존 = zone?
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007Walking around in Korea, among many other interesting shop names, you will see a lot of names that have the letter “존” in it. But even if you look up the dictionary, you wouldn’t find just the right meaning for what you see in some of the store or product names, other than the meaning of ‘respect’ or ‘existence’, and of course they’re not what 존 means in most sign boards.
Look at the name of this PC Bang.
It says 존앤존 PC방 and in English it’s written Zone&Zone. But what does Zone&Zone mean and where does it come from?
And look at the beverage below.
What does 모메존 mean? What does 모메 mean and what’s the meaning of 존 here? Of course you can’t find any of those words in the dictionary because this name is also a word play.
Do you know the word “좋은” or “좋다”?
“좋다” is the basic form of the adjective that means “to be good or nice”, right? And 좋은 is the form you use when you say it in front of a noun, like 좋은 학생, 좋은 사람, 좋은 날씨.
And if you pronounce 좋은 three times fast, it becomes ‘존’ :-) and now you know where it comes from.
So, 존앤존 could mean just ‘zones’ (but possibly not) but most people would think of a good PC ‘zone’. And 모메존 is a simplified spelling of how 몸에 좋은 sounds. 몸에 좋은 means ‘good for your body’ therefore “모메존 알로에” means Aloe that is good for your body. :) Some people are opposed to using too much simplified spelling in brand names like this because these word plays might ‘destory’ the rules of the Korean language, but even if they were to name everything correctly like 좋은 앤 좋은 PC방 or 몸에 좋은 알로에, even more words are being simplified on the Internet already! 
Posted by Hyunwoo in Humor in Korean |
December 26th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
To hear “모메존 알로에” it makes perfect sense but reading it can be confusing. I don’t think I would have caught 존앤존 as 좋은 앤 좋은. It i interesting that this kind of wordplay is being adopted commercially. I am sure this happens in English too, I just haven’t paid attention to it.
December 26th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
넘 넘 조아여~
December 27th, 2007 at 5:34 am
Hyuwoo-sun
This was very interesting to know, I like simplified words, I think they are much better.
I prefer a 존앤존 PC방 too!
BTW Merry Christmas and Happy new year 2008!
S_R_C
December 27th, 2007 at 9:18 am
While I’m a big fan of wordplay and all that, as well as the clever ways Konglish expressesions have been appropriated into the language, I do sometimes wonder about the fate of the Korean language. While all the Konglish and wordplay does make it a little easier for a foreigner to get around in Korea, I find it disheartening to walk into a restaurant and see the 메뉴 offering different types of 푸드 such as 쵸코 케이크 and drinks such as 그린 티.
With that said, I still love the wordplay. Thanks again for the insightful humour post, 현우씨!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Great, copying the wonderful misspellings of English advertising
I’m with Daniel - whenever I hear my wife or her friends dropping into Kongrish when I know there is a Korean word, I try to get a dig in.
Doesn’t help much though
And I notice Kongrish is much more prevalent among the expat Koreans that have been here in Australia for a few years.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 am
oh, that’s so interesting! I never even really knew about simplifying korean spelling but now I guess I do.