Romanized Korean to English, Please

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curtwill
Posts: 1
Joined: 31 Mar 2013 22:40

Romanized Korean to English, Please

Post by curtwill »

I have a Korean friend who practiced traditional korean (or chinese) medicine (acupuncture, moxibustion, bone setting, herbalism, etc. also fortune telling, business and child naming...) near Pusan, Korea. He also taught Korean martial arts to US service members. Other Korean friends have described him as a "root doctor". I think use of this term was sometimes intended as praise, while others times used as a polite insult.

He didn't speak much English and I don't speak any Korean, but I managed to learn to phonetically pronounce the name of his school. I'm hoping someone can help me understand the meaning of the school's name, and perhaps how to write it in Hanja and/or Hangul. He primarily thinks of himself as a healer or doctor, but also teaches a martial art which he calls singido (or Shen Ki Do), which he describes as like a mixture of taekwondo, korean yudo (judo) and wrestling. I'm sure the comparisons with taekwondo, judo and wrestling were made for the benefit of American's who could relate to those practices. What he really teaches is tae sool, kwon sool, yu sool and ho shin sool, most importantly as a form of healthful exercise, rather than as a form of combat.

I invested a lot of time trying to understand his beliefs. The "Ki Do" in Shen Ki Do are the same as used in "Hap Ki Do", and the "Shen" (which he pronounces as "sin") comes from traditional Chinese or Korean medicine. As best I can understand Shen is like God, but not God in the Christian sense. I guess Ki is the animating power that runs in all of use, whereas Shen is the cosmic engine that drives Ki.

Enough background. The way I was taught to pronounce the school name sounds like the following in English:

Sae Gae Moo Sul Hyup Hway.

Sae and Gae rhyme with Tae, as in TaeKwonDo.

Moo Sul refers to martial arts skills or techniques (at least I think, please correct me if I am wrong). Moo could also be romanized as "mu" and rhymes with "who". I've seen Sul romanized as sool, and it rhymes with "tool".

Hyup and Hway (which might also be Romanized as "Hwae") rhyme with "up" and "way". These terms completely mystify me and I'm very interested to understand what they mean. As I was taught to pronounce these words, the "H" is almost, but not quite, silent especially for "Hway".

I'll be eternally indebted to anyone who can help shed light on:
1. The actual meaning of Sae Gae Mul Sul Hyup Hway,
2. The Hanja or Hangul characters,
3. Anything that would further my knowledge of Sin Gi Do (I understand the physical techniques; as I age I'm more interested in health and philosophical issues), and particularly with regards to Shen in the context described above.

Regards,

Curt
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