Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Eedoryeong]

Forgetting English nicknames for a sec...

I want to ask about what rules we follow for spelling Korean names in English. I can tell by the highway signs and some Korean immigrants coming back there seems to be no agreed upon standard for this. So I just want to ask what sources - if any - anybody has found helpful, and possibly solicit opinions on the most authoritative source.

I suggested to my grade 3 Korean co-teacher that it was a reasonable expectation that our grade threes be able to write their own names using English letters, which itself was for an interview exercise. But it seems to have gotten more tangled than I expected.

The two biggest issues seem to be what to do with the 'eo' spelling (I think the Dutch brought that here but no one's changed it?) as in keep it or dump it, and how far we should go in spelling Korean characters like words they resemble in English (which I also see sometimes, e.g. Young and Park, instead of Yung/Yeong and Back/Bach/Bak/Pak) Should I show all the options? Surely not for small kids?

(I'm reminded of the history of the first dictionary.)

[Atavistic]

Names tend to be Romanized however the person wants. When I was showing my students how to write their names, I gave a few options for some of the sounds.

[schwa]

There are no hard & fast rules. Transliteration of names involves a balancing of name-spelling conventions, consideration of (but not blind adherence to) current transliteration rules, & sensitivity to how a native english speaker would be inclined to pronounce the result.

More of an art than a science.

Novices should be careful when imposing english spellings of names on Koreans. I've seen some pretty terrible attempts affixed to passports & the holder is stuck with it for life.

[nobbyken]

Korean in English letters has changed over the years.
The have changed surname sounds, like Park to Bak etc..
Also changed has been the way G and K are used. The way R, L, U and Z are used is crazy sometimes.
I know my Hangul sounds pretty well, and find it very easy to change a Korean name into English; only to have had elementary students inform you that you spelt it wrong .

IMO, it makes it harder to teach pronunciation when names are incorrectly spelt.

[Joe Boxer]

[nobbyken]

In my last school, there was a huge poster explaining English sounds through Hangul.
It had 'W' sound starting 'ㅜ'. A teacher who spoke well, asked me if thi8s was correct. It was my first week at any school, and I just looked confused and said no-oh.
My wife still pronounces wood as 'ood sometimes and most of my coteachers are not confident saying 'w' words.

I always ask people who show me their Korean name in English, how is it spelt in Hangul.

Kids laugh at the Korean teachers saying their names, so of course they will think we are funny speaking their names too.

[Chris_Dixon]

i assume there would be some recognized format as all koreans who have visa credit cards have there name spelt in english on them, and from what ive heard thats were most get the english spelling of there name from.

doesnt help grade 3'ers though haha

[Chris_Dixon]

[Eedoryeong]

Right so I'm getting the impression that giving a few options, while showing earlier spellings towards the left side (i.e. in the past) could work.

But it occurs to me that China has standardized uses of the latter letters in our alphabet that we as English speaker have to learn when they come to the west. Examples that come to mind are xu, qi, zhuang.

I thought that 'eo' would be a kind of Korean special use in the same manner that French use 'eau' and Germans use 'ich'

But I guess not(?) Well I can work from these suggestions. Anyway it's better than dodging the issue entirely and not doing the speaking-writing interview exercise.

[Eedoryeong]

[Atavistic]

[Otherside]