Revised Romanization of Korean facts for kids

The Revised Romanization of Korean is a special way to write Korean words using the letters we use in English. It's like translating the sounds of Korean into a system that people who don't know Korean can read. South Korea uses this system to help people from other countries understand names of places, people, and other Korean words. It replaced an older system called McCune-Reischauer.

What is Romanization?

Romanization is the process of writing words from one writing system using the letters of another. For Korean, this means taking the Korean alphabet, called Hangul, and writing it with the letters of the Roman alphabet (like A, B, C). This makes it easier for people who don't read Hangul to pronounce Korean words.

The Revised Romanization system was created to make things simpler and more consistent. It helps with things like street signs, maps, and official documents.

How Korean Vowels are Written

The Korean language has many different vowel sounds. The Revised Romanization system has specific ways to write each of these sounds using our alphabet. This table shows how some common Korean vowels are written.

Why is it Important?

This system is important for many reasons. It helps tourists find their way around South Korea. It also helps people from different countries communicate better. For example, when you see a Korean name or city written in English, it's usually using this system. It makes it easier to share information about Korea with the rest of the world.

Images for kids

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  The sign with the name of the railway station in Bucheon — at the top, a writing in hangul, the transliteration in Latin script below using the Revised Romanization, along with the hanja text.

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  The sign with the name of the railway station in Jecheon — at the top, a writing in hangul, the transliteration in Latin script below using the Revised Romanization and the English translation of the word 'station', along with the hanja text.

See also

In Spanish: Romanización revisada del coreano para niños