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."
  

쉼표의 적절한 사용

By using commas properly, you can avoid making a run-on sentence (a sentence that has two or more complete sentences without appropriate conjunction or punctuation) and make your sentence a lot more clear.

1) name and title
When identifying something by name, after describing it more generally, use commas to separate out the name. Likewise, after stating someone's name, use commas to separate out their occupation.

• A government employee, Hong Gil-dong, said that....
• Professor Kim Chul-soo, the director of the Korean Center for Economic Development Research, said that...

But when you state a well-known person's official title that the person generally goes by, you don't need to separate out the title.

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that... (o)
• Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said that... (x)

2) Parenthetical element
Use a comma before and after a parenthetical element to avoid confusion. Parenthetical element, or added/inserted clause, is a part of a sentence that can be removed without affecting the meaning of the original sentence.

• The leak was caused when the Deepwater Horizon rig, which had been drilling the well for BP, exploded April 20 and sank (Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2010): The sentence still makes sense without the italicized part, so you need a comma before and after it.
• Operation Rajprasong, which started on 14 May, has claimed the lives of at least 36 demonstrators (Guardian, May 17, 2010): Same thing here. The sentence still makes sense without the italicized part.
  

3) which, that, and comma
One of the most common mistakes I have seen: which vs. that

"A that B"는 명사의 의미를 좀더 분명하게 "제한"해 주기 위한 것이며 (A > B),
"A, which B"는 명사에 대한 "추가적인" 설명을 위한 것으로 (A=B) which앞에 쉼표를 써주어야 합니다.

• Jennifer likes purses that are expensive: 모든 핸드백이 다 비싼 것은 아니며 제니퍼는 핸드백 중에서도 비싼 핸드백만을 좋아하므로 that. (purses > expensive purses)
  
• Jennifer likes designer purses, which are expensive: 모든 명품 핸드백은 비싸며, 제니퍼는 그러한 명품 핸드백을 좋아한다는 의미이므로 쉼표 + which (designer purses = expensive purses)
• Designer purses, which are expensive, are what Jennifer likes: 이렇게 쓰면 which are expensive가 2번에서 설명한 parenthetical element가 됩니다.

4) such as
You need a comma if what follows "such as" is an example of what precedes it.
You don't need a comma if what follows "such as" narrows down what precedes it.

• I like movie stars, such as Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise: Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are examples of movie stars. So you need a comma
• The house needs things such as furniture and bedding: Here, we don't know what category the "things" are. So "such as" narrows down what the "things" are, rather than giving examples of the "things."
  
• The house needs household goods, such as furniture and bedding: Now we know what category we are talking about (household goods), so you need a comma before "such as."

5) quotation and comma
Comma and period should come before the final quotation mark.

• “Starting today,” Justice Thomas wrote, “ours can count itself among the few in which judicial decree prevents voters from making that choice.”(New York Times, May 17, 2010)

6) series of items
When you list more than two items, use a comma to separate things. Make sure you use "and" only once before the last item. Some say that you don't need a comma before "and" but keep in mind that this is true only when your sentence is super clear. If there is any doubt that the last two items may be seen as one, use a comma.

• I like milk, egg, bread, and fruits for breakfast.
• I lost my key, got hit by a car, and broke up with my girlfriend. I hate my life.
  

placing words in quotation marks

An interesting thing that I have noticed among Korean students is that they are much more fond of so-called emoticons (ㅠㅠ, ^^, ^^; , etc). I think this somewhat spills over into their formal essay writing. A case in point is quotation marks (" ").

When students translate from Korean to English, they tend to put terminology (such as acronyms or other terms) in quotation marks. For example, when asked to translate GDP란 국내에서 한 해 동안 발생한 재화와 용역의 순가치를 의미한다, they tend to put the word GDP in quotation marks like the following;

• "GDP" is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year.

But unless the original Korean text puts GDP in quotation marks, students are NOT supposed to do so in their translation. This is because quotation marks have particular functions: citing, emphasis, and disagreement. Take a look at the following example.

• After the Second World War, the U.S. government sought to persuade women to leave their jobs in factories, thus making room in the labor force for returning veterans. State laws limiting the daily work hours of female workers for their well-being conveniently accomplished this. Employers had only to declare that overtime hours were a necessary condition of employment. This way, women could be legally fired or refused jobs, all in the name of "protecting" their health.

In this prompt, "protecting" in quotations marks could suggest that

1) it is the exact quotation of the original text of the state laws in question (citing); or
2) the laws were genuinely protective of female workers (emphasis); or
3) the state laws were actually detrimental to female workers, despite the ostensibly protective intent behind them (disagreement)

But within the context of the paragraph, the author placed "protecting" in quotation marks most likely because he doubts that the laws in question actually protected women.

In short, when you "translate" between Korean and English, do not put words in quotation marks unless the original text does so.