You've got courriel

When email first started making its way into the Korean media, the old fogey editors didn't really know what to do with it so they made up a word - 'cheoncha woopyun' (literally, electronic mail). Nowadays however everyone is so busy trying to catch up with the latest new-fangled techno jargon that no one hesitates to use the English words outright - email, home (for home page), MSN (for instant messaging) and so forth and so on. As a Korean speaker living outside of all these changes, I find the real problem is trying to decide when to stop using English words during an apparently Korean dialogue with someone.

It wasn't always like this. Under the military rule during the Eighties, there was some insane campaign every year to change the way people spoke or spelled a certain word. There would be news broadcasts and articles about the changes (imposed from on high by a bunch of nutty professors, I imagine) and schoolchildren everywhere were taught that whatever they said or how they spelled a certain word yesterday was wrong. The really crazy thing about this situation though, was that the people had no choice but to accept the changes or be deemed illiterate. No one complained (or at least they weren't allowed to complain loudly enough).

I hear the Academie Francaise is fighting the use of the word 'email' and want everyone to start using a word they made up - 'courriel'. I think we can all agree that they are fighting a losing battle there. But actually, I think it's a good thing that they will be fighting. Imagine how scary it would be if the French actually did start using the word solely on the grounds that their government endorsed it. The luxury of having a choice over what words you wish to use to communicate with others cannot be underestimated.


It's all French to me...