Aside from English words being adopted into the Korean language, Konglish is also the gross misuse or misspelling of English words. All around town there are signs, packages, menus, the list goes on, of things that are supposed to be English, but fail miserably.
Some of my favorites are:
"Beer Scandal"- Who wouldn't you drink beer in a scandalous manner?
"Steak Festival"- Is that like the hot air balloon festival but with meat?
"Marine Products with rice capped"- I was really hoping for a ship's rudder and and anchor covered in rice. Not the assorted seafood with rice.
"Sandwich Scrubber"- On a brillo pad. Hey, I guess sandwiches need cleaning too.
"Fation"- It sounds right but not quite.
"Benisaf gives you happiness instead of the aroma of coffee."- The Benisaf slogan
The best Konglish comes on shirts and hats. While in Gwangju I found a shirt that looked like it had been spray painted every neon color and it said "Nylon Nylon". Or the shirt that just said I <3 Marc. The foreigners love Konglish so much that sometimes they're required dress at parties, and having the most ridiculous Konglish shirt is all but a status symbol.
My favorite is still the compilation CD with the tagline: "Everlasting old pops to listen before you die"
ReplyDeleteI totally understand the beer scandal thing... scandalous things happen when drinking muchas cervezas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in other news, my favorite spelling/language fail in Spain was when I saw a man wearing a shirt that said "I kill what I fuck." Unless, of course, he knew exactly what he was wearing. Hmm.
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