Busan police have arrested three teenage girls for theft and blackmail after at least one of them lured an older man to a motel for a little wonjo gyojae (enjo kosai for you Japanophiles out there), in the process stealing his wallet. The girls got away with 290,000 won, but even better, they learned that the man was an employee of a public corporation. They then proceeded to blackmail the man, telling him they would go public with his little escapade if he didn’t pay up.
On a related note, a professional translator I know recently cracked that the plethora of words in Korea for “prostitution” and “bribery” was similar to the Eskimos having something like 30 words for “snow.”
-
Sponsored Links
-
English Books on Korea (and CDs and DVDs, too)
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
-
Flickr Photos
-
Recent Comments
- pawikirogi on So Much for the Fifth Column…
- Colonel Kilgore on Tragic Death in Daegu
- cm on So Much for the Fifth Column…
- Yu Bumsuk on A System of Failure
- David tz on Seoul’s War on Porn
- Robert Koehler on So Much for the Fifth Column…
- cm on So Much for the Fifth Column…
- Robert Koehler on Tragic Death in Daegu
- dogbert on Tragic Death in Daegu
- stacked on Tragic Death in Daegu
- Secret Asian Man on So Much for the Fifth Column…
- stacked on Korean Cancer Patient Fights for Treatment as She Faces Deportation
- Roboseyo on Tragic Death in Daegu
- Linkd on So Much for the Fifth Column…
- stacked on So Much for the Fifth Column…
-
Most Popular Posts
- So, This is Probably Why English Teachers Shouldn't Post Photos of Themselves with Club Chicks
- Lee Pani Releases More Photos
- Candlelight Rallies are Back
- Open Thread #49
- Cool Heads Prevail at the Chosun in US Beef Editorial
- Lee Pa-ni selected Korea's second Playboy model
- Tragic Death in Daegu
- Open Thread #48
- KoAm Housewives Warn Motherland Against US Beef
- Koreans have a "beef" against Korean-Americans?
-
Archives
-
Meta
14 Comments
I think Koreans having many words for prostitution and bribery akin to Eskimos having 30 words for snow is an overestimate. I mean, I think I can name a lot of words in English that has to do with sex, too.
but specifically prostitution and bribery?
I’m just waiting to see what Baduk has to say
the whole eskimo and 30/50/100 words for snow is not true. You can read a good explanation for that over at Language Log - there are numerous other posts on Language log to that effect if anyone cares to follow up on that.
I would love to learn all the words for prostitution and bribery in Korean if anyone cares to write them out.
Apparently, the linguistic theory that accompanied the ‘30 versions of snow’ in Eskimo languages has been debunked, but someone please help me here, as I don’t remember what the theory was or why it is bunk.
Just as in English you differentiate between powder and slushy, apparently the Eskimo (myth?) a multitude of ways to describe snow.
Not sure why it is considered bunk. I think I read that in ‘About the fifty states.’
gave it some thought, and they probably have so many words for prostitution and bribery because most of the words are meant to hide the fact that it refers t prostitution and bribery. The Korean way of wanting to cover up prostitution and bribery like it doesn’t exist.
also, I’m not sure if they actually have 30 words or so for these terms. Anyone willing to provide a list? It will be of great entertainment value at the least…
My understanding of that statement from they mystery translator about snow was that some cultures have so much of certain things that they have commonly used subcategories of terminology for them. So the Eskimo/snow story was as someone said “debunked” long ago, but still, most of the commenters here have had the experience of wanting to describe something from his home culture only to find that all the different variations of it have to get translated into one all-encompasing word in Korean.
Naturally, as someone said up above, there are lots of different words for $& in English. The difference is that those words aren’t used instead of the word $& in official contexts. So if you saw a news article about a prostitute giving blow jobs on main street USA, somewhere in the English article you would see the word “$& ,” as in “$& ual act,” “oral $& ,” or the like. The Korean article might not use something as vulgar as blow job, but it still might not have the $& word. Hence, you have to know all the different terms. Wonjo gyoje isn’t even in the dictionary, those two words as a term, but there it is in the newspaper. You _could_ say “the man had said he was going to the girls a regular ‘allowance’ to have $& with him over a length of time.” But no, it’s wonjo gyoje - I’ll say “maintaining friendship with financial support.” Nowhere do you see description of the fact that doesn’t mean he wanted to make it worth their while to have an innocent cup of coffee.
In court, of course, it would still be called (attempted) “prostitution with a minor,” and all the different words for “bribe” would still be “bribe.” But as an example of words for bribe, try tteokgap. Here it is in a news article. It’s in the title and in the story. The prosecution was hot in pursuit of some embezzlement charges and happened upon a list of people who were on the take. But the list is described as a “rice cake money” list - people who were being given regular bribes. Nowhere does it describe what “rice cake money” actually is, no mention of what it really is, which is “bribery,” thought that’s what the guys will also be charged with in addition to embezzlement.
This is really an issue of how language is used in (South, not North or ethnic Korean China) Korea - having to know all the metaphors/similes for crimes that are not stated in their formal form. I know defectors and Koreans from China, completely fluent in Korean, of course, who have a hard time understanding the news in SK because of that. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with using other terms as well, but it shows you how (1) frequent and (2) widely known these crimes and allegoric terms are that papers don’t have to include the legal term at all.
You don’t find slang terms for “growing weed in the countryside” in Korean newspapers, thought they undoubtedly exist. If the papers started using the slang for that (while ommitting the official term), people wouldn’t understand. Bribery and prostitution are so common, so frequently in the news, that the general public is familiar with the many slang terms for the many manifestations of each.
EFL Geek asked about a list… hm, would be interesting to see if anyone see soemthing.
I, too, am interested to see what baduk has to say about this. Whaddya think baduk? Did the guy get what he deserved? Or was it simply another case of Satan-possessed females leading our poor, innocent man astray?
Solid plot opener for a B movie, then it can segue into a kind of “Caged Heat” girls in prison flick. Baduk can direct
Sex. Can’t we write the word “sex” here? Especially if we’re okay to say “blow job”, it’s hard to imagine that the avoidance is based on any sense of propriety.
Brendon! I figured I could write “sex,” but figured I was risking it with the word a dozen times in the same comment.
No way! You want to help Robert get a higher Google page rank for the terms people really care about, don’t you? More “sex” is better!
One of the interesting things about the Korean use of language as euphemism for bribery is the enthusiasm for corrupting English loanwords. Two examples that come to mind immediately are “rebate” and “lobbying”. Our law office gets asked quite often about the propriety of rebates, and of lobbying, and our clients are often somewhat surprised to finally discover what their Korean staff have been asking for permission to do. “Rebate” doesn’t mean rebate, it means kickback. “Lobbying” doesn’t mean lobbying, it means delivering a bag full of money to a politician.
Insightful post, Oranckay.