English in Korea #5: “Marry Christmas”

This holiday season, the Lotte Hotel near City Hall Station in Seoul would like to wish you the very best in your new life together with Christmas. Confused? That’s reasonable, considering that the hotel is suggesting that its patrons and visitors “marry” Christmas as opposed to enjoying a “merry” Christmas. An easy and nearly invisible mistake to your average person, but still proof once again that Korean companies, in their efforts to use English to better promote their business, need to get a little better in the editing department.

 

English in Korea #4: “Doosan We’ve”

The Doosan Group is one of the largest and best known conglomerates in Korea, but apparently the people who work on their slogans need to take more English lessons. Usually, you see “두산We’ve” billboards around Seoul-town, but here near Yangjae Station we’ve got the real Romanized-deal. I’m not sure if we have Doosan or Doosan is telling us that they have a mystery, but I do know this is another bizarre usage of English in Korea.

 

English in Korea #3: “Very & Good”

While it’s commendable that the Lex Hotel near Sinsa Station wanted to express its superior accomodations to potential customers in the English language, they seem to have forgotten a word (or added one too many?).  On and above the doors of the Lex Hotel are the words “Very & Good”, exactly as is written.  Since “very” is an adverb and “and” is a conjunction, there is some obvious confusion in the statement.  One must assume they mean to either say “very good” or something else described by “very” that complements “good”.  Regardless, the absense of that secret word and addition of the ampersand create yet another perplexing usage of English in Korea.