By I just think the funny English slogans add to the charm of being in Korea, but here is what two ROK Drop favorites Michael Breen and Tom Coyner have to say:
The use of English slogans is becoming increasingly popular among local governments, but native-English speakers find themselves scratching their heads at the use of their language.
A recent analysis showed that of 246 local governments, 44 percent were using English slogans in their branding logos.
Michael Breen, a former foreign correspondent and the chairman of Insight Communications, commented that making slogans for places may sound easy, but it is very difficult to get it right.
He said the Dongjak district of Seoul tags itself “Lucky Dongjak,” but his first thought on reading that was, “Where’s the casino?”
“If Dongjak’s main industry were gambling, that would work well. But as it isn’t, I can’t quite see what it’s for,” Breen said. “Similarly, what can we make of Namwon, City of Love?”
He pointed out that the main mistake local governments make is to copy others. He said the effect of Dynamic Busan copied from Dynamic Korea and Yes Gumi copied from Yes Tokyo is to say, “We are not original.”
Tom Coyner, president of Soft Landing Korea, said the strange use of English may possibly be due to it being categorized into three target consumption groups; domestic, international and foreign tourist.
“In the category of domestic consumption, the use and misuse of English is of little consideration to the local marketers who come up with these catch phrases.”
Coyner claimed the primary consideration in the category is how the English words resonate with the local population who may have a fundamental but inadequate grasp of the language, as seen from Super Pyeongtaek and Hi-Touch Gongju. [Korea Times]
Does anyone have any favorite or recommended Korean slogans they would like to share?
11:53 pm on July 2nd, 2010 1
The brilliant but short-lived @koreangov blog did a comprehensive listing of regional "slogans", available at
http://governmentofkorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/tou…
My favorite by far has to be Gwangju, "Gwangju Clean. GWANGJU CITY influences money and credit conditions in the U.S. supervises and regulates banking, maintains the stability of the financial system, and provides certain financial services"
I'm absolutely not sh*tting you. See http://english.gjcity.go.kr/
12:51 am on July 3rd, 2010 2
"Gwangju Clean?"
At least most of what I've seen has advanced to where they put the adjective before the noun.
I first noticed the trend with Happy Suwon before I started to see the Super Pyeongtaek signs. They need to be careful with their adjective selection because they may not know if it's gets slang twisted until it's too late. I am old enough to remember when the word "gay" was just a synonym for "happy." A couple of graffiti writers I knew had that as part of there tag and had to live down the association with there work when the word got its new meaning.
A little off topic, but another thing I puzzle over is their choice of rally chants. During the last two World Cups it was "Fighting!" It took me a while to figure out they weren't saying "Whiting" of "Biting." Then I tried to figure why they chose to use the participle form instead of the command form. Most Americans might just say "Fight!" as a rally chant. This year, for some reason, the commercials have been trying to encourage the use of "Shouting!" as a rally chant. I still haven't figured it out.
2:13 am on July 3rd, 2010 3
Songtan Shady
3:17 am on July 3rd, 2010 4
I just find it funny when they incorporate these slogans into their flags. Makes them look like corporate logos.
4:08 am on July 3rd, 2010 5
Hi Seoul.
6:03 am on July 3rd, 2010 6
JoeC 2, maybe they were thinking of "fighting" as a gerund, not a participle. They were calling for fighting, they wanted to see some fighting, the current state of the game required fighting.
For South Korea as a whole, if they want an English slogan, I'd suggest "Prosperous, Powerful, and Defending Ourselves!"
9:56 am on July 3rd, 2010 7
Fighting's been replaced with shouting…They really need to run these slogans by people who are competent in English if they are so intent on proving that linguistic imperialism exists.
10:10 am on July 3rd, 2010 8
I always thought the slogan "Bravo Your Life" from the Samsung Life Insurance tv commercials was about as stupid sounding as you could get.
10:14 am on July 3rd, 2010 9
It's Daejeon.
10:25 am on July 3rd, 2010 10
The 'business girl' slogan when I was in Korea: "No money, no honey"
1:34 pm on July 3rd, 2010 11
I live in "Hot Yeongyang" – we are home to the hot peppers which adorn everything here
5:52 pm on July 3rd, 2010 12
If we're allowed to stray off the geographical slogans, I'd also nominate the GS Caltex "I'm your energy" slogan (hatehatehate), and the recent introduction of Minute Maid's new line of orange juice, "with pulpy".
6:39 pm on July 3rd, 2010 13
The Korean Air Force was going to use "Always High" as their English slogan, patterned after the old USAF "Aim High". Fortunately, the project officer thought to ask a native English speaker for a sanity check. And they paid a PR firm $80,000 to come up with that….
9:44 pm on July 3rd, 2010 14
"Wellness Food".
1:57 pm on August 11th, 2010 15
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4:25 pm on August 11th, 2010 16
Cleverlearn sounds like a good school.
I think it is located on Spam Street between Stupidname Academy and the Institute for Advanced Konglish Studies.
8:29 pm on October 6th, 2010 17
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12:10 am on October 7th, 2010 18
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5:26 am on October 7th, 2010 19
ChickenHead just dropped the hammer.
12:24 pm on June 2nd, 2011 20
#7 “korea shouting”? Makes even less sense than “Korea Fighting”.
But it would seem to be more accurate. During my time there, Koreans definitely did more shouting than fighting. Not complaining mind you!
12:28 pm on June 2nd, 2011 21
#20 ??????