Korean Studies *: Romanization

Why Romanization?

While the Unicode enables scholarly communication in original scripts, there are still important reasons for Korean Studies scholars and students to learn the standard Korean romanization:
1. Romanization facilitates information retrieval in American academic databases (e.g. search for 青春 will retrieve different set of records from a search for 청춘 while the romanized "chongchun" will retrieve both sets);
2. Most American academic publishers require standard 
romanization when publishing your articles or books.  A serious 
scholar of Korean Studies will benefit from learning the ALA/LC Romanization rules, which are the standard for all libraries in the western world including USC.

Romanization Rules

Romanization Tutorial and Tools

K-Romanizer 

This handy tool, developed by Hyungbae Lee, Korean Studies librarian at Princeton, converts Hangul texts into ALA/LC Romanization.  

 

Since the ALA/LC Romanization Rules for Korean, a McCune-Reichauer based system,  is quite different from the South Korean rules, you are strongly encouraged to make an appointment with a Korean Studies librarian for an introductory session.  If you prefer learning on your own, please try the tutorial below.