What do Korean Last Names Mean?

Dear Korean,

What do Korean last names mean? I mean, I know most of them come from dynasties—but what does Kim mean? Pak? Cho? And others? I can't believe they exist sui generis!

The Mexican

The Mexican strikes again!

Here in AAK!, the most important policy is that the Korean will do whatever the hell he wants with this blog. The second most important policy is this: whenever Gustavo Arellano, i.e. the Mexican, i.e. the owner of ¡Ask a Mexican! and the inspiration for this blog, sends a question to this blog, that questions gets answered as soon as possible, no matter how long the line is and no matter what the question is. That is right, the Korean has answered numerous questions about Korean names before, but what does it matter? When the granddaddy of all "Ask" blogs asks your blog a question, you answer. That's it.

So what do Korean last names mean? Let's put it this way: Korean language has a Chinese backbone, as just like English has a Latin backbone. In other words, while there are plenty of Korean words that have a stand-alone meaning in Korean, a lot of Korean words have a meaning that one must refer back to Chinese to understand -- that is, those words are Sino-Korean. Sino-Korean words tend to appear in clusters in a given word group. For example, Korean law tends to be heavily laden with Sino-Korean, just like American lawyers speak of a sui generis action that should be so obvious that it is res ipsa loquitur, for example.

Name is another area in which Sino-Korean tends to dominate. Although pure Korean names are gaining popularity in the last several decades, the overwhelming majority of Korean names are Sino-Korean. In fact, this type of questions hits the Korean's inbox fairly frequently:  I have a Korean name; what does my name mean? (In most cases, the questioners are adoptees who are attempting retrace their roots.) And usually, the Korean's answer is:  unless you know the what Chinese characters were used for your name, the Korean can't really say what your name means.

Korean last names are 100% Sino-Korean. That is, all Korean last names have an underlying Chinese character. So the meaning of Korean last names are basically the meaning of the Chinese characters underlying those last names.

Having said that, here are the ten most common Korean last names, the underlying Chinese characters, and what they mean:

• 김 [金] [Kim] - Gold.
• 이 [李] [Lee] - Plum tree.
• 박 [朴] [Park/Pak] - Magnolia tree.
• 최 [崔] [Choi] - Pinnacle.
• 정* [鄭] [Chung/Jung/Jeong] - "Zheng" (name of a Chinese kingdom.)
• 정* [丁] [Chung/Jung/Jeong] - Large nail (as in hammer and nail.)
• 정* [程] [Chung/Jung/Jeong] - To count
• 강 [姜] [Kang] - Ginger.
• 조* [曺] [Cho] - Group, companion.
• 조* [趙] [Cho] - "Zhao" (name of a Chinese kingdom.)
• 윤 [尹] [Yoon] - To rule.
• 한* [韓] [Han] - Korea.
• 한* [漢] [Han] - "Han" (name of a Chinese kingdom.)
• 임* [任] [Im] - To be in charge.
• 임* [林] [Im/Lim] - Forest

*Chung, Cho, Han and Im/Lim are interesting oddballs -- each of those last names actually has two or more different Chinese characters, which are pronounced the same way in Korean.

So there you have it, Mexican. Catch you next time.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

More on China's Forced Repatriation of North Korean Defectors

Here are some more tidbits on the North Korean defectors front.

- Graduates of Yeomyung School, a South Korean charter school for North Korean defector children, created the most successful online petition to date. At www.savemyfriend.org, a petition to the officials of the United Nations, European Union and the United States has garnered more than 127,000 signatures so far. Please take your time to sign the petition, and share them on your Facebook and Twitter. It will only take a minute.

Cha In-Pyo (center) protesting in front of the Chinese embassy.
(source)

- Backed by the Save My Friend movement, superstar actor Cha In-Pyo and other celebrities organized two protests in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul, on the 18th and on the 21st. National Assemblywoman Park Seon-Yeong has been holding a hunger strike in front of the Chinese embassy since the 21st as well; she plans to continue until China announces that it will treat North Korean defectors as refugees. There are also candle light vigils being held in various cities of Korea.

- The Chinese government is stonewalling. There are reports that nine of the 28 North Korean defectors were already repatriated, although other reports say they are still in China. The Chinese government has refused to verify the whereabouts of those defectors. In a regular briefing held on the 24th, Chinese government official only repeated that China has been handling the issue "in accordance with domestic law, international law and humanitarian principles." When asked which humanitarian principles were followed when China previously repatriated North Korean defectors, the spokesman only repeated that China has been keeping with the principles.

- Korean government is considering what may end up being an extremely helpful measure: issuing temporary South Korean travel certificate to any North Korean defector in China. With the travel certificate, even if the defector is arrested by Chinese police, s/he can credibly claim that s/he is a South Korean citizen. Even if the claim is less than completely credible, it may provide enough cover for the Chinese police to receive bribes and let the defector go. (Apparently, right now the going price is 100,000 yuan per person -- approximately $16,000.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Which Direction is Korean Written?

Dear Korean,

Is Korean written left to right or top to bottom?

Kathy R.

It can be both. Like other East Asian scripts like Chinese or Japanese, Korean script may be written horizontally or vertically. But in today's Korea, overwhelming majority of Korean is written horizontally, to be read from left to right.

An article from Chosun Ilbo, dated July 9, 1970 about bus companies.
The headline is written horizontally, while the body is written vertically.
(source)

Several decades ago, Korea's newspapers generally employed vertical writing. But that practice was abandoned for the most part by early 1990s. In contemporary Korea, vertical writing in Korean can only be found in old books and newspapers, some scattered old-school literary journals, and decorative materials.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

What is Korean's Onomatopoeia for English Speaking?

Dear Korean,

I have a Korean workmate who has a desk next to me at work. I was asking him about Korean onomatopoeiae, then I asked him: "When you were a kid were there any nonsense words that you used to pretend to speak English? He said no at first but then I pressed him a little. The he said: "Well, we do, but I'm too embarrassed to say them in front of you." So my question is: What are the nonsense words that Koreans say when they are pretending to speak English?

A. Marris

It's either "swalla swalla" (as if saying "swallow" with the last syllable changed,) or "shalla shalla". This onomatopoeia is not limited to mimicking English sound -- it is used to describe nearly all foreign languages.

A straightforward answer for a straightforward question. If only every question that hits the Korean's inbox were like this.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Scattered Thoughts on Jeremy Lin

Unfortunately, the Korean has been handling the most amount of responsibility he has ever handled as an attorney in the last two weeks, right as the whole Jeremy Lin saga has been unfolding. There are several draft posts about Lin that sit in the blog's box, but the Korean figured it was better to air out some of the half-formed thoughts for now rather than trying to write something two months after the fact.

- Lin in the NBA Store.  Last week the Korean was in New York, and stayed at a hotel that was across the street from the NBA Store. The first thing you would see as you stepped into the NBA store would be two rows of Jeremy Lin jerseys ($250 each!), and two salespersons holding up $50 Jeremy Lin warm-up shirts because they ran out of shelf space. And those things were flying off the rack. Unbelievable.

- Other Lin-related New York adventures.  At a restaurant in New York, the bartender asked if the Korean received a lot of love because of Lin. Sure, why not -- we are both over 6 feet and around 200 pounds. In the following dinner, a white New Yorker friend adamantly insisted that Lin was a better passing point guard than everyone in the NBA except Steve Nash -- in other words, better than Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo and Ricky Rubio. The Korean had to tell his friend that he was nuts, and the Korean did not appreciate the fact that his friend made him a race traitor.

- Jeremy Lin on the Lakers?  When Lin graduated from Harvard and was lighting up John Wall in the NBA summer leagues, the Korean wished that Lin would sign with the Korean's favorite team, the Lakers. Looking back, Lin is very fortunate that he did not sign with the Lakers. The New York system under Mike D'Antoni is perfect for him.

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

- Lin's Ceiling.  Just how good could Lin become in the future? The Korean just finished watching Dallas game, while only focusing on Lin no matter where he is on the court or off the court. This is something the Korean likes to do whenever he want to really learn about a player. (The most fun player to do this with? Chris Paul. Second most fun, JaVale McGee, but for completely opposite reasons as CP3.)

Dallas is a damn good defensive team. They had their best wing defender (Shawn Marion) guarding Lin, and sent hard traps on Lin on about 75% of the times he brought in the ball. And Lin handled the pressure supremely, particularly in the first half. Lin got a little sloppy in the third quarter, but more than made up for it toward the later part of the third and fourth quarter. Final line: 28 points and 14 assists for the game, with 7 turnovers. (3 of them in the bad third quarter.)

Lin is still functionally a rookie, and considering just how crappy rookie PGs tend to be, he is a huge room to grow still. (Deron Williams in his rookie year was described by Bill Simmons as running the pick-and-roll "like a drunk girl at a crowded club looking for a bathroom.”) Even after Carmelo Anthony returns, the Korean would think the most likely scenario for Lin would be to settle into the range of 18 ppg, 9 apg, which would make him the best passing PG after CP3 and Nash, and on par with Rajon Rondo, Deron Williams and Ricky Rubio. Lin's ceiling would be multiple all-star appearances.

- Did you know Jeremy Lin had a Tiger Dad?  Of course he did. Read the story for yourself:

"I thought it would be great to play basketball," Gie-Ming said. Only problem? He didn't have the slightest idea how. He had never picked up a ball in his life. So he turned his attention back to those gripping NBA games. Armed with videotapes of his favorite players, Gie-Ming studied the game with the same fervor he studied for his Ph.D. 

"I would just imitate them over and over; I got my hook shot from Kareem," Gie-Ming said, laughing. 

It took him years to feel comfortable enough to play in a pickup game, and as he bided his time he decided then -- long before he even had children -- that his own kids would grow up knowing the game from an early age. When first-born Joshua turned 5, Gie-Ming carted him to the local Y to begin teaching him those valuable skills stored on his videotapes. Jeremy followed, and then youngest brother Joseph joined in what became a three-nights-a-week routine. The boys would finish their homework and around 8:30 head to the Y with their father for 90 minutes of drills or mini-games. 

Forget that all of the players on those videos had long since retired, that the guy with Kareem's hook shot wouldn't hit Abdul-Jabbar's armpit. Gie-Ming recognized what so many other youth coaches have forgotten over time: The foundation for success is the basics.

For all you haters who have been saying that Tiger Parenting can only work on repetitive sports like golf, you can suck on this story. Watch Lin beautifully threading a pass in a pick-and-roll, and try to talk about how Tiger Parenting squelches all creativity. Please. The Korean promises he will be there to laugh at you.

- Majority mentality.  Watching the Korean's Asian American friends reacting to Lin enabled the Korean to articulate the subtle difference between the Korean, a 1.5 generation who spent his childhood outside of America, and Asian Americans of second generation and beyond who spent their childhood in America.

To put it crudely, the Korean has what might be called "the majority mentality." Growing up in an affluent neighborhood of Seoul, the Korean simply did not experience anything bad on account of his race or social status. There was no formative moment of racial taunting, which would drive the Korean to look out for possible slights and insults. Because of his "majority mentality," the Korean's approach to race relations regarding Asian Americans takes a form of slight emotional detachment, as if he is not a true participant in the game of race relations involving Asian Americans. He ends up arguing for positions that may appear somewhat counter-intuitive, e.g., how the Super Bowl commercial featuring pandas with Asian accents was not racist, how Asian Americans should favor Affirmative Action even if Affirmative Action disadvantaged Asian Americans in the short term, how Asian American young men should stop screaming bloody murder on every perceived instance of "yellow fever," etc.

Right now, the Korean is immensely enjoying Jeremy Lin's rise. But his enjoyment is nothing compared to the positive emotions being experienced by his Asian American friends. To them, watching Lin is much more than enjoyment -- it is validation, vindication, a small measure of euphoric revenge against all the childhood taunts about trying to be athletic as an Asian American. The Korean can understand what they go through, but not sure if he could empathize completely. This will be something to develop in a future post.

- America "has largely decided to turn a blind eye toward racism against Asian Americans."  Those are the words of sports writer Jay Kang, from his profile on Jeremy Lin. How prophetic those words turned out to be, as just a few days later Kang's employer, ESPN, would do something like this.

Yes, the Korean knows that he just wrote that he has a slight emotional detachment when it comes to Asian American race relations. That might enable him to simply groan and move on when the New York Post headline screamed "AMASIAN!", instead of losing his shit. But "chink"? On ESPN? For crying out loud.

Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

AAK! PSA: Stop China's Repatriation of North Koreans

First, a little bit of background. As Kim Jong-Un attempts to consolidate his power in North Korea, one of the new regime's focus has been arresting as many North Koreans in China as possible. Right now, North Korea has sent into China a task force of covert agents numbering in the thousands -- a scale simply unprecedented -- who would pretend to be North Korean defectors, only to rat out true defectors to the Chinese police. The Chinese police arrests these defectors and repatriate them back to North Korea. Once back in North Korea, these defectors will face near certain deaths in gulags out of hard labor and starvation. Recently, there was an arrest of 28 North Korean defectors in China, who will be repatriated back to North Korea in just a few days. Right now, even as we speak, these defectors are essentially facing a death penalty if they are sent back to North Korea. Some of the defectors' families in South Korea (who defected before this group of defectors) are pleading that if these defectors are to be sent back to North Korea, they are better off killing themselves in the Chinese prison.

Mr. Joo Seong-Ha, whom regular readers of this blog would know well, decided to do something about this situation. Below is his plea regarding this issue, translated into English. Mr. Joo is hoping that the social services networks worldwide would be plastered with this message, so that the Chinese government would hopefully think twice before condemning North Korean defectors to certain death.

The Korean knows that a lot of AAK! readers came to this blog because of the peerless insight of Mr. Joo. If you learned anything new about North Korea thanks to one of his posts, you owe him -- and now is your chance to return the favor. It will not take much to put up this message on Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn, or any other social network to which you belong. Please, please carry this message forward. You may end up saving lives. Thank you.

*                  *                  *

Our appeal to the Chinese government and the international community for help. Please stop the repatriation of North Korean defectors! Forced repatriation is ultimately a death sentence.


Please help save the lives of North Korean defectors who are about to be repatriated by The Public Security Bureau of China. The defectors including minors are crying out for help, saying they’d rather die in China than be repatriated. Please help us stop the inhumane repatriation by the Chinese government. Compulsory repatriation will only result in cruel torture, persecution, and public execution. We ask the Chinese government and the global community to help in our effort to protect the human rights and save the lives of the innocent.

From February 8th to the 13th, 28 North Korean defectors were arrested by the Public Security Bureau agents in three cities near the Chinese border. The first group had 10 people (4 men and 6 women) arrested in Shenyang, the second group consisted of 9 people arrested in Yian-ji, and the third group had 12 people arrested in Changchun. Reportedly, the 10 people detained in Shenyang contacted with their family in South Korea by the phone.

The refugees escaped from North Korea for many different reasons. They had to suffer extended period of financial crisis, wide-spread starvation, electric power shortage, ‘guilt-by-association’ political system, absence of freedom of speech, travel or relocation, and violence against women and children. Some refugees escaped from the prison camps, while others left their country to meet with their families who had settled in South Korea. Most of the refugees want to come to South Korea but a few of them want to start a new life in other countries like the United States, the U.K. and Canada.

The arrested defectors will go through 7 to 10 days of investigation before their repatriation. Therefore, the 10 people arrested in Shenyang are now facing immediate deportation. For a decade, the Chinese Bureau of Public Security has postponed the repatriation until the international community diverts their attention to other issues, and has so far repatriated over 10,000 refugees. The Chinese government is now evading negotiation on this matter with ambiguous answers, saying they cannot confirm the arrest of 28 North Koreans.

Recently, the North Korean government ordered a harsher crackdown on escapees during the 100 days of mourning period for Kim Jong-Il. After repatriation, the defectors will be sent to political prisoner camps and their chances of public execution are imminent. In the prison camp, their human rights of will be cruelly abused as they are subject to forced labor, involuntary abortion, physical violence, sexual assault, public execution, torture, medical experiment and lack of hygienic care. Even though North Korea joined the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and inserted additional ‘respects and protections of human rights’ article into the constitution, it has never followed or adhered to any of the rules.

Most of the refugees want to come to South Korea, and many of them have families already residing in South Korea. For instance, one of the refugees under arrest is a teenager boy who does not have any family or relatives in North Korea but has a brother and a sister in South Korea. In this case, he is a full citizen of South Korea and the South Korean government has the right to ask the Chinese government to send him to South Korea.

Kim Jong-un and his government must admit the sovereign default and the abuse of human rights of its citizens. As a leader, Kim should help promote the well-being of his citizens rather than promote the death of his people.

North Korean defectors left their country due to poverty, autocracy, and many other political reasons. So, their escape from North Korea and their desire to settle in South Korea prove that they qualify for the status of refugee or asylum seeker prescribed by the international law. The Chinese government agreed to the UN’s Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and the UN Resolution on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK stipulates ‘the principle of non-refoulement’ that the North Korean defectors seeking asylum should not be put back to dangerous situation. Therefore, the Chinese government must stop the forced repatriation and allow the refugees to continue their lives in other countries.

In an effort to show their opposition to North Korea, the families of the arrested refugees are abstaining from food and drinks, and appealing to the Chinese government while also trying to reach out to the international community. In one extreme case, a father of an arrested female refugee stated that he would rather have his own daughter killed by poison than taken back to North Korea. Her repatriation will only lead to indefinite torture eventually ending with public execution. 

We urge the Chinese government to protect the basic human rights and the lives of all human beings. Also, we encourage the Chinese government to understand and realize the importance of freedom and democracy for all people. Repatriation will cause long and painful suffering to the family members of the refugees. Tens of thousands of people in North and South are already feeling guilty as they failed to save their family. Please help us stop this pain and injustice. 

We appeal to all the people of conscience around the world, including worldwide news media, governments, leaders, and organizations. Please raise public awareness of the North Korean refugee crisis and the devastating effect of the Chinese government’s unjust repatriation. Please help save the lives of North Korean defectors. Show your love for humanity!

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask a Korean! Wiki: Do You Know This Book?

Dear Korean,

I'm trying to locate a 72 page book/manuscript entitled "5-18, the Kwangju Incident" by Arnold A. Peterson, circa 1990. Do you know where I can find a copy, or can you suggest others that I could ask?

Bill D.

That's a toughie. Fortunately, enough well-learned Korea heads visit this blog, so someone might know. Enlightened readers, got anything?

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.