Controversy over restaurant and cafe menu boards without Korean characters
Fines of up to 5 million won under the Outdoor Advertisement Act
In one case, miso powder was labeled as M.S.G.R.
A photo of a restaurant menu board without Korean characters and written only in English has been criticized by users.

On March 22, an online community posted a post titled, “I wish they would make a way to write the menu in Korean. The photos attached by the author, Mr. A, show the menu boards of various restaurants and cafes.

[Image source=Captured from an online community].

The problem is that the menus don’t have any Korean characters on them, only English. Mr. A commented, “These are all Korean restaurants. It’s not a world where only 2030 people live, so how can the elderly and children order anything?” Mr. Lee pointed out.

“It’s written in English, and when a real foreigner comes and orders in English, they can’t understand it. Also, things like ‘1 drink per person’ and ‘hours of use’ are written in Korean, which isn’t even funny,” he said, adding, “Please make a law about Korean menus in the country.”

“I don’t know if I’m in Korea or the U.S.,” said one user. “It’s full of pretentiousness,” “Shouldn’t a restaurant with a lot of foreigners have at least a small amount of Korean written on it,” and “Do they think it looks like something if it’s written in English?” were some of the criticisms that followed.

‘MSGR=Missoula Seasoning?’…A sign of cultural vanity

[Image source=Capture Online Community].

Recently, restaurants and cafes that have gained popularity among 토토사이트young people through social networking services (SNS) are increasingly providing English menus or having staff explain the menu in English. Last year, a famous cafe in Seoul sparked controversy when it was reported that it sold miso powder as ‘MSGR’.

Some analysts attribute the use of English to “cultural vanity. According to the National Language Institute’s ‘2020 National Language Consciousness Survey’, those who responded that they use a lot of foreign words or foreign languages cited ‘being able to convey the meaning more accurately’ (41.2%), followed by ‘looking competent in using specialized terms’ (22.9%) and ‘feeling more sophisticated than our own language’ (15.7%).

According to the Outdoor Advertisement Act, in principle, characters on advertisements must be displayed in Hangul according to the Hangul alignment method, the Romanization method of the national language, and the foreign language method, and if they are written in a foreign language, they must be written in Hangul. In other words, it is illegal to display a menu board without Hangul, and violators can be fined up to 5 million won.