time to update the dictionary..

Despite my previous, earnest efforts to have my made-up words ‘clug’ and ‘shamistic’ enter the wider public vernacular, I have achieved no such quasi-immortality. Now it seems my son has accomplished (when he was four!) what I couldn’t as an adult.

He made up (and people actually now use) a word. Well, in this case it was the name of a street. (Quite an accomplishment in a country where they don’t have street names. I have no idea how their postal service works!)

I was thrilled when the other day I heard some other foreigners here in the ‘Yang casually mentioning a shop on “Hong Kong Street”. My ears pricked, and I burst out laughing. Hong Kong Street! It actually stuck!

When we were in Korea last time, my son pointed out this particular street (which is lined with hundreds of neon lights which make the street look incredibly exciting and impressive. False advertising actually.) and he said it looked like Hong Kong. (At the time I laughed and asked him just what he knew about Hong Kong, anyhow, at the ripe old age of almost four!) Anyhow, from that moment on, it became Hong Kong Street to us.

Et voila! Eighteen months later and Hong Kong Street is practically official. Brilliant!

Now, I just have to get one of my other attempts off the ground. I laid the foundations last time I was here. Surely, despite indifference amongst the foreigners and locals alike, up to this point, it’s now time to catch on.

I never know how to pronounce Carrefour, the large department store in the nearby town of Suncheon, so I have always referred to it as The Big C.

(person A: “We’re going to Carrefour. Want to come?” Me: “Oh, you’re going to the Big C?”  A: “Whatever. You coming?”)

(person B: “I got this at Carrefour.”  Me: “Oh, at the Big C?”  B: “Whatever.”)

It hasn’t caught on.

It will catch on.

It will.

Remember: the Big C.

(Just turn right at Hong Kong Street.)