Korean Job Discussion Forums

Kyrei · Joined: 22 Jan 2003

One of the reporters at my university newpaper submitted an article (I am the copy-editor) regarding a movement to change the spelling of 'Korea' to 'Corea' since (this person claims) the spelling was internationalised during the Japanese Colonial times in order to make sure that Japan was listed before Korea alphabetically.

I have yet to actually look for sources of the name of the country in an international context pre-1900 but I am fairly certain that this is not true and simply ignorant jingoism / anti-Japanism. Has anyone else heard this? My wife was open-mouth shocked at the suggestion, and she is Korean.

Kyrei

Imbroglio · Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 11:11 pm Post subject:

Yeah,

There was a Corean Cat on this board a few months ago who said the same thing while trying to pick up some hot western girl that most single guys on this board would give their left arm to become close with.

Laughing

Kyrei · Joined: 22 Jan 2003

My apologies to the board if this is a tired, old topic.

Kyrei

Imbroglio · Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 11:20 pm Post subject:

Think nothing of it friend. Your topics are always welcome.

FierceInvalid · Joined: 16 Mar 2003

I've heard this too. I think it's probably a load of crap as well, although for the record the name is spelled with a "C" in French, so who knows? Plus, Japan is almost as rabidly nationalistic as Korea is, so it's not really out of the realm of possibility I guess...

Canadian Teacher · Joined: 22 Jan 2003

I commend Corea in righting historical wrongs. There is a common mistake about "Canada"

The correct spelling is Aanada.

The "Pacific" ocean is in fact the West Canada Ocean.

The "Atlantic" the East Canada Ocean

The "Arctic" the North Canada Ocean.

Please ammend all your maps or we Aanadians will boycott you.

Cuatemoc · Joined: 06 Mar 2003

It's Corea in Spanish as well.

I hear this all the time, just one of those things that "everybody knows". I'm interested enough to strongly encourage someone else to do the research and share it around.

gypsyfish · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

This one drives me crazy. I don't know why. It seems silly. If the Japanese did change the name, why English, since they use hanji? They did impel Koreans to change their names to Japanese names and tried to get them to use Japanese instead of Korean. But it seems to me if the Japanese were so nationalistic, they wouldn't care about the English alphabet.

I have a couple of books that were writen before the Japanese occupation. One was written by an English woman and the other by an American woman. Both used K, instead of C.

Korea changed the Romanisation system of hangul a couple of years ago, maybe they'll change the spelling of Korea, too.

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

This is the kind of stuff they talk about on the Moogoonghwa mailing list, a tad more academic than this board.

http://gort.ucsd.edu/jhan/FAQ.html

The Lemon · Joined: 11 Jan 2003

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

I drove into "Guri" today, and drove out of "Kuri", according to the sign. Last year I accepted a contract in "Kimpo" but arrived in "Gimpo". I thought about visiting "Busan" but my boss recommended "Pusan" instead. In the world cup, Ireland played in "Daegu" but they thought wrong, it was "Taegu". So imperialist K's,B's and D's are out of fashion nowadays. We taught them English, now they're teaching us to spell.

nolin nae · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Location: ��ֹ�

"korea" comes from the korean word ��, which romanized could be golyeo, golyeo, kolyeo, or koryeo. the '��' (giyuk) can be romanized as a 'k' or 'g', but not as a 'c' in english.

FierceInvalid · Joined: 16 Mar 2003

gajackson1 · Posted: Sat May 10, 2003 8:13 pm Post subject:

This is NOT a 100%er -

i have a t-shirt (don't laugh - wait!) from the GoldFire art gallery in In-sa dong. The owner there does all the work himself, and takes a lot of pride in even the Ts.

It is a map of 'Corea' in 1817 - everything is written in English. Very cool shirt, showing part of China, Corea, Formosa, and 'Nipham/the Isles of Japan.'

I'll also remind the forgetful/ignorant that the only place you will find Peking nowadays is on an out-of-date map or a Chinese restaurant menu!!!

Anyone else? (no, World Cup stuff doesn't count!)

weatherman · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

If you go to the postal museum you can see stamps pre dating the colonial times in which the spellling of this country is done with a big old 'K' as in Korea. C is used more with the romance languages, and this whole issue smakes of petty b i t c h ing by I am a victimized Korean.