You will see 부산 written as both Busan and Pusan. 김포 appears as Gimpo and Kimpo. The surname 이 shows up as Lee, Yi, Rhee, and occasionally I.
None of these are mistakes. They come from different systems, applied at different times, and Korea did not clean up the old ones when it adopted a new one.
The two systems you will actually meet
Revised Romanization has been the official South Korean standard since 2000. It is what road signs, government documents, and most modern materials use. Busan, Gimpo, Jeju, Incheon.
McCune-Reischauer was standard from 1939 and is still used in academic writing, in older books, and in North Korea. Pusan, Kimp'o, Cheju, Inch'ŏn.
The practical difference shows up in a few consistent places.
| Korean | Revised | McCune-Reischauer |
|---|---|---|
| ㅂ | b | p |
| ㄱ | g | k |
| ㄷ | d | t |
| ㅈ | j | ch |
| ㅓ | eo | ŏ |
| ㅡ | eu | ŭ |
McCune-Reischauer uses breve marks (ŏ, ŭ) and apostrophes to mark aspiration. Those marks get dropped constantly in casual use, which is how 청주 and 정주 can both end up as "Chongju."
Revised Romanization avoided diacritics entirely, which is why it uses two-letter combinations like eo and eu instead.
Personal names follow no rule at all
The official system does not apply to names, and Koreans romanize their own however they like. 박 becomes Park, Bak, or Pak. 최 becomes Choi, Choe, or Chwe. 정 becomes Jung, Jeong, Chung, or Jong.
Park and Choi are the most common by far, and both are further from the Korean sound than the official versions would be — 박 has no r in it at all. They stuck because they were established long before 2000 and nobody wanted to change their passport.
So if you are trying to work out how a name is pronounced from its spelling, do not. Ask, or find it in Hangul.
Why romanization is a bad long-term crutch
Both systems lose information that matters.
Tense consonants disappear. Revised Romanization writes 사다 as sada and 싸다 as ssada, which suggests a longer s rather than the tightened, sharper sound it actually is.
Sound changes are inconsistently shown. 한국말 is pronounced han-gung-mal, and Revised Romanization does reflect some of these changes in place names — hence Silla for 신라 rather than Sinla. But learning materials often romanize letter by letter instead, which teaches you a pronunciation no Korean uses.
Vowel distinctions blur. eo and o look related on the page. ㅓ and ㅗ are not related sounds, and confusing them changes words.
The deeper problem is that romanization gives your brain an English-shaped version of the word to store. Every time you read annyeonghaseyo, you are reinforcing an English reading, not a Korean one.
When it is still useful
Romanization is fine for three things.
- Searching for something before you can read Hangul
- Place names and addresses when travelling
- A one-time pronunciation hint the first time you meet a word
It stops being useful the moment you can read Hangul, which is a matter of days rather than months.
The honest recommendation
Learn Hangul first, before building any vocabulary. It takes an afternoon, and everything you learn afterwards gets stored in the right form.
Learners who postpone it often spend months building a romanized vocabulary and then have to relearn every word when they finally switch. That is a much bigger cost than the afternoon.
The K-PATTO pre-course goes through the whole alphabet with audio on every letter, so you hear the sound rather than reading someone's approximation of it. Free at K-PATTO.