I just came across an interesting thread at the koreanfilm.org forum. It started off simply linking to an interesting interview with Bong Joon-ho in Cineaste magazine (well worth a look). It then, via questioning a typo in the article (involving the proper spelling of Bae Doo-na’s name), morphed into a discussion of the McCune-Reischauer system and the newer Ministry of Culture and Tourism system (launched in 2000). The whole thread is worth a read.
As most of you will know, individual Koreans have pretty much a free hand in how they want their names to be romanized (How do you get, using any standard transcription system, from 이재용 to EJ Yong, which seems to be that director’s preferred Western name?). I myself am a bit inconsistent about how to transcribe names, particularly when Koreans live in the West and therefore tend to put their family names last to avoid confusing the poor foreigners. So sometimes I put their family names first, sometimes last. And I try to be consistent about whether I hyphenate the given names (eg I usually say Hong Sang-soo rather than Hong Sang Soo) but I’m not sure I’m always successful. Darcy reports that KOFIC actually contacted major Korean actors and directors to find our their preferred transcriptions, so the punctilious should refer to KOFIC’s Korean Film Database Book from 2000 to 2006.
I’ll update my language resources page in due course to include the links below.
Links:
- McCune-Reischauer system of transcription (1937)
- Ministry of Culture and Tourism system of transcription (2000)
- Korea Times article (HT to AidanFC at the Korean Studies portal)
Related posts (automatically generated):
