* "Korean language evolves into Konglish?"
* "Hangeul still best Asian writing system for fucking up English word the least."
* "Happy 한글 Day."
* "Too much English in Korea? Yep, and don't look at us, it's not our fault."
is my latest piece in the Korea Herald, trotting out one of my hobby horses, the overuse of English in Korea. Here are a few excerpts:
I've been treated to some articles in the papers lately dealing with English in Korea and asking if there's too much of it, specifically in restaurants, on billboards, and on product labels. I strongly believe there's too much English used in Korea, that this overuse has negative consequences for students of English and regular citizens alike, and that it'd be healthy to use more Korean in Korean. However, one point I always like to make is that the overuse of English in Korea is a domestic phenomenon, one created and continued by Koreans, and any campaign to replace it ought to be a fight for thoughtful language use, not a crusade against a foreign invader.
Some of the English here is what I call "Gibberlish," a portmanteau of gibberish and English that means words or combinations of letters used for decoration. Gibberlish is found when online translation tools are used, creating a meaningless arrangement of words such the sign in Suncheon that reads "Rain blood vessel & skin the government serviece." It is found in pop songs, where rappers and singers will randomly insert English words and phrases, and it exists to such a great extent in the fashion industry that it's tough to buy a t-shirt without ridiculous English on it.
Because much of the English in Korea doesn't make sense to native speakers, isn't created with the intention of being correct or comprehensible, and certainly isn't understood by Koreans, it's fair to ask, why use it at all?
I first read about The National Institute of the Korean Language last week, and the webpage on which they offer suggested replacements for imported "English" terms. I like what they're about: after all, why the impulse to borrow words when Korean ones are perfectly suitable? Their website might be translated as "Pruning Our Language Together" (모두가 함께하는 우리말 다듬기), and you can take a look at some of the words recently reviewed here.
But what I'd really like to emphasize is the recent changes to "Our Language" were brought about by Koreans, and campaigns to prune it shouldn't be waged against English itself or its speakers, but rather against the thoughtless use of it. It's Koreans who choose to import these words, to use mangled English instead of Korean, to write their advertisements without Hangeul, to isolate Korean speakers, and to limit their language's creative power. This isn't a foreign invasion, and any efforts at Koreaning-up the Korean language really ought to be a fight against incomprehension and thoughtless language use, rather than a xenophobic one against a foreign language.
From August, 2008.
21 comments:
That Summer Bitch Festival is hilarious!!
I wanna see one myself
I read this article in the Korea Herald and couldn’t agree more. I’m a translator, and I find that this sort of use of English often creates tension between me and clients who are convinced that if Lotte says it, it must be correct. I guess the use of English marketing has a long history that goes back to Japanese colonization, and it must bring up many ambiguous feelings in not only English-speaking foreign residents but older generation Koreans as well. But that’s another story.
I think you’re right in pointing out that the use of English often confuses consumers, however, do you ever wonder if this is the goal of some companies? The Korea Fair Trade Association rarely cracks down on false advertising in English, so companies that use confusing English-based language to describe products aren’t held accountable. For example, a snack food filled with additives and trans-fats that would be faced with a lawsuit if it called itself “yuginong” (Korean for organic), would get away with calling itself “organic” and “well-being.” Maybe I’m a paranoid consumer, but whenever I see a product using a substantial amount of English I don’t understand, or English words written in Hangeul, I suspect the company is trying to hide something.
Anyways, just my thoughts. I hope you do more on the subject; it certainly is interesting. Blog on!
To save space I'll just copy pasta what I said last time this subject came up.
[quote]
Well Korea could always make a law making any non-standard English illegal and banning all use of English words if a Hangul exists that works. Then they could further ban all non-Korean clothing when a perfectly functional traditional Korean clothing would do the job. Then we further go into music, if its not pure Korean derived music (aka traditional) then its banned also.
All in the name of keeping the culture / language "pure" and protecting it from the evil WEM's (White European Male's) trying to pollute innocent Korea.
[/sarcasm]
[/quote]
Korean's are assimilating English words into their culture. They may not be assimilating them in the way we or cultural purists want, but they are doing it anyway. Nothing short of fascist / pseudo oppressive like laws will change that. You may want the Koreans' to only speak Korean and not use English, but the Korean's want to use English and will do so without your permission. Once this is understood it really becomes humorous to watch them try to grapple with a language that is incorrectly crammed down their throats in school. What I find the most funny is the English words written in Hangul script.
Example:
Earlier yesterday a Korean friend of mine who is attending an English academy called me about some words she didn't understand. The words were oblique and inflow used together in a sentence. The sentence sounded like something out of an engineering draft for a water valve system. Something that never should of been in an English language school to begin with. Why must Koreans insist on forcing their students to memorize some complicated technical / academic words yet ignore things like basic sentence structure and actual English practice. Know the meaning of those words won't help anyone unless their an engineering major, and then they'll learn it through their subject's coursework.
What really irks me is when nonstandard English terms come into common usage in Korean.
The latest example I've seen is the term "happy drug," which refers to pharmaceutical products like Botox, which are not used to prolong life or ease suffering.
The accepted English term is lifestyle drug. Last time I checked, "happy drug" was a slang term for antidepressant.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to convince Korean speakers that the seemingly English words they are using are not in the common vernacular outside of Korea?
One of these days... China will be a pretty big economy, maybe the largest in the world... and signs in America will have Chinese gibberish on them.
It's already happening. See all the Chinese character tatoos kids in the states wear nowadays?
You want less laughs? I love seeing the hilarious errors.
I could agree more, Erik.
I try to explain that Konglish is a language, Korean is a language, and English is a language... but they are all different.
Konglish doesn't have much of a pedigree and isn't widely accepted or used. If you went Scotland and asked where the "screen golf" was you'd get looks of confusion. It conjures images of virtual reality golf the likes of which most people have only seen on movies about rich people (think The Mask- woah... holy throw back!).
I usually just explain that what Koreans think is "English" is often Konglish and they have to learn that the names they give things in Korea don't work outside of its borders.
It's similar to the comparison between Mexican Spanish and Spanish Spanish... except significantly different.
Great work on the article, Brian, very well said.
Unfortunately, a big part of the issue here is the fact that most Koreans don't give a rat's ass about any advice non-Koreans try to give them on how to use English. The familiar refrain of "consult a native speaker!" is pointless, because, as Jessica points out, influential Koreans tend not to trust non-Koreans who say that Koreans have been doing things wrong.
Which is all the more reason why Korean companies, advertisers, and government agencies should start hiring Koreans who are actually capable of using English effectively... and then give them the authority to tell everyone else how (and more importantly, when) to use English. I'm convinced that such Koreans DO exist, they're just rarely hired for the right jobs, or else they're scared to buck the status quo by insisting that English be used in an effective way (if at all).
Completely agreed with Jessica!
I think that we should differenciate between the use of commercial English (brand names, slongans so on and so forth) and the use of foreign words which could interfere in the communication process. An example is the directions for banks transactions, which use the word "sharp" for the phone key and isn't understoon by many Koreans.
My hands-down favorite gibberish, from a loaf of bread at Paris Baguette:
"This soft goods is the good materials in the body and the possibility of eating with the families together and fiber of these fibers, uses the fresh one materials with family brand where it is F-STYLE and fresh. It uses fine, edo it is good and the mouth to be joyful to Paris newly the fortune well of the baguette's round it is a life style brand with fine"
How can this monster franchise NOT afford a native English speaker (or a Korean who doesn't resort to something like BabelFish for succinct translations) is beyond me? Ignorance? Arrogance? Though it must be said that if they put that shit on a T-shirt, I'd probably buy ten.
But why waste time and money hiring an English native speaker when the overseas/native speaker market isn't the one you're aiming for? I agree, certainly, that when the audience is international/English speaking, taking the effort to ensure that the English is correct and comprehesible is absolutely essential. But really, Paris Baguette should hire someone to make sure that their essentially decorative phrases make sense?
I've spoken to Koreans about this stuff. The companies do not care if the English is correct or not. 99.9 percent of their customers are Korean. Even if they speak English, they will not bother to read the English text.
My coworker told me English words are because it "looks good" to Koreans. Nobody actually cares less what it says or if it is correct. Why would they waste money paying somebody to correct errors a minuscule number of people will ever even notice?
Western people and fluent Koreans might laugh or shake their heads, but they will still buy crap from stores covered with Konglish anyway. I find it hilarious, so it sure doesn't bother me.
the worst i have seen out here is a woman wearing a t-shirt that say n@@@ers love blondes and my black friend ran after her to try and tell her that the shirt was offensive. of course it didnt register.
I think the most embarrassing gaff was Korean Air took out these 1/4 page color ads extolling their new online booking system for foreigners living in Korea. The site's english was gooder 'n' everything.
The ad was loaded with typos and bad grammar. Clearly they got no native speaker to even give it a once over. The notion blew me away. It would have taken them all of 20 minutes to pop out their door, go to the nearest starbucks, offer the foreigner they found there $50 to give it a once over.
I think it ran for several days and then a corrected version followed up the next week. At least they got the message.
I am very glad you wrote this article Brian. While I have no problem with words from any language entering another for new devices or concepts, such as radio or tsunami, I abhor the way that longstanding Korean words are being replaced by English ones just for fashions sake. I hear that now many Korean words are not known by the younger generation as they have grown up knowing only the English replacement. One example would be how many Koreans say "페이지" instead of the traditional "쪽" for 'page'. I was horrified to read in my Korean language textbook last week that a Korean word for 'idea' is "아이디어".
Thanks, daniel, those are two examples that came to mind recently. When my teachers used "페이지" I was never sure why: were they trying to make it "easier" for the lone white guy? Certainly killing the pronunciation of a word doesn't help anyone. There's no need to replace words like page and idea, and indeed many others.
Speaking of "peh-ee-gee" (Sorry, can't type in hangeul on this computer), I always found it ridiculously frustrating when I would instruct my lower-level students to turn to a certain page, and my Korean co-teacher would then repeat the instruction in Korean, using the word "peh-ee-gee" instead of the Korean word. I'd even get students trying to correct MY pronunciation when I said "page". Moments like that really made me think, "What is it I'm supposed to be accomplishing here, exactly?"
I think you have to keep in mind that something like 65% or more of the words that us Westerners probably consider native Korean words are actually in fact words that were borrowed from Chinese a long time ago.
Also, think of how many words and phrases English itself has borrowed that it doesn't actually "need." Why do we have both "vision" and "sight"? "Enter" and "go into"? Also, native English-speaking societies are also guilty of using other languages in ways that are similar to what is being done in Korea. Think of the way some people in the U.S. use basic Spanish words and phrases randomly while speaking English. True, it's not nearly as prevalent as the use of Konglish in Korea, but I think there are some similarities.
I agree that the excessive use as English as decoration in Korea should stop, but I think we also have to keep in mind that we as English speakers are guilty of the same thing, although not as excessively, and that languages are not as "pure" as we think they are.
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