[KS] The Romanization Discussion

[sangoak at snu.ac.kr]

Dear KS list members: 


 


My apologies for not replying sooner although Professor Ledyard encouraged us 
more talks. Since last June 30, I have traveled from Manchester, through 
Bradford, Leeds, York, Hull, Nottingham and now settled down in Sheffield where 
AKSE is held for this whole week. 


Indeed I have more messages which will help people to understand the 
situation in pre-2000 Rominization. However, the access to computers here is not 
convenient, and it is better to write them after returning back to Seoul in 
early August because my travel will be extended to six more countries in the 
Balkan Peninsular.


Before closing, I am grateful that Professor Ledyard (and others) still 
remember my efforts to encourage the Romanization discussions of 1999 to move in 
desirable directions. I also have to express my gratitude to many foreign Korean 
scholars who have been quite indulgent(?) to the story of personal factors at 
play in the development of the 2000 Romanization. I do not want to cause any 
belated fuss other than better understranding that nationalistic movement was 
not really intended.


Sang-Oak Lee

--- Original Message ---
>From    : 
 "Stefan Ewing"<sa_ewing at hotmail.com>
To      : 
 "Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws"<Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Date    : 
 2005/07/04 月曜日 午前 4:42:09
Subject : 
 Re: [KS] The Romanization Discussion
Dear KS list members:



My apologies for not replying sooner.  We have now successfully moved to our 

new home, all the boxes are unpacked, and I can now once again devote my 

attention to indulgences such as this discussion list.



My sincerest apologies to Dr. Ledyard for any misunderstanding I may have 

caused.  I certainly did not feel in any way personally snubbed by him, and 

did not stop writing on the subject because of him.  Early on in my 

participation here, a sympathetic commenter pointed out off-list that 

romanization is a subject that many participants are understandably tired of 

discussing.  It was right and politic of Dr. Ledyard to throw a nod to such 

participants in one or two of his earlier posts.  His comments gave me an 

"out," and I was referring in my last post to the the sentiments he was 

sensibly respecting, not to his own views on the subject _per se_.



I do thank Messrs./Drs. Lee, Ledyard, Ramsey, King, Driscoll, et al. for 

their fascinating comments.  The anecdotes in particular--regarding the 

history of Yale Romanization; Rhee Syngman's failed attempts at Hangul 

orthographic reform; and the personal factors at play in the development of 

the 2000 Revised Romanization of Korean--have been quite intriguing.  I do 

at least hope that many subscribers who are otherwise uninterested in the 

topic of romanization have enjoyed reading these anecdotes as much as I 

have.



Yours sincerely,

Stefan Ewing



>From: gkl1 at columbia.edu

>Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>

>To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>

>Subject: Re: [KS] The Romanization Discussion

>Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:54:06 -0400

>

>As a long-time list veteran who has been through many discussions on 

>romanization that ended nowhere, I expressed myself tired of the subject in 

>a posting a few weeks ago. Stefan Ewing, who obviously has a genuine, 

>sincere, and informed interest in this topic, seems to have taken my 

>message as a damper, and may have stopped talking about it before he really 

>wanted to. I'm grateful for Mr McGuire giving him an opportunity to get 

>into it again. I deeply regret it if something that I wrote has dissuaded 

>anybody from saying anything they want to say on this list. I have no wish 

>to do so, ever.



>I was surprised that Sang Oak's message-- which really was a very 

>significant comment on the subject, elicited no responses. As a friend of 

>Sang Oak and one familiar with his many efforts to

>encourage the official Korean romanization discussions of 1999 to move in 

>open and flexible directions, when his own position between his Korean 

>colleagues and his foreign friends made things somewhat tight for him, I 

>have always thought he deserved and deserves the gratitude of all of us. 

>His conclusion that Korea needs three romanization systems is a pragmatic 

>and sensible recognition of reality, and I am sure that that is the way it 

>will play out in the future. Here's to you, Sang Oak!  And let no one 

>hesitate to talk about what they want to talk about, no matter what some 

>old crank

might think!



Gari Ledyard



_________________________________________________________________

Take charge with a pop-up guard built on patented Microsoft? SmartScreen 

Technology  

http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines 

  Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN? Premium right now and get the 

first two months FREE*.










-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20050706/87eb3728/attachment.html>