Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mithridates]

I have no problems with the new romanization except writing 'si' for a 'shi' sound, and whenever I see it it makes me want to start killing people. Over on the wiki I've been writing everything with an sh sound with an sh, but some have suggested I / others that write with an sh should use the revised romanization because that's the way things are officially written.

What do you think, should I suppress my desire to kill and just write si, or continue the battle?

The reason why I hate 'si' is because every other part of the new romanization is generally pretty accurate (sometimes Busan is pronounced like a p, and sometimes like a b) but there's no way you'd ever infer an sh sound from a simple s. It makes me want to kill just like that other one in Japan where mount Fuji is written as Huzi.

[seoulkitchen]

Yay! Someone else who hates that!
That has been buggin' me for years. I refuse to go Sinchon. Only Shinchon!

Where the hell did they come up with that one?
Why why why???

[red dog]

Standard romanization is helpful and keeps spellings consistent -- we all know "si" sounds more like "shi" and when we read romanized Korean we just have to keep that rule in mind. If you can disregard the rules you don't like, so can other people. Why shouldn't I spell that syllable "she" or "shee" if I feel like it? Some people object to the "eo" combination -- but what are the alternatives? Both "o" and "u" represent other sounds.

The results of not following any one system are extremely ugly -- an absolute dog's breakfast of inconsistent spellings that unfortunate readers have to sort out on their own.

[red dog]

[JongnoGuru]

[mithridates]

[mindmetoo]

Isn't "si" (pronounced "see") a kind of Korean swear word?

[red dog]

[red dog]

[Peeping Tom]

[bluelake]

I have mixed feelings about it all. I think both the McCune-Reischauer and gov't systems have a lot to be desired. M-R is fine for Korean studies academics, but it confuses the heck out of those who are not familiar with it; the latter tend to end up with what I used to call "missionary English" (due to the pronunciation missionaries used to have when using M-R--it ran chills up my spine listening to them). The government system handles consonants in a way that those not familiar with the system can usually have a fairly decent pronunciation; however, some of the vowel combinations used to get certain Korean vowel sounds often makes word size huge and confusing.

As for the specifics to the OP, I often use "sh" (notice an example in my sig); however, when I am writing academic works for Korean studies, I use M-R exclusively. I also use M-R in the Korean history classes I teach, and I require my students to, also (although I introduce both systems the first day of class).

[visviva]

It's worth noting that no real Romanization system -- Yale, McCune-Reischauer, or Revised -- allows "shi" for 시.

The only exception was the debased version of McCune-Reischauer promoted by the ROK government in the 80s and 90s.

But I would have to admit, as an English speaker, that "shi" looks better.

[red dog]

Peeping Tom wrote:

[mithridates]

[mithridates]