By Kim Ji-myung

I am writing this article in the hope that somebody will help me get in contact with the author of "The Korean Mind." Subtitled "Understanding Contemporary Korean Culture" and published by Tuttle Publishing Company, the book is on sale at a major downtown bookstore in Seoul and on the Amazon website.

I know the author is Mr. Boye Lafayette de Mente, who is "an acknowledged authority on Asia" and an author of more than 30 books, such as "Korean Business Etiquette," "Survival Korean," "Etiquette Guide to China," and "Instant Chinese."

You are probably wondering why I wish to contact him. There are two reasons. Firstly, I would like to compliment him for the time and energy he devoted to writing this 466-page book, as I find it extremely interesting in many aspects. He must have spent hours discussing issues with his Korean friends who, according to his acknowledgments, are experts and professionals in academia and the business community.

As advertised on the back cover of the book, the author explores the meanings and cultural context of the most important "code words" in the Korean language, terms whose significance goes well beyond their literal definitions. Many explanations of words make me wonder "really? Do we think like that?"

Unlike historians, he is confident and straightforward when he narrates Korean history and the country's relationship with neighboring countries. He does not provide any evidence or sources of his claims, even for very controversial issues. However, he does sound like a friend to Korea, although some statements seem to be based on the claims of other countries.

The second reason I want to speak with him is more serious. The book has some 230 entries under 11 themes. They are: business morality and practices; communication and consensus-building; culture and customs; education, ethics and morality; etiquette and role-playing; family, society, men and women; foreign elements; history, myths, militarism, etc. To list all of them for your reference, I should add hospitality, eating, and drinking; philosophical beliefs and practices; and politics, power, law, and nationalism.

Each entry has three parts: the Romanized Korean word, Hangeul with its pronunciation, which is then followed by an English translation below. For example, the first entry is "Aboji" (Romanized), "아보지 ah-boh-jee" (Hangeul with pronunciation) then the English translation given one line below, "The ‘Father' Culture".

The second entry is "Achom, 앛옴 ah-choam" with English translation "Massaging Male Egos." The translated English words seem to hit the core of the culturally loaded meaning.

However, what happened to the Hangeul part? Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of Korean script will know something is gravely wrong here. I checked all the entries and found only half had the correct Korean words. For example, there is "Chalmulsong 찰물송". According to the book it means "You've got to have patience". Now I know it should be "참을성".

These are quite obvious and unforgivable errors. So I really wish to get in contact with Mr Boye Lafayette de Mente to correct this. As we still need many more books in English on Korea, the book is too valuable to be buried underground because of this. When I first found the mistakes at the bookstore, I could not believe my eyes. How could this happen? I could have simply ignored the book and moved on.

But on my second thoughts, I could not help but wonder. If they put "항욱욕사" instead of "한국역사" for "Hanguk Yoksa," I guess someone must have used a machine translator. International marriage, "kukche kyolhon," is written "국체굟온" in Hangeul. Only a machine can be as creative as this.

My conclusion is, for whatever the reason, the author, and the editor of Tuttle failed to have the Korean entries written or at least checked by someone who speaks Korean. I bought the book in hope of helping to make a new corrected version to replace this current one.

"Korea: A Historical Saga" is a 10-page abridged history of Korea. It begins with "The first historical mention of Koreans occurs in Chinese records written in 1122 B.C., apparently as the result of an expedition of some sort to the Korean peninsula."

In the footnote on the same page, he says "… Another facet of Korea's early influence on Japan, which most present-day Japanese are not aware of, is that the official name of Japan ― Nippon (neep-pone) ― originated in Korea and not Japan."

He continues to give detailed information on Korea's influence on Japan.

Many fallacies are also visible. Under "Chingu," or Cultivating Friends, he is talking about what must be the alumni or alumnae network. The word should be "Dongchang" or "Dongmun".

"For centuries all Koreans, especially women, were conditioned to suppress their kamdong (kahm-dohng), or "emotions," and avoid displaying their feelings openly," is the explanation about kamgdong. But the definition perfectly suits the word kamjeong (Kahm-jhung) and not kamdong

In fact, I sent emails to both the publishing company and the author. Of the many Tuttle offices, I sent my email to the one covering the Asia-Pacific. But I received no reply. What would happen if the author and the publishing company did not care and just gave up on the book? I feel it would be a real shame because "The Korean Mind" would continue to be sold all over the world with so many mistakes.