I’ve lived in the country nearly three years now, and thought I had heard every single name that a white person in Korea can be called. I’ve heard 외국인, 외국사람, 미국인, 미국사람, 백인, 씹새끼…pretty much every title that is bellowed when a westerner enters the premise. So imagine my surprise when I was address in not one, but two new ways in the past week.
The first came the other day while I was walking home from work. Cutting through an apartment complex, a group of elementary school girls saw me and one of them in utter shock proclaimed, “와! 영어사람 이다!”
Now for those who can’t read, speak, or understand Korean at all, let me break this one down for you. The first word, “와! (Wah!)” is basically the same thing as “Woah!” in English. People proclaim it when they are in shock. If I hear it, it is usually followed by 미국사람, or 외국인…but not this time. The last word “이다 (ida)” is the verb “to be.” Verbs go at the end of the sentence in Korean, other than that nothing to really say about this word. The middle part is what caused me to do a double take.
“영어 (young-oh)” is English as in the language. It is not used when talking about people or brands of beer or companies. “사람 (saram)” means person. So this girl was proclaiming her shock at seeing an “English language person.” I was with 진희 at the time and turned to her, “Did that girl just call me a 영어사람?”
“Yes she did.”
“Can people do that in Korean?”
“Nope.”
Fast forward a couple days, and I was sent to the supermarket to purchase some carrots and bananas. Buying produce works like this in most Korean supermarkets: you take the vegetable you want out of a big bin, put it in a plastic bag, hand that bag to a dude working in the store. That dude then weighs the vegetables, slaps a price sticker on it, and gives it back to you.
So I got my 흙당근 (dirt carrots…apparently the dirt keeps them fresh) bagged them and handed them to the guy working there. He slapped the sticker on the bag, and with a big smile handed them back to me and proclaimed in English, “Thank you Conky!”
Conky? As a child of the 1980s, right away I thought of the robot from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. Then as my brain parsed what had been said I was reminded of another television Conky, that being the puppet from the outstanding Canadian television program Trailer Park Boys. So I got my carrots and bananas, and left the supermarket feeling pretty awesome…much better than when I was reduced to simply being an “English Language Person.”
Just like that elementary school girl my translation software does not distinguish between the strange construct of 영어 사람 and the expected 영국 사람. Therefore I must conclude this was not a child you met but a lifelike robot powered by JungUm Global software. I’d keep an eye out if I were you.
Comment by John Paul Jose — May 12, 2006 @ 2:31 am
Hi, I couldn’t find your e-mail, but I got here from http://ihaveseoul.blogspot.com, anyway…
My name is Ricardo Pinto, I’m a 26 year-old portuguese blogger, musician (portuguese guitar) and anthropology student.
My blog is http://escreversobremusicaeimpossivel.blogspot.com which ironically means
“It is impossible to write about music”, but that’s just what I do,
I write about music: bands that perform in my city Coimbra and portuguese records.
I’m contacting you because of an idea that I had, I’d really like to include abroad
opinions in my blog about modern portuguese music, taking advantage of the internet in order to exchange ideas.
Would you be interested collaborating with a few texts to my blog? I would send you the records trough e-mail
and you could just write a few lines about them, What do you think? Please let me know…
Thank you,
Ricardo
Comment by Ricardo — May 12, 2006 @ 4:08 am
Perhaps she is Conky! Oh man, now I’m worried. Next time I see her she might give me a word of the day and instruct me that whenever I hear the word of the day to “scream real loud.”
Comment by Wyatt — May 12, 2006 @ 9:45 am
You’ve never heard 영어 사람 before in 3 years?
Wow. Perhaps it’s where you live in Korea, but I’ve heard that multiple times. It usually happens when I’ve been speaking English to those around me while encountering children that likely haven’t ever studied English before on the street or in a store.
It isn’t the most common, like you mentioned, but I don’t hear “백인” very often either.
Comment by Torgodevil — May 13, 2006 @ 0:43 am