Since we did not get to cover Korea in our seminar, I thought I'd share some knowledge I have of Korea and it's culture and history. When I lived in South Korea for 3 months, I was told the history of Korea and the true name was "Goryeo", which means the land of morning calm. It's also been spelled "Koryo" in Romanization. I was told a story of how the country was given the name "Korea", although it would have been more fitting to be spelled "Corea" with a soft sounding "C". However, it was rumored that with the Japanese occupation of Korea, the leaders of Japan thought it better to replace the "C" it with a "K" because they did not want their name to start with a letter that came before Japan's "J", in the English alphabet.
Please let me know if there is anything you can add to this post, if you have any knowledge of how this came about. Thanks!
edited by Sophia on 1/20/2012
edited by Sophia on 1/20/2012
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