[KS] Romanization systems survey

[Eugene Y. Park]

Dear Werner,

You expressed my own position far better than I could have! One point that
really caught my attention is a need for the South Korean government to do some
serious research on how romanization systems get implemented
sucessfully--especially in terms of educating its own citizens to use them in
everyday life in the same way we have spelling rules.

Yours,
Gene
-- 
Eugene (Gene) Y. Park
Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History
Department of History
University of Pennsylvania
E-mail: epa at sas.upenn.edu


Quoting Werner Sasse <werner_sasse at hotmail.com>:

>
> Dear Charles,
>
> (and CC  Dear Br. Anthony)
>
> thank you for your mail on the list. As I have stated before, I personally
> like McR better. BUT that is not the point. In one of my earlier postings I
> advocated we all switch to the new system. Simply it was my impression that
> by having been in use for 10 years it had become a standard somehow. But I do
> not know, really.
>
> So: maybe it would not be a good idea to ask everyone, which system would be
> more pleasing. Maybe, rather, there should be some research not on the
> preferred system, but on to which extend the current system has been accepted
> already. Like your (charles) letter indicates, it may be too cumbersome to
> change again.
>
> Writing systems -sorry to repeat myself- are arbitrary, the question ist not
> "good or bad", or "scientific or not", the question is "accepted or not".
>
> If it turns out that the current system is already accepted more or less, the
> other questions we should start discussing are how to make the new system
> more readable (spacing, hyphens, ...), and how we can make the Koreans
> themselves use it. I mean not ony in official web pages, but in everyday life
> .(Teach it in school. Use it for passports, name cards, a.s.o.
>
> Anyway, seen all the switches since 1966, I relax...
>
> Best, Werner Sasse
>
>
>
>
>
> > Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:06:09 +0900
> > From: cmuller-lst at jj.em-net.ne.jp
> > To: ansonjae at sogang.ac.kr; Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws;
> buswell at humnet.ucla.edu; koreanromanization at gmail.com
> > Subject: Re: [KS] Romanization systems survey
> >
> > Dear Brother Anthony,
> >
> > Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to give our input on
> > this matter of the future of the RR romanization system.
> >
> > Since you seem to be directly involved in the meetings with the
> > Competitiveness Committee, I would like to communicate one or two
> > points to you directly.
> >
> > Mainly, regardless of the feelings of emotional attachment that anyone
> > might have regarding one system or another, there seems to be a
> > picture being painted on the part of McC-R advocates that virtually no
> > one in the West has adopted the RR system. I would like to point out
> > that this view is inaccurate.
> >
> > First, my online dictionaries--most importantly the Digital Dictionary
> > of Buddhism [DDB], which, with almost 50,000 entries, is now a primary
> > reference work in the field of Buddhist Studies (subscribed to by over
> > 25 major university libraries)--has been using the RR system since its
> > implementation in 2000.
> >
> > My decision to use RR in the DDB was based on having received a strong
> > request from a number of Korean scholars at SNU and the Academy of
> > Korean Studies who supported the new system to use it in my reference
> > works. Thus, there are a lot of young scholars in the field of East
> > Asian studies who have grown accustomed to RR, and use it regularly.
> >
> > Furthermore, the RR system was also embedded as the standard
> > romanization of Korean in all software, as it became part of the
> > government standard for computing. Thus any computer program that
> > generates Korean readings (such as the the Korean readings generated
> > in commercial translation packages, and web software such as Google),
> > has also been using RR for almost a decade.
> >
> > If the Korean government suddenly abandons RR, it is going end up
> > being a huge embarrassment for all of us who have supported it for
> > these past ten years. It is also going to be a huge amount of work to
> > retool and convert all web sources to.... to what?
> >
> > If RR is withdrawn today, and McR is made to be the standard, how do
> > we know that this policy will not be reversed again in five years?
> >
> > Frankly, if the government makes this change at this point, I
> > certainly will not be leaping to return to McCune-Reischauer. Because
> > the real problem here, as it has always been, is the lack of any
> > consistency in adhering to and supporting any kind of system.
> >
> > In fact, there is no doubt that the main reason so many scholars were
> > reluctant to accept RR to begin with is not that it was inherently
> > flawed, but because, based on their prior observations of the behavior
> > of the Korean government, they had no confidence that the system would
> > be firmly adhered to. Those who had such fears have seen their
> > concerns materialized.
> >
> > Thus, regardless of the technical merits or demerits of any given
> > system, a flip-flop on this matter at this point is certain to
> > obliterate the confidence of another full generation of scholars in
> > any official academic decisions that are made. No one will ever take
> > the gamble to follow a new romanization, no matter how
> > well-constructed it might be.
> >
> > I hope that you will convey these sentiments to the appropriate
> > committee members.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Charles Muller
> >
> > -------------------
> >
> > A. Charles Muller
> >
> > University of Tokyo
> > Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Faculty of Letters
> > Center for Evolving Humanities
> > Akamon kenkyþ tò #722
> > 7-3-1 Hongò, Bunkyò-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
> >
> >
> >
>
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