Manhwa translations - why are some names converted to English names and some left in Korean?

[sjiveru]

I just started reading Our School Teacher Kim. The main male lead's name is 'Kim Sunwoo', but the female lead is 'Kim Suzy'. 'Sunwoo' (probably Seonu, I'd guess) is clearly a Korean name; 'Suzy' is clearly not - Korean doesn't even have /z/.

I've seen this in a number of Korean comics, both here and in more official places like Webtoons.

Why? Why not treat all names the same? Translations from Japanese leave all the names in Japanese - why do translations from Korean convert some names to English? If they're going to convert any (which I don't think they should), why not convert all of them?

 

[dokkotak]

there is a korean name sooji, but it's pronounced the same as suzy or susie. i dunno if it's a matter of 'converting' but more like spelling convention.
basically it's upto the translator. and whether they choose to go with what's considered conventional or commonplace, or not at all.
if you ask that question, then Kim isn't even Kim. It's Gim. Lee really should be Yi. 🙄

 

[sjiveru]

I get that it's up to the translator, but I've seen it enough to feel like it's a general convention. I'd very much prefer Gim Suji over Kim Suzy - the second one leaves me wondering how to backconvert to the Korean original, if the name hasn't just been wholesale replaced (which I'm pretty sure I've seen before).

 

[Yatsuki]

@sjiveru I'm not sure about Korean but there are cases in Japanese or Chinese where the name is fully written in kanji, but the pronunciation is English, especially girls names (like Sara, Alice, Lily etc) so maybe it's the same in Korea?

 

[sjiveru]

@Yatsuki Yeah, that does happen; and maybe I notice it less because I'm more used to Japanese than Korean and can backconvert more confidently. It still looks weird when I think about it, though.