A Look At the Hangeul Signs In Insadong

See, I've heard before that Insadong's Starbucks is the only one in the world that has the word Starbucks in a script other than roman. It's Hangul - Korean script. Apparently, though I can't find a reference, some Korean professor heard about the starbucks in insadong, and sent a letter to the editor saying that putting English letters in Insadong would make Korean children stop wanting to read Hangul, and Korean culture would be lost forever.

People have indeed been talking about whether Korea has too much English... now as then.

So, back when the old Starbucks came up, in order to prevent Korea's entire culture from vanishing into a vortex of English letters, Sex and the City brunches and blue jeans, Insadong made a new bylaw that all signs in Insadong had to be in Korean letters. Now, I'm not sure if the wording of the bylaw is "Hangul Only" or "Must contain some Hangul"... but I thought I'd check it out, to see whether the Starbucks rule was applied, or actually just symbolic, and whether the rule applied to Korean companies, or just to the evil American Imperialist Chain Franchise Antichrist.

So here begins my tour: to start, MOST signs sure ARE in Hangul only.

But then... the purple haired lady will guide you through Insadong on a photo tour.

Now let's be clear, to begin with: the overwhelming majority of the signs in Insadong looked pretty much like this. Lots. Of. Hangul. Korea's innocent little children, who, I swear, are on the brink of losing Korean culture while humming Wondergirls songs between bouts of Starcraft and studying for standardized tests...but then, they'd better be careful where they go, even in Insadong.
This is definitely the rule, not the exception...at least in Insadong. I'd be interested if any bundang based bloggers would be interested to put up a bunch of photos of how much English appears on the signs in Bundang...or Apkujeong or Kangnam, as well, for that matter.

Nature Republic, a Korean brand (link - warning: Korean cheesecake) which usually puts English on their signs, had to put hangul on their storefront.

Isae doesn't have much Korean. The slogan is also in (pretty bad) English, here.

Roman letters... are they OK if the Roman letters are not-English?
But the evil American Imperial Franchise Antichrist and Enemy to All Things Good and Korean... they have to use Hangul. And not even smaller English letters underneath it. (Can't see from here if the Starbucks Logo uses roman letters intact).

A-Shin-- which sounds like a Korean word -- is inexplicably spelled with English letters.
Arirang, a mathom shop, is allowed to have English, Korean, and... Japanese...? side by side, taking up about equal space.


This gallery didn't need to use Korean.


The street food things don't seem to need to use hangul.

The banner for the art show was allowed to use big... Italian, is it? Without problems.


The hospital had to have prominent Korean.

All English letters on the gallery.



Gallery Yes; Korean No; Problem No. Seems to be the rule, so far.

Chinese characters. No Korean. Korean kids who shop here are definitely losing interest in learning Korean. But no English... so I guess we're OK.


Isae: fashion company... couldn't find info on it, either on google, or online -- the website url didn't connect in firefox.



More English on a gallery sign.


Gallery: All English. No Korean to be seen - at least not prominent.


The bylaw doesn't seem to be enforced on the side-streets of Insadong.

Ssamziegil -- the new style plaza.


Fashion shop "Supremes" - English work, Korean letters.

Gallery: English. Korean and Chinese combined stencils.


Gallery: English Words written in Korean.


Gallery: English. No Korean.


Crown Bakery, which only shows Korean image results when I do a google image search, and which doesn't turn up on google pretty much at all, has to spell it out in Korean, despite having English letters everywhere else in Korea except here.



Around the corner from the top of insa, is Lime Tree (nice avocado sandwiches). English letters prominent. A few throwaway Hanguls on the main sign.

Down the street, next to Anguk Station exit 1 (clearly no longer Insadong proper), another Starbucks with Korean letters. While I don't have the research to say for sure, it seems like most other shops can get away with mostly English... but the Evil American Imperial Franchise Antichrists can't, even if they're NOT in Insadong proper.

In general, my non-scientific observations:
Restaurants use hangul.
Galleries can use English.
Souvenir shops can use English, but have to have hangul on there, too.
Foreign chains seem to have to use Hangul, as do Korean chains with English names. At least there's consistency there.

In conclusion, Korea is a land of contrasts. Thank you for reading my essay.

From the movie flyers

Picked up these movie flyers a while back.

I love that because Nicolas Cage married a Korean, his movies are three times more popular (should I say K-popular?) in Korea than in America, and even his craptasticolioso work runs for the better part of a month. (Ghost Rider, I'm talking to you.)

Even cuter: in the promotional flyer for the movie Knowing, he's introduced with the diminutive nickname "케서방" - Kae-seobang. Usually, "seobang" goes after an in-law's family name to make a cute nickname, I'm told by Girlfriendoseyo. "Kim seobang" would be the nickname if the in-law's family name were "Kim," for example. Yeah. Cute. Korea loves Nicolas Cage. Kiss. Even when his acting is about on par with this.




At the same time, I picked up this pamphlet: Jeon Ji-hyun starred in "Blood, the Last Vampire," a full-on Hollywood movie starring a Korean... and STILL disappeared from Korean cinemas with barely a whimper. It was so bad it never even got the "OMFG A Korean is in a Hollywood movie!!!!!" hype that most Korean roles in Hollywood films merit.


I watched it (download) and...yeah. It didn't warrant the hype. Or even the eighty minutes of my life. Pretty bad.

Plus, in the picture, is a new Konglish spelling mistake I've been coming across lately: the misspelling of "Heroine" (meaning female hero of a movie) as "Heroin".

Yeah.

2S2: Toward an expat community

So Ask The Expat got the ball rolling with this one, by suggesting that it was time for the fragmented mini-pockets of expat community (starting in Seoul, because he's in Seoul) start getting organized.

In an effort to get that going, here's the idea I had:

You know how everybody knows that the fourth Friday of every month is club night in Hongdae? You don't have to check local listings -- you just have to show up, and people begin to plan part of their weekends around it, and stuff, because it's sure a sight to see, and it's gonna happen -- every fourth Friday, like clockwork, it's there.

Well, in a similar way, why aren't expats planning out things, not just to get together and get trashed, but in order to establish a more integrated network of expats here in Korea, in order to provide opportunities for socializing with people other than my coworkers, at the neighborhood bar, and in order to take all the online connections we have, and get them into real life?

So here's the idea: I was going to call it "The Second Saturdays Project," until I found out that the Seoul Writers Club's upcoming project is called "Every Second Sunday" -- seems to be taken. So instead, I present to you:

2S2 -- it's symmetrical, it's memorable, hopefully somebody with some graphic design skill will make it into a simple, recognizable logo sometime, and it contains the information you need.
2S2 stands for "Second Saturdays at 2" or every second Saturday at 2pm. This 2S2 would be a regular get-together where people can meet, network, and then participate in other activities.

It's my dream that 2S2 grow to become a decentralized get-together where expats can meet up at agreed-upon places around Seoul and Korea, in order to build and strengthen connections, and in order to provide a context in which expats in Korea can help each other learn about Korea and integrate better with their host-country, as well as to provide a gathering of people ready to participate in a tangible community, and give something back to Korea. At this point, the people scapegoating foreigners and English teachers are well-mobilized and well-organized, but we English teachers and expats aren't doing a whole lot to provide a different image of ourselves than the dirty, unqualified, etcetera. Once it gains steam, 2S2 meetings could be an opportunity to get expats out in the community, picking up trash, volunteering at different places, taking part in cultural events, and who knows what else -- really, the imaginations of the organizers is the limit.

Here's the best thing about it: all it takes is a couple of people to organize a 2S2 Pocket. Basically, we already have the main info: 2S2 means every Second Saturday of the month, at 2pm. From there, all an organizer needs to do is send me a message and say "Hey. I'm going to start a 2S2 pocket at ___" and name a location. I'll publish the location, here, at The Hub of Sparkle, and if somebody has the web skills, we might even put it up on its own website. Well-known, or at least easy-to-find locations are probably best; I'd suggest coffee shops rather than bars, because part of the purpose of forming a more tangible community is to break OUT of the stereotype of English teachers in Korea to extend frat/sorority life, and from there, it's just a matter of showing up at that spot, every second Saturday at 2, and to meet whoever else is looking to connect, and to have an activity ready to go for whoever does show up. Hopefully, we'll start hearing from people with information like "Hey. I know an orphanage in this area where they'd love to have..." "I know a church that runs a Saturday soup kitchen..." or, for that matter, "why don't we all bring our used books to the meetup and pass them around?" and who knows what else, so that we can start reaching out to the community, and also connecting with each other. Bring your friends: it's an open invitation. Pick a different location every month if you're just attending -- but if you're an organizer, once you've named a location, be there every second Saturday, or find someone to fill the post in your absence. And that's it.

Like Club Night, it would take some time, I imagine, for the grassroots meetups to gain steam, and membership, but the nice thing about this is that it's decentralized, which means that each group can take ownership of their own pocket, and decide what their 2S2 Pocket is about, and how they're going to run things, and what kinds of activities they're going to do. If you volunteer to open a pocket, I'm gonna ask you to be patient, and be committed, during the beginning stages, when things never look very impressive. Maybe it's just you and your three coworkers for the first four months... well, OK. But this is something that could eventually build up to something a lot bigger, and meaningful for a lot of people, so, yeah, encourage people you meet to join, and stick with it, eh?


So I'm naming a location for the first, pilot 2S2 Pocket: The second floor of Twosome Place, at the top of Insa-dong street. If you want to find it, go to Anguk Station, exit 1, and turn right when you come out of the gate. Twosome Place will be on your right, just before the big intersection. Go there, and look for me, tomorrow at 2pm. Depending on who, and how many people show up, the activity's not going to be very ambitious this time: just a meet-and-greet, weather permitting, a stroll around, and possibly dinner, but if you want to talk to me more about 2S2, or if you have ideas, or if you have a spot where a few expats looking to give back to the community could add their energy, I'd love to hear about it, by e-mail, or in person.

This is not an exclusive effort -- the invitation's open to anyone, so bring your Korean, Brazilian, or Martian friend if you want, and let's try to get the expat community in Korea amounting to more than the sum of its parts, instead of significantly less, as it stands right now.

QOTD during test week

I'm making and marking tests this week. That's no fun, but due to a glitch in schedules, I have an accidental four-day weekend...during which I have a lot of work to do.

So here's some food for thought, courtesy of my "quote of the day" gadget in Igoogle:

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
- Dorothy Parker

another personal favorite:
Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.
- P.T. Barnum

Kang Shin-Who Search... Note Result Number 5