Sun Kim’s English, with a Shot of Humor

Sun Kim made a name for himself as an English instructor on EBS. He later began describing himself as a “history comedian,” another turn in a career that has moved between several fields.

On EBS radio he co-hosted English Go Go with Chris Johnson. By the time of this review he was also a guest on Choi Wook’s Maebul Show, where he told stories from history with a comic touch.

Less well known is a book he published in 1999, under a Korean title that can be rendered as Drunk on English.

An English Book with an Unexpected Title

The book has been around for a long time, and the playful title sounds unusual for a language textbook.

You might expect a book entirely about drinking vocabulary. It covers some of that territory, along with American slang, proverbs and expressions that caught the author’s ear.

American Slang, Proverbs and Idioms

The book takes colorful English expressions and explains how they work. Many are idioms, the kind that can be hard to figure out one word at a time.

A bull in a china shop is one example. Picture a bull charging into a shop full of fragile dishes. The expression describes a person whose clumsy or tactless behavior causes trouble in a situation that calls for care.

Sun Kim spent years in Los Angeles, as I understand it. He brought the English he heard there to EBS, with a taste for getting a laugh along the way. The same instinct is evident in the history programs he later took on.

You can hear that voice in Drunk on English, in the expressions he chooses and in the way he explains them.

The Book That Got Me Interested in English

I came across it when I was just starting out. English had not held much interest for me, but these expressions and the way he explained them made me want to learn more.

That is why the book matters to me. It may be hard to find now, and some of the slang may sound dated after more than two decades.

It remains an enjoyable way to see what makes an expression memorable. For someone who has yet to find a reason to enjoy studying English, that can be enough to get started.

Book Information

Drunk on English

Author

Kim Seon-yeong (Sun Kim)

Publication date

25 June 1999

ISBN

9788976820464

View book at Kyobo Book Centre

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