The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism unveiled a proposal on Wednesday to ensure consistency in the English-language translations of Korea’s natural and cultural heritage sites.
Travelers and expats who do not speak Korean have long faced confusion over the names of local places frequented by tourists, such as mountains or palaces, because of the various ways domestic public and private institutions choose to translate their titles.
“The key principle in the proposal for unified translations would be to Romanize the entire name and then add a translation referring to the type of site,” Gong Hyeong-sik, the ministry’s head of the Korean-language policy department, told reporters in a briefing.
In other words, it would be “Changdeokgung Palace,” according to the new proposal, as “Changdeokgung” is the Romanization of the entire name while “palace” – or “gung” – describes what the site is.
Some organizations opt to drop the “gung” and refer to the historical institution as Changdeok Palace to avoid repetition. But Gong explained it would be incorrect to assume that non-Korean speakers know what “gung” means. More.
See: Korea JoongAng Daily
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Comments about this article
South Korea
Local time: 14:25
Korean to English
+ ...
It is true that Korea should resolve this issue as soon as possible. Otherwise, foreign tourists will not be able to talk with Koreans, and they will depend on tour guides' help more and more. In my personal opinion, English location names should be based on the same names as what Koreans are using, which may reduce confusion and help tourists find a right direction.
Thanks a l... See more
It is true that Korea should resolve this issue as soon as possible. Otherwise, foreign tourists will not be able to talk with Koreans, and they will depend on tour guides' help more and more. In my personal opinion, English location names should be based on the same names as what Koreans are using, which may reduce confusion and help tourists find a right direction.
Thanks a lot for sharing a good information, Maria Kopnitsky. ▲ Collapse
Thailand
Local time: 12:25
English to Thai
+ ...
In 1970s I lost my way near Seoul. I asked people and many of them told me to go to another city: Suwong, partly due to my bad pronunciation of the city. It was also partly because of the wrong English spelling of the name. I needed to buy an English-Korean dictionary to show the correct Korean spelling of the city name.
Soonthon L.
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