Comments on: Was that really called for?

By: Brian Dean

Brian Dean — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 01:54:33 +0000

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”)

By: Korean Immigration Service

Korean Immigration Service — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 18:47:56 +0000

Mr. Lee, we have revoked your visa.

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 18:41:52 +0000

Great retort, Kushibo!

By: kushibo

kushibo — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 18:38:18 +0000

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.

By: hslee

hslee — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 16:50:40 +0000

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.

By: Wedge

Wedge — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 18:17:11 +0000

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.

By: Bulgasari

Bulgasari — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:36:57 +0000

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.

By: baduk

baduk — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 09:14:38 +0000

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.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 03:41:47 +0000

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).

By: dda

dda — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 02:11:51 +0000

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…