404 Error: Understanding not found (Miscommunication in Korean)
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008Mistranslation.
Okay, so a little linguistics never hurt anyone. A transference error is when something gets lost in the translation (think old Jackie Chan movies). This superbly hilarious phenomenon is not exclusive to Korean-English, English-Korean but it still is pretty funny nonetheless.
One of my favorites is the whole “our mom” situation. 우리 어머니 is a way of saying “that mother in this context”, “our mother” or “the mother that we both know”. But when you look at it, even a newbie can be thrown off by the context. “What? Our mother? Dude, that’s MY mother!” Good stuff. Why do you know my mom, man? 
How exactly is she your mom, too? Why don’t we have “our” everything?
This is one of those things that just doesn’t translate over well. It’s priceless when a speaker relatively new to the Korean language (like myself) starts to analyze the etymology of words. Sure it doesn’t mean what I think it means (think “brother from another mother” ) but still kind of fun when I think about it. I mean, why not “my mom”?
I also like the /p/ and /f/ relationship. Sejong thought it would be a good idea to put them together like PB&J. “Yeah, so let’s kill two birds with one stone - put them both into /ㅍ/ to entertain and confuse millions of foreigners in the process.” Thanks a lot revered King Sejong… So when I grab a “pork” what am I really grabbing? A “fork”? What about the “pool house”? Oh, the “full house”!
While we’re at it, how about that whole /l/ and /r/ ambiguity? I know the joke has been beaten into the ground but I still have a friend that says something along the lines of “light now we eat lice”. You should hear her read the book “Rain Rain Go Away” to the kids she teaches. Great stuff.
Not all mistranslations are character based. Many are misuses of certain vocabulary terms. The other day, I pulled out a small notepad out of my pocket to write down a phone number of a new friend. She giggled and said in English “Wow, that’s so analog!” I knew what she meant - a digital PDA is a bit more appropriate for the college crowd here in 2008. But I like my little notepad, it serves its purpose. But she wasn’t exactly wrong, but still it seemed a bit strange.
I also like how the word “약속” is translated into “appointment” instead of “plans”. I know that there is a word for plans but “약속” is much more commonly used. But it still kind of cracks me up inside to hear in English “I cannot meet you tomorrow; I have an appointment” Really? Doctor or dentist :)? Native speakers don’t really use the word “appointment” for anything other than business and medical visits. Why not just say “I can’t meet you tomorrow; I have plans”?
Here’s another word I love: “okay”. Seoulites like this word and we like it too. However, not everyone I know uses it the way it should be used. A common translation of “괜찮아요” is “is it okay?” or “are you okay?”. However, when it is used like “you can do this, okay?” it seems too direct. The other day I heard “He is a friend and you can call him, okay?” I couldn’t help but think “I don’t know, you tell me, is it okay to call him? Will I be okay?” I’m never sure what to say back to that.
I really like this phrase that my friend says a lot “Oh~ I am so stress” It makes me smile every time.
I must be fair, we have some strange things about English. We say “I am going to take a test” but really, we don’t steal the test and take it with us - we just write on the paper and turn it in. Koreans say “I look at a test” which actually makes a bit more sense. Also, in English we say “I want to spend time with you” but really, we don’t literally own time in the same way we own money. I can’t really “spend” time on anything.
Also, something in English that is literally untranslatable deals with the bathroom. We say “I need to take a <fill in the action of choice>” but really, we don’t take it. We leave it there - Oh man…This blog just went from bad to worse.
I kid around because I like how we can strive for one thing and end up messing up terribly. I’m pretty sure one of my friends in Korea is writing in her blog on just how much I make her laugh - and not the kind that you want to take home and marry - the kind you want to put on stage with a tutu on while balancing on a ball - that type of laugh.
All I can say is that I could really go for some wapples light now, okay?
Thoughts?
Posted by Matthew in Humor in Korean, Learning Korean, How Koreans Do It |
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Haha, I know what you mean…I am laugh!
Me, I like being asked if I’m boring. Because sometimes, let’s face it, I am. As much as you are stress. I can’t be interest at every moment. (Which is too bad, because I’d be richer.)
Have you also noticed that the sun doesn’t rise and set? We’re the ones turning around it, it’s just sitting there.
Do you know YouTube’s “Happy Slip”? If not, you have to check her out, she’s hilarious. Ed introduced her to me. It’s very interesting how she got her name…her Filipino mom used to remind her every morning before going to school, “Be sure to wear your *half-slip*.” But her accent made it sound like “happy slip”, so the girl grew up thinking there was that type of slip, and then there were sad slips too. I bet her friends were laugh.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 am
“Yes, I am eat now Ed!”
I used to get this a lot from my Balinese host family.
And here’s a gamelan teacher (whom I consider a sort of “tutelary grandfather”, i.e. I didn’t learn from him directly, but I learned from his students), Pak Cokro, who had an extremely idiosyncratic way of speaking English:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHAmFsPUp8w
And Happy Slip mentioned in the Koreanclass101.com blog - how awesome is that? Thanks, Bouks!
July 24th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
While poking around a bookstore the other day, I came across a really interesting book called “English Speakers Don’t Say That!” It’s made for advanced Korean speakers of English, and it includes common examples of “Konglish” expressions and Korean-English “faux amis”/”false friends.”
Things like “I met my father last weekend” (지난 주말에는 내가 우리 아버지를 만났다.” and “I like playing with my friends” (나는 친구랑 함께 노는 것을 좋아한다.” It seemed like a great resource for teachers of conversational English to Koreans, and Koreans who want to make their English speaking more natural.
July 26th, 2008 at 3:09 am
ㅋㅋㅋ, this blog entry sure make me laugh. I really like the whole “our mom” and “pool house” thing =]
August 6th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Currently, I’m compiling a list of odd things we say in English that we have never taken a second look at before. The whole “taking _____” really must be confusing to people learning English. Taking a picture, taking a bath, and your wonderful example of other bathroom activity ^_^ Had to giggle at that one. One day I’ll publish my own book called “Why the Hell Do We Say That?” or something to that effect.
That analog comment would have really impressed me. Sometimes it’s a shame when a person can be learning another language the textbook way, but the language as it’s actually spoken is dumbing down so much that their vast vocabulary of colorful words only really needs to consist of wanna, gotta, huh, yeah, no, lol, kinda, sorta…etc.
Another thing I’ve been wondering about is the f-bomb conundrum. It can fit nearly anywhere in a sentence, it can practically be its own sentence. “f you, you f’in f.”
August 6th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Follow-up to my comment, I wonder if there’s anything like that in Korean. I certainly hope not.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
S@r@h…
세상에 언어마다 욕말 있잖아요!
Every language has profanity… Korean is no exception ^^ But the trouble lies in translating it accurately. That can only really be done by someone who grew up speaking both languages in very Korean and very English scenarios. Only then could they truly understand the nuance.
I have not been impressed with the subtitles on many movies. I think they over use the f-word to translate Korean swearing. There are times when the English they use is way over the top for the scene. And I couldn’t imagine similar characters (i.e. kids or teachers) using that kind of language in an English movie…..
It’s a real problem. Probably best to avoid all of it anyway!
August 14th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Austin,
I agree about the movie subtitles. I sometimes wonder, “just where did they get that?” But I even more agree with your last comment ^_^
October 12th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Hi! I am new to this site and this is my first post on this site.
I am an ESL person who self-taught English for my own need.
I have no reason to come to Korean learning site because I am native Korean, as you can tell sooner or later, but I thought I still can learn from reading your or others posts relating to learning Korean.
That said, I want to say a few things about your humorous approach to our (우 리) common mistakes made in speaking English which is foreign to us however close relationship we try to maintain by reading, hearing and speaking, practically living it, although we are not sure we are living it right.
It is good to laugh over things that are not serious matter in life, if the other person on the other side of humor-coin can ‘take’ your humor as humor, being open minded and humble, or light-hearted laughing along with you.
If not, your humor can be taken as humiliation, discouraging a timid person from speaking out his/her thoughts in written or spoken English.
Y’know, some people mind protecting ego from being hurt more than learning through making mistakes and being corrected in a humorous way.
Knowing that, many people don’t even bother to correct the mistakes made in speaking English in which we can’t be native or correct all the time.
Even now I am not too sure whether I am talking sense in English or not.
Long and short, we as the second language learners need not only to be humorous but also respectful to each other in dealing with those ‘mistakes’ made due to the cultural, social or habitual differences in the Language we learn to communicate naturally correct.
Another thing to comment is about adding more thoughts to the humorous approach to prevent the uninvented results in wild hay ride, ending in a far-flung side never dreamed.
For instance, after you make humor out of ‘우리 집사람’ (our wife), if you would add the cultural background explaining why we do say in such a way that is foreign to those with individual mind or mentality, thinking mine is mine, never ‘ours’.
I am just a voice out of millions, with the good intention of being friendly and constructive.
Hope my voice help ‘our’ relationship to be a better one.
October 13th, 2008 at 5:10 am
hello henry and thanks so much for the thoughtful response!
First of all, 오해하지마세요, in no way is my post intended to be offensive towards any speaker of a foreigner language - English or Korean or otherwise. The post is intended to poke fun at some of the nuances of Korean-English translation that don’t always translate over literally.
Also, take a closer look towards the end of the post - I try to end with not only an observation about English (and how it is just the absolute strangest language) but an observation about myself. On countless occasions, I have embarrassed myself using Korean because of a mistranslation or a socio-cultural insensitivity (like using 반말 to an elderly person, for example). Actually, if you look carefully, the last photo is a representation of myself - and how I make a fool out of myself more times than not to my Korean friends.
However, you do bring up an especially valid cultural point about confidence in expression using a foreign language. Think about it: why is it when couples argue, they argue in their native tongue? Why is it so much more comfortable to meet a new friend who speaks your native language? It simply feels better to express yourself in a language that you have greater command. I would love the day when I can have a nice, civilized argument in Korean but until then, I get to sound like a jerk in English.
I also feel that a lot of the humor in the post is taken with a lot of prior knowledge of Koreans and the group mentality (versus Americans and individual mentality) so of course, 우리 아내 doesn’t translate over to English - especially when English has so much reflection of our culture embedded in the language. For example, English speakers “take” a lot. We “take” our time, we “take” a break, and we “take” a nap. It gets a little fuzzy to get behind the subtle message but a lot of it goes back to our (Americans) individualistic nature.
And by the way, I completely see where you are coming from. It’s no fun when someone is diligently trying to learn and express a new language only to have someone who speaks it natively make fun of you. I’m pretty easy going but it does make me feel a little self-conscious when someone goes beyond correcting my mistakes in Korean by laughing at my expense. Having said that, I sincerely hope that no one took offense to my post as it is intended to give everyone a short chuckle and nothing more.
On the real, though, I really do appreciate your comment and value your opinion. I hope you continue to post on here and in the forum!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:14 am
You don’t have to worry about me doing 오 해 or being offended, because I as an ESL person should know and do better than that.
I myself use from time to time English of which I don’t fully understand the nuance and depth, or words mistaken for something totally different from what I intended to say, ending in some sort of stand-up comedy.
I am just glad that you got my point through my Korean thought written in the language I don’t have even the half command of.
Not only that, you came up with the addition I asked for, the explanation for the group mentality, so that other KSL (Korean as Second Language) people can read, laugh and understand the reason behind the mindset that is unusual for them to grasp.
Yes, we feel awkward to use words for individuality like ‘I, me, or my’, or even ‘you’, even though we have the word for that, simply because ‘I’ don’t want to stand out tall among our group or tribe.
So, instead of saying my father, my son or my wife, we prefer to say our father, our son, or our wife just to avoid myself sticking out as an individual.
However, people are changing. So does their way of saying things.
Since we don’t or can’t have a big family or 2, 3 generations living under one roof, due to economical or social reasons, this group mentality seems losing its grip.
Despite of the changing in the trend, the group mentality is still in command in many aspect of Korean life.
Like when a certain group of company workers under the same section or department is to have a party (회 식), no individual is dare to be excused from attending it, unless having a case of emergency.
If you don’t go without an urgent excuse, you would easily be treated as ‘traitor’ of the group.
You can’t play ‘individual in a group function like that and survived.
How can you understand that without having the Korean mindset?
You said that we say, ‘look at the test’.
You made a good point.
When we think in Korean thought and convey it in English, we can only say that way with the help from the dictionary, 시 험 을(test) 보 다(look).
For you, take(잡 다) a test(시 험): 시험을 잡다, which we don’t say in such a way.
Long and short, we as language learners need to have the mentality of the language we study in order to speak naturally, I guess.
What a task!
October 15th, 2008 at 8:47 am
well said henry!
October 4th, 2010 at 2:48 am
When I was a missionary we used “promise” for 약속. Like, “I have a promise tomorrow.”