Comments on: Don’t go, Big Nosers!

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 11:52:09 +0000

They don’t call us kojaengees for nothing.

By: dda

dda — Sun, 07 Dec 2003 08:23:36 +0000

The “????쩐쨍 ?째???쨍 ???????” part, (mis-)translated by Marmot as “You wanna be constantly anti-American?” and by Brendon as “You still anti-American (now, huh)?” and accurately rendered by Peter the First as “You go ahead and just keep up the anti-Americanism” can be *explained* as “See what happens when you behave like that to us Americans? Now, do you really want to keep up with that kind of attitude, dude?”. Replace ?째???쨍 by anything else of your liking, and you got yerself a pretty useful expression…

dda the linguist, on a beautiful Sunday morning…

By: The Marmot

The Marmot — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 14:27:55 +0000

Charles, I was thinking the same thing myself.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 08:54:14 +0000

Oh boy I had a couple of jokes about to roll but I don’t know any of you well enough to see how you would take it….

Needless to say I do have a big nose and it’s nothing compared to that…

By: The Yangban

The Yangban — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 08:17:03 +0000

I noticed that there are only honkies in the US army in that cartoon. Where are the brothers?

By: Charles

Charles — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 08:00:20 +0000

Wow, those sure are some big noses. I’d hate to see a Korean cartoon of Irsaelis and Palestinians.

By: Infidel

Infidel — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 06:13:57 +0000

The Korean Left is falling into the same mind trap most marxists can’t resist, because dialectics posits conflict into the very fabric of all group relations. Even if the Americans are sincerely looking at South Korea as a liability, because of discontent, the left has to create an imaginary divide between those Americans who want to stay and those who want to go. And then, it has to interpret Rumsfeld’s remark as some kind of inside joke Rumsfeld the bureaucrat is using to fight with the State Department.

South Koreans just don’t understand how deep the isolationism runs in American thinking, because Koreans are such victims, that they only see winners who are imperialists and losers who are conquered. Washington after Munich and WW2 sees the world as either a chessboard with America on the white side, or as the Old Europe America needs to ignore and isolate itself against. Koreans are also so cynical they could never just accept or admit that there is such a thing as loyalty between allies.

On the other hand, the South Korean right is probably just ideologically bankrupt. Although I would never question its loyalty, I’m sure it would murder to stay in power if an emergency presented itself. And the same for the left. No, what surprises me most about that cartoon is that it uses Rumsfeld to dramatize South Korea’s party divisions. It almost screams the message, “Without Washington We Koreans Will Kill Each Other!”

By: Gerry Bevers

Gerry Bevers — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 05:47:57 +0000

If the US and U.N. commands on Yongsan are within range of North Korean artillery, it would seem crazy not to move them out of range. Why risk getting your head cut off in the opening shots of a war? Even with the bunkers on Yongsan, a large concentration of artillery fire, which might include shells tipped with chemical and biological agents, could kill a lot of senior officers who might be above ground for some reason, such as, attending some function at Dragonhill Lodge. In fact, it might be a good idea for the Korean Ministry of Defense to move, too, which would give Seoul more land to build an even bigger “Central Park.”

Seoul is overcrowded, and the Korean government has been trying for years to figure out how to disperse the population to other places of the country. If Koreans really do feel uneasy about the US and U.N. commands leaving Seoul, then maybe the US-UN move out of Seoul is the answer that the Korean government has been looking for. If enough Koreans move away from Seoul, maybe land prices will come down, and Seoul residents will get some elbow room.

By: MF

MF — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 05:09:48 +0000

Big nose, big……..tissue.

By: Brendon Carr

Brendon Carr — Sat, 06 Dec 2003 04:16:11 +0000

Oranckay,

I read the Korean as “You still anti-American (now, huh)?” It’s interesting how nuance is hard to translate.