It looks as if the South Korean government is trying to clean up the English translation errors around town in preparation for the Winter Olympics. Please read the Korea Times article at the link below to get more information.
This is a fun assignment (worth 5% of the total grade) in which you and your partner (consisting of two students) will look for English errors around town. For the purposes of this task assigned by the South Korean government, each group will be responsible for submitting four public and three private signs with mistakes written in English. Public signs can include any signs from parks, museum, airports, streets, public transportation, or any other signs the South Korean government is responsible for. You can gather the three private signs before the midterm speaking where each group will present their signs to the class. Each student must speak in order to be graded for the speaking exam.
**The four public signs are due to the Seoul government by October 4th.**
"The city government will start taking details of errors from Sept. 21 to Oct. 4. Reports can be made by email ( pss@ktime.com or ghdekadud@gmail.com or visitseoul1@seoul.go.kr ) with a picture of the sign and details of its location." (Korea Times)
- Total of seven signs with English errors (4 public & 3 private)
- Must explain where the picture was taken (the more specific the better)
- What's wrong with the grammar? (is it spelling, grammar, etc.)
Then, you must submit the error to one of the South Korean government at the e-mail addresses above. To show proof of submittance, you must capture the sent screen from your e-mail so that the time, date, attachment, and to whom you sent the e-mail can be visible to receive credit. If you do not include this in the midterm presentation, you will lose 30% of your grade.
In the body of the e-mail, introduce yourself as a Gachon University student and briefly explain that you're taking an English class with me, Chiun Kim. Remember to present yourself well as you'll be representing Gachon University. Prepare and design your pictures in a nicely formatted Power Point presentation using proper English in your e-mail. If you'd like for me to take a look at it before sending it away, please feel free to make an appointment with me. I won't be able to check them during class as I have back to back classes.
The deadline to submit to the South Korean government is October 4th so please do not miss this deadline. Failure to miss this deadline will result in 30% reduction of your grade.
Finally, once this is submitted, you will present the errors you found to the class for your Speaking Midterm. DO NOT PLAGIRIZE OR COPY FROM THE INTERNET. IF YOU'RE SUSPECTED OF PLAGIRIZING, YOU WILL RECEIVE A ZERO FOR THIS ASSIGNMNT & SPEAKING MIDTERM.
Speaking midterm grading criteria will be posted at a later date. Your presentation cannot be read or memorized.
http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=214251
***Previous semester sample error assignment by one of my students***
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rtqj0412pgy1ucw/Misuse%20of%20English.pdf?dl=0
(Just in case the link no longer works at a later date, I have posted the entire article below)
National
2016-09-20 18:32
By Hong Dam-young, Park Si-soo
Seoul City is seeking the help of its residents -- Koreans and foreigners -- to note errors in street signs written in foreign languages.
Signs in English, Chinese and Japanese in public places such as subway stations, bus stops, tourist information centers and historic sites are the target.
The city government will start taking details of errors from Sept. 21 to Oct. 4. Reports can be made by email ( pss@ktime.com or ghdekadud@gmail.com or visitseoul1@seoul.go.kr ) with a picture of the sign and details of its location.
Seoul City will review errors with experts to determine the signs to be corrected. Anyone confused about the names of Korea’s traditional or popular places, streets and so forth, should go to http://dictionary.seoul.go.kr , Seoul’s official reference website.
People who collect the most notable errors will receive gift vouchers and souvenirs.
Seoul City will also deploy an inspection team, comprised of 80 students here from English-speaking countries, China and Japan, to improve tourism services for foreigners and to find errors on street signs.
“Multilingual signs are important standards to assess a country’s competitiveness in the tourism business,” a Seoul City official said. “We want to make sure that foreigners in Seoul suffer no inconvenience.”
For more information, visit http://mediahub.seoul.go.kr or call 02-2133-2798.
Seoul wants foreigners to track down mistakes on signs
| The original Korean sign means “Meeting point in Cheong Wa Dae (the Blue House),” in Korean, but it has been wrongly translated into English as a “Staring point for Cheong Wa Dae.” / Korea Times file |
By Hong Dam-young, Park Si-soo
Seoul City is seeking the help of its residents -- Koreans and foreigners -- to note errors in street signs written in foreign languages.
Signs in English, Chinese and Japanese in public places such as subway stations, bus stops, tourist information centers and historic sites are the target.
The city government will start taking details of errors from Sept. 21 to Oct. 4. Reports can be made by email ( pss@ktime.com or ghdekadud@gmail.com or visitseoul1@seoul.go.kr ) with a picture of the sign and details of its location.
Seoul City will review errors with experts to determine the signs to be corrected. Anyone confused about the names of Korea’s traditional or popular places, streets and so forth, should go to http://dictionary.seoul.go.kr , Seoul’s official reference website.
| This sign has a wrong abbreviation for “Bridge,” which should be corrected to “Brg.” / Courtesy of Youtube |
People who collect the most notable errors will receive gift vouchers and souvenirs.
Seoul City will also deploy an inspection team, comprised of 80 students here from English-speaking countries, China and Japan, to improve tourism services for foreigners and to find errors on street signs.
“Multilingual signs are important standards to assess a country’s competitiveness in the tourism business,” a Seoul City official said. “We want to make sure that foreigners in Seoul suffer no inconvenience.”
For more information, visit http://mediahub.seoul.go.kr or call 02-2133-2798.
pss@ktimes.com
ghdekadud@gmail.com
ghdekadud@gmail.com
