Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Lao Wai]

Hey,

I have a pet peeve I'd like to share. When I was in Korea and teaching at the hagwon, I'd often get new students. I'd look at the class list and try to pronounce the Korean name written in English letters. So, at the time if I got a name like Roh Ji Yun, I'd pronounce it "yun" as in "run". Well, of course, the student would yell "no teacher! It's Noh Jee Yoon!" Anyway, after a while I'd learned to read hangul and it became a non-issue.

However, I'd often hear adult Koreans lament that westerners could never pronounce their names correctly when they were abroad. Well, in my opinion, that is in part due to the messed up spelling they use. Of course a westerner will say "Roh" and not "Noh" when they see that last name unless they know a bit about Korean culture.

Right now I'm in Hong Kong. One of my students is named Li Tsz Kin. It's pronounced Lay Tzee Gen (as in pen). I don't think you'd get that pronunciation using that spelling. Unfortunately for me, I can't read Chinese characters, so I'm having to rely on these crappy Romanizations. I've gone through all of my class lists and have written the names phonetically beside the original spellings.

I also find that people in Korea and in Hong Kong have strong attachments to specific ways their names are written in English letters. So, even if you were to say to a Korean that the sound of their name and the letters don't match, they still want to use the original spelling. I think there is some historical significance to the spellings as well. This is fine, but then they shouldn't biotch about people pronouncing their name incorectly.

[djsmnc]

That made me absolutely crazy before.

Like the girl who wouldn't let me change the spelling of her family name from "Ham" to "Hwam," despite the fact that I had mispronounced it as the meat cut from a pig. I hope that she gets called Miss Ham for all the time she spends abroad.

[RACETRAITOR]

Okay, I'm going to give one of my classic rants here.

First of all, I think it's our job as ESL educators to help them with their name. So I'd sit Jiyun aside and tell her that not only is Jiyoon more attractive looking, but it will help foreigners pronounce her name. Most of these names are spelt out with no idea of how English vowels work.

The one that annoys me is 오 and 어. A lot of Koreans think "o" is always 오 and "u" or worse "eo" is always 어. It's a two-way street too.

My name is Jon and Koreans pronounce it 존, or Joan, no matter how much I insist that's my grandmother's name. Once my wife and I were at a restaurant and we ordered 감자전. I told her that's exactly how to say my name, 전. She laughed and didn't believe me.

Now of course the annoying part. Her name is 정 and she spells it Jung. Of course people pronounce it like Juhng, or worse, Yoong. But it's the same vowel sound as my name, so it should be Jong. But to her that looks like 종. It's a neverending battle over vowels, the worst kind.

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

My name is mispronounced by 95% of the people who read it. I'm not Asian. After I tell them what the proper pronuciation is, that's that, no big deal.

_*_

[ajgeddes]

My name is Aaron, and I am always called Ellen. As many times as I say my name, I still get Ellen from a lot of them. So, now I teach them 'air' and 'run', and while that isn't perfect, it is much better and they get it right most of the time.

[ajgeddes]

The thing that is crazy about Korean, when romanized, is that "Kyoung" and "Gyeong" is the same.

[SirFink]

Part of the problem is that Korean vowels are always pronounced the same, while an English "a" can be ah, ay, ae, etc. So when they Romanize a Korean word they simply replace all the English vowels with what they think are the Korean equivalents.

I have a student named "Tom" who insists I call him "Tome" since that's how his Korean English teachers have pronounced it since Kindergarten.

[cdninkorea]

My name, to Koreans, is "Brah-ee-un" rather than "Bryan"
It never bothers me, but what I absolutely loathe is when they try to be funny and shorten it to "Bra"

[rothkowitz]

Korean goes overseas.

Their surname is "Gwak".Want to have a first name "Mack".Sounds masculine.

Hi,I'm Mack Gwak.

"No......you'll get beaten up........"

[Ya-ta Boy]

I've had similar problems. I know some are stuck with the bad spellings because it has been entered on an official document, like their passport. Others are delighted to get help with the spelling so it comes out closer to Korean pronunciation.

My biggest run-in with one of the negative ones was on my first day of teaching here. An ajosshi named 최 said his name for me and I spelled it out Chey because that's what it sounded like to me. He became livid and insisted I spell it Choi and pronounce it 'choy'. I could not get it across to him that the sound of his name didn't have to change just because it was spelled in a different alphabet. As it turned out, he wasn't just a jerk only about the spelling of his name.

But yes, all the Romanization systems suck.

[RACETRAITOR]

I had an adult student named Youngsuck. He had sort of a rough time with it when he lived in the US for a year. Changing the spelling can get rid of that.

[jaebea]

My name gets pronounced correctly most of the time, but then again, I've bastardised it.

Technically it should just be "Jeh", but that's pretty poor. So Jae it is (like Jay).

I get the Jai (rhymes with eye) pronounciation a few times, but never had "Jee" (like the "ae" in encyclopaedia).

Hehe.

jae.

[Atassi]

Interesting topic, and often no easy answers when spelling in English. The point that English vowels are largely to blame is right on the mark.

I too sometimes let others know to expect difficulty because of the way their names are spelled.

[gang ah jee]

[RACETRAITOR]