[KS] Romanization time again

Peter Mauro Schroepfer/Seo Banseok schroepf at yonsei.ac.kr
Wed Jun 14 06:10:06 EDT 2000


Some summit, eh? 

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism will hold a t'oronhoe regarding the
National Academy of the Korean Language's Romanization proposal on Saturday
2pm at the National Folk Museum located within KyOngbukkung. I along with
four others have been invited to speak. Also participating in the panel will
be Dr. Kim Sejung of the NAKL who is host. He is also a member of this list.
This time around let's try to keep the discussion here respectful even when
it fails to be helpful and constructive. :-)

Two members of the panel are particularly outspoken. One is the
unforgettable Mr. Kim Bok Moon. He is the hoejang of an organization calling
itself the ¡°han¡¯guk romaja pyogi hakhoe.¡± Mr. Kim Bok Moon has created
his own proposal, and calls the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (says
someone on staff there in the OnO chOngch¡¯aek kwa) almost every day
demanding that his proposal be made official. While for legal purposes I
must state that I have no concrete evidence that this is true, it has been
claimed by some that Mr. Kim Bok Moon has lately been ¡°living¡± at the
National Assembly trying to convince the politicians of the merits of his
proposal, which among other things would have us writing Seoul as Surool,
Shindang-dong as Sheendahng-dohng, and ChOlsu as Churlsoo. Most on this list
know that in a climate where romaja is called yOngja and romapyogi is
considered a device for allowing the English speakers of the world pronounce
Korean ¡°accurately,¡± ¡°sheendahng-dohng¡± actually has some at the nodding
in agreement. Records available at the prosecution say that Mr. Kim Bok Moon
has filed a suit against someone for making criticism of him while making
criticism of his proposal. Please remember the increasingly public nature of
this list and comment at your own risk. If enough people care to know more
about the details of the proposal of this han¡¯guk romaja pyogi hakhoe
(which has no web page or listed phone number) I will post portions of it on
my own web page, but somehow I think most by the end of this paragraph
already know as much as they want to.

A Dr. Ri Eui Jae will also participating. His ¡°hanse yOnguhoe¡± (han
¡¯gUl-Ui segyehwa-rul wihan haksul yOnguhoe) has a web page located at
http://my.netian.com/~profri . This page quotes discussion on this list. The
Hanse YOnguhoe would like to see everyone go completely transliteration
while respecting han¡¯gUl¡¯s division of syllables, as in GamSaHabNiDa. It
proposes a unique set of vowels: ¡°y,¡± for example, is never used in
compound vowels. Go directly to their chart at
http://my.netian.com/~profri/romanization.htm . I most enjoyed meeting him
at an earlier t¡¯oronhoe last year.

As for the NAKL¡¯s proposal, things are mostly agreed upon and finished at
the NAKL level. The proposal was scheduled to go to the kugOsimUiwiwOnhoe
yesterday but has been delayed until I think next week, I¡¯m guessing to
afford time for what will probably be the last t¡¯oronhoe. The
kugosimUiwiwOnhoe deliberates and makes recommendations but does not
actually get to vote for or against. I¡¯m not sure where the proposal goes
after this but it becomes official whenever the Minister of Culture and
Tourism, currently with the President in P¡¯yOngyang, puts his signature on
it. Unless of course certain groups actually get the kukhoe to intercept
this whole process. As you know, some of the members of this list are on the
kugosimUiwiwOnhoe.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has held meetings with other relevant
agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of
Education (which, I understand, is trying to decide what year in secondary
education to teach students the new romaja pyogibOb as part of the regular
curriculum), the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Information
and Communication, government cartographers, and others. This time around
the government will (please!!) try to enforce some pan-kangjaesOng in
Romanization. The issue of passports has only just begun, but it is
generally agreed that it should be taught in school, so that¡¯s major
progress. 

I have been in komin for some time now about how to mention what little I
know to this list. For those of you who know me personally and thing I¡¯ve
gone over the deep end just for talking with the NAKL let me make one thing
clear: I am  still using MR and think it is the best system, though when and
only when it is followed with consistency and without abbreviation of the
diacriticals no matter darn &#@)¡±>?%&^# what. I also believe, however, that
it is too difficult for the general native Korean speaking public to use
with ease, and am open (not eager) to there being something else. Not
because I¡¯m sure something else can be ¡°better¡± mind you, but because
consistency in Romanization is more important than which system is better. I
¡¯m not trying to argue against MR here. Please don¡¯t disown me. :-)
Actually, I wish this issue would just go away.

One other item of importance: this list is watched closely, and is quoted at
Romanization proposal-related events as representing the opinion (singular)
of the oegugin (all several billion of us). This has a double effect. Mr.
Kim Sejung, member, as I said, of both this list and the NAKL, says the
intense discussion on this list in 1997 is what encouraged the NAKL to move
away from the Dog Rib / Jolla Bug system that was its first proposal. In
other words, opinions expressed on this list matter very much. So much in
fact, that the occasional unhelpful comments, such as (and I¡¯m not trying
to quote anyone specifically, please don¡¯t misunderstand) ¡°why should
Koreans care when they¡¯ve got their ¡®scientific¡¯ Han¡¯gUl?¡± or ¡°what a
bunch of nationalistic chashiks!¡± or ¡°we¡¯re the foreign experts, leave it
to us¡± have, in my opinion, also caused most at the NAKL to believe that
the oegugin on this list are all, by definition, against anything but MR
while at the same time keeping it from asking the list directly. The NAKL is
in part to blame for this misunderstanding and I have expressed this opinion
of mine to them: I delivered the NAKL several copies of the original MR,
quite thick indeed, copied from a _RAS Transactions_ in the thirties, and
after that point I never heard anyone criticize MR as being an ¡°inaccurate
¡± system made by oegugin who didn¡¯t know anything about the Korean
language. 

Strange as this sounds, one of the best ways for the NAKL to fight that part
of public sentiment that is sympathetic to the Surool / Sheendahng-dohng
proposal of Mr. Kim Bok Moon or the other ¡°Romanization = American English
¡± ideas would be for clear headed individuals and members of the NAKL to be
able to quote the oegugin on this list as thinking it ridiculous. The
Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in particular, cares very much what the
foreigners think. During any discussion of Romanization policy, it tends to
be those who¡¯ve not really thought it through who have the most to say, and
it is this unfortunately large part of the public which listens to
Sheendahng-dohng because those who¡¯ve never thought about the issue here,
as you all know, think that the purpose of all this is to put han¡¯gUl into
yOngmun for oegugin who as such all must dream in English and English only.
As silly as it seems that time has to be wasted on an issue like this, some
are truly worried that Sheendahng-dohng may start to gain acceptance with
the politicians and higher-ups.

Enough of me for now. Have a nice day.

Peter Schroepfer. 
**********************************
For those of you sOnbae and Unin out there who know me please accept my
apologies for not presenting some insa for quite a while. I have been a
father for four days now. Yes, I¡¯m married, too. I am still in Seoul ¡®till
later this year because I¡¯m currently enrolled at Leiden with Prof.
Walraven. More from me later when I get back to you personally. 



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