sit-ups | jogging | chair-lifts |
---|---|---|
100 | 15 min | 100 |
Breakfast, lunch & dinner = November 7 |
Konglish is always
worth a good rant and I think the most important obstacle preventing Koreans from
learning English. They spend all their time speaking Korean (of course) and Konglish
is when English words are adapted to the Korean lexicon. Except. They are
always pronounced wrong, sometimes to the point of being unrecognizable as
being English. So much so that when a native English speaker encounters a
Korean and uses a certain English words, a Korean, more times than not, will
have no idea what is being said unless the NES uses a bad Korean accent. So,
words like “lighter,” “Internet” and “computer” all come out sounding like
"ryeta," "intanetuh," and "gumpyoota."
Pronunciation is actually a minor problem, but people are so set in their ways,
it seems they are incapable of changing this, and as a result, when Koreans
encounter new vocabulary, the bad pronunciation comes with it. This results in
every word ending with a consonant always having "uh" appended to it
and any word ending with an E, G or H has a Y added to it-- image becomes
"imag-ee," watch becomes "watch-ee," and so on. But, like I
said, only a minor annoyance.
What's worse are the English words borrowed and
given new meanings. Koreans know what a "handphone" is, but not what
a "telephone" or "phone" is. Add the word "hand"
to "phone" and a little light bulb goes off. Or the word for
"dress" is "one piece." Why not just call it a
"dress?" Why use "one piece?" If it comes in 2 pieces,
wouldn't you have a t-shirt and a skirt? And isn't a skirt by itself also a
"one piece?" A word that makes me laugh every time-- the Korean word
for underwear is panties, no matter what gender.
So, what's the
solution? Realize the Korean alphabet and language is not perfect. Scientific,
maybe. Great as a combination, sure, but as a substitute for other languages,
forget it. Make new Hangul characters for L, R, Z, V, F, or learn how to
pronounce them properly, instead of using 3 characters to substitute for half
the English alphabet. Rant over.
I had a visit with the
head honcho himself today. I was asked to go see the warden of the entire
prison today after lunch. We talked for about half an hour about the usual
things-- how I was being treated, the food, how I could leave at any time if I
came up with $8000... One beneficial thing to result from our talk is I may be
able to get my colour pencils and bigger sketchbook. I tried to get my laptop,
but no dice...
The warden told me I
am the only foreigner in this prison. There are a total of 50 prisons in
Korea-- 40 correctional facilities and 10 detention centers. There is a prison
just for foreigners, but it only has foreigners convicted of a crime and
sentenced to time in prison. I haven't really committed a crime, so much as
failed to pay my fines. If I pay my fines, I'm free to go. The foreigner prison
has about 500 prisoners right now, most of them Chinese.
No comments:
Post a Comment