This is your authority on the English language and what foreigners like.
The Korea Times reports, via The Marmot's Hole, that the dolts interested in "globalizing" Korean food and beverages have decided that makgeolli will be given the nickname "Drunken Rice" (드렁큰라이스) in English to make it more appealing for non-Koreans.
"Makgeolli," the country's traditional rice wine, has garnered the nickname "Drunken Rice" through an event aimed at boosting sales of the milky white drink outside Asia's fourth-largest economy.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MOFAFF) said Wednesday that Drunken Rice got the highest score as the nickname for makgeolli in a rivalry with such candidates as Makcohol, a combination of makgeolli and alcohol.
Other contenders included were Koju, Kori, Soolsool, McKorea and Rainydaywine but they failed to beat Drunken Rice.
"Midway through this month, up to 3,910 people offered various English nicknames for makgeolli, which is hard to pronounce and understand for expatriates," MOFAFF official Park Seong-gi said.
"Drunken Rice topped the podium at the screening of the five-member panel, which features a linguist, a food columnist, an alcohol specialist and tourism experts. These names will hopefully help the brisk exports of the wine."
The Korean-language articles say other names under consideration were Markelixir---a combination of makgeolli and elixir---and makcohol.
I'm curious, how many on the five-member panel were members of the target audience? And how many English-speakers did they consult before creating an English nickname? There is every reason to believe the answer to both is zero, given Korea's track record (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to cite but a few) but it looks like they talked with Korean-American food blogger and consultant Daniel Gray of Seoul Eats and marketing manager Michael Spavor.
The Korea Times closes with:
In the meanwhile, MOFAFF asked 210 foreigners last month in 11 cities including New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo regarding what is the best English-language explanation of makgeolli. The best one on the list was Korean rice wine.
Clearly, Drunken Rice isn't as laughable as makcohol, as absurd as markelixir, but what's the point of an English nickname? What does "Drunken Rice" accomplish that makgeolli doesn't? In what way does it make it easier for non-Koreans to comprehend and understand makgeolli, considering most non-Koreans have even never heard of the drink? Finally, what evidence is there of a lack of comprehension and understanding among non-Koreans of makgeolli, and does it exist to so great an extent that an entirely new English name is necessary? The answers to these important questions were likely trumped by the desire to have an English nickname to sound cosmopolitan and smart, forgetting of course that it has the opposite effect on people who actually use the language.
The government's interference in English to further the globalization of Korean food reminds me of the decision last spring to change the English spelling of 떡볶이 to topokki, because, according to one researcher at the Topokki Food Research Institute:
“Using a name that’s easy for foreigners to pronounce is our first step to help the spicy rice cake gain global popularity.”
You won't build a strong connection with non-Koreans and "foreigners" when the English-language name is different from the Korean one, and incomprehensible to Korean-speakers.
12 comments:
Screw the strong connection between foreigners and Koreans! It SOUNDS good to the Powers That Be! It's even relatively honest - not quite like calling kimchi a cure for cancer....
I'm sorry, but when I hear "drunken rice", the first thing I think of is the ubiquitous pink vomit puddles found on every sidewalk in Korea.
Brian, I think you are overlooking how successful renaming foods in other countries have been.
Before the Japanese renamed Sushi to
"Raw fish on a gob of rice," they couldn't sell any of it.
Also look at the Thais, I probably never would have eaten Pad Kao if it was called pad koa, but now that I can go into a Thai restaurant and order a nice spicy plate of "flaming asshole" I can't get enough.
Are you kidding me? Merkelixir? Sounds like a potion in Final Fantasy that will restore my entire party's HP and MP, right before I fight the final boss, MANBEARPIG.
Awesomest name ever. I'd buy a bagillion of them.
It's pretty standard to ask foreigners what they think and then completely ignore their suggestions even when they are the target audience. Because, Koreans know what foreigners like better than foreigners do. The ones that know best are always the ones that can't speak English even when their job requires it.
This happens all the time at my work. This month we have an ad campiagn coming out in Forbes. One of the posters we're thinking of using has a cute kid (blonde hair/blue eyes of course) holding their dirt/oil covered hands up to the viewer.
No matter what I say about the bad timing considering we are in the oil industry and the Macondo spill hasn't been plugged yet, they'll likely use this poster.
But you see, holterharbour, you are going some way to proving that the name is not as bad as it first appears!
Let us be clear, I have seen the mandatory three piles of vomit between house and station on a Sunday morning (Shindaebang Samgeori in Seoul, for the stalkers among you), and more to the point I also know what both 막걸리 and "makkeoli" are, thus instantly taking myself, in addition to EVERY SINGLE reader of this blog, out of the target demographic. BOOM!
What "Drunken Rice" does is make everyone outside the target demographic cringe (that's you, me and every Korean over the age of ten, among others), but it also makes for an interesting, eye-catching name on the shelves of my local supermarket back in the UK. It will appeal to kids and teenagers (sorry if this is morally reprehensible, but that is not the argument we are having), as the current efforts to make "flavored makkeoli" are also likely to do.
I am not saying this will make makkeoli a world-beating alcoholic beverage; it is too idiosyncratic for that, no matter what happens, but a flaovored product called "Drunken Rice" (imagine it, in a can, with a snazzy font) could, indeed, sell.
We wouldn't buy it, obviously, but is that the point?
Hell no.
Makcohol I kind of like. Resonates with the slang "mac", which can mean to get your game on, hit on a woman, etc. And the "ohol" implying a drink that helps you get your mac on.
Sure beats Crunky.
(Word verification is "bippi" which will no doubt be the new Korean term for bibimbap)
Oh and a bottle of makkoli costs about $25 with tax in a Korean hof in Toronto. Same bottle would run you a couple bucks.
I don't blame Koreans on that one as Canada has some pretty high taxes on booze and I'm sure if you want to import something that's not part of the catalog at the liquor board, you're paying even more.
It's pretty much the same for soju although its a bit cheaper.
Still, Koreans must fly into blue rage when they drink a bunch soju or makkoli and discover they're being charged 10x more.
Once again, I'd question the actual target market here: is the end goal really to sell Korean food/drink overseas? Or is the apparent "marketing" of these items overseas just part of an attempt at true marketing domestically, towards Koreans? In other words, "Drink Makgeoli -- it's so good that even foreigners drink it! TM" Just like the vast majority of English you see inside Korea is not intended to communicate with English-speaking visitors, but to create a certain image with native Koreans.
Does anyone else remember the WHITE POWER milk commercials? They could always have brought that back for makkeoli.
Were those in Korea?
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