Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In English, we tend to pronounce names the way that a person chooses to pronounce it themselves. How are there any other options? In East Asia, the most standard approach of some language pairs among Chinese, Japanese and Korean is completely different.
This video gives some background on how these three languages are written and pronounced, and then explains the interesting and perhaps puzzling way that names are translated between them. In doing so, we will learn a bit about not just the linguistics, but also the societies and histories of the countries where these languages are spoken.
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0:00 Introduction
1:14 Primer to Japanese, Korean and Chinese
3:19 Translation of names between these languages
6:24 A brief history of Korean names in Japanese and the Zainichi Koreans
7:17 An interesting case in Japanese
The survey of Chinese foreign exchange students (In Japanese):
ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/files/public/2/29619/20141016172335960471/Hiroshima-IntStudentCenter-kiyo_20_61.pdf
Clips of Zainichi Koreans is from his video:
youtube.com/watch?v=0aTDDk0ppRg
My information about Zainichi Koreans and further reading is available here:
Lie, John. Zainichi (Koreans in Japan): Diasporic Nationalism and Postcolonial Identity. Vol. 8. Univ of California Press, 2008.
More reading:
Pae, Hye K. “Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Writing Systems: All East-Asian but Different Scripts.” In Script Effects as the Hidden Drive of the Mind, Cognition, and Culture, edited by Hye K. Pae, 71–105. Literacy Studies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55152-0_5.
Schreiber, Mark. “A Call to End Confusion over Foreign Names | The Japan Times.” Accessed November 18, 2020. japantimes.co.jp/life/2010/09/22/language/a-call-to-end-confusion-over-foreign-names/.
In English, we tend to pronounce names the way that a person chooses to pronounce it themselves. How are there any other options? In East Asia, the most standard approach of some language pairs among Chinese, Japanese and Korean is completely different.
This video gives some background on how these three languages are written and pronounced, and then explains the interesting and perhaps puzzling way that names are translated between them. In doing so, we will learn a bit about not just the linguistics, but also the societies and histories of the countries where these languages are spoken.
twitter.com/Thixotrofic
0:00 Introduction
1:14 Primer to Japanese, Korean and Chinese
3:19 Translation of names between these languages
6:24 A brief history of Korean names in Japanese and the Zainichi Koreans
7:17 An interesting case in Japanese
The survey of Chinese foreign exchange students (In Japanese):
ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/files/public/2/29619/20141016172335960471/Hiroshima-IntStudentCenter-kiyo_20_61.pdf
Clips of Zainichi Koreans is from his video:
youtube.com/watch?v=0aTDDk0ppRg
My information about Zainichi Koreans and further reading is available here:
Lie, John. Zainichi (Koreans in Japan): Diasporic Nationalism and Postcolonial Identity. Vol. 8. Univ of California Press, 2008.
More reading:
Pae, Hye K. “Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Writing Systems: All East-Asian but Different Scripts.” In Script Effects as the Hidden Drive of the Mind, Cognition, and Culture, edited by Hye K. Pae, 71–105. Literacy Studies. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55152-0_5.
Schreiber, Mark. “A Call to End Confusion over Foreign Names | The Japan Times.” Accessed November 18, 2020. japantimes.co.jp/life/2010/09/22/language/a-call-to-end-confusion-over-foreign-names/.
