~이 최저/최고를 기록하다

When you want to say A가 최저/최고를 기록하다 (A being a statistical index like unemployment rates), you could say "A hits its lowest/highest level" or "A is at its lowest/highest level."

A lot of people say "A records its lowest" but this is not correct. You could say "area/person/thing records its lowest/highest rate" instead.

Take a look at the following examples.

• The divorce rate among young adults has been falling continuously over the past 10 years, and is now at its lowest level since 1990
  
• The average interest on a 20-year, fixed-rate mortgage hits its lowest level in 5 years
• State revenues usually decrease when unemployment hits its highest rate
• Seoul records the highest number of car thefts in Korea, and, understandably, it has the highest auto-insurance rates
• Our evening news recorded the lowest viewership in 4 years. We need to do something about it or my boss will kill me!
  

prevalent vs. prevailing

When translating ~한 여론이 우세하다/지배적이다, a lot of my students say "the prevalent opinion is that..."

However, prevalent means widespread/in general use/commonly accepted, 일반적인/널리 퍼진 in Korean. Depending on the context, it could mean having the superiority or ascendancy, but not always. Take a look at the following example:

• The company sponsoring the dot-xxx domain, the ICM Registry, said it had a vision of a red-light district in cyberspace that was a clean, well-lighted place, free of spam, viruses and credit card thieves. Content would be clearly labeled as adult and the whole neighborhood would be easy to block. Anyone offended by pornography could simply stay out...That did not satisfy religious groups that opposed the dot-xxx domains, fearing they would make pornography even more prevalent online (New York Times, June 25, 2010): Here, prevalent simply means commonplace. That is, it is not hard to find pornography online.
  

Prevailing means predominant or having superior influence, 우세한/지배적인 in Korean. When you are talking about an idea/sentiment/opinion that predominates a society, it is better to say prevailing than prevalent.

• Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's most recent gaffe...has effectively eliminated any chance he might have had to return to his post after the 2010 election, according to a number of individuals close to the committee. However, those same sources insisted that Steele is likely to survive until the election...the source said, "the prevailing sentiment is that it's not worth the commotion with four months to the midterm [elections] and six months until a new chairman." (Chris Cillizza on Washingtonpost.com, July 6, 2010)

Acronym rules

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, one of the most widely used writing and citation style guides in America, there are some basic rules about acronyms.

1) Spell it out on first use!
Unless an acronym is so well-known that spelling it out is silly and almost insulting (e.g. CD-ROM), you should spell it out upon first reference. Put the acronym in parentheses on first use, and starting the second reference on, just use the acronym. Take a look at the following example:

• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an organization of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia. ASEAN was created in 1967 and aims at promoting economic growth and cooperation among its member nations: (o)
  
• ASEAN is an organization of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia. ASEAN was created in 1967 and aims at promoting economic growth and cooperation among its member nations (x): some readers may not know what ASEAN is. you should spell it out on first reference!
• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is an organization of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations was created in 1967 and aims at promoting economic growth and cooperation among its member nations (x): repetitive and wordy! use the acronym to make it succinct.

2) Lowercase vs. Uppercase
There is no reason to capitalize the first letters of a noun just because it has an acronym. You only uppercase first letters when the noun is a proper noun.

• Lowercase (non-proper nouns): free trade agreements (FTAs), improvised explosive device (IED), standard operation procedures (SOPs) ...
  
• Uppercase (proper nouns): American Bar Association (ABA), North Carolina (NC), Department of Defense (DOD) ...
  

정책을 마련/제시하다

A key to writing a good essay is presenting your views without being repetitive. A case in point is 정책을 마련/제시하다. A lot of Korean students repeatedly say "make a policy," but there are many different ways to say it.

To lay out something means to make a detailed plan for something, 자세히 설명하다/계획하다 in Korean.

• President Barack Obama on Monday laid out an overarching new US policy on outer space, calling for more international and private sector cooperation on exploration, climate change and orbiting debris (AFP, June 28, 2010)

To come up with something means to produce, supply, bring forth something, close to 방법을 고안하다, 방안을 마련하다 in Korean.

• Even if the Legislature did pass the appropriations bill, it would still need to pass further legislation to come up with enough revenue to pay for the spending it restored (New York Times, June 28, 2010)

To detail means to report fully and distinctly, close to 방안을 구체화하다 in Korean.

• Many analysts said the austerity plans, which include a rise in value-added tax to 20 percent from next year, would help the UK to avoid ratings downgrades suffered by some euro zone countries. But they added that sterling gains on the back of the budget may be limited as the government needs to detail how it will slash spending, while others were concerned that tightening the country's purse strings may choke economic growth (Reuters, June 23, 2010)
  

To put forth means to propose or present an idea, close to 계획이나 대책을 제시하다 in Korean.

• But I think it's really clear on one point that the American people understand very clearly: They understand that there should be an end to discrimination on the basis of preexisting conditions. The proposals we put forth end discrimination on the basis of preexisting conditions. The Republican bill does not (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the White House Health Summit, February 25, 2010) .
  

find vs. find out

Although both to find and to find out could be translated as 알아내다, 발견하다 in Korean, they don't mean the same in English.

To find out means to discover the true, often negative, nature of something, or to detect a wrongdoing. It is usually (but not always) associated an offense.

• As soon as she found out (= to detect a wrongdoing) that her husband had been cheating on her, she hired a divorce attorney.
  
• The concerns, fed largely by unease over military operations in southern Afghanistan that are progressing slower than anticipated, spurred lawmakers to schedule last-minute hearings this week to assess progress on the battlefield and within the Afghan government. "The hearing is an attempt to find out (= to discover the truth) what is going on in Kandahar," said a Senate Armed Services Committee aide, adding that Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), the panel's chairman, "is particularly focused on whether there has been a change in strategy or timetable for the Kandahar campaign." (Washington Post, June 15, 2010)

To find means to discover/perceive/attain something, usually through study, consideration, or search.

• Scientists at the Carnegie Institution of Washington at Stanford University synthesized carbon emissions and trade patterns and found (= discover through study) that more than one-third of CO2 emissions related to the consumption of goods and services in developed countries are actually emitted outside their national borders. (Time, March 9, 2010)
• I finally found (= discover through search) my sister's journal in her dresser. I am so tempted to read it, but she will get very upset if she finds it out (= detect a wrongdoing; "it" refers to the fact that I read her journal).
  
  

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.