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Just before I came to live in Korea, the capital introduced a brand new English-language slogan, the fruit of a much-publicized process wherein real, everyday citizens \u2014 alongside a panel of nine \u201cexperts\u201d \u2014 got to vote on ideas submitted by other real, everyday citizens. The victorious entry, which originally came from a philosophy student, won over not just 682 of the 1,140 Seoulites who turned up to Seoul Plaza to cast their vote, but the entire expert panel as well. And so, beating out rival candidates \u201cSeoulmate\u201d and \u201cSEOULing,\u201d emerged the city\u2019s next global banner: \u201cI.Seoul.U.\u201d<\/p>\n
I watched all this happen from a distance, back in Los Angeles, and when I say \u201cwatched,\u201d I mean I watched my Facebook news feed explode with ridicule. (One wag wasted no time Photoshopping a version of the slogan for the village of Fucking, Austria.) I.Seoul.U proved controversial from the get-go, but I daresay that the loudest of the controversy \u2014 and even my view from Facebook made this clear \u2014 erupted among Seoul-based expatriates, especially those from English-speaking countries, a group on whom you can always count to get powerlessly worked up over matters of Korean policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense,\u201d goes the mildest of the objections. Indeed not, but that just puts I.Seoul.U on the long list of the English slogans adopted by Korean cities that hit the native English speaker\u2019s ear somewhat askew. These range from the bland (\u201cAmazing Iksan,\u201d \u201cBeautiful Gyeongju,\u201d \u201cGood Chungju,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s Daejeon\u201d) to the unpromising (\u201cFine City Hwaseong,\u201d \u201cJust Sangju,\u201d \u201cNamyangju: The Slow City\u201d) to the ungrammatical (\u201cAmenity Seocheon,\u201d \u201cDo Dream Dongducheon,\u201d \u201cWonderfull [sic] Samcheok\u201d) to the threatening (\u201cBucheon Hands Up!\u201d).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n