Lonelyplanet book issues

I picked up the Lonelyplanet book of Korea when I first arrived to the country. I had to go to one of the largest bookstores in Korea to find it because the English versions can't really be found in regular bookstores.

It was pretty expensive to buy in this country, somewhere around $30. It's on Amazon.com for $17, but oh well. There's not much I can do about that. It would have probably been the same price in Thailand and tougher to find.

These Lonelyplanet books of each country have really been helpful for me in finding things to do and where to stay and where to go next. In NZ and Thailand I used it quite a bit but in Australia my schedule was already so packed from advice I received from other travelers that I didn't really need it.

It's been interesting reading the book since I already know quite a bit about Korean culture and geography. There are many things that I nod with because they're right, but then there's a few things where I'm a bit surprised at the things that are written because it doesn't seem completely right. I'm also learning new things as well, such as some detailed history of Korea. You don't really learn this stuff in the American education system.

I remember "World History" class in 10th grade. It could easily be renamed "European History with some iron age and before added in".

One of the most frustrating things about Korean culture is the way they convert the Korean pronounciations to English characters. Coming from someone who speaks both languages fairly well, I find lots of places where consonants are incorrect, such as the sounds of "K" and "G" and some places where english letters have been left off and make things very confusing to read.

In front of the Gyeounju National Museum today I saw 2 signs for the museum. One spelled Gyeoungju with the letter G, the other one started with the letter K. That's just one example of the terrible inconsistency. I don't know exactly how that all started, but I think it comes from the fact that someone who doesn't know English very well translated these names phonetically to English and messed up in the process.

I think it's a bit embarassing to make mistakes that could have been prevented if anyone asked anyone who knows some English how to write things out phonetically. Also, it makes it tough for people like me to read names of places on my map because I can't make out exactly what the Korean spelling is by just looking at the English counterpart. I prefer to use an English map wherever possible but if there's no Korean name next to the English, I end up learning a different word than what should be noted.

There's a simple phrases section in the back of the book. I've considered scanning over that carefully and writing a note to the author to fix a couple of the problems that I see. This is something that I'll have to consider when I'm back home.