NBC, read my lips - it's PyeongChang

By Jane Han

DALLAS ― For Olympics viewers in the U.S., PyeongChang is not heard the way Koreans know it, but more like PyeongChay-ing.

This is because NBC, the official broadcaster of the 2018 Winter Olympics, has decided to stick to its own pronunciation where the ``chang'' in PyeongChang rhymes with sang, instead of tong.

Even though this is wrong, NBC's pronunciation policy seems to exist because it sounds ``cleaner,'' as Sports Business Journal quoted Mark NBC Broadcasting and Sports chairman Mark Lazarus as saying.

But as the network's coverage of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics continues, Asian journalists and Korean viewers are not too happy with the way the correct pronunciation is being ignored.

``It really should not be difficult to pronounce PyeongChang if you put in the due effort to learn the correct way to say it,'' said Kevin Lee, a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles.

``If NBC is indeed purposely neglecting the accurate pronunciation because the wrong way sounds better, that's even worse because that is just disrespectful.''

Dallas resident Jenny Kwon, who has been closely following the Olympics, says the inaccurate pronunciation of PyeongChang is annoying, but that may well be the American way.

``See how Americans pronounce IKEA,'' she said. ``It's well known that the American way of saying the store name is wrong, but they continue to cling to their way. And there are so many other similar examples.''

Noticing the inaccuracy and inconsistency in the way the host city's name is handled on air, Asian journalists have tried to promote correction.

Earlier this week, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), the largest organization of Asian American journalists in the U.S., released a video demonstrating the pronunciation of PyeongChang.

``We've been getting a lot of questions about the correct pronunciation of the South Korean Olympic host city,'' said CeFaan Kim, AAJA's MediaWatch co-chair. ``The correct pronunciation is PyeongChang...ang..like when you go to the doctor. Ah.''

Despite growing criticism, an NBC Sports spokesperson told The Korea Times that the network was not intentionally mispronouncing PyeongChang.

``We have great respect for South Korea, its people, culture and language,'' the spokesperson said in an email response.

``When preparing for the Games, we heard a variety of different ways to say PyeongChang. Our commentators have no intent of saying it incorrectly or disrespectfully. We're trying to be consistent across our shows, while acknowledging that our on-air talent has slightly varying pronunciations, just as they do with English words.

“They are trying their best with Korean phonetics based on how they hear it, but inevitably it sounds different than if it were a native speaker.''