I saw “OTL” for the first time when I read about a performance of “OTL man” by Kimchisalad. I’m fluent in Korean but, due to living in the US for 2 decades, I’m new to any new slangs, modern Korean vocabulary. Actually, this one really puzzled me at the beginning. It doesn’t really stands for initials. It’s commonly used in Japan, China and Korea as, some kind of “despair” It all started with Japanese Internet Campaign using pictogram(see above) for “Stop Despair!” After looking at it carefully, I figured out it’s the posture that can read head (O), arm and back (T) and knees on floor (L). Interesting.

There are new initials that seem like English initials but, they are used quite differently among asians with English keyboards out there. Such as “KIN” among Koreans – I read it at some forum that means “Enjoy” in a sacastic way. Some post said, sometimes they use “Chi” as well…if you put them together as one word, you can make it a word. ;-)