High School - Konglish

[jellomando]

After a couple weeks of free study, exam, and 'teacher, we just tested' classes,  I went back to a real lesson, Konglish, and in hindsight it probably makes sense to do this early on in the academic year so you can reinforce 'finish' not 'finishy.'

Konglish:

• Native Speaker and classroom define Konglish. 5 minutes.
• Native Speaker introduces classification of Konglish.  10 minutes.
• Students complete the Konglish Meanings section of the Konglish worksheet. 5 minutes.
• Native Speaker takes up the section with class.  5 minutes.
• Students complete the Konglish Sounds section of the Konglish worksheet. 5 minutes.
• Native Speaker takes up the section with class. 5 minutes.
• Students complete the Konglish Words section of the Konglish worksheet. 5 minutes.
• Native Speaker takes up the section with class. 5 minutes.
• Students complete the Konglish Abbreviations section of the Konglish worksheet. 5 minutes.
• Native Speaker takes up the section with class. 5 minutes.

Notes:

• I divided the Konglish to two main parts A & B. Part A is spelling, grammar and vocabulary, or what they should be learning in their real English class.  This lesson focuses on part B, the English used within Korean culture.
• The class is basically five minutes of talking, five minutes of students work and repeat.  For each section I introduced a concept, told the kids to start, waited for the smart kids to finish, and then took up the worksheet section with the entire class.
• The core class is easily understood by high school students but the Konglish analysis was a bit too difficult sometimes.  Out of all of the examples, the easiest ones for the students to get were spelling mistakes and phonetic Konglish (where lemon is spelt ‘remon’).  There are enough examples of Konglish on the internet that the analysis can be tweaked for easy, middle, or even hard Konglish analysis.
• If you're trained in linguistics like me (well not professor-level trained, more like TA trained) you can easily make an entire lesson based on the Phonetic Konglish part of this lesson.  But that would involve teaching a phonetic alphabet, breaking out the teeth and tongue diagrams, and trying to find Korean translations of all of these words.  Maybe that's best left to adults who actually want to learn, instead of high school children who are more interested in texting their friends.
• It's a good sign that's you've been in Korea too long when even you have trouble finding fault with Konglish examples.

Most of my information is taken from this Leon's EFL Planet,  1stopKorea.com, and other places on the Internet.  The Konglish images come from a search on Flickr for Konglish and my favourite is this one, a Konglish translation for In his trademark bow tie and bowler hat, no case is too silly, or very winnable for Snoopy the Attorney:

More information about my lessons can be found here.

[Brian]

Good lesson.  I ought to do something like this at the beginning of the year in March.  It brings up a lot of interesting points about English, although I will have to simplify things for my middle school students. 

Today I was going to do the Konglish test, but we ran out of time.  I put them into groups of 7 or 8 and handed them a sheet of paper with "A, B, C, D" etc., and had them write between 1 and 5 English words that appear in Korean for each letter of the alphabet.  It was the last class, and I was pretty liberal with it: S-line, shampoo, sharp were all okay in my book, because they constitute English words appearing in Korean.  I gave them 15 minutes, then awarded one point for each word.  They got an extra point if it was spelled right.  At the end of the class I had the students choose one word from each letter that they thought the other groups didn't come up with, and I awarded extra points if those words were unique.   

Last night I was bored and so I did the activity myself.  I came up with about 350 words that fit in that broad category of English in Korean.  It's interesting to see, and to show students, how big of a vocabulary they already have.  (If they'd just use those words properly).  With more time it'd be great to get into other aspects of your lesson, so I'm gonna try it next semester.

edit: the above doesn't really fit your lesson of teaching the kids the different types of Konglish . . . just thought I'd share. 

edit 2: Uploaded the blank A-Z list that I've used.

[nicola]

to add for amusement (and cause it's true) in British/NZ/Aust English 'cider' is a cold alcoholic beverage made from apples that is served in pubs/bars etc...

[nicola]

I used these work sheets as part of a teachers workshop on Konglish and found that they worked really well and provoked a lot of good conversation. The teachers were all really enthused to talk about Konglish, though one teacher pointed out that part time job "arbeit" has german origins instead of japanese and they felt that American Style Coffee wasn't a term that was used much. I'll see what my next workshop thinks:)

[goulash]

This lesson looks great. Unfortunately I think it's a little high for my middle school boys, but I might throw it into one of my teachers workshops.

I just had one thought. I know we perceive Konglish as "wrong English" but there's a growing perception that there is no such thing as "wrong English". It's basically what happens when any language is integrated into your own or when you learn a second language.

Really, two thirds of the English language could be seen as "wrong" if you look at the origins of all the words we've stolen from other countries and also look at how different each "Native" English speaking country uses English compared to other "Native" English speaking countries.

As an Australian, I'd say our Strine would also be seen as "wrong English" because it has been adapted mainly from British English, but is unique in it's sounds and meanings.

It's the concept of the difference between English and World Englishes.

For the purpose of learning English, Konglish definitely is wrong, but my point above might be fun to bring up & talked about in a teachers workshop.
 

[jellomando]

If you're going to bring this up you might want to do it within a disucssion of monocultural and multicultural countries.  We see this liguistic divide occur at levels below the international context and, from living in various parts of the US and Canada, I can offer the great Pop vs. Soda controversy as a good example.

[nicola]

I've used this in two teachers workshops; one the teachers just went through the worksheets and we talked about bits and pieces along the way...they were really interested, I got the impression, because they found out which pieces of konglish were konglish and which were english...sometimes its hard to know what is what if you dont have a point of comparison. The other workshop was a little more argumentative about the validity of konglish terms and eventually evolved into a discussion on colonisation (re: ignoring the Scandinavians, if you want to learn English, get colonised by an English speaker nation;).  Granted, I'm pretty lucky because my teacher groups are both really into speaking and developing their English which makes things a lot easier for me to just think of interesting questions and stir the pot now and then.

[bleakronnie]

Great lesson. I'm going to use this with my high school boys this week. Three things I have changed however.
1. For 'S-line' I put 'Hour-glass figure' instead of sexy female contours as that sounds more familiar to me.
2. I have taken out the 'Hash' segment as hash is actually a style of cooking as well as a drug, at least in England, i.e. Corned-beef hash.
3. 'Dishy' is an old fashioned English slang word meaning hot or sexy.

Thanks a million for the plan though, it's a great idea and looks awesome, I'll let you know how it goes.

[bleakronnie]

It went really well, thanks. I'm going to drop the powerpoint next time in favour of some VAs.
Repeating an earlier post, it is a great lesson to give early in the semester with a new class.

[Pariahs Bedpost]

I used this too. I changed the definitions slightly because I felt that some of the konglish listed was just bad english not konglish. I dont want to criticise too much, it was a good lesson.

Also the slide with 'no drunken ride'. This is a sign in an amusement park for a ride or something. It doesnt mean 'dont drink and drive'

[laserprinter]

I fixed it up a bit for my own purposes.  Great lesson and it takes up 50 mins easy if you present, test, correct for each part.

I removed 'bad' and 'incorrect' as it seems very offensive throughout the ppt.  My coteacher was red in the face and couldn't look at me after I used that ppt.

My edit is, I feel, more culturally acceptable. 

Also, it seems like you're jerking your own chain by using the  linguistic terminology.  I don't think this is helpful to the students whatsoever. 

Thanks for the template!  It's working out well!

[Dyl]

On the topic of Englishes, I recommend listening to Darren Elliot's (43 minute) interview with Professor Jenifer Jenkins where she talks about English as a Lingua Franca.
http://www.livesofteachers.com/2010/03/31/an-interview-with-jennifer-jenkins-podcast/

He also links to English Next, a short book about English as a global language, which is well-worth a read: http://www.livesofteachers.com/2010/01/03/books-you-should-read-part-one-english-next-by-david-graddol/

[kaymac]

i'm conflicted about teaching this lesson for the potential offending of co-teacher's also. going to have to think about it or maybe save it for an extra class. I think the Korean on slide 68 could be ok depending on what kind of meat it was, my grandparents used to always call ground beef hash <though I do think of the illegal one when I hear it now haha> Either way, nice work went into this! Just need to find the right pair of kid-gloves to teach it with.

[laserprinter]

Yes you can skip over the bits you don't like.  Throughout the lesson I added in the comment, I emphasized that foreigners may not understand Konglish but Koreans do.  I said it was just to help them understand some potential differences and misunderstandings.

[sleeman]

Came across this today..very good collection of all Konglish

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/tesol/konglish-a-to-z/

[amandaz]

I taught this lesson a while back to my grade 3 middle school boys, and it has actually come in very handy now. I wish I would have taught it at the beginning of the year. If something is "Konglish" I can just say that, and they know exactly what I mean. My main problem with Konglish is when they either completely change the meaning or completely change the pronunciation of a word.  Obviously some words still work in English, but I want my students to be able to communicate with anyone, so I think pointing out Konglish words is very useful for them.

[elzoog]

The thing is, trying to correct Konglish might be sort of a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Konglish is basically English "words" that have been appropriated into the Korean language with possible changes of meaning.   However, English itself appropriates words and phrases from other languages without regard necessarily to their original meaning.   For example, "double entendre" is incorrect French, but that doesn't stop English speakers from using it.

Another example, which I have debated is SF movie for "sci fi" movie.    Actually, SF is listed in the AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY as meaning "science fiction", so it's hard to make a case that SF isn't standard English:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sf

(in other words, if it's in the dictionary you are going to have to come up with something more convincing than "I don't personally use it" to convince me it's not valid English).

Basically, I don't know how much I would bother actually trying to correct Konglish, other than to point out that by using it, you might be misunderstood by a native speaker not familiar with Korean culture.

Recently for example, Koreans answered "one piece" when I showed them a picture of a dress.   My response was to tell them that "one piece" could easily be confused with "one piece bathing suit".

[Lau]

I've done something a bit different with this lesson and turned it into a Bomb game...I'm attaching the powerpoint just in case anyone would like to use it.

[haroldturkoman]

I've done something a bit different with this lesson and turned it into a Bomb game...I'm attaching the powerpoint just in case anyone would like to use it.

Lau: I'd love to see the game, but according to waygook, the file is 0 KB.  I've downloaded it twice, and each time it's an empty file.  Could you try to reupload please?  Thanks!

[mlcarn]

While the intentions of those who created and used the lesson seem good, this lesson seems to be, in whole, pretty offensive. I don't want to repeat all the previous criticisms, which I think are very grounded, but this lesson basically 1) makes fun of Korean English speakers and 2) encourages them to NOT use English (isn't that the reason why we are here? To encourage them to speak English?) Telling students that words they use everyday are stupid and that foreigners will laugh at their langauge skills seems grossly counter-productive.

I think this lesson would be better if the slides at the beginning were removed and if a more humorous tone was taken with the activity. Maybe that was the intention of the creator, who clearly put a lot of effort into his lesson, but when I viewed this Powerpoint, I was just offended.