Part II in our never-ending battle with "the": proper nouns and articles

1) proper noun
Proper nouns (고유명사) are nouns that represent unique entities, such as names, places, and things. Generally, you need to capitalize the first letters, and should not put "the" before them.

• Seoul, Tokyo, Samsung, Hong Gil-dong .... (o)
• seoul, tokyo, the Samsung, hong gil-dong .... (x)

But common nouns (일반명사) also serve as proper nouns when paired with other words to create a name for an entity. For example, words like ministry, trade, and foreign affairs are all common nouns, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a proper noun. This kind of proper nouns are generally preceded by the.

• the Department of State, the Harvard School of Government, the White House ... (o)
  
• Department of State, Harvard school of government, the white house ... (x)
  

2) proper noun + description
You need to determine which article to use depending on whether the proper noun is preceded or followed by the description thereof. Take a look at the following examples:

• The American tire maker Goodyear did...
• Goodyear, an American tire maker, did...
• American tire maker Goodyear's action is.... (You are pairing "American tire maker" and "Goodyear" into one proper noun. So no "the". It is like you never say "the Tom's book." You should always say "Tom's book")

• The Korean car company KIA said...
• KIA, a Korean car company, said...
• Korean car company KIA's sales increased...
  

3) Acronyms
I have already tried to explain this in another post (April 3, 2010 "Frustrated with a/an/the? You are not alone!"), but a lot of people still seem to be very confused. Let me give it another try!

When common nouns are paired to form a proper noun, the end result is generally a very long proper noun. So people usually use acronyms. For example, instead of saying "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade," people say MOFAT. A lot of Korean students are not sure about which article (a,an, the) to put before acronyms.

• The FBI, the CIA, the UN ... : For acronyms of organization names that you pronounce each letter separately, use "the."
• WIPO, UNICEF, UNESCO, NATO ... : For acronyms of organization names that are pronounced as one word, do not put "the" before them.
• BP, LG, KFC, AT&T ... : Even if you pronounce each letter in these acronyms, they are so commonly used that they became non-acronymous proper nouns. That is, no one really cares what each letters stand for any more. In this case, do not use "the."
  

issue of direct translation III

When writing an essay in a foreign language, people tend to come up with ideas in their native language first and then translate it to the foreign language. Although this is natural and understandable, often times the end result is awkward expressions due to word-by-word direct translation. The following two examples are the most common cases of such that I have seen.

1) 정부는 ~에 더 관심을 기울여야 한다.
When asked to write a policy recommendation paper (정부 정책 제언), the most popular expression among Korean students seem to be either "the government should take/have more interest in something" or "the government should pay more/closer attention to something."

Although these are perfectly fine expressions, make sure you provide (either in the same sentence or in the following sentences) further explanations as to how/why the government can/should do so.

한국말로는 현안 A에 관하여 "정부가 관심을 가져야 한다"라고만 하면 충분히 제언이 되는 것 같지만, 영어로 그대로 번역해 놓으면 정부가 실제로 어떤 조처를 취하건 말건 간에 A에 대해 관심만 더 가지면 된다는 의미로 드릴 수 있습니다.

Take a look at the following example:

• The government should take more interest in the local context. (very vague)
• For more effective development assistance, the government should learn about the local context through research and community meetings (much more specific with "how" and "why")
  

2) Recently, ....
Interestingly, about 80% of the essays I have reviewed start with the word "recently." This is because expressions like "최근 우리 나라에서는.." "최근 한국 정부는..." are good and common ways of starting an essay in Korean.

However, as I explained in a previous post ("Unnecessary Words-Issue of Direct Translation I" April 20, 2010) with the case of "nowadays," the word "recently" implies that something is current and fresh, as opposed to being old or continuous. For example;

• Recently, the Illinois General Assembly Scholarship Program has fallen under intense scrutiny by the media and good government groups as a way for politicians to reward friends and donors by giving away full scholarships to a state college or university (Chicago Tribune, "Stop the Political Perks" June 10, 2010): Here, the author used "recently" to emphasize the fact that public attention to the scholarship program began only in the recent past.
  

Thus, for the sake of originality, try to start your essay with something other than "recently," unless you really want to point out that something happened in recent times.