Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shifter2009]

I have a nice new job at a high school in Changwon. Me and my co-worker both got freshly built English rooms with all the trimmings but there is one problem, we have a National Geographic map on the wall which has the dreaded SEA OF JAPAN on it! With East Sea in parentheses underneath. This had caused a great stir among my students and their parents. This map apparently is going to be removed due to its offensiveness or something. Am I wrong in seeing this as kind of petty? I kind of see their point of view but on the other hand you'd think they could just rise above it....

[cvmurrieta]

The peeps where I live still call it the Sea of Japan.

[Straphanger]

Yeah, but here it ain't called the Sea of Japan, any more than Dokdo is called the Laincourt Rocks, any more than Daehanminguk is called Korea. They don't see it as a political move. They just see it as "Your map is wrong."

[Forward Observer]

I agree. Petty.

[Smee]

VANK found a social studies book with Sea of Japan on the cover a little while ago.

This pisses me off much more than the Dokdo crap. The name is East Sea in Korean. 동해. Nobody is suggesting changing it to 일본해. But the ENGLISH name is Sea of Japan. Leave our language alone. It's not disputed just because YOU dispute it.

And if they want to confine the dumb-assery to Korea, fine. But it kills me when they protest to US politicians and bureaucrats to have the name changed on maps. I make fun of these loons, but it makes me want to write letters my own damn self, saying NOT to change it to East Sea, NOT to listen to these Korean quacks, and NOT to forget that Koreans shouldn't dictate our own language to us.

[shifter2009]

[ekul]

[Guri Guy]

It is pretty obvious that South and North's Korea's protests to get the sea changed to the East Sea is nothing more than petty revenge against Japan.

In fact, I saw an article about something happening in the Yellow Sea today in the Korean Herald. Even though it is called 서해 (West Sea) in their language, they used Yellow Sea anyway. Likely this is because they are too chickensh*t to tell China what to do.

Good comment here on the issue. VANK was up to their usual tricks on Dokdo as well.

Korean ultra-nationalist group pays for New York Times advertisement about Sea of Japan

[blade]

They should call it the Korpan Sea

[Guri Guy]

How about the Jakor Sea?

Better yet, how about the West Sea? After all it is West of Japan? Using solid Korean reasoning there...

[travelingfool]

Much to the chagrin of the self important Koreans, nobody outside of Korea gives a shite.

[Straphanger]

I explained "Laincourt Rocks" to one of my teachers after showing her this thread, and explaining that in American bureaucracy it could literally take an act of congress to change the name of a place that already has a name.

"It's still wrong, but now I see why it's not changed. Korean government is the same."

[cvmurrieta]

When I speak Japanese, I have no choice but to call it Nihon-kai (Sea of Japan). If I refer to it as To-kai (East Sea), they may think I am referring to a bullet train route

I say we sell corporate naming rights to the disputed body of water (e.g. The Hamburglar Sea)

[Leslie Cheswyck]

The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) because they controlled every fvcking inch of its coastline, having conquered it all. I say let Korea do the same. What, Japan did it? Well, there you have it.

[ryoga013]