it's just stumbling it's way with the wrong people at the helm.
Remember there's that 9-month long gestation period that counts as a full year over here. Maybe there is an 18-month gestation period to decide to visit South Korea.
They should also use the word "South" in their slogan as 50% of the single-word "Korea" has really negative connotations in the English speaking world. If I didn't live here in South Korea and still lived back in the states, every time the word “Korea” might come into my personal sphere of influence, I'm pretty sure it would be concerning the hooligans to the north and I would simple let it go as something inconsequential and meaningless.
John wrote: They should also use the word "South" in their slogan as 50% of the single-word "Korea" has really negative connotations in the English speaking world.
But dumbing down information about Korea to accommodate a culturally illiterate population would just tend to attract the uneducated to South Korea. And we all know what a miserable failure that experiment has been. ;)
Alex, you googled the webpage? It's right there in the damn post. Talk about research fail. But eatyourkimchi has a point; if you leave your pop-up blocker on, there's no indication that there is any foreign-language information. You know, since they're trying to attract foreigners, or at least they're trying to pay lip service to attracting foreigners. But, anyway, if you download the .pdf from the pop-up it's still in awkward English, and doesn't really explain what this campaign is all about.
I'm becoming convinced that ad agencies in Korea keep their English crappy on purpose, out of fear that real English would intimidate or confuse Koreans. I mean, how can errors that blatant be accidental? It's not even a matter of consulting a native speaker -- even the average Korean high school student should be able to spot the error here. It's gotta be a conspiracy ...
Ah, yes, but if you criticize Koreans' bad English you're considered an arrogant bully who doesn't understand how foreign languages are acquired. They're just playing! They're still learning! You should be patient!
I went ahead and filled some of the usual comments I get. Take this post to soompi and you'll get more of the same, only with worse spelling.
At least my education included a bit of history that clearly states that there are sadly still two Koreas in this world. Dude, you're letting your own lack of education show. I can't believe that, with all your previous, and still on-going, book learning, you haven't realized that the rest of the world knows that there are two separate independent countries, and the one that gets the most press isn't really as Democratic as its official moniker suggests ;P
26 comments:
The year so nice they celebrated it twice!
Korea, the land of land of lame ass slogans
Who do they hire at their ad agencies seriously...
It does just say "Korea." Perhaps it is two years because they want you to visit the South one year and the North the other year.
I'm trying to understand this a bit better: I visited the site and it's all in Korea. If you can read Korean, there's an overwhelmingly good chance that you're living in Korea, and thus don't need to visit it. Who are they targeting?
Because Korea year better than foreigner year. Have 730 day and 8 distinct season. Manse!!
Sorry, but how is Korea calling 2010-2012 "Visit Korea Year" any worse than you guys calling it 2 years? 2010-2012 is actually 3 years (2010, 2011, & 2012). At least they can fall back on the excuse that English isn't their native language! Your excuses?
Jacob: If you spend a whole year in North Korea, you're either a deserter from the US Army, prisoner of Kim Jong Il or one of his proofreaders.
Eat: Juche in Tourism!
Kevin: Good point. 2010-2012 could easily be construed as two years: a) I will be at university from Sept. 2009-Sept. 2011. Was I really there for three years. b) The dash could suggest that it refers to a period of time from Jan.1, 2010 to Dec.31, 2011. From 2010 to 2012. Not including. c) It is so typical of Koreans to use insults as a basis for re-defining the meaning of a word in English. A year, in English, is a span of 365 1/4 days and 1.0987654321 seconds or something like that. It is not two year, nor is it three. That would require the noun to be pluralized, someting with which Koreans are rarely bothered. Good thing you married her, you might as well sleep with the person brainwashing you.
I think it's referring to three years. If you go to the website, allow the pop-up, and open the .pdf file, you'll see they have previews of upcoming conferences and festivals and stuff.
Kevin, nice try. But this is example about 173,459 . . . this year . . . of why it's necessary to have native speakers proofread the English that comes out of Korea. There's no way around that.
I'm convinced they only release stuff like this in country to keep the local English speaking populace confused.
Has anyone noticed that it's Korea Week at CNN International? The bibimbap commercial makes me want to gouge my eyes out.
Kevin, you're right of course. However, it's a simple error when thinking of it as:
Jan 1 2010-Jan 1 2011 (1 year in time)
Jan 1 2011-Jan 1 2012 (another year in time)
Of course Koreans aren't going to put down the gongs on Jan 1 2012. They'll continue until Dec 31, 2012 which then will make it about 3 years.
Anyway, the insanity really is every few years Korea pronounces it "Visit Korea Year". There tends to be about 3 "Visit Korea Years" per decade. It seems some wiseacre has decided to simply batch them all together and have a 3 year Visit Korea Year and maybe be done with it for the roaring 10s.
Although I suspect they'll bookend the decade with a Visit Korea year 2017-2020 (which will of course be four years).
THis slogan is everything that's wrong with Korea.
Korea has amazing energy, and an insatiable appetite to increase it's precieved global image. It has the resources to brand itself among the best in the world.
But all of this comes to naught if they don't put all of that energy in the right direction.
For example, for all the money that Korea spends on educating it's citizens in English, they can't even get a national slogan that makes sense in English. It's funny and sad at the same time.
Look, I love this country, it's my second home. But sometimes I think it's just stumbling it's way with the wrong people at the helm.
http://www.japantravelinfo.com/2010/win.html
Japan's "Visit Japan Year 2010" is only one calendar year, so Korea's "Visit Korea Year 2010-2012" is three times as awesome.
(credit to @koreangov)
holterbarbour, that explains it all. It's just Korea trying to be better than Japan
In Hawaii, the tourism campaign is "2010 Japan Visits Year."
But of course, that's every year.
eat your Kimchi. I googled the website and it has plenty of languages! My co-teachers say you "research-fail-μλ!"
Well said, Ryan.
Remember there's that 9-month long gestation period that counts as a full year over here. Maybe there is an 18-month gestation period to decide to visit South Korea.
They should also use the word "South" in their slogan as 50% of the single-word "Korea" has really negative connotations in the English speaking world. If I didn't live here in South Korea and still lived back in the states, every time the word “Korea” might come into my personal sphere of influence, I'm pretty sure it would be concerning the hooligans to the north and I would simple let it go as something inconsequential and meaningless.
Damn Bob. That was the best zigger ever.
John wrote:
They should also use the word "South" in their slogan as 50% of the single-word "Korea" has really negative connotations in the English speaking world.
But dumbing down information about Korea to accommodate a culturally illiterate population would just tend to attract the uneducated to South Korea. And we all know what a miserable failure that experiment has been. ;)
Good lord...
Alex, you googled the webpage? It's right there in the damn post. Talk about research fail. But eatyourkimchi has a point; if you leave your pop-up blocker on, there's no indication that there is any foreign-language information. You know, since they're trying to attract foreigners, or at least they're trying to pay lip service to attracting foreigners. But, anyway, if you download the .pdf from the pop-up it's still in awkward English, and doesn't really explain what this campaign is all about.
I'm becoming convinced that ad agencies in Korea keep their English crappy on purpose, out of fear that real English would intimidate or confuse Koreans. I mean, how can errors that blatant be accidental? It's not even a matter of consulting a native speaker -- even the average Korean high school student should be able to spot the error here. It's gotta be a conspiracy ...
Ah, yes, but if you criticize Koreans' bad English you're considered an arrogant bully who doesn't understand how foreign languages are acquired. They're just playing! They're still learning! You should be patient!
I went ahead and filled some of the usual comments I get. Take this post to soompi and you'll get more of the same, only with worse spelling.
kushibo,
At least my education included a bit of history that clearly states that there are sadly still two Koreas in this world. Dude, you're letting your own lack of education show. I can't believe that, with all your previous, and still on-going, book learning, you haven't realized that the rest of the world knows that there are two separate independent countries, and the one that gets the most press isn't really as Democratic as its official moniker suggests ;P
The website has now been shut down as under construction and won't reopen until January 1st.
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