FIGHTING!!

For the next two weeks, I'm giving speaking tests in my classes. So, basically, I have one-on-one short conversations with students.

While some surprise me with their conversational ability ("Wait, you lived in Canada for 3 years? And you never thought to speak up the past 4 months??"), others... fall below expectations.

For instance, one conversation I had with a student:

Me: I get bad grades. What should I do?

Student: ...
Student: ...
Student: FIGHTING!!"

I should explain here that this student did not mean, 'fight someone!' or 'bad grades make me so angry, let's fight!'

"Fighting!" is a Konglish word that means "You can do it!" or "chin up!" It's everywhere.

Like on this mug I bought at Daiso.

For those rough mornings.

Of this World Cup Shirt from Babo.

The t-shirt says "Pa-i-ting" which is the closest you can get to "Fighting" in hangul.

In fact, 'fighting!' is such a popular phrase, it's even frequently used by foreigners here. For example, this facebook conversation:

Brooke wrote: 
Hope your face isn't still paralyzed from that Moroccan sandwich. Sorry, friend.

Kara wrote:
no worries I have made a full recovery! Even my eyebrow is back to normal. It was touch and go there for a while, but I made it through. FIGHTING!

So, FIGHTING! students! Do your best!