2008년 1월 30일 수요일

Today was the first day of conducting the survey. I was very excited because not only was today the first day of the survey, but also the first day ever to conduct a survey of which I was in charge. Despite all the excitement, I was not sure whether the survey was properly designed to answer my questions. The survey is designed, simple, to test how well non-korean speakers could pronounce the Korean Romanization.

2008년 1월 19일 토요일

Please help- for all foreigners in Korea

How do you read the alphabet on street or traffic signs in Korea? Did you have hard time asking directions to Koreans because you read names as they sounded in your language? Where did you first learn the romanization of korean? And do you think it will be helpful for tourists and visitors when there is something that can help them to read the romanization of korean?

hello everyone my name is jin park, and I am doing a research on romanization, particularly on the romanization of Korean. the writing system of Korea is Hangeul, and it is a system which do not use the Roman alphabet, so despite its simplicity and "heavenliness," it has to be represented in the Roman alphabet in order for non-speakers of Korea to pronounce Hangeul.
romanization is a system that represent a word or a language, in this case Hangeul, with the Roman alphabet. One important aspect of romanization is that although the Roman alphabet is used in all romanization, pronunciation is assigned by an adaptor. For instance, the word Uijeongbu will sound differently by different speakers of different languages when they are not familiar with its assigned sound.

Koreans seem to have no trouble pronouncing the Roman alphabet according to the romanization of korean. One reason seems to be that they have been trained when they were young in school, and by frequent usuage they can pronounce it accordingly without too much difficulty. Another reason is that they already know Hangeul. It is as though their brains can function in such a way as to make sense of a korean word which romanization is used to stand for. But what about tourists or visitors of other languages? Is the romanization of Korean as effective or easy as it seems to Koreans?

Speakers, whose writing systems are the Roman alphabet, will tend to read the romanization of Korean as the way it sounds in their languages. Speakers only know thier own writing systems and have no other knowledge of reading the Roman alphabet, unless they have learned some other language. Therefore, it is natural for foreigners to misread the romanization of korean and to think that foreigners will be able to read it, because their writing systems are based on the Roman alphabet, is to ignore one of major problems for foreigners. In order to pronounce the romanization of korean, somewhat correctly, it has to be taught.

I believe that the Korean government has done too little in terms of advertising and informing foreigners about the romanization of Korean. One of my aims is to show why it is necessary to advertise continuously and more effectively. And to do so, I need your help. Please leave any comments or suggestions

I tHANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION AND YOUR PARTICIPATION WILL HELP TORUISTS OR VISITORS OF kOREA IN THE FUTURE.
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