Again, I find myself in Honam, this time in Suncheon, Jeollanam-do. Hiked from Songgwang-sa Temple to Seonam-sa Temple yesterday. Spent this morning at Seonam-sa Temple, where I had some business to conclude.
Photos galore when I return to Seoul tonight. In the meantime, enjoy the running water along the path to Seonam-sa Temple*:
*Shitty quality video, I know.
9 Comments
“Spent this morning at Seonam-sa Temple, where I had some business to conclude.”
Quite cryptic. I always knew you Buddhists were a sinister lot.
On a linguistic note, there’s one thing I’ve been wondering about: isn’t “Seonam-sa Temple” a redundancy, like “Chejudo Island”?
I’m not being flippant when I ask this, because I’ve noticed other Korean-fluent anglophones doing this on their blogs. Obviously it’s not a case of “they really should know better,” so I’m just wondering what the rationale is for the repetition “sa/temple” and “do/island.”
Kevin
Good old Suncheon. That’s where I lived for a few years.
On kevin’s question, I agree with you. It is redundant but still used. Mount Namsan is a common one I see too. I think the rational behind it is that Namsan, Seonam-sa or whatever becomes a proper noun so isn’t split… Although after saying that grammar is far from my strongest field.
Great place to be, Robert — I look forward to your photos!
That video is a nice little taste…
Kevin, I dealt with that question a lot while working for the Korean government’s tourism authorities, publishing books and building my own web-site. Some scholars and other writers on Korea avoid that kind of redundancy. However, I generally use it — “Jeju-do Island” and “Seonam-sa Temple” — the first time I mention the name of the place; the second and further times I just use the Romanized Korean names, Jeju-do and Seonam-sa.
The reason for doing so that I find valid is that foreigners have no idea what those suffixes mean, and yet they are part of the proper name of that place, and should be used in full when a foreigner is trying to communicate with a Korean (buying tickets to go there, for example). If you just write “Cheongdo-gun” then all those unfamiliar with Korea will have no idea that you’re talking about a County, and the same goes for Islands, cities, provinces, mountains, temples & etc. Just writing “Jeju Island” and “Seonam Temple” works in some cases, but then you’re not being consistent in your usage and not providing truly useful information for someone who wants to make use of what they read during actual travels on Korea, or in looking things up in books or on the Internet….
That’s why I do it, anyway. Sometimes you can get around this problem by structuring your sentence something like “Seonam-sa is the second-largest temple in the Jogyesan Provincial Park.” Or sometimes I begin with a full translation in brackets: “Seonam-sa [Meditation Rock Temple is located in the Jogyesan Provincial Park” ….
Thank you, gentlemen.
Kevin
Ah, Songgwangsa, what a great place. Been there many times – the last time probably a decade ago or so – and wonder how much has changed. Did that trek between both temples. It’s not an easy trek, though. There’s a story that in the 60s, monks of these two temples – members of different orders – used to meet halfway and bash each others with sticks and whatnot in order to put some sense in the other group. Guess times have changed
Funny you mention Songgwangsa just now, Robert, as I have dug out a coupla days ago the photos of my last trip there – with Oranckay and a non-blogger, as it happens. I’ll need a scanner to digitize and upload them. Would be nice to compare the evolution over a decade…
Actually, I agree that it’s redundant, but the Seoul City people (at least the ones I deal with) prefer the redundant usage. Since I use it at work, I use it here because I don’t want to exert the effort to keep the two systems separate in me noggin.
Enough of Jeolla-do! Visit Gyeongsang-do again some time! (Just kidding.)
As for me, I’ve never been south of the Geum River (well, except for the Geumgang rest stop on Route 1). You keep reminding me that the next time I’m in Korea, I need to check out the exotic delights of Honam.
Spent this morning at Seonam-sa Temple, where I had some business to conclude.
Let me guess. You had some dark shades on and a briefcase stuffed with $100 bills.
Last time I was at Songgwang-sa it was minus 7 Degrees C, covered in snow and I forgot my camera.
It was still nice.