An ESL lesson (8+ years but can adjust to all ages).

I have been collecting words (see list below) that Koreans have adopted from other languages. It is sort of a mini-vocabulary within their own language that almost all Koreans use and is a first step into English. Typically we read this list aloud in a first class, with my commentary, and everybody feels comfortable with the fact that they already know so many English words.

Some words in Korean sound almost exactly like the English and have the same meaning. This may indicate ancient links or be a coincidence. I have not had the chance to speak with a linguist about this. I am pointing to Korean words like maany (many), yun moat (moat or pond), dol (stone), ga (go), waay (why). The similarity of sound makes them easy to remember and use.

New words are coming in every year. For example mango juice was brought into Korea this past summer, July 2003, by Delmonte Company and now the word and product is widely used here, though most Koreans have never seen a real mango.

We discuss differences in sound that occurred with the word transfer and sometimes the change in meaning. Another interesting aspect is that several of the words are not just English but were borrowed into English at an earlier date or have become widely international. Vodka, a Russian word, is a good example and pronounced with a W in that language. Biennale is similar to English biennial but the word was taken by the Koreans from Italian (and means festival here), thus the final e on the word. Chocolate originated from the Mexican Indian language.

Korean Words (almost) the same as English:

allergy (pronounced aler-gee), flashe (light), slipper, CD, psycho, DVD, SOS, UN, DNA, PVC, PET, plastic, batman, gorilla, penguin, juice, Santa Claus, Superman, sexy, mild shampoo (from a local brand name), bus, robot, mango (the juice arrived summer 2003, Delmonte Company), internet, guitar, stocking, stalking (as in stalker), pizza, cigar, alcohol (Koreans say alcool), toast, tomato, banana, hint, King Kong, comedy, comedian (gag-a-man), paint, Champagne, Spice Girls (Koreans need the word spice explained), cap, tuba, Neanderthal, Homo erectus, Cro-Magnon, Australopithecus, Homo sapiens, bond (a local name for glue taken from imported bottles), nylon, marker, tape, string, porno, t-shirt, taxi, ok (okay), kangaroo, bazooka, cider (this word transferred to lemonade soda in Korean and not apple beer), Donky Chicken (a local franchise. Note the missing 'e' in donkey. Koreans use another word for donkey dang-na-gui), Kentucky Fried Chicken (Koreans don't know Kentucky State), Pellican Chicken (another franchise), chimpanzee, Dracula, TV, kiss, cake, escalator, elevator, mud, pack, mask (from the Jim Carrey movie), ketchup, sticker, yoga, yoghurt, uppercut, sniper (army), panda, diamond (Koreans say di-a-mond), ruby, emerald, disco, techno- (dancing music), piano, silk, audio, video, flute, tank, one-shot, aircon (air conditioner), Orangutan, coffee/cafe/latte, cunning (means cheating in Korean), pineapple (the base looks like a huge green pine cone or so-na-mu sa-gua in Korean), Frankenstein, Einstein, orange, yo-yo, aspirin, see-saw, computer, camera, condom, restaurant, zig-zag, vodka, choco(late), cocoa (pronounced ko-ko-ah in Korean), whiskey, (w)ool (Korean don't really have a W so they drop its use in wool), puzzle, gum, ribbon, vinyl (pronounced bee-nil in Korean because they don't have a V in Korean), many (maany in Korean), spray (hair spray), battery, token, foundation, band, VCR/VTR (Koreans say video tape recorder), bunny, lipstick, ice cream, lotion, off, sides, sunglass(es), Nike, eye, shadow, hamburger, pen, hair, style, curry rice (Koreans run the two words together like this: cuddyrice), mayonnaise, mascara, kick-goal-in (from soccer), biennale (Italian), crystal, cheese, condition, makeover, ultra, laptop, biscuit, tempura (originally Japanese from Portuguese traders before that), cup (originally Koreans, like Chinese/Japanese, used bowls not cups), TNT, tulip (Koreans have their own names for most flowers; some also know popular foreign flowers like freesia, petunia and geranium [with a hard g]), UFO, Joker, card, chess, cameo, concert, orchestra, salon, typhoon (pronounced taepoon here), bye-bye, hamster, Guinea pig, boxing, golf (pronounced gol-pa), baking powder, yeast, dolphin (pronounced dol-pin), mania, oil (Koreans also use their own word kee-rim), picnic, heater, dutyfree, parade, aluminium (pronounced the English, not American, way), pickle, laptop, zombie (j used instead of a z as Korean has no z), gag (as in joke), lemon (Koreans grow a round, hardy, seedy type of lemon and call it yoo-ja), orange (used for the big imported oranges; their mandarins grown on Cheju Island are called guuil), mama (uma), papa (apa), fortress, carpet, HOP/HOF (this interesting word was taken from German and it is known in English as Hoff, meaning a beer parlor or pub. Korean does not have F in the alphabet so they substitute a P, amazing but true), spaghetti, pepperoni, lasagna, Parmesan, stencil, speaker, Canada, Italy, Sweden etc. (Koreans use the same English names for many countries but their own words for others e.g. US (Me-guk), Australia (Ho-ju), UK (Young-guk), S. Africa (Nam-a-gong), Germany (Toe-gil), Japan (Il-bon), China (Joong-guk), oops (introduced in the Britney Spears song), sponge, cork, go Dutch (Koreans say Dutch pay), set (as in hamburger set), club, heart, diamond, spade, theme (pronounced tae-ma), signal, same (Koreans say same-same), styrofoam (Koreans say stee-ro-poam), boiler, debut, scaling (dental cleaning)

Note that most of the adopted words are nouns. It is true that verbs with all their reflexes and tenses travel with greater difficulty (more conservative).

A good piece of home or class work is to ask student groups to make categories. This will clearly demonstrate where the foreign words are penetrating their language.

ESL teachers can adapt this list while teaching in other countries. It would be so interesting to see how many of these and other words have penetrated, been borrowed, by other cultures/countries. Which words have become truly international, i.e. part of a growing world vocabulary or world language?

Copyright 2004 Robin Tim Day

Comments from a linguist, Dr. David James SILVA, Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington

I was just reading your webpage and thought that you might like the input of a linguist!

The Korean words that you cite as being near to comparable English terms (maany (many), yun moat (moat or pond), dol (stone), ga (go), waay (why)) are really Korean; any resemblance to English forms is purely coincidental. For example, the Korean descriptive verb to mean 'a lot' or 'many' is /manh-/. As an adverb in Korean, it becomes [manhi]; in its verbal incarnation, it's [manhayo] or [manhsumnida] or [manha] or [mantha] -- all depending on who's speaking to whom in what sort of situation (of course).

A couple more of these coincidental parings that you might add to you list:
- Korean tu means two
- Korean ssi means seed

Again, it's all coincidental for these words. Your list of foreign words appropriated by Korean is great! I would add that when Korean borrows words, it almost always (if not always always) begins by assigning them the lexical category NOUN. From there, Korean can then convert these nominal forms into other parts of speech by adding suffixes and/or associating them with a verb. Here, the Korearn verb hada to make/do is particularly productive: back-up (as in what you do to your computer to save files) comes into Korean as 'baegeop' (the noun designating the end product, the back(ed) up material), which then combines with hada to give baegeop-hada -- to back-up (your computer files). Cool.

David James SILVA, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Linguistics & TESOL
The University of Texas at Arlington, Texas
Website: http://ling.uta.edu/~david