[KS] Re: Letter to KH on Romanization

[kushibo]

John Harvey wrote:
> To the Editor:
>           Who will edit the editors? Neither the writer of your July 6
> editorial "Confusion over Romanization" nor your Editor-in-chief as of her
> July 10 commentary "Romanizing as the Romans Do" had read carefully enough
> the document in question, the National Academy of the Korean Language's (and
> now the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's) "The Romanization of Korean"
> (available at http://kacademy@sejong.or.kr/c_5data.htm).

Nice letter. And thanks for the link. I checked it out. I was right about
shi becoming si. Apparently the internal caps was wrong (thank God for that)
and one aspect i am glad they are promoting (which is in line with M-R, I
believe) is for two syllable given names (e.g., "T'aejin" in Pak T'aejin) to
be written as one word, rather than two capitalized separate words, which
caused confusion to folks outside Korea who didn't know the family name -
given name order, or in cases of people who "Westernized" their name even
while in Korea.

Nevertheless, the k, p, t being replaced by g, b, and d is both misleading
and aesthetically unappealing. I would rather live in Pusan than Busan,
wouldn't you? :)

And that eo. That has got to go. It is completely wrong and will lead to far
more confusion than it helps to clear up.

Anyway, thanks again for the link. I've learned so much today.

K U S H I B O


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