Name Change

[skylee]

Pinyin sucks as a way of representing the sounds of Chinese in English

I didn't know that Pinyin was English.

[bhchao]

Therefore he has decided to concentrate on having plastic surgery instead.

Woodcutter, at first I thought you were joking with this comment

Korea needs someone like Park Chung-Hee or even Kim Dae-jung, not some sissy president.

[TitTauGong]

why was Seoul ever called 漢城 in the first place?

i think maybe the mayor of Seoul doesn't understand the non-phonetic nature written Chinese.

[39degN]

you must be kidding, when the city named 汉城, even the mayor's grandfather wesnt born 呢.

汉城古称汉阳，1395年书面语改名汉城。1910年朝鲜沦为日本的殖民地，日本人随即把汉城改为按日语读音的KYONGSONG，意即京都。1945年日本投降，朝鲜独立后，为铲除日本殖民者的统治痕迹，南朝鲜人就不再称汉城为KYONG－SONG,但也没有恢复朝鲜原先HANSONG的读法，而是改用另一个朝鲜语，其读音是塞乌尔（SIEUR），意即首都，英文音译为SEOUL，但是朝鲜的书面语仍然是写汉城。1948年8月大韩民国建立后，汉城就成为韩国名副其实的首都。随后全世界各国（包括日本和朝鲜民主主义人民共和国）都音译韩国的首都为“塞乌尔”，唯有中国（包括港澳台）以及新加坡的华文书刊和口语仍用汉城。

originally from 再说“汉城”改名

[Ian_Lee]

Now it is very funny.

When media and other government organizations in China, Taiwan and HK start to use the Chinese term 首爾 for Seoul, it is the South Koreans who still keep using the old term 漢城 for Seoul.

It seems that even the sign on Seoul-Incheon Airport Freeway is still using 漢城. Read:

http://chinese.chosun.com/big5/site/data/html_dir/2005/03/24/20050324000017.html