Travels with Scott

More Janglish! If you put together the English words “automatic” (or “automobile”) and “bicycle” you get … nothing.

Instead, try using “motorcycle” or, though much less common, “motorbike.” The key is to drop the “auto” part and use the word “motor” along with the word “cycle” (a reduced form of “bicycle”). “Motorcycle” is also both a noun and a verb, so it’s okay to say, “I like to motorcycle on nice fall weekends,” or, “Is motorcycling dangerous?”

People will also use the word “bike” to mean “motorcycle.” Keep in mind that, even among native English speakers, this can be confusing, since “bike” also means “bicycle.” If you say “bike,” people will only know whether you mean “motorcycle” or “bicycle” from the context of the situation or conversation.

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.

This one, “rain comes,” is a direct translation of the Korean expression “비 온다”. In English however, the words “rain” and “snow” are also verbs, so they don’t need an extra verb like “comes.”

Instead, simply say, “It is raining,” or “It is snowing.” If the rain/snow is predicted, then you can try, “It will rain tomorrow,” or “It’s supposed to snow tomorrow.” Other examples include, “It might rain this weekend,” “There’s a 30% chance it will snow tonight,” or “It will stop raining this afternoon.”

If you try and translate “비 온다” as, “Rain is coming,” it does NOT mean it is currently raining, as in the Korean expression. Instead, it means there is rain in the forecast and it might rain LATER, but it is not raining NOW. Please be careful of this important difference.

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.

Aren’t a lot of these actually made from glass? Either way, we don’t normally use the word “vinyl” this way in English. Instead, use “plastic.” We tend to think of vinyl as a kind of fake leather (가짜 가죽), not something clear.

Either way however, we wouldn’t use “vinyl” or “plastic” or any other material for this expression. Instead, we would say “greenhouse.” The key to remember for the English expression is that we don’t focus on the material used to make the building, we focus on the type of building (whether it is made from glass, plastic, or something else).

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.

Two little letters are what causes the problem here. Take off the “er” from the end of “cooker” and the expression is fine. Leave it on however, and you’re talking about a machine, not a person.

So, just say, “I’m a good cook” and everything is fine. You could also say, “I’m good at cooking” or even add the type of food you are good at cooking, “I’m good at cooking kimchi fried rice.”

A side point here is that “making” is a more common verb than “cooking.” You can “make coffee,” “make popcorn,” “make kimbap,” or even “make ice cream,” but it would be odd to use “cook” with any of those foods.

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.

Though there are two English words, “back” and “number,” this is not an English expression. If you use it while watching sports, an English native speaker might understand the meaning, but to be clear, you’ll need a new term.

The key here is that the number is not actually written on a person’s back, it’s on their uniform, usually a jersey. So, you can say, “jersey number” or “uniform number.” The most common thing to say though is just “number.” You can also sometimes hear “player number.”

“She is number 13,” or, “His number is 21,” are both common ways to express 백넘버 in English.

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.


Whether it’s “mini home-p” or just “home-p,” this expression sounds very odd in English. “Home” is, as you know, “집,” and “p” is either a letter in the alphabet or a way of saying “소변.” So this one could sound like, “집 소변” in English – not a good thing!

The Korean expression is a shortened version of the English word “homepage.” You could use that word, or “webpage” to express the meaning. “Website” is a similar word, but means a group of pages, not just one.

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.

If you use the term, “A/S center” with a native English speaker, you’re likely to get the same puzzled expression as you would get by saying “아/ㅅ 센터” to a native Korean speaker.

If you try and stretch it out, to “after-service center,” it would be like saying, “수리한후 센터” in Korean. Obviously, not a good thing.

Instead, just get rid of “after,” and you will be fine with, “service center.” You could also try, “shop,” “repair shop,” or use the verb-based expression, “take it in.” For example, “My TV broke, so I have to take it in.” Or, “I have to take my cell to the shop for a new battery.”

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.


In Korean, it is common to use the term “하드” (“hard”) to mean a drive on a computer, like “hard drive” in English. Unfortunately, in English, the meaning of “hard” is closer to “딱딱한” or “어려운” than anything computer related.

Instead, the best way to express this one is either “hard drive,” for the drive on your computer, or “the cloud,” for saving it remotely. For example, “Save it to the cloud,” or, for downloading, “Download it from the cloud.” A longer example is, “I saved the document to the cloud.”

Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.