Working Standards for Heritage Texts
The standards I follow when translating and reviewing English texts on Korean cultural heritage
Over the past ten years, I have translated and reviewed more than 6,000 heritage sign texts, along with museum exhibition text, educational materials, and academic abstracts. The same problems came up again and again, and each time I added to my answer to one question: What makes a good English text? This page is a summary of that answer.
Some of these standards are firm. English punctuation and formatting, official names, the difference between lunar and solar dates, and the Romanization of Chinese and Japanese names are matters of right and wrong. Others are recommendations based on experience, such as what to include or leave out for a given reader, and these can be adjusted to suit the institution or the author.
The full standards, with detailed rules, examples, and a review checklist, are available in Korean. The thinking behind them is in my essay, “Text Is Data.”
1. Format Comes First
Punctuation, capitalization, italics, and typesetting follow English conventions, not Korean ones. I follow the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and use American English. Format is the easiest thing to fix, and it shapes the reader’s impression more than anything else. A text can be accurate in every detail and still look careless if Korean formatting habits are carried over.
✕ Sin Suk-ju(1417~1475)·Kim Jong-seo; 1.2km; means “Hall of Keeping to Simplicity”.
○ Sin Suk-ju (1417–1475) and Kim Jong-seo; 1.2 km; means “Hall of Keeping to Simplicity.”
2. Text Is Data
The same heritage site, the same person, and the same term should be written the same way everywhere. I follow the government’s standards first, namely the Romanization of Korean, the guidelines for translating public terms, and the Korea Heritage Service’s rules for heritage names. I also look to existing glossaries before creating a new translation. Visitors search the names they see, and AI learns from published text. As long as a term is not wrong, one consistent term is worth more than several competing ones, however well argued each may be.
3. The Reader Decides the Text
Scholars, general visitors, and children know different things. A scholar needs to identify exactly which person, text, or concept is meant, so Romanization and Sinitic characters are useful. A general visitor needs more background and less detail. A child needs the same content said in words a child knows. Before translating, I ask who will read the text, where, and what they want to find out.
4. If It Can Be Said in English, Say It in English
Romanized Korean is hard to read, even for people who know some Korean. Nearly every term can be expressed in English, and outside of proper nouns, there is rarely a reason to Romanize. When a Romanized term is truly needed, it follows the English in parentheses, once.
✕ The seodang was where village children learned hanja from a hunjang.
○ The village school was where children learned Chinese characters from a local teacher.
✕ A jeongnyeo, a commemorative gate, was erected to honor filial sons.
○ A commemorative gate (jeongnyeo) was erected to honor filial sons.
English should not mislead, either. Replacing a Korean concept with a familiar Western one gives the reader false information.
✕ The house has a bedroom, a living room, and a guest room.
○ The house consists of a main underfloor-heated room, a wooden-floored hall, and a secondary underfloor-heated room.
5. Consider the Reader
A text can be accurate, consistent, and written in plain English and still not reach its reader. This happens when it assumes knowledge the reader does not have, spends its space on details the reader does not need, or saves the main point for the end. I define what is unfamiliar, introduce people by what they did, put the most important facts first, and include only as much as the reader can use.
A person should have one name throughout a text. To a reader who does not know that Toegye is the pen name of Yi Hwang, these are two different people.
✕ This academy honors Toegye. Yi Hwang founded it in 1561.
○ This academy honors Yi Hwang, who founded it in 1561.
Dates and events should tell the reader when something happened and who was involved. Reign years and the traditional names of events do neither.
✕ built in the 21st year of King Jeongjo (1797) / during the Imjin War
○ built in 1797 / during the Japanese invasions of 1592–1598
For translation or review inquiries, please reach out through my contact page.
Last updated: September 2026