[Joseon Images] Korea's history of language misunderstandings

A caricature of William George Aston, a British diplomat in Japan, studying Korean in 1882 / Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

Learning a foreign language can be daunting ― even with the dictionaries and translation programs that are easily accessible on our smartphones and computers. Speaking is especially difficult and requires a great deal of effort and humility as there will undoubtedly be many mistakes made. It was especially difficult in the 19th century when Westerners first appeared in Korea and there were no language books except a few basic dictionaries.

There are many amusing anecdotes found in the correspondences and publications by these early Western visitors involving their miscommunications between themselves and their Korean hosts.

Horace N. Allen, the American minister to Korea in the late 1890s through 1905, was fond of one tale that he attributed to his predecessor ― possibly Augustine Heard. According to Allen, his predecessor was entertaining a couple of guests and sent a handwritten missive to his Chinese servant to bring him three cocktails.

"The [servant] knew the name of this drink when spoken, and could compound it, but he did not recognize it when slowly spelled out from a written 'chit' he therefore resorted to his dictionary, with the result that after much delay, during which the entire staff was out chasing the fowls around, he came in perspiring and delivered three tail feathers from a very indignant rooster."

Speaking about perspiring, another tale Allen was fond of telling was an incident involving American missionary Horace Underwood. It appears Underwood was giving a sermon to a mixed congregation (the chapel was divided by a curtain into two sides ― one side for men and the other for women) and this subject caused quite a stir. According to Allen:

"He was very earnest in his rebuke of the Korean women, because they were so beset with the sin of covetousness, explaining that they could never hope to enter the kingdom of heaven unless they gave up that sin. Finally one old woman, unable to stand it longer, arose and announced that it was impossible to rid themselves of this failing. This only served to bring forth a stronger condemnation till the old woman interrupted the missionary to demand some medicine for the trouble, if it was so bad as all that, since any one might know that this was a thing which faith could not reach. The missionary's teacher thereupon arose and called his pupil's attention to the fact that while he was preaching upon the subject of covetousness he had been using the word for perspire."

I have never been a great fan of Allen. I think he was very sanctimonious ― always willing to find fault with others while glossing over or even whitewashing his own faults and inadequacies.

When Allen arrived in Korea in 1884 as a missionary doctor, he hired a Korean to teach him the language but fired him after only a week. In his diary Allen wrote: "The reason he was discharged was that he always has a lot of friends coming to see him and I could do no studying. I may hire him over again after he has learned this lesson."

Allen soon hired a new teacher and one of his first tasks was to help Allen with a troublesome Korean patient ― Allen denounced the man as a hypochondriac even though he had removed the man's eye recently. According to Allen's diary entry for Feb. 3, 1885:

"On yesterday I got my teacher to tell him he was a nuisance meaning a vexation but the Chinese word meant 'a very bad stink' and the man was surprised at the intelligence but seemed unabashed."

Communicating in Korean wasn't Allen's only problem ― he also had problems with English. In 1889, he was requested to obtain an American assistant and foreman for the Korean government's gold mine but instead hired an assistant and four men. It cost the Korean government a substantial amount of money to return the excess miners to the United States and pay them for their inconvenience.

The Western-owned gold mining concessions in northern Korea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had their own share of miscommunications. Sometimes these miscommunications were caused by English words that sounded very similar to Korean words but with completely different meanings. In the beginning, most of the heavy equipment used at these mining concessions had to be man-handled into position by gangs of Korean laborers who were supervised by Western foremen. One of these foremen recalled that while his team was trying to lift a very heavy boiler, he yelled out for them to "come on" in an effort to motivate them. As if on cue, his entire team released the ropes they were using to lift the boiler and it came crashing to the ground ― narrowly missing the American. Apparently, the Korean miners had mistaken "come on" for the Korean "geu-man" (stop).

Fred Dustin teaching English at Chung-Ang University 1958 / Robert Neff Collection

I have had my own experiences with miscommunication but usually these involved mispronunciations such as lice and rice. However, my favorite incident took place when I was a young soldier and I was asked to help translate for my commander ― a female captain ― during an informal dinner with a Korean contractor. The contractor seemed very confident (apparently he had practiced in advance the topic and small talk he wanted to have with my commander) and waved off my offers to help. I still recall as he looked deep into my captain's eyes and asked her if she was still a virgin. The contractor's puzzlement with my commander's embarrassed rage was priceless. Apparently he had used his dictionary to look up the Korean word "cheonyeo" which can be translated as "virgin" but is often used to mean an "unmarried woman."

I think we all learned that day to always check all of the meanings in a dictionary and choose the most appropriate one.

Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times.