Design Translation · 2011

Konglish

A mutant alphabet of Roman and Hangul characters, about how complex it is to practice English as a second language.

Form
Letterforms and installation
Made of
Roman and Hangul characters
Driven by
Arduino and servo motors
Featured by
Typeforce, Studio Mossaic
Year
2011
A gallery wall of word cards, with a cardboard box and a small light at its center
Gallery installation. (Un)readable words as getting close to center from both sides.

Origin

“Say again?” said a waitress.

I was red-faced. It was the third time I had to repeat the exact words to order food at a restaurant. She seemed to be annoyed by me on a hectic day. I was so embarrassed by the other customers around who could overhear it. She finally squinted her eyes and guessed my order with clear pronunciation. I said yes. She heard my yes clearly. Of course, I had to bite a pound burger instead of a taco.

Since then, I have preferred not to dine in a restaurant. I have spoken English as a foreign language for ten years in the United States. I learned a lot more from real-life events than from textbook teaching. Yet, it includes unexpected events with embarrassment, uncomfortable public attention, and unintended mistakes. After all those years, English is still bugging me, and I occasionally repeat my order in a restaurant.

Two languages

Five steps between a question and an answer

Konglish is to express how complex it is to practice English to me. My first language, Korean, is a primary tool for learning English. When someone asks me a question in English, my brain goes through:

01

Listening to the question in English

02

Translating it into Korean

03

Processing the core meaning

04

Converting my answer back to English

05

Answering verbally

This process often mixes the two languages, resulting in broken English, also known as “Konglish” (Korean English). This project visualizes Konglish in the mutant form made of Roman and Hangul characters.

Letterforms

From two alphabets to one mutant

01

Two alphabets, drawn the same way

Basic Roman characters in a square grid, and basic Korean characters in a square grid.

The same square grid for both.

The Roman alphabet, A to Z, in thin black strokes on white
The Korean consonants and vowels in thin black strokes on white
02

Set one letterform onto the other

I set each Roman letterform onto each Korean letterform, then examined every variation set in a tabular format.

Every variation, in one table.

A table with the Roman letters A to Z down the side and the Korean letterforms across the top, each cell a Roman letter set onto a Korean one
03

The mutants are Konglish

Letters made of Roman and Hangul characters together. This is the Konglish variation: the mutant form that stands for how the two languages mix in my head.

The alphabet A to Z with Korean letterforms mixed in between the Roman ones
One mutant letterform, enlarged: a circle crossed by bars, built from Roman and Hangul strokes

Mechanism

Two servo motors turn two disks of letters behind a small window

The inside of a hand-made housing, with two servo motors, a circuit board, a red light and a small window
Arduino controls servo motors in a hand-made housing system.
Two overlapping clear disks with letters around their edges, each attached to a servo motor
Letters set on the disks that are attached to the servo motors.

The servo motor timing, and the presentation through the tiny window

My hesitancy disclosing the personal matter to audiences.

The misaligned registration, by accident

My poor language performance and emotional struggles.

Try the disks

Where the letters meet, a new one is made

Spin both disks at random, or set each one to a letter. The two letters that land in the window are the mutant of that turn.

Exhibition

Featured by Typeforce and Studio Mossaic

Visitors looking at the wall of word cards at the opening night
The TypeForce Opening Night

Closing

The language I struggle with became the language of my design.

2011/03/18

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