South Korea’s capital, Seoul, has chosen a new slogan to promote the city internationally, but it has left some people confused.

    “I.Seoul.U” triumphed in a vote held in the city Wednesday, beating two other options: “Seoulmate” and “Seouling,” the Korea Times reported.

    A panel of nine experts, including two professors, and more than 1,000 members of the general public took part in the final selection.

    The slogan will be used to promote the city around the world, and replaces the current “Hi Seoul.” According to the paper, the project cost about 500 million won.

    Even before the vote, many people raised concerns that “I.Seoul.U” doesn’t make much sense in English, and that none of the finalists inspired interest in the city.

    Now that the slogan is official the mockery has increased, with social media users posting parodies online, the Korea Herald reported.

    On the city government’s Facebook page thousands of users have “liked” posts about the new branding, and plenty welcome it as a “great choice.”

    But many aren’t happy, with some calling it “Konglish” — the Korean practice of adopting English words in a way that English speakers often cannot understand.

    “They were all rubbish but at least Seoulmate actually made sense,” writes one user. “Terrible choice. I was in Seoul this year and this makes me feel nothing of what I felt when I visited,” another person says.

    Previous slogans have included “Infinitely yours, Seoul,” which apparently expressed the city’s “infinite capacity for development,” and the potentially risky “Seoul, My...,” which left a gap for people to fill as they saw fit.

韩国首都首尔近日选用了一个新的宣传标语在国际上推广该城市。但这个新标语却令有些人一头雾水。

据《韩国时报》报道，首尔上周三进行了投票，“I.Seoul.U”（我和你的首尔）打败竞争对手“Seoulmate”（我的朋友首尔，音同soulmate）和“Seouling”

（首尔进行式），当选新的首尔宣传标语。参与最终投票的有包括两名教授在内的九名专家组成员以及1000多名市民。新标语将取代现在的“Hi Seoul”（你好，首尔），用于在全世界推广首尔。据报道，此次项目耗资约5亿韩元（约合45万美元）。投票前，就有很多人担心“I.Seoul.U”在英语里说不通，所有入围最终投票的作品都引不起人们对首尔的兴趣。据《韩国先驱报》报道，在“I.Seoul.U”成为官方标语后，人们对标语的嘲弄也越来越多，社交媒体用户争相在网上发表恶搞版本。

首尔市政府的Facebook主页上，成千上万的用户给有关这一新首尔品牌推广的消息点了“赞”，还有很多人都称“选得

好”。然而，也有很多人不满意，有些人还称它为“Konglish”，即韩式英语，这种经韩国人本地化后的英语通常英语母语人士是无法理解的。一位用户写道：“这些入围标语都糟透了，但起码Seoulmate还能讲得

通”。还有人说：“这是个糟糕的选择！今年我去过首尔，但这条标语跟我游首尔时的感受根本无法产生共鸣”。

此前首尔的城市宣传标语还有“Infinitely yours, Seoul”（无穷乐趣，尽在首尔），它貌似表达了首尔“发展的无限潜

力”。此外，还有稍显冒险的标语“Seoul，My……”（首尔，我的……），通过留白每个人都可以填入自己的答案。

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【嘲弄】cháonòng mockery ridicule, contempt, or derision

【恶搞】ègǎo parody any humorous, satirical, or burlesque imitation