Korean PUN series 1
Who taught : Kelly and Phil
Sigh! This world cup is totally done for me. The teams I was rooting for all lost yesterday. Maybe, I am the one who brings bad luck. Every time I watch a game, the team I am supporting loses. Phil, Kelly and I watched South Korea vs Uruguay game together at Phil’s place. After the game, we were all preparing to go out to a Rock Bottom restaurant to watch another game, US vs Ghana. Phil changed his pants. While we are talking about something I noticed that Phil’s zipper was still open. So, I said, “Hey Phil! You gotta zip it up.”
Hearing it, Kelly told me, “Oh, you can say, ‘Kennywood’s open!’ for that.” “That is a Pittsburgh thing. More generic one is XYZ,” Phil added. Do you know what XYZ stands for?
Examine your zipper! (XYZ)
So if you see someone’s zipper is open, you can whisper to him, “Hey! XYZ!,” especially if you are with many people and do not want to embarrass him.
But then I have two questions.
1. Why does “Kennywood’s open” have that meaning to Pittsburgh people? What is the origin?
2. Can I use “XYZ” to women if their zipper is open?
남대문 (Namdaemun) in Korea
Having said this expression, I realized that there is a good Korean pun you can use if you get to have a chance to speak to Koreans. In 1398, Korean people built the walls surrounding Seoul and also four main gates in four directions. One of them, as you can imagine, was in South. The official name of the door is Sungnyemun. But a lot of people call it 남대문 (南大門). In English, it is “Great Southern Gate.” This is one of the most beautiful unique Korean architecture made of wood and stone with two-tired roof. Sadly, there was a fire in 2008 and the door was seriously damaged.
Anyway, when your male friends’ zipper is open, you can say, “남대문 열렸어!” It means, “You’ve got open Great Southern Gate.” Why? Here is the reason! 남자(男子) means men in Korean. Can you notice it? Yes! As you can see, the first characters of 남대문 and 남자 are the same. It is 남. And, of course, they have the same pronunciation. And, as I told you, 남대문 is one of the gates. Imagine that your zipper is open! Then what? It is basically you open your door to &%!@&* (I will let you imagine what it would be here!). If you look carefully at the Chinese characters, you can easily find that you could make a new combination of the Chinese characters to describe your open zipper, 男大門. Does it make sense to you? FYI, you can only use this Korean expression to men! Well, next time I get to see your open zipper, I will use this expression. Hope you would understand what I mean! 🙂
These are not puns …. idioms I think? 😉
Really? I do think this is a pun. Why do you think it is not? It is a play with words. Definitely not an idiom!
A pun is using a play on the sound of the word to mean something else, like your “butterface” example. In this case, you are just using words that symbolize something else.
Hmm…. Sounds right! I need to think about other Korean puns. There should be some.
I’ve never heard of XYZ before! I don’t even understand what it’s supposed to mean. “Fix Your Zipper”?
The one I grew up with is, “Your barn door’s open”.
Why it is barn door? Is it because, inside of the barn, there are dirty things?
Terry, you never let me down as expected. You think your inside stuff is dirty? 🙂
Well, a barn is an agricultural building for storage of cattle, farming vehicles and equipments, sometimes harvisted crops. If it’s so, I can guess the reason for “Barn door”.
There will be cattle, farming vehicles and equipments, and harvisted crops too. Those are the most valuable things for farmers. So it must be closed all the time with cleaned (?) and arranged (?) for the next time except for on farming.
whatever~ 🙂
From non-native speaker.
I don’t know! Whenever I think of a barn, it is dirty. Doesn’t it have also all of those animals in it? Maybe, you are right! Funny you have a total different concept of barn.
I think it’s ‘Kennywood’s open!’ because Kennywood is an amusement park full of fun and excitement and similar things might be behind your zipper.
It’s hard to understand your example because of the two different kinds of characters and my lack of understanding of how to pronounce any of it… looks like punning in Korean is complicated!
‘XYZ’, ‘Kennywood’s open’, and ‘your barn door’s open’ can all be used to either men or women.
Full of fun and excitement! That is more like close to the truth! There are so many exciting things behind the zipper.
Maybe, my writing is not good for this post. — I will explain to you later in person.
The expression “Kennywood’s open” makes me laugh so much. I wish I still lived in Pittsburgh so I could use it! I wonder if any other regions have their own version of this? I grew up near Hershey Park but we never said “Hershey Park is open”. Haha or “Dutch Wonderland is open”
Now, that sounds dirty.
Looks like Dutch Wonderland is one of the amusement parks in the central PA. But, then after seeing Andrew’s comment, I had to find out why.
Here is what I found from the urban dict about dutch wonderland as a definition. “While having sexual intercourse under the covers, you let out a stinky fart, and refuse your partners escape.”
Andrew! Is this why you think that sounds dirty? Man, get you mind out of the gutter! 🙂
The Dutch are into all kinds of dirty things! Although, they don’t hold a candle to the Turks!
What you’re describing is more commonly known as a “dutch oven”, but that’s probably the reason I thought dirty thoughts when I saw “dutch wonderland”. I think adding “wonderland” to the end just opens up all kinds of new and exciting possibilities!
I like “hold a candle” expression. How about “Drew Wonderland cannot hold a candle to Dutch Wonderland.”?