[KS] The Romanization Discussion
Yuh Ji-Yeon
j-yuh at northwestern.edu
Sat Jul 2 22:24:38 EDT 2005
Dear colleagues,
Just one comment regarding romanization: while I agree that systems are
necessary and useful, and it seems to make so much sense to say that we
have multiple systems because we have multiple needs, I wonder if it is
necessary to make people stick to a system for romanizing their names. I
for one would prefer to allow people to choose for themselves. After all, a
name is one's presentation in text and can take on loads of significance.
People generally want a name that looks good (as they perceive it), and
the official romanization may not provide the desired result.
Of course one can argue that one's romanized name isn't really one's name,
merely the romanization of it and that therefore peole should stick to
romanization systems, but that's not a persuasive argument when faced with
the fact that the romanized name is for all intents and purposes the name
that the world outside the relatively small circle of Korean speakers will
know. A name, in the end, can be a very personal thing, even a mode of
self-expression, and so people ought to be left alone to romanize their
names as they please. Of course, governments don't like that much and SK is
no different -- hence the fairly standard romanizations on SK passports.
The young generation in SK has little choice, so it's primarily the older
generations whose romanized names display idiosyncracies. And by the way,
lots of Koreans themselves complain about the way their name looks when
romanized.
As for foreigners judging "random" romanizations of Korean names to be
chaotic and then extending that judgment to Korea itself .... do people
still indulge themselves in such silly and parochial prejudice? And even if
they do, that shouldn't deter Koreans from romanizing their names any way
they wish.
Best,
Ji-Yeon
Yuh, Ji-Yeon
Associate Professor of History
Director of Asian American Studies
Northwestern University
Harris 202
1881 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208 USA
j-yuh at northwestern.edu
1-847-467-6538
fax: 1-847-467-1393
[The Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea---<www.asck.org> ]
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