Konglish: English Words That Became Korean — Epoche A2
Korean has a large group of words that look English, sound English, and are not English. Koreans call it Konglish. Each word came in through the door of English and then quietly changed jobs. Start with a few. handphone — a mobile phone. Everyone says it; no English speaker uses it. fighting! — good luck, you can do it. Shouted at exams, at weddings, beside hospital beds. skinship — friendly or affectionate touch: an arm through an arm, a hand on a shoulder. one shot! — empty the glass now, together. eye shopping — looking at goods without buying. English says window shopping. Put five like these side by side and the pattern shows itself. The borrowed word keeps its English clothes but takes a Korean meaning, and the meaning is usually shorter, warmer and more useful than the original. So these are Korean words. That is the honest way to describe them, and it explains a small difficulty in the classroom. A student who writes "my mother bought a new handphone" has not made a mistake. The word is correct — in Korean. English lessons here must therefore do an odd job: not teach a word, but un-teach one. Every language does this. Korea only does it in letters we think we can already read.