Korean Job Discussion Forums

[davesucksnfl]

I'll start off by saying that I think this whole east/west sea thing is a pathetic joke.

But with the recent exchange of fire all of the Korean media used 'the west sea'. the international articles, be they AP or other, were essentially identical to the Korean media articles, but all of the international press articles either used yellow sea or removed the west seas.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Is it a sign of disrespect? is it a sign of crazy korea?

[Smee]

Actually, prior to this I recall seeing Yellow Sea used in Korea before. Their insistence on ONLY going after the Sea of Japan was hilarious.

But, this current episode of West Sea is a mistake. What's also interesting is some articles haven't even named the body of water at all, saying they exchanged fire off the west coast.

People reading Korean sources from overseas---which isn't all that unlikely considering it was a Korean firefight---probably have never heard of "West Sea" used like this. I'm sure they'll guess from context what the body of water is, but intentionally giving an incorrect name only causes confusion and is a sign of arrogance. Same goes for calling the Sea of Japan "East Sea." That's the Korean name, in Korean, but East Sea and West Sea shouldn't be used in English.

[Konglishman]

I truly fail to see how the name, Yellow Sea could be offensive to Koreans. And trying to rename it the West Sea, is just a huge amount of silliness.

Now, in the case of the Sea of Japan, I can understand the resentment given the past colonial history and so forth. Actually, getting the Sea of Japan renamed as the East Sea, would make some sense. After all, it is the eastern most sea of Asia.

However, if South Korea wishes to be successful at getting the Sea of Japan renamed, it is going to have to win over some other nations to its cause. I am sure less xenophobia on their part, would greatly help...

Of course, in the grand scheme of things, this is ultimately a very trivial issue.

[redaxe]

Anyone else want to start a cause for renaming the Gulf of Mexico to "The Southern Gulf"?

[Old Gil]

They should name the Sea of Japan the Dongnishi Sea or Nishidong, (west in Japanese, east in Korean) just flip a coin to see who gets their name first. Or kawi bawi bo. Most people wouldn't be able to pronounce it and still call it the Sea of Japan but the baby would get his bottle.

[steveinincheon]

I really think a lot of the resentment of the name Sea of Japan in English stems from Dokdo. If Dokdo is an islet located in the Sea of Japan, then logically it would seem that Japan would have more of a claim to it. The East Sea issue reminds me of when the Seoul Government passed an ordinance changing the Chinese name of the city of Seoul to one that was closer to the Korean pronounciation. Of course no one in China paid any attention to this whatsoever. However, most Koreans I've met don't have a problem saying Yellow Sea in English - its just the Sea of Japan that causes problems.

[redaxe]

[Old Gil]

Yeah officialy they'll call it Shou'er but I've heard that's just to placate the Koreans as the "han" 汉 in the name 汉城 is the same character the Chinese use for their own culture (汉语 "Hanyu"=language of the Han people=Mandarin) and Korea felt snubbed that they couldn't get their own special Korean name (surprise). So now officialy it's Shou'er but a lot of people in colloquial speech call it Hancheng (so I've been told).

[oskinny1]

I tried to explain it to my students as this:

os1-The English name is the Sea of Japan. You can call it the East Sea in the Korean language.

students-NO!!!! Japan BAD!!! Japan want steal Dokdo!!

os1-That is irrelevant, we are talking language not good vs. bad.

students-NO!!! Japan biantae!!!

os1-OK, since America is "beautiful country" in Korean, you must now call all Americans "handsome" or "beautiful" when referring to them. OK?

Students-NO!!! Englishee is "American", Korean is "migook-in".

os1-Exactly.

[supernaut]