Tag: language

The Land of the Morning Neologism

gordsellar5 Comments

Yeah, I’m talking about Korea. John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar–one of the most neologism-heavy SF novels I’ve ever read–comes to mind quite often as I hear the new neologisms spinning out, month after month. If you’ve never read Brunner’s novel, then I suppose I’ll have to give you a few examples. 된장녀 (Dwenjang Nyeo) One, of course, was the 된장녀 (dwenjang nyeo), a truly nasty word that translates literally as “soybean paste girl.” Soybean paste, while the basis of a number of Korean dishes (like dwenjang jjigae), is basically a brown stinky fermented bean paste. It’s not all that complimentary, …

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Orcs!

gordsellar4 Comments
This entry is part 28 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

One of the fascinating things that keeps coming up in my Korean lessons is the generation gap. It’s not that I was unaware of this before, but my tutor has made a careful point of noting when she shows  me a word that older people either won’t find appropriate in speech, or which she considers a “young people” word. One example is 찌질하다, which is a word I can’t quite translate into English. My tutor explained it as something that someone would say to a friend who is acting like goof or a geek, but at a party a few …

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噬 (shì)?

gordsellar0 Comments

I’m looking for a Mandarin word I could use as a translation of “devour.” It ought to have a visceral feeling, though it’s a word used by a Chinese ghost hunting the Japanese bioweapon experimenter who killed him with bubonic plague (or some similar horrific illness) in Manchuria back during the war. It’s the final finishing touch on a story I want to send out as soon as possible, maybe even tomorrow. I’ve tried a few online dictionaries but I don’t know any Mandarin at all, so I don’t trust any of the results. I’ve emailed/twittered a few Chinese speakers, …

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