Korean Job Discussion Forums

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Hangul Romanization Revision Proposed
Foreigners Get Confused Over Current System
Some 75 percent of South Koreans think the government-enacted Romanization system does not reflect the original pronunciation of Hangul properly, a survey conducted by the Yoido Institute, a think tank of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) showed yesterday.
By Ryu Jin, Korea Times (September 26, 2006)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006092617271211990.htm

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Oh good lord, not again. (Although none of the existing systems are worth a crap.)

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

Is the answer really that Korean doesn't lend itself to be romanized and any system is just going to make a hash of it.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

oh *beep* that *beep*

SuperHero · Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Location: Superhero Hideout

THe system in use before the current one was much better. The stupid government screwed it up over national pride. Basically they wanted to make the system not use one created by foreigners for foreigners. The current romanization system is created by Koreans for Koreans.

Just look at the subway How the hell does sindang sound like 신당 or taerung sound like 태릉.

Kimchi Cha Cha · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: was Suncheon, now Brisbane

I think the current romanization system did a decent job with the vowel sounds: ㅓ becoming eo, ㅕ becoming yeo, etc. But, really screwed up the consonants, partcularly the ㄱ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅅ and ㅂ consonants. That said I wish for now that they'd just stick with a romanization system rather than change it every 5 years.

All the romanization systems are bound to have several flaws, all the more reason to learn 한글.

Beej · Joined: 05 Mar 2005 Location: Eungam Loop

Its gotta be some kind of scam so that the company or companies that make all the signs and maps can cash in big time every five years.

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

All the diacritical marks in Mccune-Reischaurer give me a headache. I like the current system because if you stick to it, I can easily reconstruct the original hangeul.

If you want a system tourists can use, well, then I guess you are just going to have to put up with a lot of dumb-looking words.

Thomas · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

Novernae · Joined: 02 Mar 2005

I wish they'd stop calling it 'romanization' and instead call it what is is: 'anglicization'. Sure, they're using the roman alphabet but they're trying to use English orthography, an imperfect system to say the least. I say teach the world the IPA and get it over with!

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

75% of Koreans don't like it? These are people who chose to write 이 as Lee, 박 as Park, and 노 as Roh. But yeah, let's listen to them. In fact, I think all Korean words should have a superfluous L or R thrown in. From now on, 이태원 can be spelled Litraeworn.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

It all depends on who is doing the reading. Taerung when read by a linguist would make perfect sense. To people coming here for world cup, they'd just as likely read it as "ta eee rung". When you read hangul, you're like "don't write it in the romanization system, I'll never pronounce it right. Write it in hangul!" (And my non standard romanization would actually make hangul pronounced like han gool, no?)