nandupress
Seasons in the Kingdom
Tim Norris
nandupress,
Portland (ME), 2007
ISBN# 1-929565-24-0
Cover Photograph
Neil Mishalov
www.mishalov.comwww.mishalov.comww
Tim Norris
nandupress,
Portland (ME), 2007
ISBN# 1-929565-24-0
Cover Photograph
Neil Mishalov
www.mishalov.comwww.mishalov.comww
“Bamboo English” developed during the period after 1945 when U.S. forces occupied former Japanese occupied lands. By 1950, most of the GIs had been removed from Korea; only a few hundred training personnel were left when in June of that year the DPRK invaded the ROK in an attempt to unify the nation under the Communist banner. They almost succeeded. This is one of the major reasons we still have a military footprint in Korea today.
George Cornell, “GI Slang in Viet Nam,” explored the usage of “bamboo English,” and its augmentation during the 1960s and 1970s after it began to develop in Korea, Japan, and the Phillipines. “Bamboo English” reached its peak during the Viet Nam War, when many of the terms originally coined in Japan, then enlarged by the Korean experience, became imbedded within the American language, for good and for bad, as many of the terms carried with them an inherent racial slur, like the term “gook.” The “slanguage” that develops in any army is interesting not only for the energy and vitality that tests words and gives them new meanings in those new contexts, but also expresses the culture of military necessity and foreign locations in which this “slanguage” dialect takes shape. It also provides a view of the social conditions in which these words were used.
George Cornell, “GI Slang in Viet Nam,” explored the usage of “bamboo English,” and its augmentation during the 1960s and 1970s after it began to develop in Korea, Japan, and the Phillipines. “Bamboo English” reached its peak during the Viet Nam War, when many of the terms originally coined in Japan, then enlarged by the Korean experience, became imbedded within the American language, for good and for bad, as many of the terms carried with them an inherent racial slur, like the term “gook.” The “slanguage” that develops in any army is interesting not only for the energy and vitality that tests words and gives them new meanings in those new contexts, but also expresses the culture of military necessity and foreign locations in which this “slanguage” dialect takes shape. It also provides a view of the social conditions in which these words were used.
Bamboo English