My first column for the Korea Herald (expat living)has been published, but for some reason is not available on the web site. I talked to my editor and he doesn’t know why. In any case it is available in the print edition. I have copied my original into the extended entry. The version in the Korea Herald has been slightly altered by my editor. The editor also chose the title of the article as my working title of “Konglish” was no doubt a little blase.

I have previously written about Konglish at this entry: Wronglish later tonight I’ll upload my Konglish Action handout that goes with this entry. Here it is: konglish_auction.pdf

Korea Herald Readers
Welcome. Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this weeks column. If you would like to learn more about me visit my bio page. I have also been blogging at this site for 4 years (on January 19th) so there are a lot of entries if you care to look through the archives. Some of my favorite or more popular entries are available on the classic entries page.

Upon arriving in Korea new expats, tourists and business travelers will no doubt come to be aware that when Koreans speak English there are often odd phrases and misused words among English speaking Koreans. Everyone soon comes to call this language Konglish. But what exactly is Konglish and what is it not?

First, it is necessary to define more clearly what Konglish is. I have broken Konglish down into four different categories. Konglish is really the use of English lexical items that have been borrowed into Korean and changed somehow, becoming Koreanized, when Koreans use English. There are different types of Konglish the first often happens when an English word is used in Korean but the meaning changes to something different from the original. A Korean speaker, knowing that the word is English, uses that word when speaking English but uses the Korean meaning of the word rather than the correct English meaning. A perfect example of this would be the word cunning. In English this word means sly, smart, or devious but in Korean it means cheating. When a Korean uses cunning with the Korean meaning in an English sentence it then becomes a Konglish word.

The second type of Konglish is when Koreans again import English words into Korean combine them to make new compound words and then once again use these new “Korean” compound words in English. Two examples that I found perplexing upon first encountering include back mirror – rear view mirror and handle – steering wheel.

The third type of Konglish is the appropriation of brand names to be used for generic nouns. Well known examples by native speakers include Kleenex and Xerox. However when Korean speakers talk about a burberry to a non-Korean speaker their interlocutor will be bewildered and not know that a burberry is a trench coat.

Finally, longer English words or phrases are often contracted in Korean and then re-exported in their new shortened form. Sometimes these words are easy to deciper such as air-con or remo-con, but other times it will be difficult to guess the correct meaning – pine juice pineapple.

There are Konglish examples that do not really fit into any of these categories. The most common type of these are the naming of new words with English words that are not the correct. For example, a Macgyver knife is actually a Swiss Army Knife, a sharp is a mechanical pencil, and a one piece is a dress.

In Korea when speaking Korean none of the above examples are wrong or Konglish. They are just imported or borrowed words that have undergone change during their move into the Korean lexis. This is a natural process that happens in all languages borrowing words from other languages.

There is a tendency among foreigners and Koreans alike that any misuse of Korean; grammar mistakes, bad pronunciation or lexis choice is Konglish. This simply is not true. Mistakes are simply that, mistakes. The English learner has not yet mastered the point in question.

Is any of the above really important? The answer is Yes.

As teachers we should, when the opportunity arises, teach students the correct English forms. Additionally it is important for students to learn that Konglish when used in Korean is actually Korean and not wrong. One fun activity that I do to build awareness of Konglish terms is to play a game called Konglish Auction.

In the Konglish Auction groups are provided with a list of sentences, half with correct English and half with Konglish phrases. Each group looks through the sentences and chooses the correct ones to buy during the auction. Correct sentences are worth five points, Konglish 1point. The team with the most points at the end of the auction wins.

Konglish happens when these words are then exported back in English by Koreans. The result, for the uninitiated, is often humor, confusion and general miscommunication. As teachers we can help our students to avoid these mistakes by building awareness of the correct English forms and usage. Learners will need multiple exposures to the proper form before using it correctly in natural speech, so do not give up when they continue to make the same mistakes.