By Park Moo-jong

Which is the most widely spoken language in the world?

One of my friends asked during a meeting of his high school classmates the other day.

I knew the answer. But I decided not to disappoint him.

One of them said, "Of course, it's English."

The other said, "No! Chinese. More than 1.3 billion people speak it."

"No. You're all wrong. It's Broken English. It is spoken everywhere in the world," he said with confidence but jokingly.

Broken English refers to a poorly spoken or ill-written version of the English language, according to Wikipedia.

But this "global" language works very well across the globe, especially among tourists speaking different tongues.

The problem is the "Konglish" or Korean English using English words or terms derived from English words in a Korean context and the repeated mistakes in the use of some English terms.

There are many English-style words that are only used in Korea. While foreigners living here for a considerable time often understand such Konglish terms, it is seldom understood outside of the country.

The symbolic Konglish terms, to name a few, are "fighting," "officetel," "handphone," "dica," and "skinship."

Such English words, of course, are not listed in any traditional English dictionaries.

The masterpiece, I think, is "fighting (파이팅)." This "English" word, with a literally aggressive meaning, is heard here, there and everywhere in our society.

Foreigners, especially native English speakers, who are not accustomed to Koreans' shout of "fighting" on really diverse occasions, might be surprised, wondering "who is fighting whom."

Wikipedia explains that "Koreans use the direct transliteration of fighting as the Konglish term to cheer someone on, meaning ‘don't give up.'"

Koreans began to shout "fighting" to cheer their teams during sporting events, clenching their fists. It rapidly spread to other fields of society, with everyone from school kids to senior citizens doing so on many different occasions.

The mass media, TV in particular, are absolutely responsible for the incorrect use of the aggressive word in almost all social gatherings.

TV is irresponsibly making the term a "national slogan," as emcees, reporters, casters induce citizens on streets, campuses, stadiums and elsewhere to shout "fighting" at the end of programs as an expression of their support for the nation, hometown, school or themselves.

"Fighting" is a mere example. More seriously misleading English words include syndrome and rebate

Using the word "syndrome" became common with ordinary people because of AIDS or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the then deadly disease whose first patient was found in 1981 in the United States.

According to Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary's 6th edition of 2009, syndrome is a medical condition that is characterized by a particular group of sign and symptom.

The book also says, "You can refer to an undesirable condition that is characterized by a particular type of activity or behavior as a syndrome."

In short, the medical term is not a good word. It has a negative meaning. But almost all the newspapers and TVs indiscreetly use the term for various positive and even bright social phenomena.

When figure skater Kim Yu-na won a gold medal in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, most news outlets made big headlines using the term. One of them was "Yuna Syndrome Hits Nation."

When pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin was triumphant in the Major League in the past seasons, they also reported: "Ryu Hyun-jin Syndrome."

Some native English speakers might ask if Yuna and Hyun-jin were critically ill.

They should have chosen such terms as "fever" or "phenomenon" instead to describe the social trend following the success of the sports stars: many parents took their kids' hands and rushed to ice rinks or ballparks.

A much more serious misuse of an English word is "rebate (리베이트)." Rebate is "an amount of money which is paid to one when he or she has paid more tax, rent or rate than he or she needs to, according to dictionaries. In short, rebate is a legal refund with a positive meaning.

But related government officials misunderstand rebate as kickback or bribe. For example, the government earlier announced that it would investigate medical doctors at hospitals on suspicion of receiving large "rebates" from pharmaceutical companies in return for prescribing their medicines.

More surprising is the definition of the word "리베이트 (rebate)" by the most authoritative Basic Korean Dictionary compiled by the National Institute of Korean Languages: "리베이트 is often used as the meaning of bribe."

There are also many newly coined English words that native English speakers do not understand, but we use in our daily lives like Korean words. To name a few again, they are "solo" for single, "skinship" for physical contact between a pair of lovers or mother and child, "officetel" for studio apartment, "dica" for digital camera, "talent" for TV stars, "handphone" for cellphone and "cunning" for cheating in exams, etc.

There must be many cases of borrowing English terms to express new phenomena or concepts in this rapidly changing global village. But the point is that we should use the terms correctly. Once a wrong expression takes root, it is very hard to correct it.

We take pride of our alphabet, Hangeul, as a creative language. We have abundant vocabulary. For such an extorted use of "fighting" to cheer up ourselves, we have such good terms as "nagaja (let's go forward)" or "aja."

The mass media are absolutely responsible for taking the lead in a campaign to find alternatives to the misleading "Konglish" terminology and thus to use right English terms.

Until when shall we use the term "IMF crisis" for the 1997 currency crisis that forced the nation to the brink of moratorium and to survive on the IMF bailout?

Park Moo-jong is The Korea Times advisor. Contact the writer at moojong@ktimes.co.kr.