Konglish, why not spend the money?

mike · #1 05-20-2006, 01:53 PM

I am still amazed on how much Konglish I can find on the web. Why don't Korean businesses spend the money to make sure their signs have the correct spelling and context? Or just ask someone before you pay for a sign! I attached a few images.

Forget Brokeback Mountain, Korea has homosexual action movies!

See the full Konglish gallery here. Can't get enough Konglish!

Agashi · #2 05-22-2006, 12:53 PM

Honestly, I don't get it. I can easily understand making the mistakes, but it's weird that the businesses wouldn't have someone correct it. I mean, look at all the native English speakers in Korea! I always thought that I could make a lot of money just correcting all the signs and menus in Korea. Maybe I should start my own business just for restaurants

.
I think it happens so frequently because people just don't care. It's almost like when you buy a decoration or shirt in North America that has Asian writing all over it and you have no idea what it says. It just looks cool. AND - if Koreans started paying attention more I would really miss all their cool t-shirts with crazy English writing all over it. I love those shirts, and I love wearing them when I go back to Canada. Oh, I should really take a picture of my Honey Nut Cheerios shirt and post it here. It's really funny

eddiev9 · #3 05-22-2006, 03:30 PM

It almost seems like they do it on purpose to get peoples' attention.

But it'd be kind of weird, if you think about it in detail...I mean you're about to open a business, and just before opening, you put out an ad somewhere stating "We'll pay you to correct our English grammar". And then interview the applicants to see how "good" their English is? Also, how can they guarantee what the hired help said is correct or not? For all they know, their restaurant napkins can read "We have the worst quality food and we hope you never come here again or you'll get sick. Have an agonizing and painful day!"

It could be more trouble than it's worth. Maybe that's why they don't really care too much for it and choose to do it personally through an English-Hangul dictionary or ask a junior high nephew to translate stuff.

mike · #4 05-22-2006, 03:51 PM

Ok, here are a few just for you Agashi!

Agashi · #5 05-22-2006, 04:45 PM

Priceless

And, that's a good point eddie. I mean, especially if you're a small business it might be more trouble than it's worth. Koreans certainly don't care, so what's the big deal?

Mr. Joe · #6 05-22-2006, 08:14 PM

I enjoy the funny ones. Agashi is right. We'll miss them when they are gone.
It is exactly like the Chinese characters we buy on out tee shirts. Most of us don't care that they say "Capitalist PIG" we think they are neat. Most Koreans don't know or care. If it has English words, it is cool.
There may be some free meals for you, correcting menus, once your Korean gets good enough so they can understand that you want to help them!
(There is a Japanese version of Konglish under "links" worth looking at.)

willy · #7 05-24-2006, 04:09 PM

Several years ago, I was moving and the moving crew packing up my stuff was "an assorted bunch" for lack of a better description.

One of them was a young lady who had some Chinese characters tattooed on her neck (probably had some tattooed elsewhere - but we won't go there!). I recognized one of them as being the character for "yellow" (pronounced "hwang" 황 in Korean) but it also had an additional radical on the left side. I didn't know exactly what it meant, but it was safe to assume that it was at least related to the word "yellow."

I asked her what it meant. She responded, "It's my boyfriend Juan's name."

I thought that was interesting. So I asked, "But what does the character actually mean?"

She looked at me like I must be stupid, and repeated, "It's my boyfriend's name." It means "Juan."

Thinking that she still wasn't following my line of thinking, I said, "I understand that it's pronounced 'Juan.' But what I'm trying to ask is, what does the character itself actually mean?"

To which she once again responded, "JUAN. It means Juan. You know... a guy whose name who is Juan."

At that point I gave up.

mike · #8 05-24-2006, 04:22 PM

Good story Willy. If she got it, she may have been mad and dropped your stuff. Don't mess with a mad women!

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