Korean Job Discussion Forums

[andrew]

*****

[Corporal]

As far as I know there are some parts of the name that are masculine and some feminine. E.g, Man or Beom wouldn't be used as part of a girl's name, nor would Ji or Hye usually be used for a boy. But I've had boys with Min (which I believe means beautiful) in their name. Once I wrote different combinations of names on the board and asked my students whether they could tell from the name if it was a boy or girl. Some identified with certainty the girl's names and boy's names (Ji Young, Joon Sik) and some they said they couldn't tell just from the name.

[dogbert]

[Zyzyfer]

When you've got 700 students, all with Korean names, you catch on to the common boy and girl names. How do they blend together? I dunno. They just do.

I've got a Movie man in one of my classes, though.

[jh]

I know this is a new concept and maybe tricky at first, but in Korea a given name is NOT first name and middle name. In other words Seo-bum is not TWO names just because it has two characters.

E.g. Park, Seo-bum doesn't have three names. He/she has a family name: ParK, and ONE given name: Seo-bum.

There are cases where the given name has ONE character: Kim, Min., regardless of how many characters it is still ONE given name.

So trying to discern whether it is masculine or femine by looking at the individual characters in a two character name is just retarded.

It is much like Western names. We learn by coming across them over and over again. And much like western names, there are instances where it'll throw you.

Frank: Francis or Francessca?
Sam: Samuel or Samantha?

And why is Francis a boy's name and Samantha a girl's name? They just are. And no matter how much we study the individual letters, we will not be able to answer why.

I could be wrong about this, but then I'm Korean. What do I know?

[makushi]

There are some Korean names like "Sung Min" and "Kwan Jin" that are used by both men and women.

The same for the U.S..... Terry, Leslie, etc.

But for the most part, IMHO, it's usually very easy to tell the sex of someone in Korea by their name as the crossover names aren't really that common.

JH care to comment?

[Corporal]

I'm so glad that jh has decided to swoop down out of the great blue yonder and grace us all with her wisdom, gained no doubt simply by virtue of being Korean...we shall all have to refrain from giving our opinions on anything Korean henceforth because what do we know...we're only Westerners....



And I'm sure the singer mentioned is feminine, I didn't say it COULDN'T happen, I just said it is unusual for a parent to look at their baby girl and say "let's name her Beom-blah or blah-Beom" considering that Beom means tiger.

I could be wrong about this, but then, I'm half Dutch and half Canadian. What do I know?

[jh]

[jh]

[makushi]

[Corporal]

I think what makushi and I have in common, is that we don't believe you should get a gold medal just for being Korean.

It is possible for Westerns to know/understand things about Korea that a Korean person didn't enlighten us about, you know. Or don't you believe that?

Let me guess, we also can't truly understand "jung" either can we?

[jh]

[the_beaver]

It's not the sound of the name which determines if the name is masculine or feminine, although it might seem that way. You have to look at the name written in Chinese characters and judge it from there.

[Corporal]

But since you COULD'VE PMd me about the comma and CHOSE not to, I have to conclude that you are less mature than I am.

Anyway, although you have been putting on a fair show up till now, you really don't have the equipment to engage in mortal intellectual combat with me, so why don't you just bow out now?

[mokpochica]