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Romanization and Korean names:
There is a part of me that is constantly at war between personal freedom and accurate Romanization. Like if a name is legally 전정국 then technically that is Jeon Jeong-guk according to the Korean government's Romanization system. When people spell
There is a part of me that is constantly at war between personal freedom and accurate Romanization. Like if a name is legally 전정국 then technically that is Jeon Jeong-guk according to the Korean government's Romanization system. When people spell
a name otherwise in Romanization, then it forces me to remember the odd spelling.
"Ahh, this 전정국 spells his name Jeon Jungkook"
Which is pretty similar to remembering if your friend is Kylie or Kyleigh or Kylee or whatever. Kylie's parents named her Kylie, okay, I get it.
"Ahh, this 전정국 spells his name Jeon Jungkook"
Which is pretty similar to remembering if your friend is Kylie or Kyleigh or Kylee or whatever. Kylie's parents named her Kylie, okay, I get it.
So on the one hand, yes, personal freedom to spell names in ways that do not correspond to the established Romanization, but still I get so frustrated for how it hurts long term understanding of Korean by non-Koreans. If people only ever saw 어 spelled /eo/ they would learn how
to say it, eventually. Right?
How can people not get confused as they learn Korean if they think that /ou/ and /eo/ and /u/ and whatever else are all acceptable ways to write the same darn letter? I mean, 전정국 literally write /eo/ in his family name and /u/ in his given name
How can people not get confused as they learn Korean if they think that /ou/ and /eo/ and /u/ and whatever else are all acceptable ways to write the same darn letter? I mean, 전정국 literally write /eo/ in his family name and /u/ in his given name
even though it's the same letter with the same sound. How is that helpful for long term understanding of Korean?
When I first went to Korea Romanization confused me so much I just went straight to 한글 (han-geul, not hangul). But why was it confusing? Because it wasn't
When I first went to Korea Romanization confused me so much I just went straight to 한글 (han-geul, not hangul). But why was it confusing? Because it wasn't
consistently applied.
And because I (like most native users of the Roman alphabet) assumed it should be pronounced the way the letters would be in my language. Which is NOT the case-- I mean, Romanization is a system of representation of the han-geul, and is not meant to
And because I (like most native users of the Roman alphabet) assumed it should be pronounced the way the letters would be in my language. Which is NOT the case-- I mean, Romanization is a system of representation of the han-geul, and is not meant to
somehow mimic English (or Spanish, or French, or German, or Danish or whatever) pronunciation. Because Roman letters ARE said differently in different languages.
Anyway, just my morning musings. Trying to balance freedom for individuals with a need for consistency is exactly
Anyway, just my morning musings. Trying to balance freedom for individuals with a need for consistency is exactly
why the spelling Jeon Jungkook exists. Because in China the gov't just said "Pinyin. Use it" and that worked. But in Korea the gov't said... "ummm, use it, please, but umm, you know, your name is your name..."
What do you you think, lovely people of Twitter?
What do you you think, lovely people of Twitter?
Also, there is no education to teach Koreans Romanization, so Koreans often don't know how to Romanize and just guess, which means they perpetuate mis-Romanization.
(Because they generally don't need Romanization in Korea, and if they speak in English, they're usually translating not Romanizing, so there are few words a Korean needs to Romanize, and those are mostly names....)
