[KS] Korean romanization

Cedar Bough Blomberg umyang at gmail.com
Wed Jun 1 17:11:03 EDT 2005


>. And so for me the new system
> fails in its basic task - that of showing a non speaker how to pronounce
> Korean.


Maybe I should keep quiet on this sensitive topic, but---

1.  The majority of people who Romanize Korean words are native
speakers of Korean, not of English.  Therefore, a Romanization system
which works for them would seem to be most reasonable.

2.  The new system of the Korean gov't is, provided it does not change
again, the system of the Korean people, and isn't it reasonable for
them to figure out how to Romanize their own language?  Why do Western
academics think they have the right to criticize the Korean
governments language policy?

3.  The absolutely most essential thing for Korean Romanization is
that it be set, fixed and stop changing.  The most effective way for
this to happen is for the Western academic community and every other
user/consumer of Romanized material to ---support--- the gov't
efforts.  If the gov't was supported, it's likely they wouldn't come
up with another system in another 12 years.  The reason why they might
change it again will be to try to make everyone happy again, and that
is NEVER going to happen.

4.  Korean is hard to Romanize... there are no "everyone wins"
solutions to how to Romanize some syllables.

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