Two Sundays ago I happened to be watching a Korean game show, and one of the questions asked was "What is the name of the website that Julian Assange created?" Although some of the contestants claimed that they followed the news and knew the answer they had a hard time articulating the right answer. Here are some of the answers they came up with:- Weak Leaks
- Whisk List
- Wick Lisk
- Whiskey Licks (my favorite)
Often when words from the English language are put into Korean, extra syllables are added: "WikiLeaks" becomes "We-key-lee-kuh-suh". You can't make "ks" into one syllable in Korean, it's just not possible to write it like that. There's no "v" or "f" sound in Korean, so "p" is often used in place. I think Japanese shares the trait of mixing up "r" and "l"; my father told me of an instance when my grandmother misread a bus schedule and insisted that she "took a long bus" when she meant "wrong bus". I don't intend to mock the Korean language in any way, but find it curious how certain things can get lost in translation between these two languages.
Note: image above does not feature the game show I watched
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