The Language of Hallyu will re-examine the language of the Korean Wave by looking at popular K-content. In doing so, it will expose the meanings that get lost in translation, hidden under subtitles.
Over the past decade, hallyu (the Korean wave) has exploded in popularity around the globe. K-films, K-drama, and K-pop were once small subcultures, known mostly by Korea’s East and Southeast Asian neighbours and Korean diaspora. Now, K-content has entered the international mainstream. Consequently, interest in Korean language has grown, while interest in language learning in general has decreased. Many textbooks emphasise that Korean is a ‘polite’ language, but this book will highlight that this is not the case.
The Language of Hallyu examines popular K-content, including Parasite (2019), Minari (2020), Squid Game (2021), and Pachinko (2022). The author introduces language stylistics to explain how Koreans style their language to suit every occasion. She argues that they do this via a process of visual scanning and social tuning, whereby visual clues are assessed in tangent with an individual’s sociocultural awareness. The author concludes by highlighting the danger of the jondaemal/banmal (polite/casual speech) divide, demonstrating that Korean language is so much more than polite.
This book will be of interest to students and researchers in Korean language and culture, particularly those interested in linguistics and pragmatics.
Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xii
Acknowledgements xiii
Romanisation Conventions xiv
Prologue 1
1 The One-Inch Barrier 3
Hallyu Takes the World by Storm 4
Korean-Language Curiosity 6
The K-Wave in the Oxford English Dictionary 7
The Power of K-Tweets 9
Translation Tribulations 9
Hierarchical Hindrances 11
Sleuthing for Clues 11
More Than Words 12
Book Overview 13
2 Language Stylistics 17
Into the ‘Language Wardrobe’ 18
Ending Stylistics: Age, Status, Environment, and Intimacy 19
Linguistic Routines 20
Particle Stylistics 21
Interjections 22
Gangnam Style-istics: English for the Vain 22
Summary 28
Linguist’s Corner 28
3 Address Matters 31
Think of Me as a Friend 31
Address Ambiguity 32
vi Contents
Nameless Faces 32
Address Terms: The Fossils of the Korean Language 33
Nunchi: Visual Scanning and Social Tuning 34
One Big Happy Family? Using Kinship Terms With Non-Kin 35
Address Terms in Parasite 36
Address Terms: An Easy Remedy 37
Suffixes: a/ya , nim , ssi 39
Why Don’t You Call Me Hyeong? 39
The New Oppa 40
Job Titles 41
Director Bong vs Song Kang-ho 42
Seonsaengnim: A Safe Haven 42
Linguistic Injustice 43
Linguistic Capitalism: Ajumma □□□□□□ vs Samonim □□□□□□ 44
Second-Person Pronoun Problems 46
Embodied Learning: Gganbu □□□□ 47
Summary 48
4 Negotiations: A Tug-of-War Between Power
and Solidarity 50
You Sounded Different on the Phone 50
All’s Fair in Tug-of-War 50
Negotiation Theatrics 51
Who Initiates the Shift? 52
Beware of Banmal 54
Consequences of the Wrong Tuning 54
Why Change Speech Style? 55
Stylistic Shift: School vs the Workplace 55
Transparent Language: Speech Style Shifts in Squid Game 56
Background Check 57
On the Periphery: Korean Diaspora and Non-Native Korean
Speakers 60
Negotiation Online 60
Summary 61
Linguist’s Corner: The Half-Talk Shift 61
5 Social Media Stylistics 65
The History of Korean Texting 66
The Basics of Korean Texting 67
Social Media Endings 69
Stickers With Text 70
Punctuation Playfulness 73
Contents vii
One Decision, Three Emoticons 73
Emoji and Politeness: Case Study 74
Group-Chat Convention 77
Emojis and Gender 77
Summary 79
6 Bodily Speaking 81
Eye Contact 83
Bowing 86
Nodding 88
Posture 88
Scratching One’s Head 88
Silence 89
Nonverbal Expressions in Orchestration 90
Moving Away from the Generalisation of East Asian
Gestures 90
Summary 92
Linguist’s Corner 93
7 Privately Speaking 95
Age Matters 96
Not Your Average Friend 96
Banmal in K-media 96
More Than an Ending 97
The Other Side of the Coin 98
Banmal in the Workplace 99
The Difficulty of Being a Younger Boss 101
Gapjil 102
Banmal Inefficiency 103
Subtitle Submersion 104
Summary 105
8 Formally Speaking 106
Korean Politeness 107
Jondaemal 109
Calling Names 110
Jondaemal in the Military 111
Jondaemal in Extraordinary Attorney Woo 111
De-generalising East Asian Address Terms 113
Translator Tribulations 116
Changes in the Workplace 118
Summary 119
viii Contents
9 Interculturally Speaking 120
Diaspora Communities 122
Interactions With Americans 123
Interfamily Issues 125
Cross-Cultural Space 126
Foreign Voices in Korea 128
K-Wave Fandom Communication 129
Summary 131
10 Women’s Words 133
A Woman’s Work Never Stops Except When Eating 133
Linguistic Inequality 135
The In-Law Burden 136
Every Household Should Have Four Sons 138
Socioeconomic Stakes Are High 139
Does Language Make Society Unequal or Does Society Make
Language Unequal? 141
Epilogue 143
References 146
Index
Biography
Jieun Kiaer is Professor of Korean Linguistics at the University of Oxford. She publishes widely on East Asian translation, with particular emphasis on Korean translation. She also works on Hallyu and the impact of popular culture in the development of language. Her publications include The Routledge Course in Korean Translation (2018); Translation and Literature in East Asia: Between Visibility and Invisibility with Jennifer Guest and Xiaofan Amy Li (2019); Korean Literature Through the Korean Wave with Anna Yates-Lu (2019); On Translating Modern Korean Poetry with Anna Yates-Lu and Mattho Mandersloot (2020); and Pragmatics in Korean and Japanese Translation (2022) with Ben Cagan.
