English / Hangul Help -- Please!

[mccobalt]

Hello!

I'm in the process of trying to start up a new business. As such, I'd like to purchase chops and a certificate stamp for my school. I teach Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido. My school is "Sparrows Point Martial Arts Academy." I would prefer to have the text in Hangul rather than Hanja. It seems there are two major stamp suppliers. Only one does the translation into Hangul but their translator has left the company. By doing a number of different web searches and lots and lots of trials I came up with the following:

참새 포인트 무술 학원

I believe it translates into "Sparrow Point Martial Arts Academy (or school)." I was wondering if there is someone here that has experience with Hangul could help me?

Thanks!

John
Baltimore

 

[MBuzzy]

Well, here's how what you have breaks down:

참새 is Sparrow, so that is good

포인트 actually translates to Ace. It is pronounced po-in-teu...so I think that whoever told you that was basically sounding out the word point in Korean.

무술 is musul, which literally means martial arts or martial/military way

학원 hagwon is institute or academy, which works. School would be hakkyo, but I think you're going for the specialty of being an academy.

So, the hard part is the sparrow point.

Let me work on that for a while. The way that you have it written right now isn't really right for Korean. I mean, it sounds like the english word, but it isn't Korean. It is a hard word to translate though because they really don't use it the way we do. Let me look a bit and I'll get back to you.

 

[mccobalt]

Thanks!

Sparrows Point is actually a Peninsula or isthmus if land that juts out into a bay. I'm not sure if it would be better to use:

반도

Thanks!

John

 

[miguksaram]

I think the only problem is hakkwon. Since he is talking about a martial art school I believe dojang would be more appropriate. Hakkwons are usually education schools (math, reading, etc.)

 

[MBuzzy]

I think the only problem is hakkwon. Since he is talking about a martial art school I believe dojang would be more appropriate. Hakkwons are usually education schools (math, reading, etc.)

What about the pointeu thing? I mean, since it is a proper name, I suppose it can work, but then wouldn't we want to phoenecize the word sparrow as well?

There are a lot of options for the school part. Since the real name is academy, I probably wouldn't go with Dojang, since that is more of a training hall/gym kind of term. Academy has a different connotation in both cultures.

 

[mccobalt]

If I'm gathering this correctly, I think Sparrow is okay. Martial Arts is okay. And Academy (if I stay with academy instead of DoJang is okay.) Since this is a proper name (the registered name of a business) what do you think I should do about Point?

Thanks for your help!!!!

John

 

[MBuzzy]

Personal opinion - if you do one of them as a proper name, you do both. If you do one as a translation, you should do both.

I would consider mudo as opposed to musul as well, slightly different connotations.

 

[mccobalt]

Thanks again. When I translated mudo it came back in english as "also". Sorry, but I must be missing something!

From what you are saying I should go with the proper name I could use:

Sparrows: ㅅ팔로Wㅅ

Point: 포인ㅌ

Martial Arts: 무술

Academy: 학원

Do you think that's best?

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

John

 

[MBuzzy]

Ooo boy, not exactly, no. You may need to reconsider which translation resource you are using....the word sparrow needs some work. It violates a few rules. You can't have a syllable set with a single character and you can't end a word in a consonant sound. There are also no plurals in Korean, it is what is known as a "contextual" based language, so number is implied through context.

As for Mudo, the word you're looking for is 무도, and it doesn't translate because it is a hanja transcription. The characters in Hanja mean Military Way, which is the literally and generally accepted way of saying Martial Arts. Musul is more military or martial techniques. So same idea, very slightly different connotations.

As for Sparrow, if you want a direct phoenetic spelling of the proper name, there are many ways to translate any word into hangul. My suggestion would be:
수벌로수. Of course, as I said, there are other ways to do it. The phoenetic pronunciation of that transcription is "su-paw-lo-su." Which is about as close as you can get in hangul. The proper sounds simply don't exist to make it exact. Plus, I don't think that you want any english characters thrown in there.

Also, when you retype or copied point, it lost a character. Be sure to use
포인트
instead. The way it was written above is "illegal." A word can't end in a consonant sound.

 

[mccobalt]

Thank you. Honestly, I think I'm more confused now than I was when I first started!

There are two major companies that do stamps for schools. Only one will do the hangul translation and thier translator is AWOL. The other alternative (to doing it myself--which is looking more and more like a bad idea) is for them to do it in hanja.

Personally, I like the way hangul looks and just feel it would be better for my school that teaches Korean martial arts.

If I go with translation then Sparrows is okay using 참새

Point is the trouble spot in translation. (Right?) If I'm translating Sparrows then using a translation for Point could I use: 출발점

When I look that up in a korean/english dictionary it says a point as in a point of departure.

Or would I use 반도 which mean peninsula (which is what Sparrows Point is.)

Thanks again. I probably sound like an idiot but I'd really like to understand what I do...

John

 

[MBuzzy]

It can certainly be confusing, but if you invest some time, it is worth it. I walked past a Tang Soo Do school in PA once that had hangul characters on its sign, but it was gibberish. It was basically the equivalent of half the signs written in english that I saw while in Korea. A bunch of random words and letters just thrown together because they assume no one knows. But then every once in a while a Korean (or English) speaker walks past (depending on the country) and it just looks like gibberish.

I think that penninsula is a good idea - and kudos on using ZKorean, that is a good resource, although it can be lacking in a lot of words and phrases. When I was learning, I used a combination of ZKorean, a few korean websites and Langenschidt's dictionary.

I guess I'll cut to the chase - if this was me....I would use:

참새 반도 무술 학원

But that's me. I don't like using borrow words or the phoenetic "attempts" at turning an english word into a Korean word. Honestly, I don't even like the Korean words for Ice Cream or Television...which are just that. They sound the same. But then, that's their choice, not mine! haha

And you know....in the end, there aren't many people that will know the difference! If you can, I would try to find a native Korean speaker to verify with. I am still learning and am prone to mistakes, it is a tough language.

 

[rlp271]

I'm bringing back a threat long dead, but I would use 스파로우스 포인트 무술 학원.

You've probably already made the sign, but you could change it right? Koreans turn a lot of English words into Hangeul ones on signs. Any city or town wouldn't be translated into Korean unless it's been known for a really long time, like cities in China on the East Coast. They have retained a lot of their older names. Hakwon (학&#50896 works in this case, because it's been done here. I've seen 합기도 학원, 태권도 한원, 검도 학원, so that seems to be fine. It's not just for school subjects, it's been used for any type of learning. They have nail art hakwons here.

As far as hating the Koreanization of English words, I'm with you, but that's how it's done. They're Konglish now, and part of the language. The way 호치키스 Hotchkis is the name of a stapler brand, and has become the way to ask for a stapler or a consent 콘센트 is an electrical outlet. Sometimes, you just have to play by their rules haha.

 

[rlp271]

One more note, 무술 tends to mean old-style martial arts. What exactly do you teach? That would probably be better to use. Like if you teach Tangsoodo, I would say 당수도 학원.