Eva’s Language Lab
Topic #2 – Konglish Refresher
Konglish (Korean-style English) is what we call Pseudo-English loanwords used in Korean. Both pure English loanwords and Konglish words make up a huge part of the Korean vocab and English loanwords make up a lot of Korean nouns in particular. There are some loanwords most Korean language students will already know or understand upon hearing for the first time:
비타민 bitamin - Vitamin / 아이스크림 aiseukeurim- Icecream / 컴퓨터 keompyuteo- Computer
The above words are probably pretty simple to intuit, but there are also some Konglish words that use English language differently than we do:
Konglish Vocab |
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- 와이셔츠 (waisyeocheu) – 'y-shirt'. A long sleeve button down shirt. There are two possible reasons for this usage and you’ll get a different answer depending on who you ask – some people say it’s short for ‘white shirt’, others will say it’s because a ‘t-shirt’ looks like the letter T, while the long sleeve shirt looks like a Y. You can kind of see that it’s shaped like a Y with the sleeves out. In Japanese, such a shirt is similarly called a 'waishatsu', an abbreviation of 'white shirt', so it seems likely that this loanword travelled to Korea through Japan. There are many examples of words entering the Korean vocabulary in that way.
- 사이다 (saida) – literally ‘cider’. Non-alcoholic, Sprite or other clear soft drinks we would mostly call lemonade in Australia.
- 커닝 (keoning) – ‘cunning’ cheating, like on a test. It is a cunning thing to do! You will also hear people say ‘커닝 페이퍼’ – this is a ‘cheat sheet’
- 원피스 (wonpiseu) – ‘one-piece’. Not the manga, but a dress.
- 아이쇼핑 (aisyoping) – ‘eye-shopping’, window shopping (or, shopping with your eyes only)
- 핸드폰 (haendeupon) – ‘hand-phone’ - cell phone, mobile phone, however you call it. Interestingly, lots of languages, like German or Chinese, do say variations of hand-phone, not just Korea!
- 노트북 (noteubuk) - Not a paper 'notebook', but a laptop computer. The word 'laptop' is relatively obscure and remains mostly unused in Korea. If you want to ask for a paper notebook, you should say 공책 (kongchaek) or 수첩 (sucheob), for a regular sized notebook and small memo book, respectively.
- 원룸 (wonrum) – a ‘One Room’ apartment. A studio in English.
- 써클 (sseokeul) – the word here is ‘Circle’, but it’s used to mean a club or group. You can also say 동아리 to refer to a club.
- 미팅 (miting) – ‘meeting’. Usually used for a group blind date. Lots of words for blind dates end with this 팅 – a blind date set up by your friend is a 소개팅 (introduction + 팅).
- 빌라 (billa) – ‘Villa’. This is what you might call a small multiplex or units in English. A type of housing that is about 4 stories or less tall, with separate apartments on each floor and no elevator.
- 핸들 (haendeul) – ‘Handle’.. this is what you call a car steering wheel.
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Of course, Korea doesn’t only use loanwords from English:
Other loanwords, not Konglish |
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- 아르바이트 (areubaiteu) – ‘arbeit’ is German for work. In Korean (and Japanese) it has come to mean a part time job. People often shorten it to 알바 (alba), like in the jobfinder apps albamon or albanara.
- 메스 (meseu) – from Dutch ‘mes’, meaning scalpel.
- 망토 (mangto) – French, ‘manteau’ means coat.
- 뷔페 (bwipe)– from French ‘buffet’. We say buffet in English too, but the Korean loanword is based off the French pronunciation.
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Image Credit: https://www.albamon.com/
Sometimes when speaking Korean, you want to express some specific English word, but you don’t know how to say it in Korean. In these kinds of situations, obviously you can get your phone out and search for the right phrase, but that isn’t always the best way to continue the flow of a conversation.
Luckily for lots of simple things, particularly adjectives or verbs, it’s not going to be too jarring to simply use the English word with a Konglish intonation... like you are spelling it in Hangul! This isn’t perfect Korean, and obviously it’s best to know the correct vocab, but you will often find that Korean native speakers also throw in English sometimes to spice up their sentences, so it’s not a huge deal either. Some foreign-born Korean celebrities like Jessi or Tiffany are well-known for using English words to smoothen or cover gaps in their vocabulary.
For a personal example, I was recently talking to a photographer. I wanted to ask if they had brought their 'portfolio' with them, but I could not think of the correct Korean word. I took a guess and asked for their '포트폴리오' (poteupollio), and it turned out that was right! Of course, this won't always work, but it is something you can try if you're in a pinch.
(Parasite, 2019. Screenshot mine)
If you want to see even more examples of pseudo-English Konglish with meanings that might surprise you, you can check out this blog post:
영어회화 잘못쓰는 콩글리쉬 60
For some listening practise, I recommend this news video about new Konglish and words coming out of the pandemic:
https://youtu.be/bnW6BhfiXfU
