The state of French in South Korea

Colour of mouse pad, anyone?

If you read my introduction, you will remember that... I speak French. I grew up mostly francophone, but my mother is a translator, and Montreal is bilingual, and my schools were French schools for anglophones and allophones up until college. And so I'm completely bilingual as a result. And sometimes I find it a bit hilarious that South Korea, with its obsession with learning English, also has a slight obsession with the French language. But you won't find many people here who can actually speak it. No, they just like flaunting it. On their clothes. On their belongings. On their freaking mouse pads.

A lot of people on the interwebz have created photo albums about the hilarious Konglish they find on the streets and whatnot. When I'd had enough of giggling on my own I decided to create my own photo album. For posterity. As proof.

Because "avion" is so much posher. Bon voyageeeee! 

A "bock" is a beer mug.

"Cake" just didn't sound right.

This is my trashcan. I did not buy it. It was there when I moved in.

Well. At least they're learning the words in French.

Found this at my local DC Mart. I did a double-take. And promptly bought it.

What's amazing in a slightly confusing way is how they sometimes use notebooks with French plastered all over it... for English class. The mind. It blows.

Case in point.

Killing time on gmarket. Oh look. Pastries. Oh look. A French word that makes no sense.

This was in my high school English movie library. I watched a bit of it. Boring, but artistically lovely.

My friend Chris's flower pot.

What cracks me up is the French title over the block of English text.

This is the trippiest freaking shirt I've ever seen. Hand salad!

So, you see, dear readers. I do not make this up. Korea is obsessed with (lulzy) French. Maybe I should call it Fronglish, the close sister of Konglish.