The Seoul of New York City

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Smack dab in the middle of Manhattan is a small Koreatown.  I came upon it quite by accident while wondering the streets one day.  Suddenly there were familiar banks, signs in Hangul, and a fair selection of Korean restaurants.

2 thoughts on “The Seoul of New York City

  1. Interesting!

    And in typically Korean fashion, the English-language designation on the street sign says one thing while the Korean-language designation says another! “Korea Way” vs. “Korea Town” (or “Koreatown,” I guess).

    Had the Korean-language designation been a true translation, it would have said “Hanguk-no” (한국로) or “Hanguk-gil” (한국길).

    There’s a Korean Zen temple in Germantown, Maryland that does the same thing. The English-language name for the temple is “American Zen College,” but the Chinese characters simply say “Hanguk-sa,” i.e., “Korean Temple.” I see this same phenomenon– the translation that isn’t a translation– on the marquees of many Chinese restaurants.

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