A friendly reminder from the good folks at the Department of Gender Equality and the Police Department, not to be buying or selling sex.
I carefully considered how to go about presenting the text to accompany this horrible photographed sign I witnessed on the subway. At first I thought about combining the photo with some sort of news article about the sex trade in Korea obtained from The Chosun Ilbo, countless character assassinations in the comments section, and some sort of headline proclaiming “MUST READ!!!” I quickly realized that this is not The Marmot’s Hole, and decided to do something else.
My next option was to simply make a crude joke about it. Something like, “Is renting sex ok?” or “What about buying porn?” Since I’ve just presented pretty much all the jokes one could make about that sign, and it didn’t make a very interesting read, I decided to go all educational on you and hit you with some completely useless 漢字 knowledge.
性 (성품 성) among its several other uses is used in words dealing with sex. So let’s get it on, with a partial vocabulary list most sexy (partial because it will end the second I get bored with this…작심삼일 baby!)
성 (性) - a sex, a gender
성감 (性感) - sexual feeling
성감대 (性感帶) - an erogenous zone
성과학 (性科學) - sexology (is that even really a word?)
성교하다 (性交하다) - to have sexual intercourse
성교육 (性敎育) - sex education
성기 (性器) - sexual organs
성도덕 (性道德) - sexual morality
성도착증 (性倒錯症) - sexual perversion
성범죄 (性犯罪) - a sex crime (ala Law & Order: SVU)
성병 (性病) - an STD
성본능 (性本能) - sexual urges
성생활 (性生活) - sex life
성선 (性腺) - a sex gland, gonad
성애 (性愛) - sexual love, eros
성욕 (性慾) - carnal desire
성용품 (性用品) - sexual supplies (things like condoms, vibrators, ect.)
성적 (性的) - sexual
성전 (性典) - a book on sex, an encyclopedia of sex
성전환 (性轉換) - a sex change
성지식 (性知識) - knowledge of sex
성추행 (性醜行) - sexual molestation
성행위를 하다 (性行爲를 하다) - to perform a sexual act
That about does it kids. Feel free to print it out for easy use on the subway. I’m sure the 아줌마 looking over your shoulder to see what you are doing will enjoy it a lot.
“Feel free to print it out for easy use on the subway. I’m sure the 아줌마 looking over your shoulder to see what you are doing will enjoy it a lot.”
LOL!
Comment by sewing — April 19, 2006 @ 23:21 pm
The ajumma may well be enjoying it! It’s been my experience that women, from their 20’s to 40’s, here will readily admit to watching and enjoying porn.
Comment by Nathan B. — April 20, 2006 @ 19:36 pm
and there is also 性無能!!
Comment by Nicky — April 20, 2006 @ 21:40 pm
And besides, I have a copyright on it.
Comment by Robert — April 20, 2006 @ 23:50 pm
Robert,
But this is Korea, do copyrights do anything here? I’m looking at you Donuts Donuts (written in Dunkin’ Donuts font).
Comment by Wyatt — April 21, 2006 @ 8:25 am
Nathan—seriously!?
Comment by sewing — April 22, 2006 @ 8:04 am
Yes, Sewing. In almost every class of elementary teachers I taught at my old hagwon, I had one or two students who would bring this up right out of the blue. One of my students this semester, again, right out of the blue, admitted to the same.
Comment by Nathan B. — April 22, 2006 @ 13:26 pm
Nathan,
That piece of information reminded me of the advice my taekwondo teacher (a Korean) in America gave me before coming here, “Don’t teach English…you can make more money if you make housewives happy.”
At the time I thought that he was joking.
Comment by Wyatt — April 22, 2006 @ 23:53 pm
Hah hah, I could never imagine a 재미 교포 태권도 선생 advising one of his 백인 students to become a 제비 in Korea! It’s just all too funny.
Comment by sewing — April 23, 2006 @ 19:34 pm
The guy wasn’t a 교포 though…he was an immigrant who came to America when he was in his 20s…which I think makes it even more odd.
Comment by Wyatt — April 24, 2006 @ 12:21 pm