‘Just’ – A Snigger
I love Korean notebooks and apart from often containing bad examples of English on the front covers, they are usually entertaining.
I'm sniggering
but it's cute!
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
Just (그냥) Some interesting photos
No! They’re not mine and are simply amusing photos I’ve discovered while browsing.
Even though junk food burgers can taste okay, but are never delicious, I dislike their imperialism and subsequent dumbing down of our taste buds. However, I find this advert amusing…
a politically incorrect candy
brilliant!
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
Just (그냥) Interesting
If you mistakenly type the Korean for ‘alive, living’ (생) in English rather than Korean (tod), you end up with the German for ‘death.’
Cheong-cha (정자), is both and ‘arbor’ and ‘sperm.’
chilling
probably more than you - but perfect English!
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
Just (그냥) – More Bad English…
cute
words of French origin are often the most difficult to spell even for the native speaker
brilliant!
I'm still chuckling...
a classic mistake
I'm a 'fairy?'
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
Just…(그냥) More Bad English and a Nazi Collaborator
fantastic
One of my friends discovered this wonderful example of bad English in downtown Daegu, a few weekends ago. This isn’t just a little gaff, it’s total nonsense. And who cares what Coco Chanel had to say, she was a super rich bitch Nazi collaborator whose past continues to be rewritten. Her talents, like that of many celebrities past and present, would quickly have been exposed by a vigorous facial with a cheese-grater.
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
Related Articles
A Few of my Favourties
I’m feeling lazy today and so I’ve posted a few of my favourite photos focusing on bad translations, most from Engrish.com.
5th place: This one is 'ten a penny' and I noticed today one of my local restaurants is serving 'crap meat spaghetti'
4th place: One away from Pocari Sweat'
3rd place: 'Yes, I can't' would have been a closer direct translation
2nd place: really?
1st place: an 'all you can eat restaurant,' perhaps?
Just…(그냥) Funny Responses
is this for real?
So, I gave one of my classes a quiz yesterday afternoon and a number of questions were on completing sequences. ‘Sunday, Saturday, Friday?’ I ask one student. ‘He replies, ‘yesterday!’
Later, I ask a student to describe ‘toothpaste.’ His answer, ‘toothbrush sauce!”
© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence.
‘Just’ – Revelations
traditional tea in Insadong, Seoul
I was given a guided tour of Insadong (Seoul), on Monday by two ex-high school students. The tour was interesting for several reasons; firstly, because few British kids would have the least interest in taking their old teacher out for the day unless it was to lure them to some secluded alley and then assault them. Teachers are not particulalrly cool in the UK. However, this is Korea and for students, taking your old teacher out has considerable kudos attached to it. Both boys call me ‘teacher’ despite the fact they graduated high school over a year ago and even though I invite them to call me by my first name, both tell me this is rude and uncomfortable and continue calling me ‘teacher.’
15th century pagoda in Tapgol Park in Jongno, Seoul
Secondly, in a relationship with Korea that spans ten years, I have managed to avoid Seoul for all purposes except leaving and entering the country. Considering I live in a city, namely Daegu, which could easily pass for a location in Seoul, this avoidance is pretty stupid. However, the size and complexity of the metropolis will continue to scare me away unless suitably chaperoned.
Palgakjeong Pavillion, Tapgol Park, Seoul
With a guided tour of some important locations and quince tea in a traditional tea shop, the day is memorble but mostly because I ask one of the boys if he has a girl friend. The reply he provides is one only a Korean could utter and epitomizes that cute Korean innocence that many teenagers exhibit. ‘Oh teacher,’ he laughs, ‘I don’t have any interest in girls; I like boys, but I’m not gay!’
© 林東哲 2010 Creative Commons Licence.
Just – Why You Shouldn’t Teach English in Korea
Well, my boss, who I have known for ten years, is fantastic but it goes on…
Video link
© 林東哲 2010 Creative Commons Licence.
Just… (그냥…) Doctor! Doctor!
Barbapapa
I’m fat. Whenever I visit my doctor he asks, ‘What do you think about your weight?’ I never know what to say. What the fuck are you supposed to say? I stifle a little laugh.
‘I love it. It’s great wobbling into a bathhouse looking like Grandpa Barbapapa.’
Once I replied, ‘not very sexy,’ but he didn’t get the joke.
I actually saw him in Samjeong Oasis bathhouse several weeks ago. I didn’t feel comfortable and left before he could see me. I should have talked to him. ‘Hey, Doc! What do you think of my weight? How would you like my awesome man tits?’
Another time, 8 years ago, I met him on the way to E Mart. A Saturday morning in autumn as I was waiting to cross the intersection. I’d just returned from the UK after having a hernia repair.
At the intersection he’s excited to see me and do you know what he proceeds to do? Examine my stomach! An on the street examination! Not many people can boast such a privilege.
Just as the lights turn green and a sea of pedestrians begin to cross the road, he pulls up my shirt, kneels on one knee, has a look at the scar and pokes around for a few moments. A little girls stood nearby, looking bewildered, stares.
It was hilarious! I didn’t even have to pay the extortionate 3000 Won (£1.50), usually charged for a consultation.
Back home in the shitty UK, your doctor doesn’t talk to you even when you’re in their surgery. If I passed my UK doctor on deserted street he wouldn’t know who I was and getting to see him in his surgery can involve waiting up to four days.
I like my Korean doc; he once gave me a tour of his new endoscopy machine but was a bit too enthusiastic as he waved about the part they stick down your gullet or poke up your backside. He was like a kid with a new toy.
Most UK local doctors don’t have such equipment and the most sophisticated toys my UK surgery have are stethoscopes and a weighing machine. Actually, two weighing machines because last time I visited them I was too heavy for one machine and had to stand on two. What surgeries in the west, ‘Lard Land,’ buy scales that only weigh up to 16 stone! Standing on two! That was embarrassing!
© Nick Elwood 2010 Creative Commons Licence.
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