I hear some people here and there blame Koreans for using English loanwords or for using "bad" English in sign boards and speaking "bad" English.
Regarding English loanwords in Korean, it has been argued that the words do no have the same meaning in English, that English and Korean are unrelated languages therefore Korean should borrow or use words that are only derived from related languages.
I would like to start by saying that approximately 65% Korean words are derived from old Chinese. Chinese and Korean are not related languages, and are as unrelated as English and Korean. Chinese is an analytical language, a language in which each syllable has a meaning. Korean however is an agglutinative language, a language where chunks of words "stick" together to form longer words or grammatical elements. Therefore in Chinese, a word like 알밥 (a dish made up of rice and fish eggs) could be broken down into two words, 알 and 밥, meaning eggs and rice. However, a word like 하나, which is a Korean word meaning one, can not be broken down into syllables. Most importantly, Chinese is a Sinitic language which evolved in China, while Korean is most probably an Altaic language which evolved in a part of what is today Russia.
*There are a lot of French loanwords in English, yet French and English are only very distantly related... both are Indo-European languages, but French is a Romance language and English a Germanic language. There are lots of Yiddish loanwords in Hebrew yet to the surprise of many Yiddish and Hebrew are not related at all. Actually, Yiddish is related to English as they are both Germanic languages, whereas Hebrew is a Semitic language of the larger Afro-Asiatic family of languages. Japanese and Korean are related but both languages are not related to Chinese. Therefore some languages can loanwords from other languages without impairing the language.
Being Jewish or having slanted eyes does not automatically qualify people to speak related languages.
As for "incorrect" use of English, we first have to define what the "correct" form of English is. British English? American English? What about inner city English or Ebonics? Politicians widely agree on the fact that "correct" English is upper middle class White English, because they are usually themselves upper middle class white people. However, linguists agree that all forms of English spoken by people as their first language are correct forms of English. Konglish may not be a correct form of English but it certainly is a correct form of Konglish.
However I must say that since Korean people usually read Korean signboards and that only those who don't speak Korean read signboards in English, Koreans should write their signboard in English rather than Konglish. But, hiring native English speakers to proofread Konglish is an investment that authorities are not willing to make. After all still relatively few foreigners come to Korea, and even fewer speak English.
Let's just say that according to the Korea Immigration Office Website, out of 873,000 foreigners registered in Korea, 806,000 are from Asian countries, a large majority from countries where English is not even spoken as a second language. So the sign boards in English are for the minority of People who are likely to speak English as their first or second language. If I had to write signboard for 50,000 people out of a population of 48 million, I would not put too much effort into them. With 350,000 of the foreigners, or almost half, being Chinese, there should perhaps be more signboards in Chinese. However, it is important for Koreans not to offend their English speaking investors, which is probably why there are English signboards in the first place.
Showing posts with label Konglish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Konglish. Show all posts
Explaning Konglish
Some foreigners complain that English loanwords in Korean do not have the same meaning in English. Korean is not the only language where loanwords evolve, they do in all languages. Promiscuity means what it means in English, but the word was borrowed from French where it means "proximity".
Therefore Koreans have the right to use whatever word they want to use what they want to describe in their language. If they want to call their cell phone a "hand phone", foreigners have no right to tell them to start using "cell phone" or to use the Korean term hyudae chonhwa, as much as the French have no right to tell Americans to mean "proximity" when they say "promiscuity".
Without being too political, "hand phone" is not Konglish when it is used in a Korean sentence, nor is it "code-switching". It is a term that is now a full member of the Korean language, and Koreans treat it as one.
What is Konglish then? Konglish is a "sublanguage", a language spoken by many as a second language but by few or no people as a first language. It is a language with grammar rules, words and everything else languages have, but those rules differ from any other type of language and the language is therefore called Konglish.
Since Koreans interact relatively little with native English speakers, the arising of this sublanguage was inevitable. The language is a mixture of English and Korean patterns. It may sound cute to some foreigners, or be a sign of ignorance to others, it will nontheless be very difficult to teach Koreans not speak Konglish and to speak American English or whatever English instead.
When speaking a foreign language, foreigners calque their native language. This means that they will use the conversation etiquette I described in previous posts, and ask the same kinds of questions that they ask foreigners, use the same appellations, titles, respect forms etc.
Since it is inconceivable for Koreans to call a teacher by his first name, they will call him "teacher" regardless of the language they speak. Therefore if you are an English teacher in Korea, most students will call you "teacher". They will also use Korean expressions in their cultural context, so when they ask you about your kibun they will ask you "how is your feeling".
English loanwords which experienced semantic change in Korean will be used when speaking Konglish. For example, words like "announcer" (anchor), "one piece" (dress) or "live English" (colloquial English) will be used by Korean English speakers.
Other rules include drooping the final -s plural marker when it is phonetically a [z] sound("two car" instead of "two cars", but "two cats" and not "two cat") dropping the auxiliary "to be" ("no one there" instead of "no one was there" or "if you wanna pretty" instead of "if you wanna be pretty" etc.) and many many other rules.
Asking Koreans to switch from Konglish to American English would be like asking Americans to switch from American to British English. Remember, Korean people's intention is not to make lots of American friends or to be more Americanized, but to get a decent TOEFL score and get a decent job.
Therefore Koreans have the right to use whatever word they want to use what they want to describe in their language. If they want to call their cell phone a "hand phone", foreigners have no right to tell them to start using "cell phone" or to use the Korean term hyudae chonhwa, as much as the French have no right to tell Americans to mean "proximity" when they say "promiscuity".
Without being too political, "hand phone" is not Konglish when it is used in a Korean sentence, nor is it "code-switching". It is a term that is now a full member of the Korean language, and Koreans treat it as one.
What is Konglish then? Konglish is a "sublanguage", a language spoken by many as a second language but by few or no people as a first language. It is a language with grammar rules, words and everything else languages have, but those rules differ from any other type of language and the language is therefore called Konglish.
Since Koreans interact relatively little with native English speakers, the arising of this sublanguage was inevitable. The language is a mixture of English and Korean patterns. It may sound cute to some foreigners, or be a sign of ignorance to others, it will nontheless be very difficult to teach Koreans not speak Konglish and to speak American English or whatever English instead.
When speaking a foreign language, foreigners calque their native language. This means that they will use the conversation etiquette I described in previous posts, and ask the same kinds of questions that they ask foreigners, use the same appellations, titles, respect forms etc.
Since it is inconceivable for Koreans to call a teacher by his first name, they will call him "teacher" regardless of the language they speak. Therefore if you are an English teacher in Korea, most students will call you "teacher". They will also use Korean expressions in their cultural context, so when they ask you about your kibun they will ask you "how is your feeling".
English loanwords which experienced semantic change in Korean will be used when speaking Konglish. For example, words like "announcer" (anchor), "one piece" (dress) or "live English" (colloquial English) will be used by Korean English speakers.
Other rules include drooping the final -s plural marker when it is phonetically a [z] sound("two car" instead of "two cars", but "two cats" and not "two cat") dropping the auxiliary "to be" ("no one there" instead of "no one was there" or "if you wanna pretty" instead of "if you wanna be pretty" etc.) and many many other rules.
Asking Koreans to switch from Konglish to American English would be like asking Americans to switch from American to British English. Remember, Korean people's intention is not to make lots of American friends or to be more Americanized, but to get a decent TOEFL score and get a decent job.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
