Interesting features of the Korean language


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Evidence of Translation Problems along the Roads in Korea


The introduction of the romanization rules of Hangeul in 2000 has until now never resulted in the exorcism of the chaos that has ever existed concerning the translation into English of Korean words. Here is an example of how the place name ¸¸¸®Æ÷ (Chungcheon Buk-do) is romanized on various signboards, the influence of the McCune-Reischauer system being obvious.

Here we see the English word 'dam', correctly spelled in Hangeul and then correctly romanized 'back' to English. A misspell? As long as there is no proper Korean word for 'dam', I would say No. But why then also not properly romanizing the word ÆòÈ­? Photo taken in Gangwon-do.

A problem, similar to the example above, exists when translating 'back' to English the word 'rafting'. The consonent F being non existent in Korea, the word 'rafting' is, borrowed from English, in Korean: ·¡ÇÁÆÃ. However, the romanization as shown on this signboard is not according to the rules. Wouldn't it be better in this case just to use the word 'Rafting' instead of 'Rapting' or 'Raepeuting', just as Ä·ÇÁ is romanized as 'camp'? Photo taken in Odae Valley, Gangwon-do.