Bamboo English

Bamboo English, also used as the glossary for Seasons in the Kingdom.

“Bamboo English” developed during the long period of U.S. involvement in Asian nations, from the Phillipines until today. George Cornell, “GI Slang in Viet Nam,” explored the  usage of “bamboo English,” and its augmentation during the 1960s and 1970s after the Korean War, and its legacy in the Pacific War and its longer history dating back to the U.S. subjugation of the Phillipines. “Bamboo English” reached its peak during the Viet Nam War, when many of the terms became imbedded within the American language, for good and for bad, many of the terms carried with them an inherent racial slurs, like the word “gook.” The “slanguage” that develops in any army is interesting not only for the energy and vitality that tests words and gives them new meanings in those new contexts, but also expresses the culture of military necessity and foreign locations in which this “slanguage” dialect takes shape. It also provides a view of the social conditions in which these words were used. The words in this list, incomplete in the larger view of Bamboo English and military jargon, expresses a useful glossary for the novel, Seasons in the Kingdom.


absoFUCKINGlutely - absoFUCKINGlutely

AMF - adios, mother fucker

AFKN - Armed Forces Korean Network

AFU - all fucked up

Army Enlisted Ranks
E1 - Private
E2 - Private
E3 - Private First Class
E4 - Specialist
E5 - Buck Sergeant
E6 - Staff Sergeant
E7 - Sergeant First Class
E8 - Master Sergeant - usually a unit’s first sergeant
E9 - Sergeant Major (with cluster - Command Sergeant Major)

Army Officer Ranks
01 - 2nd LT - second Lieutenant
02 - 1st LT - First Lieutenant
03 - Captain
04 - Major
05 - Lt. Colonel
06 - Full Colonel or Bird Colonel
07 - Brigadier General - one star
08 - Major Gen. - 2 stars
09 - Lieutenant Gen. - 3 stars
10 - General - four stars

Ascom City - acronym for Army Support COMmand. Military installation dating back to the 1930s when developed by the Japanese. Currently, only Camp Market remains as the U.S. presence at Ascom. Also, known as Ashcan City.

ABS - asshole behavior scale

ATF - asshole tolerance factor

ASAP - as soon as possible

banjo - GI slang from the Korean pyonso, which literally means “excrement place” or “shit house” and close to the Japanese word benjo, a word for toilet or rest room

banjo ditch - sewer ditch where villagers would throw garbage and also used as drainage for rain water, interesting mix during monsoon season

beau coup - an abundance; a lot. In abundance; galore, “I like that beau coup,” or “that guys a beaucoup crazy motherfucker,” borrowed from the French

beans and dicks - C-ration beans and hot dogs

BIFF - big ignorant fat fucker

Blood - used by black Americans for one another, individually or collectively

BOHICA - bend over, here it comes again

boom-boom - sex, the act of...

bug out - term coined in Korea during Korean War when troops had to pickup quickly and get the hell out of wherever they were due to enemy troops who would soon be at their position

bummer - lament for something bad that has occurred

butterfly - term for adultery between a GI and a business girl

business girls - Korean prostitutes

Calley - Calley (William), Lt.Lieutenant in the U.S. convicted of war crimes because of his leadership position at My Lai, Viet Nam

Candyland - nickname for Korea village environment

Chapter 13 - Chapter 13 administrative discharge from the military, less than Honorable Discharge

Cheap-Charlee - nickname given to GIs for their spend thrift ways

cherry motherfucker - cherry motherfuckernewbie

chop chop - chop chop slang for food

CID - Criminal Investigation Department

CF - cluster fuck

CO
Commanding Officer

culture shock
Impact on Americans displaced into foreign culture

cunt cap
dress military folding headgear, nickname for garrison cap

diddy-bopping
walking carelessly, carefree

didi mau
slang Vietnamese for "go quickly"

DILLIGAFF
Does It Look Like I Give A Flying Fuck

dink
slang for an Asian

dinky dau
Vietnamese for “to be crazy”

DMZ
Demilitarized Zone. The strip of land separating the North from the South, as agreed upon at the Cease-fire
of 1953. Highly tense region with two massive armies facing each other across a no-man’s land. The original DMZ was the border establishing the Soviet controlled north and the US controlled South at the end of WWII.

DOD
Department of Defense

EM
enlisted man, as in Enlisted Man’s Club

ETS
Estimated Time in Service, or the date you were released from military service.

EVACslang for evacuation hospital

FIGMO
fuck it, got my orders

fuck
fuck

Fucking A
reaffirmation of something, like AFucking A, man”

FUBAR
Fucked up beyond all recognition

FTA
Fuck The Army

Funny Money
slang for Korean currency or MPC

GI
Ground Infantry, eventually a nickname for all troops

gooks
...most authoritative studies indicate that the origin of this racial slur was the Korean War. Mee hap joon Guk is the United States of America, and is usually shortened to Mikuk. Korea is referred to as Hanguk. Guk means people of... Popularly used during the Korean War to ID Chinese or North Koreans, the use of the word “gook” soon became a popular GI term for all Asians. During the Viet Nam War the term became deeply imbedded in our language

grunt
nickname for infantryman

headcount
counting of prisoner heads to verify the prisoner count, occurs several times a day.

Hermit Kingdom
historical nickname for Korea

hooch
from the Japanese for house - uchi

Hop Sing
name of Chinese coolie on the T.V. show Ponderosa, and used as a derogatory remark toward Asians.

houseboy
Korean man to take after you on the compound

housegirl
Korean woman, usually young, that worked as a servant in a Korean home, also used in the narrative as housegurl when in dialogue

IG
Inspector General

in-country
slang for saying remaining in Viet Nam or Korea

KATUSA
Korean Augmentation of the United States Army

kimchee cab
GI nickname for the small cabs

KP
kitchen police, GI’s responsible for helping Mess Sergeant prepare meals and to clean the kitchen after each mess call. In the stockade, both Korean civilian contract workers, and prisoners performed KP duty.

MAC
Military Airlift Command

mamasan
GI nickname for older women, from the Japanese mama-san referring to the woman operating a club or brothel

MASH
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, as in the film and TV series

meat wagon
name for the bus used on larger posts to transport business girls to EM and NCO clubs for entertainment

moose
Japanese origin for girl musume and used by the Japanese for their Korean servants. GIs commonly called their girlfriends “moose” in Korean and in Viet Nam.

MOS
Military Operating Specialty

most ricky-tick
immediately, if not sooner

MP
Military Police

MPC
Military Police Currency, printed just for U.S. GI usage in Korea. Used in an attempt to stem the black-market of U.S. currency, which was not used in Korea at that time.

Military Weapons referred in Seasons in the Kingdom
M60s - machine gun
M50 - caliber - machine gun
45s - standard sidearm
M16s - U.S. military rifle

NCO
Non-Commissioned Officer

newbie
newbie label for any new GI in-country

OB
Korean beer

OCS
Officer Candidate School, graduates called a “90 day wonders.”

OD
junior officer assigned command when CO not available. Officer of the Day

OJT
on the job training

Old Man
CO, commanding officer

Osan
Air Force Base south of Suwon

Oscar
pink alcoholic beverage served in bars, usually in a 1.5 liter bottle.

papasan
general slang for Korean man

poontang
slang for female genitals, as in getting some poontang.

Provost Marshal
chief Military Police Officer, either on base, or in country

PT
physical training

PX
Post Exchange, on airbases known as a BX, Base Exchange.

pukes
term coined to describe U.S. prisoner in the stockade.

RTFM
read the fucking manual

RTFMA
read the fucking manual again

ROK
Republic of Korea

rotate
term coined for the transfer to the U.S. from any foreign duty

Roundeye
euphemism for non-Asian female

R&R Rest (Rape) and Relaxation(Rape) and Relaxation

Salley Port
entrance into a confinement facility

Short Calendar
a calendar, usually of one year in length, on which a GI could cross off each day until his ETS

Sin-Chon
first camptown in Korea

slant or slope
an Asian person

SOFA card
all GIs carried this card that referenced Status Of Forces Agreement laws between ROK and U.S.

SOP
standard operating procedure

swine
name used by prisoners for guards

TDS
terminal dumb shit

TDY
Temporary Duty

TOP
nickname for first sergeant

turnkey
nickname for compound guard or guards in general

turtle mounds
Korean cemetery

two digit midget
someone with less then 100 days left on their tour or in the service

UN Girls
prostitutes near UN compounds

V.D. esso
slang Korean for I’ve got V.D.

ville
short for village

VOLAR
Volunteer Army, employed by the DOD toward the end of the war to replace the draft army of the 1960s and early 1970s. VOLAR failed.

WOFTAM
waste of fucking time and money

watsamattayu
what’s the matter with you, a bastardization

the world
the USA

Yongsan
District of Seoul, once used by Japanese military, developed by U.S. after Korean war as the Center of Eighth Army Command

zipperhead
Vietnamese person, or general derogatory comment about any Asian