The South Korean government said Thursday it will amend English names for 141 government organizations that have been deemed incorrect, unspecific, incongruous or just plain awkward for native speakers.

The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs announced the guidelines for changing or setting English names of the state bodies, along with the new names of four ministries and agencies and 137 subsidiary organizations. It marks the first time the Korean government has ever rolled out a comprehensive measure for modification of the official English names.

Officials have been discussing the potential new English names and working on the guidelines since March, in response to criticism about the accuracy of the names.

A special advisory committee ― which included native speakers ― reviewed all administrative organizations’ English names and came up with 231 suggestions for new names, 141 of which have been accepted by the respective agencies.

The guidelines suggest changing English names that sound strange to native speakers, having consistency when depicting functions of the organizations, refraining from using “Korean,” “National” or “the” in the official name, making sure the abbreviated names include organizations’ main functions and distinguishing the names of offices based on the size of their jurisdiction.

The sweeping changes starts with the Home Affairs Ministry itself, which will be shortened to Ministry of the Interior. Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency, whose main function is to oversee the construction plans for Korea‘s administrative city of Sejong, will be switched to National Agency for Administrative City Construction.

The main purpose of the new names is to help foreigners understand the functions of organizations at first glance, officials said.

The Welfare Ministry-affiliated “National Mang-Hyang Cemetery” is a resting place for overseas Koreans who were forced to flee the country during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule, but it is virtually impossible for a anyone who is not a Korean-speaker to realize that as the word “mang-hyang” is merely a Romanization of a Korean word meaning “to miss one’s home.” To avoid the confusion, the institute will be called “Office of National Cemetery for Overseas Koreans.”

The guideline also presented standardized English translations for various government positions such as “policy advisor to the minister” and “inspector general.”

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)