Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Vagabundo]

as most of you know, Lee is probably the 2nd most popular Korean family name, after Kim.

but I've been listening to Koreans pronounce it recently and it quickly became apparent to me there is absolutely NO "L" in it at all.

Instead, it sounds more like Yi or .. Yee. (with a slightly different sound)

so I started asking my coteachers about it and was told that's how Westerners write it.

What idiot Westerner would have written it THAT way, when there is clearly NO "L" in the sound/name?

I specifically asked one coteacher who happens to have that family name whether her tongue touches her upper palate when she prononounces the name.

She said.. NO.

You can NOT make an "L" sound without your tongue touching your upper palate, which raises the question of what idiot decided to spell it this way, and why has the practice continued?

(on a different but related point) what's the use of learning hangeul, when some of the letters and sounds we simply do not know how to properly form with our mouths and tongues? (the k/g thing, the p/b thing, etc)

even their 'm'' often sound like b's to me..

e.g. mwoyah?? to me sounds like bo-yah?

[Radius]

yea the "mya-oh" totally sounds like byeh-yo" i agree.
as far as teh pb/ and g/k sounds go ive found that some words totally sound like a b as opposed to a p and other sound more like a k rather than g. It just depends on the word. Its hard remembering which ones take on which sound. And of course there's the words that sound like a perfect combination of the 2 letters, too

[interestedinhanguk]

I know it's Wikipedia, but give it a look. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_%28Korean_name%29

About your second point, what other choice do we have? Ignorance? Those sounds can be learned, and many are sounds that do commonly occur in English.

[Vagabundo]

[runthegauntlet]

It's the same thing with 'Kim' (Gim) and Park (Bak).

What does it matter to you?

It's been that way for a while but maybe it'll change as more Koreans become more fluent in English.

No point in launching some name-calling tirade for something that doesn't affect you in any way.

[Vagabundo]

searching on Wiki a little futher I found this under the Wiki Korean naming conventions:

Family name
Unless the subject is known to prefer otherwise such as Kim, Lee, Park or Yoon, family names are romanized per Revised Romanization (RR) for South Koreans and pre-1945 Koreans, or McCune-Reischauer (MR) for North Koreans, with the following exceptions;

Surname in
Hangul Revised Romanization Common usage
김 Gim Kim
박 Bak Park
이 I or Yi Lee



Ok I can understand the Gim/Kim.. we're aware of that problem/issue.

but seriously what person would've concocted Park for Bak?
or Lee for Yi?

unless it was a blatant Ellis Island style attempt at "Americanizing/Englishizing" a foreign name?

[Koharski]

This could actually be an interesting topic if it can avoid comments like:

But I'm still fascinated as to what IDIOT wrote it as Lee and why it has continued.

Or did someone deaf create the Romanization to the name and for centures all the sheep have gone along with it?

Lets see if we can have a thread without name-calling and insults.

Koho

[Vagabundo]

[interestedinhanguk]

Lee, when romanized as such, is extraordinarily common. It's just easy, I guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_%28%E6%9D%8E%29

[Koharski]

Last chance.

[Vagabundo]

[Koharski]

And your theory is?


Please share.

[Vagabundo]

[Vagabundo]

[tatertot]

I don't know hanja, but I remember seeing somewhere that it was Romanized as "Lee" because of the Chinese character that the 이 (Lee) name came from. Can someone confirm if that is right?

edit: whoops, I didn't see Vagabundo's post until after I made mine.