I don’t make it a point to read the Korea Times opinion section, but for some reason, I read ESL instructor J.B. Todsttoe’s slamming of Korea Times contributor Choe Yong-shik’s improper use of English idioms in a Nov. 7 piece on the occassionally goofy slogans being used by some of Korea’s provinces and cities.
Sheesh. Guy takes the time to write a column — in his second language (presumably) — for the benefit of his country’s barbarian community (and frankly, aside from the idiomatic mistakes, I’d be hard pressed to write better), and he’s subject to that rant? Christ, if I ever contribute an op-ed in Korean to a Korean paper (i.e., one that people in this country actually read), I pray the locals take a kinder stance on my grammatical and idiomatic goofs.
19 Comments
I think you missed the point, Marmot. The fellow criticized the Op-Ed’s awkward English because the Op-Ed itself criticized awkward English used in the tourism industry. I thought the Op-Ed was off-base when it complained about “Feel Gyeongnam.” I don’t find anything Konglish about the use of “feel” in the slogan.
People who live in glass houses…
Is there a more poorly written and edited English-language publication than the Korea Times? Part of the blame lies with its parent company, the Hankook Ilbo, which won’t adequately fund the paper, but won’t sell it either. It needs new management, and a properly trained staff.
Still, I would miss gems like “Seasonal Fruits for Pregnant Women” with lines like: “Korean songi is unique with a rich pine scent growing only in old pinewoods in the clean mountains such as Yangyang and Ponghwa in September to October. The pine fields never bring them up the same place again but in adjacent places. Searching for them is hard work and collectors should remember where they were the year before. The best ones are around three to five inches tall, lifting up their heads, breaking through the ground. It is the right time to pick up before the craniums are becoming rimmed cap. Then the shapes are amazing indeed as they just about took after the phallic symbolism.” Pure comedy gold….
By the way, “Feel Gyeongnam” or “feel” anything as it’s used here when the word “experience” is intended is absolutely Konglish.
Sonagi, I’m with Marmot on this. Choe’s piece was about using English effectively in marketing. With or without impeccable grammar, the point is still valid.
Proves again how the Times-Herald cartel never reads the pieces it gets as contributions, whether (1) op-ed stuff or (2) letters to the editor.
The guy still found it worth his time to write to them, didn’t he?
“The guy still found it worth his time to write to them, didn’t he? ”
The writer didn’t miss a chance to plug his new book at the end of the piece.
My definition of Konglish: an assortment of English or English-like words and expressions imported into the Korean language and given new meanings.
Some examples of Konglish expressions are “eye shopping,” “free talking,” “PD,” and “gagman.” These expressions are commonly used by Koreans and probably familiar to everyone here. All speakers of a foreign language make errors in usage, and Konglish is not a blanket term to describe any awkward word choices made by an English-speaking Korean.
I think the ad agencies who came up with the slogans were playing with the language, as ad agencies do. Think of McDonald’s famous violation of English grammar, “I’m lovin’ it.” If a Korean ad agency had come up with that, it would have been labeled Konglish.
The marketing professor’s advice that tourism organizations trial slogans with native speakers of the target language is valid. College marketing texts are full of examples of slogans and brand names that didn’t translate well, and obviously Marmot readers aren’t keen to “feel Gyeongnam.”
Advertising agencies often have the option of taking the high road or low road in terms of language usage. Unfortunately, many roads nowadays are low and getting lower, thanks to the steady degradation of the English language and the lack of any credible standards of quality in almost every facet of life. This is just in the U.S. too.
It is not like this ad agency “set us up the bomb in Gyeongnam” but If I am ever tempted to “feel Gyeongnam”, I’ll certainly use both of my hands to do so.
Translation mistakes are found in almost all countries, even between English speaking ones. Here are some of my favorite marketing mistakes.
Hyundai had problems with the Hyundai Pony. In Cockney rhyming slang, “Pony” is short for “pony and trap”, meaning crap. However Hyundai still used the name in Britain.
To boost orange juice sales in England, a campaign was launched with the slogan, “Orange juice. It gets your pecker up.”
‘keep your pecker up’ means get-up-and-go in Britain. The slogan in the U.S would likely see high sales by woman who have important husbands.
In China the KFC slogan “finger-lickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off.”
Coors had a slogan in Mexico, “Turn it loose” the translation into Spanish read, “Suffer from diarrhea”.
Owner Frank Perdue of Perdue Chicken had a slogan, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.”
A photo of Perdue with some feathery friends appeared on billboards in Mexico with the translated caption “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”
My favorite was this successful “Got Milk?” slogan advertised in the U.S, but didn’t do so well in Mexico, because the Spanish translation read “Are you lactating?”
One of the more entertaining things about living in Asia is seeing the Engrish on T-shirts and signs–but when it crops up in ad campaigns and national newspapers, it should rightfully be ridiculed.
I would like to say that I also found the letter to the Korea Times a bit harsh. If Koreans were to stop writing news articles or op-ed pieces in English, we could say goodbye to all the English-language press in Korea. Besides, the real problem is that in some English-language publications in Korea (Korea Times most definitely included) native English-speaking sub editors or copy editors are 1) totally overworked, and 2) not given the final say on how the article goes out. That’s right! The Korean journalists are free to reinsert their own Konglish clangers as they see fit. Anyways, at least Choe Yong-shik had good points to make and is not a native English speaker. This sometime contributor to the Korea Times’ op-ed pages can make no such claims:
http://search.hankooki.com/tim.....p;media=kt
we could say goodbye to all the English-language press in Korea
Not sure this would be a bad thing, at least in its present incarnation. The Konglish issue aside, the content [for lack of a more fitting word] is also something we could do without, for the most part…
Mum always knows best, but there’s a lack of qualified subeditors or copy editors in Korea as well. Simply being a native speaker does not make someone a good or even adequate editor, and you see the consequences every day in the KT and KH (the Joongang Ilbo does have professional editors, and the product is decent, although clearly out of touch with Korean society).
Most Konglish expressions come from Japan. “Wellbeing”, “eyeshopping”,”Cap”,etc. Koreans have been learning English from the Japanese. A Japanese scholar wrote a book on “English grammar(Trinity)” around 1950s and that book has been taught in all English class from Junior highs to colleges in Korea since then. It advocated learning English through grammar first. After memorizing the base forms, just substitute matching English words by the correct form. Koreans have been “inventing” English sentences this way ever since.
This is the most unnatural way to learn or use a foreign language, but it was a great shortcut for English teachers who never have been outside of Korea. In other words, it was a blind leading a blind. They claim that grammar is the best way to learn English! These English teachers even chide native speakers for perceived grammatical mistakes and feel they use better English. What pompous fools!
Parents of schoolage children just send them overseas. They see the broken system, the English education in Korea, and abandoing it quickly.
Yup, the old system doesn’t work at all, does it? What I find funny is that the old (japanese) system does actually make people quite able to communicate in written english, at least from what I’ve seen from my older students. Their speaking may not be great, but their writing is actually quite understandable (not ‘perfect’, but most certainly understandable; the grammar isn’t bad at all - and I’m talking about people over 40 here). In an age where people are most likely to communicate online, this doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.
Has anyone seen the buses with “Feel the Philippines” on the side? That slogan is marketing gold, as I plan to do just that as soon as possible.
I’m a KA and I’m heading back to Korea this month. It ain’t hard to find foreigners in this country. Can’t wait to find this asshole and beat the living crap out of him with my friends, piss on him, and leave him in the rice paddies.
I’m a KA and I’m heading back to Korea this month. It ain’t hard to find foreigners in this country.
There are so many “foreigners” in Korea, so it’s not hard to find one. However, because there are so many, finding a specific one can be tough. All blond-haired people look alike.
Can’t wait to find this asshole and beat the living crap out of him with my friends, piss on him, and leave him in the rice paddies.
No more Tarantino movies for you.
Great retort, Kushibo!
Mr. Lee, we have revoked your visa.
To be fair, “eye shopping” isn’t exactly Konglish. You can find an example where it is used in an ENGLISH article here:
http://www.bravotv.com/Queer_E...../111.shtml
Specifically, “THE QUEER EYE SHOPPING GUIDE”
You will also find that expression used here:
http://www.tabulas.com/~roy/597485.html
(spelled “eye-shopping”)