Cho Mi-hak, 66, wanted to know how her son’s job was going, so she stole a glimpse at his mobile phone and the text messages he had been exchanging with friends and colleagues. Her son needn’t have worried about his privacy, however, as she could barely understand a word. “Gosh, I couldn’t wrap my head around some of the messages as they were laden with strange words, ones that appeared to be combinations of shortened words or hybrids of English and Korean that were beyond my apprehension,” she said. She later came to learn that Bepu meant “best friend”, Ah-Ah...