Follies of Konglish

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Follies of Konglish

Posted : 2014-06-04 17:07

Updated : 2014-06-10 09:15

By Lee Hyon-soo

There are English words and phrases that only Koreans use in Korea. They are generally referred to as Konglish.

Apparently they have been coined by Koreans and are incomprehensible to non-Koreans. Some examples are: hand phone (cell phone), running machine (treadmill), talent (TV actor/actress), gagman (comedian), eye-shopping (window-shopping), service (bonus/freebee), back mirror (rearview mirror), one shot (bottoms up) and skinship (close relationship/petting?).

There is another type of Konglish, namely words shortened from English words. Some examples are: infra (infrastructure), infle (inflation), capa (capacity), DC (discount), ment (mention), inteli (intelligentsia), ama (amateur), pro (program /professional), accel (accelerator) and mission (transmission).

Aside from Konglish, one very odd foreign word which is ubiquitous in Korea is "hof." Many Korean taverns advertize that they are selling "hof and beer." What they mean is that they are selling draft beer as well as bottled beer. How did "hof" (German word for court or courtyard) come to stand for draft beer in Korea? A plausible explanation is that when a large number of draft beer bars opened for business a long time ago, many of them had the word "hof" included in their trade names to add German flavor, and as a result, "hof" became synonymous with draft beer.

Just as Korea has Konglish, so other countries have their own versions of bastardized English, namely, Singlish (Singapore), Japlish (Japan), Chinglish (China), Tinglish (Thailand), Britalian (Italy), Denglisch (Germany), Spanglish (Spain), Swenglish (Sweden) and Hunglish (Hungary).

Korean-English, not Konglish (Part 1)

2016-06-17 16:11

I lived in Singapore and Japan for two years each. While rubbing shoulders with Singaporeans and Japanese, I picked up Singlish and Japlish for amusement. Some examples are given below.

Singlish: corright (shortened from "correct" and "right" which is Singaporean way to confirm something is correct and right), double confirm (confirm and reconfirm), gahmen (government), ger (girl), jilo (zero) and sabo (sabotage).

Japlish: OL (office lady, meaning female officer worker), salaryman (male salaried employee), biru (building), wapro (word processor), punku (puncture), cooler (air conditioner), free size (one size fits all), potato fry (French fries) and morning call (wake-up call).

The language has its own life. If Konglish is widely used in Korea, there is nothing anybody can do about it. But it is disconcerting that many Koreans wrongly believe that Konglish is genuine English, as illustrated below.

Folly 1: While 2002 World Cup soccer games were in progress, I saw a huge banner hanging from the top of a high-rise office building at a major intersection in downtown Seoul. Written on it in large letters was "Korea Fighting." This may have led foreign visitors to wonder whether Korea was at war at the time. What was really meant was "Go Korea."

Folly 2: A Korean TV station once broadcast the activities of a group of Taekwondo athletes who were touring European cities to promote Taekwondo through the exhibition of their skills. In Paris several of them went on a sightseeing tour. They went into a gift shop and bought souvenirs. As they bought a large quantity, they wanted a bonus, and one athlete said to the French salesgirl, "Can you give us service?" Of course, the salesgirl did not understand what he wanted. Coming out of the store without a bonus, the athlete in question muttered, "She didn't understand me. How poor her English was."

Folly 3: When I attended an international conference in Seoul, the usher handed me an English program. What caught my eye were two items on the program, and they were "Opening Ment" and "Closing Ment." I was amazed to see that the organizer of an international conference thought that "ment" was an English word.

The writer is a freelance columnist based in Toronto, Canada. His email address is tomhslee@hanmail.net.