[KS] Romanization

[Kirk Larsen]

I think that the benefits (in terms of precision, readability, consistency
etc.) of adjustments to or improvements of the official ROK system of
romanization need to be weighed against the inevitable confusion that will
be brought about by switching to yet another system of romanization. My
non-Korean speaking students (who I take to be fairly representative of any
foreigner who wishes to learn more about Korea) already find it very
frustrating and difficult to navigate between (slightly) older written
literature that uses Mc-R and more recent material (Wikipedia, anyone?) that
uses the new system. Perhaps the current system, like the QWERTY keyboard
configuration, should be kept simply because it has been in use for more
than a decade (and is rapidly becoming the standard in much of
Korea-generated online media) and the costs of changing outweigh the
benefits? This is to say nothing of the fact that should the ROK and the
DPRK (or a future confederation/union of the two) ever decide on a common
system of romanization we will have to change yet again!
Cheers,

Kirk Larsen

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 10:57 PM, Charles Muller <
cmuller-lst at jj.em-net.ne.jp> wrote:

> Much thanks to Gari for all of his well-conceived and well-articulated
> comments. I have already written to both the Korea Times and the Ministry of
> Culture expressing similar sentiments.
>
> Aside from the matter of relative strong or weak points of any given
> romanization system, there is no doubt that any significant backtracking at
> this point will virtually destroy any chances whatsoever of gaining the
> support of non-Korean academics in the future for any subsequent attempts at
> promulgating a new system.
>
> Aside from my personal preferences for being able to do non-diacritical
> keyboard input a decade ago, I was approached early on by a few of the
> people in Korea who were developing/promoting the new system about using it
> in my online web resources, and in response invested a fair amount of time
> and energy in supporting the system that way.
>
> If the kind of radical move suggested by the Korea Times article is taken,
> you can be sure that I will never, ever, support any kind of new system that
> might be proposed, and I am sure that many who have supported it will feel
> the same way.
>
> Can't say I wasn't warned, though.
>
> Regards,
>
> Chuck
>
> -------------------
>
> A. Charles Muller
>
> University of Tokyo
> Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Faculty of Letters
> Center for Evolving Humanities
> Akamon kenkyū tō #722
> 7-3-1 Hongō, Bunkyō-ku
> Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
>
> Web Site: Resources for East Asian Language and Thought
> http://www.acmuller.net
>
> <acmuller[at]jj.em-net.ne.jp>
>
> Mobile Phone: 090-9310-1787
>
>
>
>


-- 
Kirk W. Larsen
Department of History
2151 JFSB
BYU
Provo, UT 84602-6707
(801) 422-3445
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