This is simply retarded
!["Annyoung?]()
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t write on something this petty, but as it stands now, it’s the most looked-at article over at Yahoo! Korea. Anyway, according to Yonhap News, some people are making a flap over a reported linguistic faux-pas by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Here’s the story, and try not to laugh - Rummy’s visiting the Blue House, and the Nohmeister greets the DefSec, complimenting him on his healthy appearance despite his age and recent travels. Rummy then turned around and (as was reported by some of the local journalists) said, “Thank you, an-nyoung” - annyoung, in Korean, is a greeting used between close friends and/or to those of a much lower social standing (usually adults speaking to children). Immediately, people started to ask whether this was an act of calculated rudeness on the part of the Defense Secretary - the representative of “Pax Americana” daring to speak down to the head of state of a foreign country. Or perhaps this was an expression of dissatisfaction with Noh’s announcements on Iraq. It was only later (after reports of this “incident” went out) that others at the scene declared the “incident” an “non-incident” - in fact, Rummy had said, in English, “Thank you. I’m young.”
This is not the first time Korean reporters have misinterpreted English statements by American officials - during Kim Dae-jung’s and Noh Mu-hyeon’s summit meetings, a number of Bush’s statements were spun in some pretty horrific ways. Occasionally, it’s pretty amusing - I’m sure I commit some of the same errors going from Korean to English - but at the same time, “incidents” like this have an odd way of remaining in the collective memory around here, so I hope to God this one just dies a natural death.
11 Comments
RE: ” hope to God this one just dies a natural death.”
ME: Amen!
Actually, and thankfully, in my surfings today it looks to me like the story is gaining the attention it does because the joke is on the goofballs who transcribed the conversation. I bet it’ll be a hot topic of conversation in English hagwon’s around the country for a day or two. Even kindergarteners having English shoved down their throats in Gangnam will get a laugh outta this one. Hopefully…..
As a foreign reporter covering the Roh administation, I’m regularly surprised at how often local scribes will ask me about perceived slights to Korean officials read into the language of foreign leaders. During Roh’s trip to Wshington, he was described by Bush as “easy to talk to” and some of the Korean press tried to spin that into something closer to “easy to manipulate/have my way with”. I wasn’t here then, but believe that Bush’s March 2001 reference to Kim DJ as “this man” was also hyped into some slight to DJ.
One of the few times I was a little exasperated by
my adult students was during the 1997-98 economic
collapse.
For two or three days, they came in talking about “the
arrogant Americans” who were pushing Korea around and
forcing horrible “concessions” to the IMF bailout.
In particular, they were enraged at the way the IMF chief
who came to visit Kim Dae Jung was SITTING at the photo
op!
They said it was a clear sign of arrogance how the man
(not an American) was sitting back on the couch with
his legs crossed, speaking to Kim as if he were the
Emperor and Kim was his servant.
While poor Kim sat on the edge of his seat stiff and
respectful.
I told my students, “Don’t you think there are some
other things to worry about and get ticked over? How
about the chaebol heads? How about the government
that saw this coming for months but couldn’t reform
the economy?”
It was tough to hear all this “IMF Emperor Sitting
Scandal” when I was watching the US dollar value of
my salary slide deeper and deeper into the crapper.
Especially since I was scheduled to go home for an
extended vacation at the end of a contract in just a few
months!!!
So, why even mention it?
Really, I’d just like to wipe all these things I know about Korea from my head! This is tabloid posting!
“So, why even mention it?”
Well, because I didn’t have time to make my big Rummy post yet, it was the number 1 hit piece over at Yahoo! Korea News, I thought it was amusing, it’s my blog, and I figured I’ll post it.
“This is tabloid posting!”
True enough, but not every post has to be friggin’ political treatise. Besides, if it was good enough for Yonhap, it’s good enough for The Marmot’s Hole. If you think it’s a crappy post (and I’ll be the first to admit that there’s are a lot of crappy posts on this blog), feel free NOT to link to it.
So that you guys learn something today…
The IMF honcho was, at that time, Michel Camdessus, Managing Director of the IMF from January 1987 to February 2000. He was serving his third term.
http://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/bios/mc.htm
I, too, would respectfully beg to differ with Joseph on the “tabloid” comment. By my count, nearly all of the major South Korean emotional eruptions against the United States were exacerbated (if not outright triggered) by shoddy or dishonest local media reporting, of which the “I’m Young/Annyong” controversy was a slightly milder example.
-In the speed skating kerfuffle, South Korea readers were told outright that Ohno won a judging decision biased to favour U.S. hosts. Whole angry editorials were built on that supposed “fact”.
-Mainstream media concocted a whole slew of “facts” about the schoolgirl’s deaths that no doubt inflamed public opinion. They also groundlessly declared one after another of the U.S. apologies as insincere.
With South Koreans as prone to overraction (and inclined to give feelings more weight than facts) as they have shown themselves to be, I think it is well worth highlighting these “trivial” issues before they blow up.
This is not a court of law, or even a western country. Expats have no duty to educate anyone. We have no duty to understand anyone or suspend judgment, pending a conviction. These are all very noble sentiments in a civilized country, but not here. Its our job to call it honestly, and compel ou leaders to punish those who resort to these delaying tactics. Just as Pyongyang and Beijing falsely accused the UN Coomand of bombing negotiation sites, we don’t have to investigate to defer to our society’s values. We need to respond to the tactic with overwhelming indignation. Washington should demand an apology from Seoul for the actions of its citizens, and either halt negotiations and/or unilaterally issue a decision on the redeployment. The shock of the response will jar Seoul into reality.
“To sit down with these men and deal with them as with representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride one’s own dignity and to invite the disaster their treachery will inevitably bring upon us.” (Gen. Matthew Ridgway, 1951)
I’m in a commenting kinda mood so….
RE COMMENT: “I wasn’t here then, but believe that Bush’s March 2001 reference to Kim DJ as “this man” was also hyped into some slight to DJ.”
I would hate to say something nice about Hong Sa-deok, who Marmot mentions in a later post today, but Hong was so offended at how Bush showed disrespect for Korea’s head of state with that expression that he sent the White House an open letter about the matter, and instead it was KDJ’s Cheong Wa Dae that came to Bush’s defense, with some explanation about how “this man” should be interpreted as a Texan expression of frienship, etc.
Trival or not?
Tabloid posting?
No…
The sad thing about Korea is that “events” like the great Rumsfeld
insult DO make some difference in Korea.
This is one of the problems with people like ourselves who have lived
in Korea for years but come from our western understanding.
Things like the way the IMF chief was sitting or the misunderstanding
of what Rumsfeld said seems trivial and not worth commenting on.
Or in Infidales case, mentioning it is yellow journalism…
but we should admit to ourselves and allow those who don’t have much
experience in Korea understand that such things are often big issues
in Korea.
Really…..who would have thought the way the IMF chief was sitting
would be THE big news item that stuck in the public’s mind for a week
when the Korean economy was crashing around our ears?!???
We don’t know yet, but the Rumsfeld insult misunderstanding could
easily have a lasting impression in mainstream Korea.
That is why it is more than a legitimate post on a blog about
Korea.
A more sensitive group of people than the Koreans you will have trouble finding on this planet. Regarding the IMF flap, I remember the same type of picture showed Fischer or Camdessus with arms crossed looking down on a hapless Suharto - that was the image the Indos focused on and certainly helped end his rule. And don’t forget the MacArthur/Hirohito shot, with open collar Mac towering over the diminutive marine biologist. Images are important in Asia.
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especially when it involves important people with heads about as big as some oceans. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, as reported by the Marmot, said the wrong word for hello in Korean when visiting Seoul today. Instead of saying the…
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