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.
Long Time Gone
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.
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” (í•œêµë¡œ) or “Hanguk-gil” (í•œêµê¸¸).
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.
That’s interesting. A proper translation wouldn’t alter the meaning, but I guess that’s just the way the bureaucracy works….