Years ago, my friend Alex remarked with laughter that the South Korean soccer fans' favored chant translates literally as "Republic of South Korea!" This is true: they often chant "Daehanminguk!" which I believe translates as something like "Great Nation of the Han People." The title of this blog is "Daehanminguk" in Hangul.
It's a bit funny, because you can't really imagine the American fans chanting "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!" Similarly, I doubt we'll be hearing "UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND!" at London 2012. Still, this nomenclature seems to have been passed on to the commentator I am watching right now. He keeps referring to the team as "Korean Republic."
"That was a real chance for Korean Republic!"
"Greece have never beaten Korean Republic."
Dude, just say "South Korea!"
EDIT: he just said "Korean Republic, sometimes known as 'South Korea' . . ."
Uh, by "sometimes," you mean "almost always?"
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How did North and South Korea both manage to qualify for the World Cup? I thought it was a regional qualification, and would expect they are in the same region.
ReplyDeleteAnd this: "North Koreans will not be able to watch their national team play in the World Cup, as South Korea have pulled the plug on their TV World Cup coverage.
"The impoverished communist state which last qualified for the tournament in 1966 had hoped that South Korea would provide free footage as it did for the 2006 event in Germany."
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/64369,sport,football,world-cup-fever-south-korea-pulls-the-plug-on-the-norths-tv-coverage
(Not surprising given the North's recent sinking of the South Korean warship).
Yes, they are both from the Asian confederation, but there were 4 teams that qualified: N/S Korea, Australia, and Japan.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they even considered showing this in North Korea. They are likely to get walloped and I doubt the Dear Leader wants his people to see that.