An A to Z of Korean English (Konglish) expressions
Like “Japanese English”, “Korean English” is often used not to refer to a variety of English (like Singlish or Indian English) but to the use of English in the Korean language, including some words and expressions that were created in Korea from English and other European roots and don’t exist outside Korea. As I am using this meaning of “Konglish”, the expressions below are neither wrong English nor a variety of English but simply a category of Korean vocabulary similar to “French” expressions like “cul de sac” in English. The reasons for including them on a blog about English teaching are:
1. Korean people speaking English sometimes think they are used in other countries, and so they are an important source for error correction (in a recent Pre-Intermediate class of mine doing The Alibi Game, almost all the vocabulary mistakes were ones that were in this list), as long as it doesn’t make the students paranoid about using the vast majority of English phrases in Korean that have more or less the same meaning
2. It’s the one part of the Korean language that is interesting and accessible to people who will never even come here, including people who are teaching Korean students in other countries
3. This list took me hours, and until I manage to work out how to make some fun worksheets out of this, putting them on the blog makes me feel it wasn’t a complete waste of time…
Sorry about the uncharacteristically serious intro, but I was accused of being a racist (!) for doing a similar list of Japanese English, and have only just got over the trauma of that enough to do this with a new language and to use that list to label ones that are the same in Japanese (as well as other languages in the few cases I know) below:
• accel- accelerator- same in Japanese
• accessory- jewellery
• agree! – I agree
• all ri (from “all right”) – only used when backing up a car – same in Japanese
• American coffee- weak coffee, the opposite of espresso – same in Japanese, and “Americano” is used in Italian for the same thing
• apart (pronounced “apartu”) – apartment building/ block of flats
• arbeit (from the German for “work”) – part-time/ casual job – same in Japanese
• AS / after service – after sales service- “after service” is the same in Japanese
• auto-bi (from “automatic” plus “bike”, pronounced “auto bye”) – motorbike – same in Japanese
• back- connection (to politicians etc)
• back mirror- rear view mirror – same in Japanese
• back music- background music – apparently the same in Japanese, but never heard anyone use it
• back number- number on the back of your sports shirt
• ball pen- ballpoint (pen)/ biro – same in Japanese
• band- band aid/ sticky plaster
• boiler – heating
• bond – super glue
• Burberry – trench coat.
• cash corner – ATM/ cash machine – they are sometimes labelled as such in Japanese, but in conversation it always seems to be “ATM”
• centi (pronounced “senti”, from centimetre)- cm – same in Japanese
• CF (from “commercial film”)- television advert/ commercial – “CM” (from “commercial message”) in Japanese
• chorus – choir
• cider – a soft drink similar to 7 Up, with no connection to apples – same in Japanese
• claim – complaint (demand for refund etc)
• classic – classical (music) – same in Japanese and some other languages
• clip- paper clip – same in Japanese
• cloak – cloakroom – same in Japanese
• close – closed
• clover- clubs on playing cards – I seem to remember that it is the equivalent word in Spanish playing cards too, and maybe some other Romance languages
• cola- the normal short form for Coca Cola (usually “Coke” in English) – same in Japanese and some other languages
• combi (from “combination”) – sports jacket and trousers
• condo- time share apartment
• consent- electrical outlet/ socket – same in Japanese, with no clear favourite explanation for where it comes from
• cunning- cheating in an exam – same in Japanese
• cutline – cut off point
• D/B – database
• D/C- discount
• dasu- dozen – same in Japanese
• depart – department store – same in Japanese
• dessert- a hot drink (generally coffee) after a meal
• docu- documentary
• double jacket- double-breasted jacket – apparently the same in Japanese
• driver- screwdriver – same in Japanese
• Dutch pay- going Dutch/ splitting the bill
• ekisu- extract – same in Japanese
• ero- erotic – same in Japanese
• eye shopping- window shopping
• fancy- fancy stationery
• fighting – a Korean cheer meaning “victory!” or “come on!”
• fine play – fair play
• flash- flashlight/ (electric) torch
• form – an affected manner
• four ball- billiards
• free-size – one size fits all
• free-ticket- all day ticket
• gagman- comedian
• gargle – mouthwash
• glamour- buxom (woman)
• goggle – goggles – same in Japanese
• golden ball- sudden death
• golden pants- cords/ corduroy trousers
• golden time- prime time – “golden hour” in Japanese
• gomu- rubber – same in Japanese, originally from French or Dutch depending on who you believe
• gown- dressing gown – same in Japanese
• gyps (from “gypsum”) – (plaster) cast – same in Japanese, probably originally from German like most medical terms
• hair pin- hair clip
• hand phone – mobile phone/ cell phone – similar to German “handy phone”
• handi (pronounced like “handy”) – handicap (golf)
• handle- steering wheel – same in Japanese
• heading shoot- header – same in Japanese
• headphone – headphones
• health centre – fitness centre
• health- health club
• hearing- listening comprehension – same in Japanese, and apparently a typical Chinese thing to say too
• heli (short for “helicopter”) – chopper
• hiking- cycling
• hip- buttocks – same in Japanese
• homepi- homepage/ website
• Hotchkiss (from a brand name)- stapler – same in Japanese
• ice bar- ice lolly/ popsicle
• ice skate – ice skate(s)/ ice skating
• infle (from “inflation”, but the longer word in never used and rarely understood) – inflation/ price rises – same in Japanese
• interphone- intercom – same as Japanese
• jumper- a kind of jacket (rather than a sweater, which exists as a separate word and concept) – same in Japanese
• kasu- cutlet – same in Japanese (pronounced “katsu”) and generally in Japanese restaurants
• kick board- scooter
• klaxon- (car) horn
• le-ports- leisure sports
• light coke- diet coke
• line- managerial staff
• liner – lining (of a coat)
• long leg – long legged
• LT- leadership training
• MacGyver knife (from the American TV series) – Swiss Army knife
• magic – magic marker/ permanent marker – same in Japanese
• manicure- nail polish
• mansion – luxury apartment – similar in Japanese, but the standard word for any high rise apartment building
• marker pen – (board) marker
• meeting – blind date
• melodrama- romantic drama (of whatever level of overacting)
• member ID- username (on the internet)
• menu- today’s special (it also has the same meaning as in English of a list of things to eat, although there is also an alternative Korean word for that)
• mira – (Egyptian etc) mummy – miira in Japanese- not sure which language it comes from, but it is a borrowed word and students often assume it is the same in English
• mission- transmission
• morning call- wake-up call – apparently the same in Japanese
• MT (membership training)- club initiation
• mug cup – mug – same in Japanese
• name card- business card
• necktie – tie
• night- nightclub – same in Japanese, but not meaning a disco (don’t know about in Korean)
• note- notebook- same in Japanese
• O/D- owner-driver
• O/T- orientation
• office-tel - “office” + “hotel” – a block of flats that can be used for both offices and flats, or an office telephone
• oil bank – gas station
• oil- petrol
• old miss- old maid – apparently the same in Japanese
• one- piece- dress – same in Japanese
• one room – a bedsit/ studio apartment – in Japanese “one room mansion”
• one shot – “bottoms up”/ “down in one”
• ope- overly sensitive
• open car- convertible – same in Japanese
• opener – corkscrew, can opener etc.
• overeat - vomit (rather than eat too much)
• pang – bread – “pan” in Japanese, both from the Portuguese “pao”
• panties- both men’s and women’s underwear (rather than just women’s)
• panty stockings- tights/ panty hose – same in Japanese, I think
• perma (from “permanent wave”) – perm – same in Japanese
• pierrot- clown – same in Japanese, from the character name of one type of clown
• pine juice – pineapple juice – same in Japanese
• plier – pliers
• pocket ball- pool (as a Korean billiard table doesn’t have pockets)
• punk - (tyre) puncture – same in Japanese, pronounced “panku”
• quiz- word puzzle
• remo kon – remote control/ zapper – same in Japanese
• rent car – hire car/ rentacar
• res- resort hotel
• revival- cover version
• ribbon – bow – same in Japanese, I think
• rinse – conditioner – same in Japanese, although the word “conditioner” is becoming fashionable
• royal milk tea – tea made entirely with hot milk, as if it were hot chocolate – same in Japanese
• sack – backpack
• sand- sandwich – same in Japanese
• selca – “”self” + “camera” - the act of taking photos of yourself or home video/ amateur video (according to my different sources)
• self- self service
• service- free of charge – same in Japanese
• SF- science fiction/ sci fi – same in Japanese, pronounced “esu efu”
• sharp – mechanical pencil – similar in Japanese (“sharp pen”, short for “sharp pencil”)
• short leg – short-legged
• short pants- shorts – sometimes used in Japanese
• shutter man – a man who is financially dependent on his wife
• sign- autograph – same as Japanese, but also used for signature
• ski – ski(s)/ skiing
• skin scuba – scuba-diving
• skinship- body contact – same in Japanese
• sofa – a sofa or armchair
• speaker – loudspeaker
• spo-lex- sports complex
• sports dancing-competition ballroom dancing
• stainless – stainless steel – same in Japanese
• stand- lamp – same as Japanese
• sunglass – sunglasses – same in Japanese
• surfing board – surfboard
• t- T-shirt
• talent- TV star – same in Japanese, pronounced “tarento”
• TP (transparency paper) – transparency (for OHP)
• training- sweat suit/ tracksuit – same in Japanese, or maybe “trainer”, can’t remember
• trans- transformer
• trans- transvestite/ transgender
• tube – (swimming) float
• vacance (from French) - vacation/ holiday – same in Japanese, but rarely used
• villa- small block of flats
• vinyl- any kind of plastic, e.g. plastic bags – same in Japanese
• walker- military boots
• white – white out/ Tippex
• White Day- a day similar to Valentines where men give gifts rather than women (as in Korea it’s the women who give chocolates)- same expression and system in Japanese
• wrap- plastic wrap/ cellophane – similar in Japanese (“saran wrap”)
• Y shirt (from “white shirt”) – shirt/ dress shirt/ business shirt- the same in Japanese
• yacht – any size of boat with a sail – same in Japanese
• yoghurt- drinking/ liquid yoghurt
• Yoplait- solid yoghurt
As I don’t actually speak any Korean, I expect there are many things here that Koreans never actually say and maybe a couple of things that native speakers do say in parts of the world I’ve never been to nor taken an interest in (like Yorkshire). Corrections and suggestions for other words and expressions gratefully accepted, as well as suggested sources for more – I had a great dictionary of borrowed words in Japanese, but haven’t managed to find anything similar in Korean yet.
Tags: Lists
December 1st, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Did my Konglish worksheet today for the first time since I arrived in Korea (I wrote it for an all Korean class in NHN, a Korean software company, in Tokyo), and got this feedback:
- One (young) student said she’d never heard of “autobi” and always said “motorbike” in Korean
- Some of them knew it as Americano rather than “American coffee”
- There was some confusion on whether “back mirror” iis Korean (it is certainly Japanese) and if so whether it would be the rear view mirror inside the car or the wing mirrors
Haven’t changed the worksheets yet, because in Japan when that happened it sometimes turned out to be just that one student or because they couldn’t recognise the word in Roman script, so feedback still badly needed. Also, if anyone wants my sources please let me know, as they are many (internet and paper), and can’t be bothered writing them out if no one is interested. ITESLJ/ TESL-EJ/ ELT Journal this ain’t…
The worksheet is here:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets/korean-eng-vocab-mistakes/ (address shortened, in case it was one you had already discovered and had lost track of it)
And there is a more grammary one here:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets/common-english-errors-koreans/
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:01 am
More (although some may be repeated):
• acryl- acrylic
• aerobic – aerobics – same in Japanese
• aftershave lotion- aftershave
• boy – porter – same in Japanese
• brassiere- (rather than bra, which is almost always used in English)
• cereal – breakfast cereal only –same in Japanese
• Christmas – Christmas Day
• date- only romantic meaning, not day/ month/ year – same in Japanese
• domino game- dominoes
• drama – soap opera – same in Japanese (although also say “home drama”, apparently)
• hand phone – mobile/ cellphone
• handle – handlebars
• hitchhike – hitchhiking
• lotion – moisturizing lotion (a huge thing in Korea, for some reason)
• misa – (Catholic) mass – same in Japanese
• motel – love hotel
• Olympic- Olympics
• one room – studio apartment – similar in Japanese (“one room mansion”)
• Philippine – the Philippines
• punk – puncture
• rinse – conditioner (and not the verb)
• sign – signature – same in Japanese
• tube – inner tube
• Valentine Day- Valentine’s Day
• wet – overcoat
March 24th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Actually SF is not konglish. People who are seriously into science fiction prefer to call it SF instead of “sci. fi.” SF is used as an abbreviation in wikipedia, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction
Also see:
http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2004/06/not_sci_fi_sf.html
http://www.sfsite.com/
etc.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Interesting. I wonder if that is how it got into Korean, or if it’s just coincidence. The fact that it is the only short form in Korean (and Japanese) but that sci fi is more common in English would make it different and therefore at least a little Konglish, anyway
November 11th, 2009 at 5:10 am
SF is used instead of sci-fi because many SF writers prefer to call it speculative fiction. I think there might be a slight difference, like all sci fi is spec fi, but not all spec fi is sci fi, so I just use SF and leave it at that.
But in Japanese it’s always SF, as I imagine it is in Korean.
November 20th, 2009 at 6:08 am
As I came to ELT from a musical background, I can add a couple of points to clarify the origin of a couple of your examples.
choir – usually (but not always) a group of singers in a church setting
chorus – a group of singers
missa – the Latin origin for the word ‘mass’ – church music (sung mass) such as: “Missa O Magnum Myterium”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_%28liturgy%29
November 21st, 2009 at 5:13 am
Schplook
As far as I’m aware, missa in Korean means (Catholic) mass rather than just church music.
Jeremy
Good point about it always being SF in Korean and Japanese, I guess the fact that the full form “science fiction” is (almost?) never used would also be a difference from English
December 18th, 2009 at 5:03 am
[...] many more such examples, and I’m sure you have your own from the contexts in which you work. Aleks Kase has a great list of ‘Konglish’ expressions over on his site which is worth looking [...]
January 8th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
An example of where a well respected intellectual uses SF where he means Sci. Fi. (and not Speculative Fiction) is PZ Myers in this article.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/01/theyre_coming_for_us_my_fellow.php
Having said that, it’s debatable what is science fiction sometimes. Among serious SF people, Star Wars is not considered science fiction as it contains numerous errors (such as the Kessel run in 12 parsec quote).
The thing is, if very intelligent native speakers use SF (and I would consider a successful science fiction writer to be an intelligent native speaker) I feel myself hard pressed to justify correcting students by telling them to use Sci. Fi. instead. So am I to correct them on the basis that it is not “common speak”? After all, “common speak” includes words like “ain’t”. If I am supposed to teach based on how the “common man” speaks instead of how the best intellectuals speak, should I teach them to use “ain’t”? In fact, writers like Mark Twain use “ain’t”. If it’s good enough for Mark Twain, it’s good enough for my students right?
January 8th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Good points. What we correct is a huge question, of which a list like this would I hope be a help but is in no way meant to be a guide- this is simply a complete list of all the Konglish I could find. The questions you then get into are:
- If a small group of native speakers use a form that happens to be the same as a Konglish form, Japanese form or just typical mistake (e.g. “He done it”, fairly typical where I come from), but the majority of native speakers says that it sounds wrong or even have never even heard it and maybe don’t understand it, should you “correct” or not? If you do, should you explain all that, or just correct
- Should a native speaker model be relevant to what you correct anyway. If so, which native speaker English/ combination of native speaker Englishes/ simplification of native speaker English(es) should you use, and do you need to explain that process to your students?
- If you don’t use a native speaker English model, what do you use?
- Etc
January 9th, 2010 at 6:15 am
I personally use a native speaker model. After all, I am a native speaker myself.
However, I think that as teachers we should endeavor to give students 100% accurate information. For example, my firefox extension tells me that in the last sentence, I misspelled endeavor. It says that I should spell it “endeavour”. Since I tend to make spelling mistakes sometimes I should check it. If I look it up on http://www.dictionary.com I see that I spelled it correctly. So, a flag was thrown (i.e. firefox underlined it) so I went to double check it rather than just assume that since I am a native speaker I must therefore be correct.
As far as “He done it.” that is a good example because I know of native speakers that might actually say something like that. The ones I know that would say something like that though, tend to be uneducated people living in the Appalachian areas of the United States. My standard for saying it’s wrong is, if these same people were to go to a university in that same area (West Virginia State University for example) they would probably be corrected by their English professor. So in the “endeavor” to be 100% accurate, I would tell students that an uneducated person from West Virginia might say that. But that most educated people AS FAR AS I KNOW, would consider it to be wrong.
I use the same principle for the word “ain’t”. I tell students that they might occasionally encounter that word in a pop song (which is why I might teach it). Or in the writings of Mark Twain (when he is imitating how the common person speaks). But that it is not considered to be correct English in academia.
The thing with SF though is, a few native speakers use it. And it’s not like “ain’t” where native speakers use it, but it is considered wrong by academia. SF is an example where a few native speakers use it AND it is used by academia as well as serious science fiction writers (such as Robert Heinlein). So even though the majority of people don’t use it, it is not “wrong”. In the endeavor to be 100% accurate it’s fair to point out that most people don’t know what SF is and that maybe students should repeat it saying “Sci. Fi.” if the person seems confused. Or if you want to make it easier for them, tell them it’s better to say “Sci. Fi.” because more people know what that is.
I am not 100% sure where SF came from in Korea, but it might have come from a few Koreans noticing that the best science fiction writers use it. I think that finding out what the best people in a native speaking society use, and trying to use it yourself, should be applauded rather than corrected.
January 9th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
I would also like to point out that http://www.dictionary.com lists SF as meaning “science fiction”
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/SF
SF:
1. science fiction.
2. sinking fund.
February 11th, 2010 at 2:57 am
If the expression is used also in Japan and perhaps in China, can we properly call it Konglish?
on another point–I wonder if some on the list are more matters of pronunciation or even slang than loanwords that have been reassigned a slightly different context. In this respect, expressions such as “wassup” or “a’riight” used by native speakers are not that different from “all ri.”
February 11th, 2010 at 5:40 am
I doubt there is an agreed definition of Konglish, so I just picked a random meaning of vocabulary influenced by English (but excluding typical translation from Korean or grammar mistakes that some people include).
I’m sure “oorai” started that way, but as it is only now used for parking (never as a general synonym of “okay”) and never has the final t, even in writing, I think it is very much Konglish and Japlish now
February 11th, 2010 at 9:42 am
What an exhaustive list, Alex! I will have much more confidence during my next foray through duty free in Seoul, thanks to you! Thanks to the overlap with Japlish, I feel very nearly bilingual already
March 18th, 2010 at 8:34 am
The thing is, what is standard English anyway? Are Americans wrong for pronouncing “Peter” as “Peder” whereas the British pronounce it with the “t” it’s spelled with? Are they wrong for spelling a word “color” instead of “colour”? Is “tyre” wrong since it should be spelled “tire”?
The fact is, we have American English, British English, and Australian English because people from those countries took the language and made it their own. Since America has a different history and culture distinct from Great Britain, isn’t it natural that they would use the language differently?
Isn’t konglish, japlish, chinglish, and others, attempts by Asians to make English their own?
I say the reason “cell phone” is standard English whereas “hand phone” is not, has nothing to do with logic. It has everything to do with a whole bunch of people deciding that since they don’t personally say “hand phone” that it must be wrong.
March 18th, 2010 at 11:45 am
“Isn’t konglish, japlish, chinglish, and others, attempts by Asians to make English their own?”
No, because unlike Singlish and Indian English, Konglish isn’t a variety of English. It’s a category of Korean vocabulary that is based on English or other European words and therefore students are more likely to transfer from Korean to English than purely Korean or Sino Korean words and expressions. Having taught multilingual classes, I can say for sure that Konglish and Japlish are considerable areas of misunderstanding when Japanese and Koreans try to communicate with people from almost anywhere. There are, however, times when the forms they try to use are more likely to be understood than forms based on native speaker models, e.g. using hand phone when talking to Germans, or using the Korean pron of sauna almost anywhere.
Most of that is in the intro, but as you’ve been kind enough to visit a few times, it’s understandable that you haven’t be rereading the piece each time.
April 5th, 2010 at 3:41 am
“No, because unlike Singlish and Indian English, Konglish isn’t a variety of English.”
Isn’t the only reason that is the case is that “Konglish” is only spoken by a minority and not taken seriously by “linguists”? Wouldn’t it be true that if 95% of Americans used “hand phone” instead of “cell phone” that “hand phone” would then be considered standard English?
What about the fact that many Americans don’t understand the British accent? How is that different from Americans not understanding Konglish, or Japlish? What about the fact that many British and Koreans wouldn’t understand me if I refer to someone as a carpetbagger? Does that mean that the word “carpetbagger” is Americanish?
April 5th, 2010 at 3:58 am
If you still can’t see a difference between Konglish and Singlish (and it’s obviously not number of speakers- if that even has any meaning in this discussion), then I really can’t think of any other way to describe it to you. Would you like to say which linguists you are talking about who don’t take Konglish seriously?
April 5th, 2010 at 4:19 am
“If you still can’t see a difference between Konglish and Singlish”
Answer this, if most Americans referred to that thing you hold in your hand as a “hand phone”, would “hand phone become standard English?
If you define standard English as what’s in the dictionary, then SF for “science fiction” would be standard English because that’s what the dictionary says it is. So if you think SF is Konglish and not standard English, you must be using some standard other than the dictionary. You could say that you are simply using your own personal standard, but then that wouldn’t be very objective would it?
“Would you like to say which linguists you are talking about who don’t take Konglish seriously?”
I don’t know of any linguists who take Konglish seriously. I’m sure you have studied logic so you know it’s almost impossible to prove a negative (i.e. that there are no …). It is easier to disprove a negative by giving a counter-example.
Therefore, I can’t prove the statement “There are no linguists who take Konglish seriously.” because it’s a negative statement. If you want to disprove that statement by giving me an example of a linguists who does take Konglish seriously I would be happy to change my view about that in particular.
April 5th, 2010 at 4:56 am
I get the feeling that you are carrying on an argument that you are having with someone else with me, because nothing you are writing is a response to what I have written, here or anywhere else.
Let me try and explain what the difference between Singlish and Konglish is one more time.
Most people who are brought up in English speaking homes in Singapore (not including most English speaking expats) speak a variety of English that is also spoken by their English speaking friends and passed onto their children and their children’s children, based mainly on British English with a large influence by various Chinese languages and a bit of Malay. Whatever the number of speakers, this is a variety of English in the same way as scouse, RP or Eubonics, although a little different as written Singlish and Singlish media is only just emerging.
As far as I’m aware, there is not a community of speakers of Konglish, meaning a variety of English spoken at home that is influened by Korean and spoken by friends and family and passed onto other generations. If such a thing existed, for example in the Korean community in LA, it would have little connection with or influence on the kind of Konglish you and I are both talking about, in the same way as Spanglish the variety of English spoken by various communities of Latinos in the US has no connection to Spanglish the type of English that Spanish EFL students produce due to the influence of L1.
Please tell me some of the linguists you have read on Konglish and I’d be very interested to see what their attitude on Konglish is. I’ve only read two linguistics books on Korean, and neither of them even use the term “Konglish”. For Japanese English, I read this
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-English-Language-Culture-Englishes/dp/9622095720
which if anything takes Japanese English too seriously
April 5th, 2010 at 5:37 am
“I get the feeling that you are carrying on an argument that you are having with someone else with me, because nothing you are writing is a response to what I have written, here or anywhere else. ”
You have not defined “Standard English”.
See, I come from a mathematics background. In mathematics, we like to clearly define things. For example, a rational number is any number that can be represented as the division of two integers. With that definition, I can say that 3/7 is a rational number whereas the square root of two is not. It’s not too difficult to prove that the square root of two is not a rational number. It’s a little more difficult (but still possible) to prove that pi is not a rational number. Nobody that I am aware of knows whether or not the Feigenbaum constants are rational (although we suspect that they are not).
But in any case, either a number fits the definition of a rational number or it doesn’t.
Likewise, if standard English is clearly defined, then either something fits the definition of standard English or it doesn’t. The problem is, I don’t think you or I have stated any clear definition for it.
“As far as I’m aware, there is not a community of speakers of Konglish, meaning a variety of English spoken at home that is influened by Korean and spoken by friends and family and passed onto other generations”
Well, most Koreans understand “hand phone”. I don’t know why that WOULD NOT be a community of speakers. As far as being passed onto other generations, the “hand phone” is too new of a phenomena, so it’s an unfair criteria. The phrase “cell phone” would also not be standard English if you are using that criteria since that too has not been passed down onto other generations.
Another example, a certain large room of the high school I went to (Fort Jennings High School in Ohio) is called an Auditeria (combination of auditorium and cafeteria). The only group of people I am aware of that use that word, are people in the town of Fort Jennings. The people of that town could certainly be considered a “community of speakers” who use English as their common language which they pass onto later generations.
So would Auditeria be standard English? If not, why not? If not, then what would it be instead? Fort Jenningsish?
“Please tell me some of the linguists you have read on Konglish”
I don’t know of any linguists that have done any studies on Konglish. Since part of taking something seriously is for somebody to study it, this doesn’t bode well for the idea that there exists a linguists who takes Konglish seriously. For example, I have not really studied generative grammar seriously (I have looked at it). But I know of linguists who have studied it and take it seriously.
Anyway, why don’t you try giving me a clear definition on what standard English is. That way, we can test whether or not “hand phone”, “carpetbagger”, “SF”, “auditeria”, or “aoierani” are standard English or not.
April 5th, 2010 at 9:13 am
I have never even mentioned Standard English, because there is no need to, because Konglish (as I have defined it here) is a part of the Korean language, not of English. To start with, a majority of the phrases come from Japanese.
“Well, most Koreans understand “hand phone”. I don’t know why that WOULD NOT be a community of speakers. ”
It is a community of speakers- a community of speakers of Korean, of which Konglish is a part. It was in some way derived from English (or actually quite often other European languages), but is no more part of the English language than any other Korean word, or any other mistake that a Korean might make, related to L1 or not.
I’m a physicist, btw, and find your mathematics analogy entirely spurious. In fact, this entire exchange is competing for most pointless ever on this blog. Perhaps you’d like to tell us what about the original post you found so offensive.
April 5th, 2010 at 10:56 am
“I have never even mentioned Standard English, because there is no need to, because Konglish (as I have defined it here) is a part of the Korean language, not of English.”
Okay, fair enough. One of the most difficult jobs I have is convincing Koreans that Americans use English words in a different way than they do. I have just about as hard of a time convincing them of that as I would convincing you that I have a way of creating free energy.
“Perhaps you’d like to tell us what about the original post you found so offensive.”
What I find offensive is that a few examples, although not “common English” (as in English used by most Americans that I personally know) make a sort of sense. It’s kind of like my auditeria example. Nobody else that I know of, uses that word (people from Fort Jennings use it). Every community has their own little words they use sometimes.
In one particular example, SF does mean science fiction according to the American Heritage dictionary. Not many people I personally know use SF, but if it’s in the dictionary who am I to say it’s wrong?
So basically, what sorts of konglish should we bother to correct and what should we let slide? I say there’s a good argument for letting SF slide since some Americans use it. There’s a good argument for correcting arbeit for “part time job” since no American that I know of, uses that.
April 5th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
I would add that if “konglish” is defined as English-like words that are now part of the Korean vocabulary, then “tire” (타이어) is konglish according to that definition. My evidence for that is here:
http://kr.dictionary.search.yahoo.com/search/dictionaryp?prop=&subtype=eng&p=tire
See Alex, once you clearly define things I am quite willing to obey that definition.
April 5th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
“Like “Japanese English”, “Korean English” is often used not to refer to a variety of English (like Singlish or Indian English) but to the use of English in the Korean language, including some words and expressions that were created in Korea from English and other European roots and don’t exist outside Korea. As I am using this meaning of “Konglish”, the expressions below are neither wrong English nor a variety of English but simply a category of Korean vocabulary similar to “French” expressions like “cul de sac” in English. ”
From the very first lines of this blog post…
April 6th, 2010 at 1:30 am
““Korean English” is often used not to refer to a variety of English (like Singlish or Indian English) but to the use of English in the Korean language,”
Given that description “tire” is konglish because it is used as an “English” word in Korean. Just like ketchup is a loan word from Chinese.
I’m glad to see that we can clearly define things like konglish so that we can test whether or not an expression fits the definition.
April 6th, 2010 at 5:07 am
As that clear definition was in the original post, I really don’t understand what your problem has been all this time. Obviously under my definition, every word that comes from English but has only had pronunciation changes when it moved into Korean would indeed be included, but the list would be far too long to list here and impossible to explain without using hangeul. Those kinds of words are also the least interesting for disinterested outsiders, ie. 95% of the people reading this blog.
Tire is within the words I am interested in, as there is a meaning in English that does not exist in Korean, being the verb of tired. This is more useful in the classroom when it is actually the same word as the one they know rather than just sharing spelling (in American English) and pron (a homonym??), but is certainly something worth including. Again, I’ve never said otherwise, so really have no idea what your issue is.
April 6th, 2010 at 7:46 am
“As that clear definition was in the original post, I really don’t understand what your problem has been all this time. Obviously under my definition, every word that comes from English but has only had pronunciation changes when it moved into Korean would indeed be included, but the list would be far too long to list here and impossible to explain without using hangeul. Those kinds of words are also the least interesting for disinterested outsiders, ie. 95% of the people reading this blog. ”
Most people reading the blog would probably be interested in changing konglish expressions in order to teach Koreans the “correct” English expression.
If a person is interested in what he should fix or correct with Koreans then “tire” is probably not a word he/she should be that concerned about. Whereas “arbeit” is.
The problem is, there is no one standard that everyone agrees on as being “standard English”. Therefore, which words you should correct and which ones you should let slide is a controversial issue.
If konglish is seen as bad, then that’s the pot calling the kettle black since English is rife with words that are borrowed from other languages. As far as English borrowing a word from another language and using it in a way that is not used in the language English borrowed it from, well, English has a lot of examples of that as well.
For example, as I said before, correcting something like SF for “science fiction” is overzealous because a good argument can be made for SF being standard English. Why not tell Korean students that some people, including people who are famous in the field of science fiction, use SF instead of “sci. fi.”? Isn’t that more informative than saying SF is wrong because you and your buddies that you meet in the bar don’t use it?
So my question is, as English teachers, who should endeavor to give students as accurate of information as possible (to the point of even correcting our own mistakes when we discover them), what should we do regarding “konglish”?
April 7th, 2010 at 3:47 am
“What should we do regarding “konglish”?”
That is indeed an interesting question. I’ve started writing articles and blog posts on that question with relation to Japanese English (which I know a lot more about than Konglish), but it is too huge a topic for a blog post and of too limited interest for an article, so have never finished one. If you’d like to do a guest piece on the topic, e.g. “Give that Konglish some respect!”, I’d be happy to put it on TEFLtastic.
On the topic of Japanese English, these Macmillan pages look great:
http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/japanese-english/
May 27th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Someone just told me that the Korean for ringtones is “colouring”, so that goes on the list!
July 3rd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I wonder if “colouring” was originally “caller ring”, as in a caller ID ring. I asked my Korean girlfriend about why they say colouring, and although she confirmed that they do say it, she has no idea why. Any idea where that comes from?
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:00 pm
No idea. Anyone else?
My students just told me that to explain email addresses they use “middle bar” for “dash” and “underbar” for “underscore”
July 13th, 2010 at 5:26 am
New one today- “bodyline” for “figure”, also used in Japan I think
July 27th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Today’s discovery is “coating” for laminating