[KS] Re: How to Write Korean Names in English?

[Henny Savenije]

At 06:57 PM 1/11/99 , you wrote:
Dear Sam and YANG Sung-jin

>Dear YANG Sung-jin:
> It is probably a hopeless situation. One solution is to write the
<SNIP>
>my name the way I say it "Sam Martin" and that usually leaves no doubt.

Nice try Sam, but that would only be true for your name, but Sung-jin can't
use
that option. In itself Korean, Chinese Japanese names or not more or less
complicated than the western ones, but due to western ignorance and supremacy
thoughts (our rules are the only right ones) Chinese and Koreans have no other
way to tell people their true names, My wife's name is An Young Jin,
everywhere
I am fighting the system that her surname has to come first. I make small
victories but in fact I do, I always tell the clerks that my name in Korea
doesn't suddenly become Savenije Hendrikus Gerardus Lambertus. It still is
Henny Savenije and not Savenije Henny or whatever. 

My Taiwanese colleagues all have "Western" names, obligatory since they are
working for IBM, an American company. Which makes things only more
complicated,
since they have no clue what kind of names to choose which leaves us with
countless james lee's or minny hong's which in itself causes in the IT world a
new problem. If they only had kept their own names we would have had less
problems giving them id's necessary to do whatever is necessary in their
company. Now they have to be given numbers while all their western colleagues
just have their names attached to their id files. And even that doesn't
simplify identifying them if something goes wrong. 

Anyhow it would indeed be a good idea to make some kind of standardization, on
the other hand only those who are knowledgeable would know and newspapers and
magazines can usually not be counted to those who are. 

But eventually something would change maybe not in our lifetime but at least
maybe in the future. BTW in Korea I did use by preference my given Korean
name,
since that was indeed easier for most Koreans since my surname is
unpronounceable for most of them
-----------------------------
Henny  (Lee Hae Kang)

Feel free to visit 
http://www.henny-savenije.demon.nl/index2.htm 
and feel the thrill of Hamel discovering Korea (1653-1666)


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