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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