Keeping the magic of Santa Claus alive takes some effort and creativity, especially when children are old enough to read.
This is why, at an apartment complex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, residents are once again being recruited to play Santa through a deliberately coded notice.
Judging by how the wordplay has evolved from last year’s version, the adults putting it together seem to be having just as much fun as the children they’re trying to surprise, according to many online commenters.
Photos of the recruitment notice, posted on elevator walls and apartment bulletin boards, went viral this week on online communities and social media. The headline, “$$AN他 毛ZIP 안내,” creatively combines English letters, Chinese characters and symbols to phonetically spell out “Santa recruitment notice” in Korean.
The rest of the notice follows a similar pattern, using a mix of numbers, foreign characters and Korean phonetic spellings to convey the recruitment details.
The intentionally cryptic wording is designed to ensure that children who can read do not discover the Christmas surprise in advance.
The apartment complex has used similar wordplay in previous years to keep the surprise under wraps.
Last year, residents were recruited under the headline “SSANㅌr MOZIP 안내,” combining English and Korean characters. This year’s notice takes the wordplay a step further, incorporating Chinese characters and numbers to make the message even harder to decipher.
The posts immediately drew praise online, with many commenters commending the effort that went into creating the notice.
“Adults seemed to enjoy putting it together even more than the children would enjoy the surprise,” one commenter said, adding that the notice gets more elaborate every year.
ssh@heraldcorp.com
