Salaryman Lee still remembers his last summer vacation with a shudder. Arriving last July for a package tour in the Philippines at Manila airport, Lee was asked whether he was the biological father of his son, whose name in the passport was spelled “Yi” -- the same name in Korean -- since juveniles ate not allowed to enter the country without their parents or guardians.

The mistake had been the mother’s when she applied for the child’s passport. It was not easy for Lee, whose English wasn’t fluent, to persuade airport officials. Fortunately, with the help of his tour guide, Lee and his family were able to enter the country.

Particularly in the travel season, cases like this are no rarity. According to travel agency Tournews, those mistakes happen when travel agents fill in forms on behalf of their clients or confusion on the part of clients. “Sometimes those loopholes in Romanization not only cause simple mistakes but are abused by illegal residents.”

With names where several Romanizations are possible, family clans often make a decision to settle on one. Thus in the case of “Lee”, “Yi” and ”Rhee” as in Korea’s first president Syngman Rhee, they mostly agree on the more common form, which in this case is “Lee.” A representative of one Lee clan said, “It’s not an obligation, but we recommend to writing it as ‘Lee’ in the passports.” He adds that domestic family members tend to use “Lee” and overseas ones “Yi,” which is closer to the actual pronunciation.

Revised Romanization rules of 2000 recommend abiding by the standard Korean pronunciation rules. But that is quite confusing since Romanization according to pronunciation, for example, changes the sound value of consonants when syllables are combined. Jongno vs Jong-ro, Seorak vs. Seol-ak, Daegwallyeong vs. Dae-gwan-ryeong, Baengma vs. Baek-ma, Wangsimni vs. Wang-sib-ri, and Silla vs. Sin-ra are but some of the bewildering examples. Even the spelling of Korea’s second largest city has changed to from “Pusan” to “Busan.”

The trouble is even this rule isn’t strictly observed. The National Institute of the Korean Language stresses that all existing Romanizations are permissible for family names, but place names should be in line with the official version.

(englishnews@chosun.com )