With the newly inaugurated Park administration beginning to reshuffle and rename government ministries, many major newspapers are discussing the rather odd ministry names used by the previous administration. Perhaps the most outstanding name in dispute is the “Ministry of Knowledge Economy.” One may wonder, “How exactly does ‘knowledge’ relate to ‘economy’?” Judging by the title alone, it is hard to grasp what the ministry does. Although the term “knowledge economy” has been used by Peter Drucker, many people are not familiar with the economic term yet.

The plethora of oddly named government bureaus may cause one to wonder whether Korean government officials even bother to consult with native English speakers before officially announcing the names of their ministries. Many Koreans tend to be overly confident of their English skills, and believe they do not need the help of native speakers. Besides, Koreans often reason, “We can do it in our own way.

Why bother to imitate English speaking countries?” Such thinking leads to the surfeit of “Konglish” in Korean society.

Given the importance of government ministries, it is unlikely that Korean officials did not consult with native English speakers before naming the various bureaus. Assuming officials did work with native speakers, there are three plausible explanations as to why such odd names were chosen.

One is that the so-called native speaker they discussed the matter with was either unfamiliar with ministry titles in his own country, or was not a competent English speaker. Not all native English speakers command excellent English, just as not all Koreans are good at the Korean language. Another probable reason is that the native speaker, though well qualified, translated the name word-by-word. In fact, it is a common practice for many foreigners to translate Korean word-by-word or line-by-line, perhaps out of respect for Korean customs.

I was once appalled at how a native English speaker decided to translate our school’s Certificate of Academic Excellence. The certificate read, “The aforementioned person showed good academic records, behaved nicely and became a good example for others.” Alas! The person had just literally translated the text.

No certificate of academic excellence issued by an American or British university would bear such elementary wording. In another case, I was equally appalled by an American college student who translated “jakpum segye” (literary world) into “work world.” Since “jakpum” means “a writer’s work” and “segye” means “world,” he just put the two words together, coming up with a translation that lacked context and sense.

The third plausible reason we ended up with such odd ministry names is that the native speaker suggested an alternate name, but the involved Korean parties did not listen.

Since they just asked for advice and not a definitive answer, Korean government officials may have thought they had every right to decline the advice. If this was indeed the case, the officials certainly behaved in an imprudent and senseless matter, considering that ministry titles are used by and presented to the entire international community.

In addition to awkward titles, one can find numerous mistakes and grammatical errors on the webpages of various government ministries. For example, one ministry’s homepage displays the text “Greeting from the Administrator,” which should be corrected to “Greetings from the Administrator.” For some inscrutable reason, many Koreans hate pronouncing the “s” sound at the end of words. Nevertheless, “Greeting from the Administrator” is grammatically incorrect.

The Park administration has announced that it will be creating a new ministry that could be named The Ministry of Science and Future Strategy. Newspapers report that officials are now considering naming the body the Ministry of Future Creation and Science, which is, once again, a literal translation of the Korean name. Without a doubt, the Ministry of Future Creation, not only sounds awkward, but quite bizarre to foreigners.

During the Lee administration, foreigners were often puzzled by the word “security” in the title, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.

The Ministry is not in charge of national security, nor is it an intelligence agency. What, then, does “security” mean? The Park administration decided to change the name to the Ministry of Security and Public Administration. But what difference does it make? In the Korean language “anbo” means “(national) security,” whereas “anjeon” means “safety.” Thus, the ministry should use the word, “safety” instead of “security.” But people may still ask, “Safety of what?”

Our political officials should pay attention to ministry names employed by other countries around the world, and consult with as many native English speakers as possible in order to bestow names on our ministries that sound natural and convey the right meaning. The titles of our ministries serve as the first impression of Korea to foreign diplomats and the international community. They should be decent, grammatically correct, and compatible with their counterparts in other countries. Most importantly, they should make sense.

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. ― Ed.