Ads bringing out the Engrish in a big way

South Korea’s quest to become a popular tourist destination is one made all the more difficult when tourism information is not made available in foreign languages or, as is the case just about every time, when the language is laughably bad. Such was the case with a new campaign by the Korea Tourism Organization called “Visit Korea Year: 2010-2012.”

They of course mean that 2010-2012 will be three years, from the opening of the first to the closing of the last, but the campaign chose not to put the “s” on “year.” Such mistakes are mind-boggling, and show that people in charge don’t care about getting it right.

“Who do they hire at their ad agencies, seriously,” asks willywayland.

Matt adds: “I’m convinced they only release stuff like this in country to keep the local English speaking populace confused.”

Indeed, English is often merely used for decoration in Korea, or as a way to seem cosmopolitan, forgetting that actual English speakers will be confused by the misuse of their language.

All of the poor English used in prominent ad campaigns makes the observer wonder if anything good will come out of all the money being spent on English education.

“This slogan is everything that’s wrong with Korea,” writes Ryan G. “Korea has amazing energy, and an insatiable appetite to increase its perceived global image. It has the resources to brand itself among the best in the world. But all of this comes to naught if they don’t put all of that energy in the right direction. For example, for all the money that Korea spends on educating its citizens in English, they can’t even get a national slogan that makes sense in English. It’s funny and sad at the same time.”

He concludes: “Look, I love this country, it’s my second home. But sometimes I think it’s just stumbling on its way with the wrong people at the helm.”

Others joked about Korea’s aggressive marketing, especially trying to keep up with Japan or other foreign countries. “Because Korea year better than foreigner year. Have 730 day and eight distinct season. Manse!!” writes 1994.

Hotlerbarbour writes, “Japan’s ‘Visit Japan Year 2010’ is only one calendar year, so Korea’s ‘Visit Korea Year 2010-2012’ is three times as awesome.”

“The insanity really is every few years Korea pronounces it ‘Visit Korea Year,’” Puffin Watch points out. “There tends to be about three ‘Visit Korea Years’ per decade. It seems some wiseacre has decided to simply batch them all together and have a three-year Visit Korea Year and maybe be done with it for the roaring ’10s.”

People feel compelled to ask who this campaign is actually for, because though it aims to attract foreign tourists, all the information is in Korean.

Eat Your Kimchi writes, “I visited the site and it’s all in Korean. If you can read Korean, there’s an overwhelmingly good chance that you’re living in Korea, and thus don’t need to visit it. Who are they targeting?”

[Editors’ note: The Korea Tourism Organization’s Web site is, in fact, in English and several other languages.]

Korea’s problems with English aren’t merely confined to government tourism campaigns, but can be seen just about anywhere English is seen in South Korea: T-shirts, billboards, pop songs, advertisements and textbooks. Authority figures seem too proud to ask native speakers for help, or seem to overestimate their own English skills.

But it’s clear that to avoid embarrassing or offensive mistakes it’s important to consult native English speakers to try and get it right. There’s no reason to continue using ridiculous English.

These comments were collected by Brian Deutsch from recent blog posts. To read more, visit his blog Brian in Jeollanam-do at: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/.

*Readers are welcome to send suggestions for topics that they wish to be covered or blogs that they would like to see featured in this column. Please e-mail us at: estyle@joongang.co.kr.

By Brian Deutsch Contributing writer