Cultural Heritage Administration to release official Romanization guide

The Cultural Heritage Administration has established an official standard for the Romanization of all the nation’s major historical sites, names and locations.

Since 2010, CHA has worked together with some 100 experts, expatriates and foreign students from non-English-speaking countries and ordinary citizens to create the guideline. The guideline will help eliminate much confusion about how to translate Korean titles and names into English, the agency said.

Starting Aug. 1, Gyeongbokgung and Sungnyemun will be spelled and referred to officially as Gyeongbokgung Palace and Sungnyemun Gate. Other examples from the Romanization guideline include Hallasan Mountain, Namhansanseong Fortress and Joseon.

The Cultural Heritage Administration said that it plans to distribute a guidebook containing the official English names to some 4,000 cultural properties by the end of the year.

The administration’s website will be revised this year to reflect the new Romanization standard, while changing of the information signs on all of the country’s cultural properties could take anywhere from three to five years, the agency stated.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)