Guide to Korean Names

This is a quick guide to getting Korean names right.

Do you ever read Korean comics or the credits of Korean films and wonder, "Why do so many parents name their kids 'Kim' in Korea?" Actually, Kim is just a very common last name. After reading this quick guide you can write your favorite Korean artists fan letters and know that you addressed them correctly.Name Order:
In Korea, family names are placed before given names. So Park Min Sun was born into a family of Parks. And the name his parents gave him is Min Sun. You could call him Mr. Park if you want to be professional. Or you could call him Min Sun if you are his friend. Park is a very common family name, along with Kim and Lee.

Name Length:
Nearly all Korean names consist of a one syllable family name followed by a two syllable given name. Examples: Park Min Sun, Hwang Young Sang, Kim Jeong Eun, Wea Hyung Soo.

Very rarely will somebody have less syllables in their given name, such as Park Min (not to be confused with Park Min Sun).

Just as rare is having more syllables, such as Hong Jemina.

Name Formats:
Sometimes names are written without a space: Park MinSun

Sometimes names are written with a hyphen in the first name: Park Min-Sun

Sometimes people just use their initials to be cool: PMS or MSP

This blog uses this format: Park Min Sun

Names Abroad:
Sometimes overseas, names are presented in reverse order. For example, Park Min Sun may be noted as Min Sun Park in another country. However, this isn't always the case. Yes, this can be confusing!

English Names:
A common practice is to choose a nonKorean name for using when interacting with English speakers. Example: Christine Yu.

Artist Names:
Of course, there are people who create an artist name for themselves. Example: Skitsch.

Red Names:

Lastly, never write names in red. It is considered bad luck.

You may already know this, but I thought those who didn't might find it useful. Please let me know if you have any questions.

What's On Your Desk? Wea Hyung Soo

Prepare yourself for another What's On Your Desk?. This week we feature Wea Hyung Soo.Hyung Soo is a prop designer. He's also a toy hobbyist. There are tons of toys all over his desk. He's also got tons of magazines about toys. There are so many that the following is just part of his collection. #1: Gundam Collection - MS-05B Zaku I
#2: Gundam Collection - MSN-02 Perfect Zeong
#3: Gundam Collection - FA-78-1 Gundam Full Armor Type
#4: Gundam Collection - G-Fighter
#5: Gundam Collection - MS-06J Zaku II #6: Evangelion
#7: Gundam - Dom
#8: Gigantor villain (?)
#9: a Gundam (?)#10: Dunbine
#11: Combattler V
#12: Gundam Collection - Zaku II (in color)
#13: Dragon Chronicle series dragon
#14: Dragon Chronicle series dragon
#15: Dragon Chronicle series dragon
#16: Trolley Car from a chocolate egg #17: Oh My Goddess!
#18: Urusei Yatsura character (?)
#19: a cat
#20: Pinky Street series
Phew! That's a lot of toys for one desk! Hyung Soo wasn't certain of all their names, so fill us in if you can. Check out this funny prop that Hyung Soo created and let me share with you:

The Cat Sword!

Hyung Soo can also design characters very well. Especially the ones that integrate weaponry and armor.

Hyung Soo is great at his craft and always has the best animation playing on his computer. Drop him a note in the comments section.

Foreign Voices

Korea is well known for being a country where animation is outsourced from overseas. Did you know that Korea creates a lot of its own content which also relies on the work of foreigners?Meet Mina and Valerie. Mina (on the left) is from the United States. Valerie (on the right) hails from Canada. Both young women are English teachers in Korea, a common job for foreigners here. They are performers at heart and have found a way to put their skills to work.They are coached by their agent (on the left) who recruited them. The recording is directed by former teen pop singer TJ (in the middle) and assisted by MJ (way in the back).
Their job is no easy task. These young woman have to sing songs originally written in Korean that were translated into English. Reworking these Korean songs into natural sounding English versions required lots of tweaking. For instance, the songs made use of onomatopoeia devices found in the Korean language that simply do not exist in English. Gegul is the sound of rolling in Korean, but in English that sound doesn't exist. So they have to just sing rolling, rolling, rolling instead. They had to repeat songs over and over until they got it just right.Besides singing their hearts out, they also get to lend their voices to a cute baby boy (Mina) and a young sweet girl (Valerie).


Boom Chiki Boom! is the preschool program they work on. It's a program full of dancing and exercize. A unique feature of the show is that there is both a live-action puppet version and a 3D computer generated version. If you look closely on the monitor, you can see my favorite character from the puppet version.
Here's a blurry close up of that mischievous green thing. Through voice acting, Mina and Valerie are allowing Boom Chiki Boom! to possibly gain a wider audience than it would in Korean alone. And there are more such foreign voice actors as well. The world of animation and entertainment is full of work between people of many different nationalities. This day in the recording studio is just a very small slice of that.

An Interview with Park Min

Do you like Batman? Batman was Park Min's favorite production to work on. Having over 18 years in the animation industry, Park Min has helped bring Batman and many other characters to life for audiences around the world.

In his earliest days, he worked as a final checking assistant. Since this start, he's moved through almost all the jobs within an animation studio. Working hard as an inbetweener so he could work even harder as an inbetweening director. Doing key animation and then moving up to key animation direction. At some point, he was a layout artist as well multiple other positions. He has just recently began work as a storyboard artist.

Park Min is an experienced animator who was willing to offer us some insights into life in the Korean animation industry.Midodok: What do you think about your life in the animation industry?
.
Park Min: I think that the Korean animation industry and the animation industry in other countries, like Japan and America, are really different. These days, the animator's situation is getting worse and also disappearing. Yes, it's a really bad situation.
.
Midodok: How so?
.
Park Min: Many animators quit their animation work because they can't make a lot of money and we are all not paid regularly, right? We are not on a regular payment and we have to work long hours to keep the schedule. The schedule is really tight. Many animators have to spend a hard time. You know, my career is 18 years long, but these days, most directors are from my same generation so we are the last remaining animators and there is not many newcomers.
.
Park Min: The Korean animation industry is really hard and if they choose to work for the Korean animation industry they have to work hard and study animation. I think many beginners don't want to become an inbetweener and key animator, they always want to become directors without doing all the stuff in between (inbetweening, key animating, final checking, etc.). But they don't like that cost, right?
.
Midodok: So how have you lasted in the animation industry if it's so difficult?
.
Park Min: If somebody wants to become something, they have to have patience and keep trying until they become something, right? But, the situation these days is really hard. It will take a long time to become a director. I think it is not important to become a director, but to improve themselves and their drawings and their ideas.
.
Midodok: What do you think about the Korean animation industry?
.
Park Min: We need more creative people in stories and ideas, but up until now, Korean animators have only concentrated on a small part--drawing or making films. But, first of all, we need to improve ourselves as a Korean animation industry, and then have a more adventurous mind. Money is always an issue too, right? And I hope more people get interested in Korean animation, too. But if we make a good animation then we won't have to worry about that.
.
Park Min: I think that we need a shock. A shock that looks like a Sputnik from the Korean animation industry. I know these days it is a hard time, but we should force ourselves through it. We can do it!
.
Midodok: How can somebody prepare for a career in animation?
.
Park Min: I think all kinds of animation are the same even if they have unique styles (Korean, Japanese, American). I think if you wanna become an animator, you should prepare by improving you drawing skills and your understanding of story, right? And you should know about high technology like computer editing and graphics tools. And one more: language. Chinese, English, Korean, Japanese, whatever.
.
Midodok: Why should they learn another language?
.
Park Min: Up until now, we made animation for a few people. For only that country. But these days, we can show our animation to the whole world. So someday, we can work together to make a good animation. Nationality doesn't matter, but communication is a really important thing. If we work together with foreigners, we should find a solution through conversation if we have a problem. It's very important.
.
Park Min: Everybody has the same feelings: happiness, sadness, loneliness. Emotion is the same, even if we have different color skin, language, culture and place. It doesn't matter to making good animation. That's all.
.
Midodok: Thank you very much for the interview and your time.Park Min let me look through his current sketchbook and take a couple pictures.His sketchbook had lots of good stuff in it, but I thought you might like these two best. He's got lots more cool stuff posted over at his cool blog.

Park Min likes meeting new people. Feel free to email him or leave questions and comments here.

I especially like Park Min's analogy of Sputnik, and how a lot of hard work can really leave the world in awe of Korean animation. What do you think?

What's On Your Desk? Hwang Young Sang

It's time for another 'What's On Your Desk?'. This week we feature Hwang Young Sang.
Young Sang is a character designer. He keeps busy churning out all sorts of different characters. Pirates, monsters, townspeople, heroes, villains, goats; he does it all. On his desk he's got a few figures to help him along.#1: The Front of Armament figure
#2: an anatomical view of a hand
#3: Hurricane Joe
#4: Chibi Gallery husky
#5: Chibi Gallery molesYoung Sang drives an autobike and is even cooler than his toys. He spent a year in Shanghai working in animation. You can ask him questions and say 'hi' here or on his personal blog.

Her Name is Skitsch

An interesting interview below! Keep reading. . .
Skitsch is her name. During the day she works as a professional inbetweener for Imagin, a Japanese animation studio in Korea. But outside of work she is an artist on the loose who is busy creating her own stuff. Here are some characters she's designed and put on some stickers. Along with many other young artists, she puts stuff like this on T-shirts and other goods that she sells at the Hongdae artist's market during warm seasons. She also has a blog/shop, D-Gecko, where you can see more of her stuff. And now, for the interview:

Midodok: So, what do you feel about your job and animation in Korea?

.

Skitsch: I might disappoint you. I don't like my job. Sometimes I even feel shame. Yes, we draw, but we don't draw for our story and people here. Especially those who have worked as an animator for a long time, they think they've done something great, but most of them just have SKILLS. Not a story, not a style, nothing. They're just workers.

.

One of my old co-worker was suffering. He was a talented storyteller and he had skills but he couldn't do what he really wanted because nobody was interested (I mean nobody invested). Animation in Korea? I don't know, right now, I can't see any future.

.

Midodok: Why do you think Korean animation has little hope?

.

Skitsch: We became a hand, not a head. Look at me, I've been working as an animator for 7 years but I just know a small part of animation. We're doing this to make money, we're following rules they (in my case, Japanese) made, not ours...

.

Skitsch: I have a dream with my drawing, but I don't have a dream as an animator.

.

Midodok: How so?

.

Skitsch: Hmm. . . Someday, I wanna have my own street brand.

.

Midodok: I see! Cool! Why a street brand and not animation?

.

Skitsch: I don't know. . . Maybe I realized I can't make an animation all by myself.

.

Midodok: Anything else you'd like to add?

.

Skitsch: Nah.

.

Midodok: Thank you for taking the time for this interview!

.

Skitsch: Okay, no, you're welcome.

I hope that creativity and uniqueness like Skitsch's can be encouraged and she can find a place to use it. It would be a shame if artists like Skitsch do indeed just "become a hand" and can't put their talent to use. By the way, I thought I'd share her unique wrist piercing. If you look closely, you can sort of see it. As always, you can leave comments for Skitsch and I'll make sure she sees them.

What's on your desk? Kim Jeong Eun

It's another Monday and time for another, "What's on your desk?". This week we feature Kim Jeong Eun.
Jeong Eun is a key animator. Therefore, she needs lots of space to put her work and reference materials. And, of course, she needs room for her toy companions as well. She has so much stuff at her desk that we'll just focus on the toys on that top shelf.

#1: Cinamoroll plushie and toothbrush cover

#2: Stitch in white and blue

#3: Chibi Gallery cat figures

#4: Chibi Gallery bear figures

#5: Ghost in the Shell robot

#6: The Nightmare Before Christmas

#7: The Joker

#8: A rabbit girl figure

#9: Keroro in tiny and clear form
#10: Finger skateboard
Jeong Eun is kind of shy and likes cute things a lot. Tell her 'hi' in the comments section and I'll make sure she sees it.

Hooray for Inbetweeners!

An important group of people to any animated production are the inbetweeners.They work VERY hard drawing everything inbetween keyframes. There is no room for mistakes! They must draw as closely as possible to perfect. And they must do it all according to strict schedules and deadlines.If not done perfectly, their friendly boss will make them redo it. If they don't, they'll get it back as a retake and have to do it again anyways. (She really is friendly!)
Inbetweening is usually the starting point in an animation career. It can be a thankless, busy, and long hours kind of job.But that doesn't mean there isn't some time for fun. Inbetweeners become good friends and have a great sense of community.
Hooray for inbetweeners! Various people are part of the animation process, but inbetweeners are indispensible. Thanks to them, people around the world, be it Japan, Canada, Korea, the United States or beyond, get to enjoy their favorite stories.

Send them your gratitude in the comments! I'll make sure to pass it along!

What's on your desk? Park Min Sun

A stereotype of animation people is that they have toys all over their workspace. And it's true! This is the first, "What's on your desk?" post. Today we feature Park Min Sun.

Min Sun works as a technical director, so he has two big screen computer monitors which have a few toys on them.#1: Mickey Mouse bobblehead

#2: Eeyore bobblehead

#3: Goofy bobblehead

#4: Kiroro and mobile suit

#5: Keroro and mobile suit

#6: Model robot from Japan

#7: Stitch in capsule X 2
This Eeyore deserves a close up.
Min Sun is a hard working and friendly guy. He used to have three Stitches but he gave one away. Tell him 'hi' by leaving comments!