OK--how do you think the North Korean Dear Leader should spell his name in English?
We will discuss all opinions and see if we can come to an agreement.
Here is the way it is done on Yahoo:

Kim Jong-Il Ate My Giant Bunnies!
Published Apr 5, 07 9:24 AM CDT

Image Source: Getty Images Newser: Karl Szmolinsky sent giant rabbits to North Korea to alleviate hunger, and Kim Jong-Il ate them. The German rabbit farmer suspects that the twelve "German Grey Giants" he sent to the country were eaten at a birthday banquet for the dictator instead of being used in a breeding program as he'd planned. • The huge rabbits can weigh over 20 pounds and usually sell for 320 euros ($430) each. Szmolinsky says he isn't attached to the animals, but he considers this a waste; the twelve he sent could have bred 60 new ones each year. “North Korea won’t be getting any more rabbits from me," he says.

The Ministry of Education in Korea used to think they were the official ones to determine how to translate Korean int English. They did a terrible job!
They put an E in the middle of Suwon, and it sounded like "Sue we on".
They wrote "Jeonra Bug Do" and thought we would look at that and automatically think Cholla Puk Doe. But we didn't. James Wade, a long time Seoul resident and writer, asked "Just what does a Jeonra bug do?"

If these kinds of things drive you crazy, then I have proven my point. You must spend one hour to learn the simple Korean Characters, and it will open up a whole world of understanding! Well, spelling, anyway.
Without being able to read Hangul you remain clueless when pronouncing.

You know, honestly, I've only ever seen his name spelled in English, and it's always spelled that way.

That article you posted is sad. It does seem as if the poverty up there could easily be alleviated with some responsible allocation of resources.

Kara

Actually there is often no way to translate Hangul into English to please everyones palate. Hangul has no F sound; G or K and R or L and B or P and D or T and J or Ch are often used interchageably, as the correct sound is somewhere between. S is often Sh, There is no V, X or Z sound, among others... There is no simple way to assure the non-Korean will pronounce well without tutoring.


The rabbit story is sad, but not as sad as the way the assistance provided by South Korea is distributed in the North. Apparently a large portion goes to the "million -man army" and the "people" benefit little. I have not researched this personally. I don't know if the diesel fuel goes for electricity or the Army Tanks. I don't know if the steel rebar goes to construction to benefit the people, or to building Pyongyang into a grand tourist trap. But I can speculate.

(I copied this into another area- see " Pyongyang Discussion" Forum.)

Another difficulty I've found in learning the language is differentiating between the "hard" and "soft" consonant sounds. I think I've been raised to speak gently, and so some of the pronunciation sounds harsh to me, but that is all part of the language.

The s/sh choice depends on the vowel following that consonant, according to how I was taught. That one is relatively easy to predict.

Kara