[Korean Culture & Language] Konglish


Hello, this is Uptempo Marketers!

If your Korean friend says “Oh, are you going on a date? Put that one-piece down from the grand open event, wear something prettier, apply some rinse on your hair, and be careful of skinship. Fighting!,” what does she mean?

Konglish, according to google.com, refers to English words that have been appropriated into Korean. They usually are not readily understandable to native English speakers, but many Koreans get excited to use them, thinking that they are proper English. 

“One-piece” means a “dress”. It probably came from English words like “two-piece-suit,” or “three-piece-suit”. The word “dress,” in Korea, is perceived more as a fancy dress like an “evening dress” or a “wedding dress”. If you say “Oh, that’s such a lovely dress,” it’s likely that a Korean girl would say “Oh, it’s not a dress, it’s just a one-piece”.

Grand open means Grand -opening. Koreans use this phrase a lot. You might have seen banners that reads “Grand Open” at new restaurants or stores. I’m 90% sure that they thought it was a perfect English phrase.

What is a “rinse”? Maybe when conditioners were first imported to Korea, someone have translated the directions wrong, and got the word ‘rinse’ and ‘conditioner’ mixed up. “Rinse” means a “conditioner”. So if you were to say “Thoroughly rinse off the conditioner” in Konglish, you would say “thoroughly rinse off the rinse”.

린스 - Google Search

As weird as “Skinship” sounds, it is something most couples like to do. It means “physical touch”. In Korea, “skniships” between two same-sex, non-gay, friends are common. If you’re a BTS fan, you know how Koreans love skinship.

Honey Boy (tumblr.com)

Fighting means “Good luck,” or “Cheer up”. A similar expression that wouldn’t sound weird in English would be “힘내”.


So, your “Korean friend” was saying “Put that dress down from the grand-opening event, wear something prettier, apply some conditioner on your hair, and be careful of physical touch. Good luck!” Even though it still sounds a little weird, you understand what it means.

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