kangmi: learning korean

Looks like a new bill is being put forward to enforece the standardization of romanized Korean - even personal names.

While they’re at it, they should practice what they preach and enforce a standardized Han’gulization of foreign words such as English. Is it “supa” or “syupa” for “super” ie, “supermarket”? The examples are endless. The next step would be actually to use English loan words properly in Korean, many of which are Koreanized versions of Japlish. The word “apart” in Korean is in fact an adverb-adjective used to refer to a noun (apartment) here. Again, the examples are endless. Splitting hairs over whether it’s “Pusan” or “Busan” (both are valid but ultimately failed attempts at rough approximation) seems self-indulgent and hypocritical to say the least when far more egregious examples of bastardized English and other foreign languages abound in Korea…

I’m not the first or the last person to wonder why Korean companies (as well as the Korean government) don’t employ more native English speakers to correct English usage in publications, signage, menus, and web sites clearly intended for a foreign audience. Korea would be doing itself a service by taking seriously the responsibility of communicating well with its intended audiences. (I can only assume that native speakers are needed to correct other foreign language usage as well.) I wouldn’t go so far as to recommend that stationery companies and clothing manufacturers employ the same quality control...real Konglish has a charming and amusing place in Korean culture. This might bring a smile to your face:

WOMAN
Woman is the Heart of
WALTON
How Can I Forget your Great Love?
The Name is Great,
plentiful of Love...

but this makes you wonder why they didn’t hire someone to clean it up:

So far, we have been concentrating on expansion of the hardware: improving the galleries and other facilities for visitors’ convenience. From now on, we will put more effort into developing the software related to operation of the Museum and life-long learning.

Konglish is the bad use of English by Koreans (and should also be expanded to include the bad use of Korean by native English speakers). Bad use may not be intentional, but left uncorrected it remains Konglish.

However, using loan words is not Konglish. Using loan words is a natural and sometimes uncomfortable part of language evolution. Speakers of the loaner language may disapprove of how loan words are used in another language, but once it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s up to speakers of the new language to figure out how to use the new words. The process may be messy, but it’s their process.

正: justice; righteousness

日: day; sun

My first creepy feeling while reading 한자.

“In the international world, with all sorts of international contracts and exchanges, unifying the Romanization standard is crucial. I am actually very late in submitting the bill now. The law should have been set up years ago,” Kim said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

He became more aware of the need for a single standard after the Dec. 26 tsunami tragedy,

“Since Koreans spell names (in English) so differently without any rules, the government had a hard time sorting out Korean names from the victims of the tragedy. This shows that the present situation is not only confusing but can also be dangerous.”

People have to remember that to foreigners, changing one letter can make a totally different word, said Kim. “Imagine how confusing it would be for us if an American called Kennedy sometimes spells his name Kennedy and sometimes Kenady. We would think that they mean two different people, wouldn’t we?”

As Kim says, the differences in the Romanization of Korean words have confused foreigners.

The southern port city Busan is still written as “Pusan” in many cases. Incheon, site of the international airport, was previously Inchon and Gimpo, the domestic airport in Seoul, used to be Kimpo.

Kim’s bill would make the government set a new English lettering standard after thorough research on how Korean words are currently Romanized.

“Because the government’s 2000 version was not mandatory, it became useless,” said Kim. “Therefore, the new version should be set with the majority’s approval and the government should enforce the public to use it.”

Kim asserted that the general names of cities, towns, regions and public organizations should follow the government’s new standard, but individuals and private organizations should be given more time - at least three to five years - in changing their names.

“If some persist on writing their names differently for an understandable reason, their claims should be accepted. But personally, I don’t see the reason to insist on keeping such and such spelling for the names when it is a process to help the whole nation,” he added.

Kim emphasized that both government effort and public cooperation were needed in order for the nation to set a firm principle and become well adapted in the global world.

“Korea is only proving how underdeveloped it is by delaying the English lettering unification process,” said Kim. “English has become more important than Chinese for a long time now. How come we are so strict about Chinese lettering and so generous when it comes to Romanization?”

Even if one has to go through some inconvenience, everyone has [sic] cooperate in the process both for individuals’ and the whole nation’s benefit, he said.

There’s unified romanization, and there’s romanization on which everyone can agree. Neither is easy to achieve.