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jaj
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
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 Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:28 am Post subject: Embracing Konglish |
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I'm coming to grips with the fact that Konglish is a deeply ingrained form of expression here linked to pride and identity.
Many of my students argue with my corrections or question them if they don't resemble the corresponding Konglish word or expression they use. Some insist on defending the way they speak to an extent that makes me wonder what they want from me.
The way they pronounce words like "condition" and "nation," sound like the lyrics to a Bob Marley song. I wish they would just admit that it's their national patois the same way Jamaicans do, so it wouldn't be such a fragile point of reference. |
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Panda
Joined: 25 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:56 am Post subject: |
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My professor spent quite a lot of time studying in the US.
And he is still saying P'ah-mah-callogy (Pharmacology)
Which is the department he is serving at.
He says lots of other things as well.
I want to wring his neck (btw, I suppose this is Chinglish) whenever he says that. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:20 am Post subject: Re: Embracing Konglish |
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| jaj wrote: |
| I'm coming to grips with the fact that Konglish is a deeply ingrained form of expression here linked to pride and identity. |
Let me affirm your impulses here. Its really not worth the effort, anyway. At a certain point I just about gave up on teaching Asians articles. Apparently, the knowledge of where to say 'a' and 'the' comes to native speakers when they are three years old. And there are no consistent rules. And there are few cases where it genuinely impedes understanding. |
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andrewchon
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Location: Back in Oz. Living in ISIS Aust.
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:27 am Post subject: |
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| My b�te noir is 'zoo'. My students pronounce it 'jew'. That's the only time they don't do the robot-speak. I know Koreans don't like the Jew (not Israel) but I suspect there's something more than what I know. |
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jaj
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:27 am Post subject: |
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| Its really not worth the effort, anyway. At a certain point I just about gave up on teaching Asians articles |
Every so often I give up on teaching articles also. I give up on trying to stop them from using the word 'PREpare" as a multipurpose verb that describes everything. I give up on trying to explain that you can't describe past and future events using the present tense without creating lots of confusion. I give up on minimizing how much they say, "nothing special," "so-so" and "take a rest." I try to explain that responding, "of course," to every question is rude and so is prefacing every remark with, "As I said." I give up on explaining to them why you shouldn't say, "Yes, I didn't."
But once they see I've given up, the level of babble rises, the din of it drones in my head, follows me around and the only way I can stop it is to enforce grammar rules again, try and remove Konglish from English. |
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nate1983
Joined: 30 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Panda wrote: |
My professor spent quite a lot of time studying in the US.
And he is still saying P'ah-mah-callogy (Pharmacology)
Which is the department he is serving at.
He says lots of other things as well.
I want to wring his neck (btw, I suppose this is Chinglish) whenever he says that. |
I can relate to a lot of this. My thesis advisor in grad school was Korean, and in our probability class she probably said "propojishun" a couple hundred times throughout the semester.
Had lots of students/other Koreans say "take a rest," "cheer up," etc...I work with a lot of Chinese and other Asians now, and while it's no one's fault for not being a native speaker, the flagrant disregard for proper article usage and other grammatical constructs does get a bit hard on the ears (perhaps even more so on the eyes when it's written down, as when I'm writing in a foreign language I'll usually double/triple-check for grammar issues, and if I'm not sure will look it up or consult a native..."bad English" has unfortunately become the norm). Another thing I get people writing at work all the time is "please revert" when they mean "please reply" or "please get back to me." The word "revert" means something completely different...apparently this is an Indianism that has spread like wildfire throughout our company, and now I even see the native English speakers doing it!  |
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joelove
Joined: 12 May 2011
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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| andrewchon wrote: |
| My b�te noir is 'zoo'. My students pronounce it 'jew'. That's the only time they don't do the robot-speak. I know Koreans don't like the Jew (not Israel) but I suspect there's something more than what I know. |
No "Z" - and John, Joan and zone are all "Joan" --
Worked with a Chinese guy who had quite good English except for some pronunciation. Used to get the company bus to and fro work. My name is Joe. One day he said, "Jew, there is new bus today." I guess I look like a Jew though. |
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Carbon
Joined: 28 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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Most people I have met (including all replies here so far) don't even know what Konglish is.
A Korean saying what sounds like "Jew" when they mean "Zoo" is not Konglish, nor is the word "camera"; this is first a pronunciation issue and second, a simple loan word.
"one-piece" or "handle" on the other hand, are Konglish. They are loan words from English which are assigned a new meaning which is different from the original in English. Hence, Konglish, or a Korean assignment of an English word, seen as incorrect by native speakers of English. In Korea, Konglish is part of the language and locally, not an issue (no more than a simple loan word). It becomes an issue when engaging a native speaker of English and even then, only problematic when it confuses meaning in conversation.
Nobody owns English. |
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Panda
Joined: 25 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Most people I have met (including all replies here so far) don't even know what Konglish is |
You are right, I have not heard of any Konglish expression then.
Here are some Chinglish expression I heard from internet:
Long time no see ---- It has been a while since we met last time.
People mountain people sea ---- Places crowded with people
Horse horse tiger tiger ---- So so, not good but not bad either
Give somebody some color to see ---- Teach somebody a lesson, Beat somebody up ( it does make sense though, because when you beat somebody up, they end up with being black and blue) |
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Carbon
Joined: 28 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Panda wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Most people I have met (including all replies here so far) don't even know what Konglish is |
You are right, I have not heard of any Konglish expression then.
Here are some Chinglish expression I heard from internet:
Long time no see ---- It has been a while since we met last time.
People mountain people sea ---- Places crowded with people
Horse horse tiger tiger ---- So so, not good but not bad either
Give somebody some color to see ---- Teach somebody a lesson, Beat somebody up ( it does make sense though, because when you beat somebody up, they end up with being black and blue) |
Not Chinglish. Poorly/oddly translated idiomatic expressions or proverbs, but not Chinglish.
"Long time no see" is native idiomatic English.
Count yourself among the many. |
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The Floating World
Joined: 01 Oct 2011
Location: Here
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| want to wring his neck (btw, I suppose this is Chinglish) whenever he says that. |
This also is a native English expression.
I'm interested in what the 'Horse horse, tiger tiger' one means. Sounds kind of cool, as does the 'giving someone colour to see' ha ha.
Last weekends some of my students went to 'the Jew.' They said he was jemisoyo and has good jajangmyeon.  |
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Carbon
Joined: 28 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| ㅆt우pid thr에d. 넌 of thiㅆ 이s ㅋoㄴgl이sh. |
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Panda
Joined: 25 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:54 am Post subject: |
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| Carbon wrote: |
Not Chinglish. Poorly/oddly translated idiomatic expressions or proverbs, but not Chinglish.
"Long time no see" is native idiomatic English.
Count yourself among the many. |
well, if the ones I listed are not Chinglish, can you make some examples.
I am confused by the poorly translated proverb thing.
Long time no see is widely used by native speakers, but I was told it came from Chinese immigrants in the US long time ago. Chinese people say 好久不见, a direct word to word translation of this phrase is Long Time No See |
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Carbon
Joined: 28 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:11 am Post subject: |
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I am not familiar with Chinglish specifically, the rules apply across the board, and I have outlined those earlier.
When an English word is brought into a different language and then a new meaning is attached to that word, it becomes a version of English. These versions are, in common parlance, called "Konglish" or "Chinglish".
So, "pizza", "camera", "computer"; these are not Konglish because same meaning has been assigned to the word in Korean as it is in the originating language, in this case, English.
"one piece", "padding jacket"...these are Konglish because they don't mean the same in Korean as they do in English, even though the words' origin is English.
Trade "Konglish" in the above with "Chinglish" if you like; the rule doesn't change. |
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littlelisa
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:14 am Post subject: |
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| The Floating World wrote: |
| Quote: |
| want to wring his neck (btw, I suppose this is Chinglish) whenever he says that. |
This also is a native English expression.
I'm interested in what the 'Horse horse, tiger tiger' one means. Sounds kind of cool, as does the 'giving someone colour to see' ha ha.
Last weekends some of my students went to 'the Jew.' They said he was jemisoyo and has good jajangmyeon. |
Horse horse tiger tiger means "so-so". That is complete literal translation of characters. I have never heard it said literally translated into English, though.
马马虎虎 (for the character version in simplified Chinese)
马 -horse (ma)
虎 -tiger (hu) |
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