Secret Pact With Lower Class

This is the sixth and the last in a series of articles featuring the 10 Most Wonderful Things about Korea

By Jon Huer

Korea Times Columnist

Social thinkers generally say that the way the lowest echelon of society is treated determines the degree of civilization in that society.

There is no question about Korea being an upwardly mobile, thriving, competitive capitalist society. It is a fairly pitiless system toward the underachieving. Yet the way the lower-class Koreans are treated, sociologically speaking, is one of the most interesting and uniquely intriguing things in Korea that casts it in a different light.

There seems to be a ``secret'' pact between the lower-class Koreans and their society. The pact makes most extraordinarily forgiving toward those less-fortunate brethren.

If an inebriated laborer ends up stretched out in a subway car, occupying the whole bench and otherwise making himself a public nuisance, no one will raise an eyebrow or fuss about his misbehaving, as if they see nothing.

Korean drivers, notoriously impatient on the road, are almost saintly in tolerating taxi- and truck-drivers, recycling-cart pushers, or snail-paced farm vehicles on the road, as if they are witnessing a royal procession.

Even law officers show incredible tolerance toward those from the lower-echelon of society who stagger into their station and start rampaging, hollering and cussing at everyone.

This middle-class toleration of the wayward in their midst is not easy for casual foreign visitors to detect, as it requires a more sensitive view of Korean culture.

Once recognized, the way Korea's otherwise uppity society conspires to tolerate the lower element in their society is a surprising display of humanity and understanding.

Amid the harshness of life in Korea, Koreans intuitively recognize that theirs is not a very just society and they themselves are not always fair players.

After all, they feel in their hearts that there is much injustice and unfairness in their nation and lives. Some of their less-fortunate brothers, their instinct tells them, are just that, less fortunate, not less intelligent or industrious.

Unlike the United States, where all sorts of philosophical and intellectual theories have been developed to justify and explain social discriminations in class, Koreans still feel bad about some of their own that are struggling with the harshness of life.

In Korea, the guilt of social injustice and shame of uneven fortunes create an extraordinary amount of tacit concession to the lower class. This explains to foreign visitors why the frequently unpleasant sights ― such as the drunken sleeper in the subway car ― are tolerated by the Korean public.

In the deep recesses of their hearts, this reveals Koreans as people of extraordinary human understanding and sympathy. They may not be ready to share their own wealth with the underachieving, but they are not ready to accept life as one pitiless competition among the heartless. This is a surprising tenderness in the Korean soul toward those who fall behind.

Konglish Ingenuity

Most English teachers in Korea will disagree with me on this, but I think the country's ability to create new English words and concepts, contrary to the purist conceptions of King's English, is one of Korea's blessings, not curses. The genius of Koreans to invent, twist and mangle English words to suit their purpose is indeed rare and quite charming.

Who else could think of a word like ``Hwai-ting'' (``Fighting'') as an all-purpose shout of cheering and encouragement? In this word invention, the emphasis is on ``-ting,'' so that a group of Koreans can shout ``hwai-ting!'' as an all-purpose magic word that would fortify the hesitant heart and revive the sagging spirit.

That it is after all an English word means very little, perhaps a proprietary claim by English-speaking people who see one of ``their'' words being misused by linguistic barbarians.

But this is seen as linguistic imperialism and most Koreans blithely dismiss it in their never-ending inventive spree with English words.

Consider ``skinship.'' (As I write this, the spell check immediately redlines the word). Skinship is a Korean-invented concept referring to any sort of ``physical'' contact between two or more persons, sounding fairly positive to most Koreans and skin-crawling to most foreigners.

It could be sexual in the man-woman sense. It could be political in the sense of two players making contact for negotiation. It could be friendly in the sense of two friends getting close. It has so many other meanings, all of which involve ``closeness,'' physical or otherwise, that are only inadequately possible in native English.

Consider ``di-ca'' for digital camera. ``Wo-pro'' (possibly Japanese in origin) for word-processor. One of the favorite root-words for Koreans is utopia, which is metamorphosed into ``book-topia,'' ``sport-pia,'' ``flori-topia,'' and whatever else fits the purpose.

Koreans are quite clever in creating all sorts of combinations, subtractions, modifications, distortions, and so on to invent new words or concepts to suit their purpose. There are literally hundreds of such Konglish inventions and creations in use.

It so happens that these invented words or phrases are for Koreans only, and foreigners should not worry about English being damaged by Koreans. These Korean inventions apply only to Korean situations and purposes, little or nothing to do with the purity of the English Language.

Every day, every moment, Korea is inventing new words, phrases and concepts, using English, but without harming its own English learning, or English itself. It shows Koreans at their very inventive-creative best and, for English-speaking foreigners, is good for a laugh or joke.

As long as Koreans do not confuse their Korean-versions with the correct model, or insist on the world accepting their own inventions, ``Konglish'' merely displays a native talent quite charmingly abundant in Korea.