ASIA / PACIFIC
January 16, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Always mangle Korean names? It might not be your fault
KOREAN CONUNDRUM. A boy (top photo)
sits on a screen showing Korean traditional characters
at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, South Ko-
rea. Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname
is “Park,” right? Nope. In Korean, it’s closer to
“Bahk.” Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi
Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like “Chwey”
than the way it’s rendered in English. There is a gulf,
often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their
names in English and the way they actually sound. In
the bottom photo, a dual-language traffic sign written
in Korean and English is displayed over a road in
Seoul, South Korea. (AP Photos/Ahn Young-joon)
By Hyung-Jin Kim and
Kim Tong-Hyung
The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — Impeached
President
Park
Geun-hye’s
surname is “Park,” right? Nope. In
Korean it’s closer to “Bahk.” Park’s
allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi
Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like
“Chwey” than the way it’s rendered in
English. And Samsung’s ailing chairman,
Lee Kun-hee? That English “Lee” is more
like “Yi” or “Ii” in Korean.
There is a gulf, often a wide one, between
the way Koreans write their names in
English and the way they actually sound.
Even the ubiquitous “Kim” — the
moniker of beloved South Korean Olympic
figure skating champion Yuna Kim and
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un —
belies: It’s pronounced “Ghim” in Korean.
While the flubs of foreigners who take
the Romanized spellings literally cause
smirks for the bilingual, the mispronun-
ciations can also create confusion and
embarrassment
among
visiting
politicians, tourists, and business people.
The disputed reasons behind the
discrepancies are linked to a complex mix
of history, American influence, herd
mentality, and individual quirks.
Here’s a brief look:
The History
South Korea’s guidelines for converting
the Korean language into the Roman
alphabet were last revised in 2000 to try to
get road signs, places, internet domain
names, guidebooks, and surnames closer
to their actual Korean pronunciations.
When those rules are applied to
surnames, “Lee” should be “I” (pronounced
“Ii”), “Kim” should be “Gim,” “Park” should
be “Bak,” and “Choi” should be “Choe.” But
because people can decide how to spell
their own names, many simply go with the
way everyone else does it, which means
they follow what their families have
favored for generations.
So Kim, Park, and Lee still dominate.
Experts differ about the origins of these
English spellings of Korean surnames.
Some think that when South Korea was
briefly under U.S. military rule following
the end of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial
occupation, Americans chose existing
English names or words — such as Kim,
Lee, and Park — for Korean pronuncia-
tions that sounded similar. Others say it
was South Koreans who started borrowing
those recognizable English words.
When there wasn’t any easy match in
English, South Koreans simply settled for
spellings that “felt O.K.,” according to
Brother Anthony of Taize, a British-born
scholar and prolific translator of Korean
literature.
The spellings of some names are linked
to a 1939 Romanization system invented
by two Americans that was widely used
before the 2000 revision.
Isolated, proud Pyongyang uses a
variant of the old system. “Kim” is the
same in both Koreas, but the southern
“Lee” and “Park” are “Ri and “Pak” in the
North.
The mistakes
English mispronunciation, of course,
happens in many languages that don’t use
the Roman alphabet, but the list of
foul-ups by foreigners relying on the
confusing Korean system is long.
During a joint news conference with
South Korean President Park Geun-hye in
Washington in October 2015, President
Barack Obama called her “Park,” just as it
sounds in English, not “Bahk.” When he
held another joint press conference with
Park’s predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, in
Uprooted by war, fearing troops,
Myanmar girls learn karate
Continued from page 2
sexual violence.
The Kachin Women’s Association of
Thailand and the Legal Aid Network last
year released a report on the lack of
progress of investigators in the brutal
2015 rape and murder of two Kachin
volunteer teachers. Dozens of soldiers
were housed close to the rape scene, and
several left shortly before the bodies were
discovered, but no suspects have been
identified.
Prosecutions have been few. In 2014, a
soldier was sentenced to seven years in
prison for raping a seven-year-old Kachin
girl in northern Shan state. Accused
Myanmar soldiers normally face a military
tribunal, but in that case, lawyers
successfully pressed for a civilian trial.
Ethnic minorities overwhelmingly voted
for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League
for Democracy party last year, helping it
replace an elected but military-dominated
government. But many are now
disappointed with her government’s
efforts to resolve a host of ethnic conflicts
and what they see as the military’s
impunity.
“Without talking about human-rights
violations and ignoring the truth and
justice for the victims, there won’t be a real
peace and national reconciliation in our
country,” said Julia Marip, secretary of the
Women’s League of Burma.
With little confidence that soldiers will
be held to account for misdeeds, the girls in
the karate class hope to at least deter them
from committing any to begin with. They
compete with each other, and some have
dreams of fighting professionally.
“Our instructor said we can go abroad to
learn more skills, and I want to go overseas
and be a professional fighter,” said
14-year-old Nu Ja.
“When they know how to defend
themselves,” said Hkun Naw, the
instructor, “they will be able to protect
their families, their people, and their
country.”
2012, he pronounced his name as “Lee,”
not “Ii.”
If Obama, who has a staff of Korean
experts, couldn’t get it right, your average
visitor to South Korea is doomed.
In some ways, the new Romanization
rules are as bad as the old ones.
For instance, an affluent southern area
in Seoul, and the inspiration for the
world-dominating 2012 song by South
Korean rapper PSY, is spelled “Gangnam.”
The first part of this word will look to many
English speakers without any Korean like
the first syllable of the word “gangster.”
But a better spelling is “Gahngnam.”
A southern town famous for traditional
red pepper paste is spelled “Sunchang.”
Many English speakers pronounce the
first part of the word as “sun” from
“sunshine;” it’s actually “soonchahng.”
The rules are simply too far off from the
reality, according to Yaang Byungsun, a
linguist at South Korea’s Jeonju Univer-
sity. “It’s a system that no one, except for
South Koreans, can pronounce,” he said.
South Korean officials defend their
Romanization rules by saying they are for
all foreigners, not just English speakers.
The big three, and beyond
The National Institute of Korean
Language says it’s working to come up
with a recommended standard for spelling
surnames.
But it’s probably too late.
The English spellings of the three
surnames that account for nearly half of
South Korea’s 50 million people — Kim,
Park, and Lee — are firmly in place.
A study by the institute that ended in
2015 showed that about 99.5 percent of
South Koreans with the country’s most
popular surname spelled it “Kim,” while
the rest used “Gim,” “Ghim,” or “Khim.”
For the second most common surname,
about 98.5 percent favored “Lee,”
overwhelming “Yi,” “Rhee,” “Li,” and
“Yee.” In the case of the third most popular
surname, “Park” was used by about 96
percent.
For other surnames, some English
spellings are meant to avoid embarrass-
ment.
Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho
Kang stayed away from the awkward
“Gang,” which is what South Korea’s
Romanization suggests.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun used to
spell his surname as “Noh” in English,
which is how it’s pronounced. But during
his 2002 presidential run, he reportedly
switched to “Roh” to stay away from the
negative sounding “Noh.”
There are calls to overhaul the current,
awkward Romanization system to avoid
problems for foreigners who do business
with and travel to Korea.
But it would be expensive.
A 2011 study showed that revising
public signs and government-issued
publications and performing other
changes needed under a new system would
cost 300 billion won ($250 million).
Some also question whether a perfect
Romanization of Korean is even possible.
“It’s confusing and stupid, but that’s the
way it is,” Brother Anthony said.
Department of Consumer & Business Services
Last chance to enroll in
health insurance and
avoid penalty in 2017
The month of January is the last opportunity for Oregonians to enroll in health insurance plans for 2017.
Open enrollment lasts through January 31, 2017. It is the time of year to change plans and, for those who do not
have insurance, to buy a plan. If you don’t get covered before the deadline, you could go a year without insurance.
You could also pay a significant penalty when you file your 2017 taxes.
Oregonians can sign up, renew, or change their health insurance plans at HealthCare.gov. Even if you were already
re-enrolled in your current plan, you can change plans through January 31. Financial help is available for many people
if they enroll through HealthCare.gov.
Oregon has a network of insurance agents and community organizations ready to help people enroll. You can find
an agent or community partner in your area by going to www.oregonhealthcare.gov/get-help.html or calling the
Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace at 1-855-268-3767 (toll-free).
To start shopping for plans, visit HealthCare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596 (toll-free) (TTY: 1-855-889-4325).
www.HealthCare.gov
Celebrate the
Year of the Rooster!
January 28, 2017 through
February 15, 2018!