Korean name of railway=station object in South Korea

• If you have no time, please read the last part of this post. I summarized what I wrote in here.

In South Korea, people spell name of railway station with a suffix ‘-역’, it means railway station. And also, commercial web maps, (e.g. Google, Naver, and Daum) that are being serviced in Korea use the word “-역(station)” to denote a railway station. However, Generally in OSM, name of railway=station object have not the suffix ‘station’ or similar words. And actually almost of station name in South Korea has no word ‘-역’ or ‘station’. Some Koreans wonder what is correct naming about railway station. Is better to put the suffix ‘-역’ in name of railway stations or not?

I investigated OSM wiki, and I found some examples which is in “Naming conventions” document. The example “Manchester City” and “New York City” is very similar to this subject. But, I can’t sure the suffix ‘-역(station)’ in popular usage of Korean. I needed to collect opinions what people’s think about this subject.

So I survey about this subject for OSM contributors who have been edited South Korea and talk-ko mailing list. Result of survey is here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16o5ub9mjA2henfT0obZJ4HWukPS78QEHAjzDHn4pjkQ/edit?usp=sharing) 70 of people response that It’s better to put ‘-역(station)’ in the Korean name of railway stations and 18 of people response that It’s better to NOT put ‘-역’ in the Korean name of railway station. There are many reasons about the responses. I summarized responses and you can see response list at that link.

I don’t insist that we should put the suffix ‘-역(station)’ to the Korean name of railway station. This survey is just for collecting what contributors think about this subject.

Most of people, who response that it’s better to put ‘-역’ in the Korean name of railway station, reply reasons that It’s distinguishing between duplicate names like name of place if there are no suffix ‘-역(station)’ and It’s familiar to put the suffix ‘-역(station)’ on the station name for Korean. I understand this reasons because many maps in South Korea shows station names with the suffix ‘-역(station)’ for almost 10 years or over. Only few people who interested in train or subway system recognize official name of station which is published by government and station marks. It’s the problem of difference in familiarity.

Some of people, who response that it’s better to NOT put ‘-역(station)’ in the Korean name of railway station, replies with “Ground Rule”. However it’s hard to adjust ground rule to this subject. Almost of normal railway station sign show station name with the suffix ‘-역’. Most of famous example is Seoul Station(서울역). However, Almost of subway station sign show station name WITHOUT the suffix ‘-역’. Type of station name sign is mixed.

Is station name should be official name? or Is station name can be famous usage in national conventions? Anyway It’s hard to find what is better and reason of that. What is correct naming of station? Please help.

• The 3 Sentence Summary

• Koreans are familiar to spell name of railway station with a “-역(station)” and station name with “-역” is convention of web maps in South Korea.

• Almost of station names in OSM has no word ‘station’ or similar words(except building names). And official Korean name of station has no “-역(station)”.

• I want to know what is correct naming of railway=station in OSM.

• I’m not good at English, maybe there are some wrong usage of English. Please understand. Thanks.

Interesting debate ! As a non korean speaker I can’t see whether that suffix should be added or not; but usually name is the name only (see wiki rules). It is already tagged “railway=station” or similar, so there’s no need to specify that it’s a station. Whathever appears on printed maps or other web-based maps does not matter when it comes to OSM; despite the name it’s a database before being a map. Mapnik or other rendererers could be programmed to add this suffix at the end of the name when rendering Korean names stations.

But if the suffix is used everywhere in Korean language and is shown on signs on the station itself, or if it seems really weird to refer to a station without this suffix, then it would make sense to include it in the name. I’d say consistency is the most important so if it’s added, it should be added to the entire country at once, quite a large edit ! In order to avoid (or limit) an edit war, the Korean community should agree on this within themselves I guess.

If you put major efforts in removing “-station” from names, but that 80% of the community think it should be added back, then eventually someone will do this change in reverse and your efforts will be gone. So it’s better to take a decision, apply it strictly (possibly including it in the wiki) and stick with it.

On Korean translate list is Railway Station translated as 철도역 … anyone can make an account there for translating

Actually, renderers can be programmed to add the suffix, but it needs to haaaard efforts. and There are a lot of renderers based on OSM editor. I think it’s not proper to modify renderder for the suffix.

Are there any examples of naming because of language convention? Most of people, who response that it’s better to put ‘-역’ in the Korean name of railway station, reply reasons that it’s familiar to put the suffix ‘-역(station)’ on the station name for Korean. If It’s OK to change name what people want although the name is unofficial, We can change the name with the suffix “역”.