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<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>to add a remark as the co-editor of a number of books (one of my responsibilities is to check romanization). Based on my experience, I would not even limit Gene's criticism below to "those outside academia". You can't imagine what kind of adventurous romanization attempts I am confronted with, violating any known system. The authors are academics writing on Korea. </p>
<p>I agree that any system would be good, as long as everyone uses it. But then, what do we do with brand names, like Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo, Myung-bak, Moo-hyun, or last names like Lee or Chung? This is where people who have not given a deep thought to romanization take their inspiration from. And who could blame them. I am pessimistic about the chances to change even a few of these according to any (new) system.</p>
<p>The fight for a consistent system of romanization will be hopeless if this system is not used consistently. I believe this is what has helped the Chinese to make everyone write Beijing now instead of Peking. On the other hand, in the literature you still find Chiang Kai-shek and Jaing Jieshi; Mao Tse-tung and Mao Zedong... </p>
<p>By the way, for our book series we have chosen this approach: authors provide hangeu... hangu... ehm... Korean, and I do the romanization into McC-R. Won't work for all examples, but in this case, it is perfect.</p>
<p>Greetings,</p>
<p>Rudiger Frank</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p>on Samstag, 25. April 2009 at 05:01 you wrote:</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Dear all,</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> I cannot agree more with Werner Sasse. For sure, the South Korean</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> government could have done more to educate everyone (especially its own</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> citizens) on proper, consistant usage of MR system rather than spending so</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> much money on coming up with a new one that seems neither more "logical"</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> or ready to be used more widely among Koreans. All the same, frankly I</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> just would like to see that one system will prevail not too far in the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> future.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> On a related note, I also want to point out that continuing general lack</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> of awareness of a Korean romanization system among those outside the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> academe deserves a serious discussion. Advent of the internet has</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> facilitated expansion of Korea-related knowledge base online, but for an</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> ordinary person or someone outside Korean Studies, doing a simple key word</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> search on, say, Yi Sun-sin, remains tricky. Chances are, neither the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> person doing the search nor the one uploading any information on the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> admiral follows or is even aware of a standard romanization system--unless</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> (s)he is in the academe. Especially to an avid genealogist like myself,</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> it's frustratinig to see Korea "missing out" in the sense that</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> accumulating online genealogical and genealogy-related DNA haplotype</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> databases are almost useless for Korean names spelled according to</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> individual preferences.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Yours,</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Gene Park</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> On Fri, 4 24, 2009 17:46, Werner Sasse wrote:</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> Dear Members of the List,</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> Sorry, to raise the question of romanisation again...</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> I still vividly remember the heated discussions at AKSE meetings after the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> "new"system came out. And some of you may remember that I was one of those</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> who strongly advocated to continue to use the McR system for various</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> reasons, some linguistic, some practical.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> However, I have started to stop using McR, and now would advocate we</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> follow the current system. The only reason is that it actually seems to</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> become the standard through continuous use, no matter how ridiculous it</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> makes Korean look like. (Remember how the Chinese were able to make</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> everyone switch from the much better older system to the current system -</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> which I find even more ridiculously looking than the official Korean</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> romanisation system -, simply by stubbornly insisting of using it.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> Writing system after all are arbitrary (I always rejoyce at listening to</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> foreigners pronouncing German names etc., although we use the same</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> alphabet....). Being arbitrary, the only important aspect is that is used</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> continuously, and peope have to learn how to pronounce the same graph in</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> the respective languages.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> "Standard" is a long way from "good or bad, "correct", or "nice</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> looking"....</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> If you can't lick'em, join'em...</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> Best, Werner Sasse</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:25:39 +0100</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> From: </span><a class=rvts8 href="mailto:j.h.grayson@sheffield.ac.uk">j.h.grayson@sheffield.ac.uk</a></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> To: </span><a class=rvts8 href="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</a></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Subject: Re: [KS] Pictopedia of Everyday Life in East Asia (Joseon</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Period)</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> 22.4.09</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Dear Prof. Kim,</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Thank you for your email and the report on your important research.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> I am only sorry to say that I was disappointed to note that you have</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> not used the scholarly system of Romanisation, the so-called MR system</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> which was devised by the three leading Korean phoneticians of the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> early twentieth century. The current government system is inaccurate</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> and leads to mispronunication. I would hope that you would not use</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> this system in the future as it creates confusion for people who do</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> not speak Korean.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Thank you for informing us of this valuable resource. If there are any</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> copies available, the East Asian Studies Library at The University of</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Sheffield would be pleased to receive a copy.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Yours sincerely,</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> James H. Grayson</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> --</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Prof. James H. Grayson</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> School of East Asian Studies</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> University of Sheffield</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Sheffield S10 2TN</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> United Kingdom</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Tel. +44 114 222-8418</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> Fax +44 114 222-8432</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>>>> email: </span><a class=rvts8 href="mailto:j.h.grayson@sheffield.ac.uk">j.h.grayson@sheffield.ac.uk</a></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> _________________________________________________________________</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>>> More than messages뻙heck out the rest of the Windows Live?</span></p>
<p><a class=rvts8 href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/">>> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/</a></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Eugene (Gene) Y. Park</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Associate Professor</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Department of History</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Krieger Hall 200</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> University of California, Irvine</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Irvine, CA 92697</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Tel. (949) 824-6521</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Fax. (949) 824-2865</span></p>
<p><a class=rvts8 href="http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4926">> http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4926</a></p>
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