You may be scratching your head because you can’t figure out what Konglish means. Well, it is the South Korean variety of English. Thanks to the increasing prevalence of Korean shows, global citizens around the world are interested to learn more about Korean culture. Just some shows that I have binge-watched: Physical 100, The Influencer, Single Inferno, among others.

This was the impetus behind me giving an assembly talk on Konglish. If you have watched an episode or two of The Influencer, you might have noticed some personalities engaging in mukbang. This trend features individuals filming themselves eating delicious food in front of the camera. Some of them are purported to eat only one meal a day so that they can unleash their consumption potential when filming starts. Honestly, I don’t see the appeal in watching people eat spicy noodles and Korean fried chicken, but it’s amazing how these celebrities strategically leverage their bodies to earn a living through mukbang streaming.

(Speaking of which, Singapore has our very own competitive eater, Zermatt Neo.)

Another useful Konglish term is fighting. In English, it means that people exchange blows or heated words with each other, intending to hurt the other party. However, in the Korean context, fighting conveys a positive connotation. When Koreans utter fighting (or Hwaiting) to each other, they are encouraging each other to put up a good fight and not give up. Hwaiting!

The third Konglish term is eye-shopping. It’s simply the Koreans’ way of saying window shopping. It’s like you want to shop but don’t want to spend a lot of money, so you shop with your eyes, I guess.

Isn’t it amazing how the English language fuses with local cultures to yield uniquely nationalistic terms? I learnt during linguistics classes that English is sometimes termed as a bastard language. I just love how it is like a chameleon that adapts to the environment it is in.