The Hanguk Ilbo notes that some are complaining about the emergency interphones installed in some of Seoul’s subway stations. Seoul City installed the phones in stations along the 5-8 subway lines in July, but because the word "EMERGENCY" is written in English, some commuters had no clue what the hell the phones were for. Said one commuter, "I’d seen the phones many times, but because I don’t know English, I thought they were information lines for foreigners. For people who don’t know English like me, if a fire were to ignite in the station, we wouldn’t be able to inform the authorities."
Following numerous complaints, the authorities stuck Korean-language stickers on the phones describing how to use them, but compared to the big English sign, they aren’t very visible.
Seoul’s subway authority explained that they used English "for the convenience of foreigners, in line with the age of globalization," and that it would consider plans for Korean or simultaneous Korean-English markings.
One can only imagine what the North Koreans would say.
10 Comments
I don’t see why they couldn’t write it in Korean ?? with English underneath/next to it in a slightly smaller font.
It says “emergency” in English but the instructions are in Korean–how is that for “the convenience of foreigners”? Why can’t the just admit they f*cked up?
Looking nice for the foreigners from rich countries is very important. Who the fuck cares about safety?
Shouldn’t there be some sort of international symbol for safety? Or is the world so fractured and f***ed up to prevent any sort of agreement on such a minor thing?
And thanks for the link update, Herr Marmot!
Brian
Of course they should have been labeled with Korean as well. On the other hand, no one in Korea has a cell phone…
IMHO the problem here is simply that too many people think that a few English words work just as well as Korean for communication with/at the Korean public. It’s why there’s so much English all over the place to begin with.
The only thing I can think of that would help make sense of the “we were thinking of the foreigners” excuse is that only a foreign tourist would be without a mobile phone.
Labeled in English only and instructions in Korean only? That makes sense.
Let’s hope somebody on the other end speaks English if the phone is labeled in English.
This is much in line with the pair of adjoshi at the Sky Terminal building at Samsong Station (subway) that can not speak English despite the fact they are working at a point of transit with international airline counters.
Dumb and no help!
Split the difference, write “????” on the phones