Korean Job Discussion Forums

[superacidjax]

Ok, the Koreans prefer East Sea instead of Sea of Japan.

The Koreans prefer West Sea for the Yellow Sea.

Do the Koreans really think they are the center of the world? I can understand perhaps complaining about the Sea of Japan, but I can't understand the West Sea controversy.

After all the "West Sea" is only west of Korea and Japan.. For the rest of mainland Asia, it's not west of anything. The Yellow Sea name comes from the fact that the sea is the spot of the runoff from the Yellow River. It doesn't, at least to my non-Korean eyes seem to be offensive to anyone, including Koreas.

Sea of Japan.. well the arguments there are more convincing (although not completely,) however West Sea? C'mon. It wouldn't surprise me if the Koreans prefer the term "Near West" for China and East Asia, instead of "Far East."

Am I the only one that finds this interesting?

[Ya-ta Boy]

I've never yet met a Korean who cares that the rest of the world calls the West Sea the Yellow Sea. It does not offend their sensibilities. They wouldn't care what the world called the East Sea either if the alternative weren't what it is. It's all akin to the same emotion that gets so many Canadians in a snit when they are asked if they are Americans, or so many South Americans balking at Americans calling themselves Americans. The Gulf War happened near what used to be called the Persian Gulf on one side and the Arabian Gulf on the other. Now it's just the Gulf.

This whole thing is not a uniquely Korean thing.

Look at maps from around the world. Note the location on a world map of the country of the map's origin. 9 times out of 10 you'll find that country located at the center of the map/world.

[bacasper]

[Ilsanman]

Korea can call it the 'West Sea' for 50 km from their coast. That's national water. After that, it's the Yellow Sea. It's not called 'The Sea West of a very Insignificant Insecure Nation Sea'.

[oskinny1]

It should all be based on language. In Korean they can call it whatever they want. In Japanese it can be called something else and in English an entirely different thing.

Nobody is insisting that Koreans say "America" in place of "Migook". That is because "America" is English and "Migook" is Korean. South Americans shouldn't care since they have their own name for "America" in their own language. Some people are just too insecure and petty.





cause I'm freeeeeeeeee, freeee fallin'!

[mises]

I'll cut them slack on this. The Koreans have been a plaything of China and Japan for a long while. I'm quite willing when in the company of Koreans to use East Sea etc.

[Cheonmunka]

In China is the West Sea known as the Yellow Sea?
Anyone with knowledge of Chinese writing please tell.
Perhaps the Chinese call it something else?
In the Korean dictionary 서해 is also entered as, 황해, 'Yellow' Sea.
But, this is so obviously a Western term.

People shouldn't be up in arms about an indigenous people calling their own seas and lands whatever they wish. Your wish to change them is nothing short of colonialism.
There is absolutely no reason for Korea to be calling the 'East Sea' the 'Sea of Japan.'
What would Canadians think of the North Atlantic at Newfoundland becoming "The USA Sea"?
I don't think they'd like it.

[Ilsanman]

I don't disagree with you. I just get up in arms if Koreans try to tell us how to call it in our language.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Kuros]

[Cheonmunka]

I don't know how I didn't see this before:
황 actually means, 'golden,' not 'yellow.' Instead of the yellow, the West Sea in Chinese and as Chinese use it means, 'Golden Sea.'
See how we (Westerners) emphasize something different. 'Yellow Sea' to us could have any connotations of how we used the term yellow, historically I strongly feel the way Westerners used it when denoting orientals ....

[Ilsanman]

Every English map I ever looked at before coming here called it 'Sea of Japan'.

Furthermore, if Japan didn't exist, it'd be part of the Pacific Ocean, and there wouldn't be a sea at all.

East Sea is a Koreaocentric way of calling it. It means 'East of Korea'.

[3MB]

[Ilsanman]

It depends on your perspective. If you start in North America, it's quicker to travel WEST over the Pacific Ocean, isn't it?

[nero]