Caveat: Eingrsh

This is not a satire.  I had a student recently who actually spelled "English" as "Eingrsh" – which perhaps was an effort to approximate the Konglish pronunciation of said language.

I have finally figured out how to deal with the use of the phrase "nice to meet you" as a general purpose, anytime greeting.  I answer with "저음 뵙겠습니다! [cheo-eum bwep-get-seum-ni-da]"  This translates, literally, as "For the first time I will be seeing your honored person," but it's the general way of saying "how do you do?" upon a first meeting.  By answering their "nice to meet you"'s in this way, I can convey to my students, clearly, that "nice to meet you" isn't what we use, in English, for subsequent meetings.  Why do they say it, then?  Because they're translating the Korean "만나서 반갑습니다 [man-na-seo ban-gap-seum-ni-da]," which translates literally as "nice to meet you" but is used whenever you're glad to see anyone.

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