Konglish and Korean "Story"

On Monday, sitting in my grade 5 class, was this girl, who was wearing a T-shirt that said "I'm not mean, you're just a sissy!". Do you think she knows what it means? Of course not. But this is one of the beauties of Korea's love for anything english. The shirts go from 13 year old girls wearing shirts saying "I wish my boyfriend was as dirty as this dirtbike" (with dirtbike picture on it), to shirts that consist of a bunch of mispelled words jammed together forming no coherance at all ("Saw my back" was the most recent shirt I sent home to my sister). All the time, we foreigners are snatching them up and sending them home as gifts!


Korea also boasts the amazing art of "Story". This can be as simple as calling your store "Beauty Story" or "Book Story" or calling a video game "Maple Story", but it all seems to be an attempt to give personality, character, emotional appeal and reputation to whatever it is they are peddling. This "Story" theme then goes on coffee cups, billboards and placemats to convey this "pseudo reputation" to the users, who, for the most part, don't speak English.

For us who do, it's awesome!