The Golden Age of Goryeo

Season 6, Episode 12: The Golden Age of Goryeo
The Royal flag of Goryeo, featuring a phoenix. Public Domain
A painting which features depictions of Goryeo nobility. Public Domain
A celedon bowl found in a tomb dating to 1159. Source: National Museum of Korea, KOGL Type 1 http://www.kogl.or.kr/open/info/license_info/by.do, via Wikimedia Commons
A celedon teapot from the Goryeo Dynasty (early 1100s) with exquisite inlaid designs and beautifully crafted textures. Public Domain
A celedon incense burner from the 1100s with cute rabbits for feet. Source: Steve46814, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2 comments on “The Golden Age of Goryeo

  1. Justin says:

    Hey yo man, I love your podcast. I just wanted to let you know about one little big problem that will help when you pronounce Korean words. Here it is. When Korean is Romanized, the letters “eo” sounds is “aw” and not “ee-yo” or “eh-yo.” It is, in fact, just the vowel sound “aw.” So, Goryeo (고려) sounds like “Gor-yaw” and not “Koree-yay-yo.” I understand that one can get bogged down in pronouncing foreign words and it can get a bit ridiculous. Whoever decided the decided Korean Romanization did a pretty good job, but legitimately screwed up with the 어/여 vowel Romanized as aw/yaw or au/yau than the “eo” thing which every native English speaker I’ve ever heard just say “ee-yo” or “ee-oh” because, I get it. I’m a native English speaker.

    1. justin.david.hebert says:

      Thank you for the tip – I really appreciate it! I will work harder to correct my Korean pronunciation as much as possible, it’s so hard to keep up with the various romanization systems which seem to have been randomly assigned throughout East Asia.

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