A world-class provider of world-leading pioneer technology that will remain competitive through fundamental adaptation to the paradigm shift
Nice title eh? In my new job, I often have to look over PR that Korean companies like to use to describe themselves. Often, these are English, but translated from Korean. While in Korean, the use of similar meaning adjectives and adverbs seems to be perfectly okay, in English it just looks like total BS. Here are a few words that Korean companies constantly like to go to when they describe themselves and their role in their industry. Note that they all mean basically the same thing.
World-leading
World-beating
World-class
Global (can be used in combination with any of the others, i.e. “Global Pioneer”)
Pioneer
Core
Front-runner
World Best
Dynamic
Exciting
Air Hub of high-quality sound technology leader Heathrow or JFK of Korea
I’ll attribute that to just a difference in PR styles between Korea and the U.S, and it’s not really a big deal, because eventually you turn your mind off to these self-congratulating words and the company’s profile then makes sense.
What really bothers me about Korean company PR after the jump.
One thing that slightly bothers me is that Korean companies like to say that they are “global X solutions providers”, where X is the problem that their product is supposed to solve. So a company that makes buses would be a “global transportation solutions provider”; a company that makes garbage bags would be a “global refuse solutions provider”; and a company that makes beer would be a global ugly-woman solutions provider. (Sorry, I was just trying to make a triple there.) But I understand. Who hasn’t tried to use big words in research papers to sound more smart or to make the content appear longer? What REALLY is making me angry comes next:
On almost every Korean company’s website, there will be a greeting or message from the CEO, usually with his picture. Now this in itself isn’t a bad thing. It is important for investors or potential business partners who the CEO is and what philosophy he might have for the company. But when you start messing with ambitious web designers and (possibly) narcissistic CEOs, the result looks a bit more like this. Click the link to see what is pissing me off.
I just want to know… WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!??!??!??!
November 6, 2011 at 2:27 pm
I work for a Korean computer technology/security firm here in Seoul, and I have a hard time getting them to put out anything that isn’t exactly like the title of this post. Getting actual facts? Nearly impossible. All they want are buzz-words about how super-awesome they and their products are. Arrgh!
November 11, 2011 at 2:32 am
I love how the ceo just says “we love you” lol!!! I am sure that someone else wrote that for the ceo and the ceo didn’t check what it actually meant lol. It happens a lot in Korea, where the superiors don’t speak English.