Seoul Metro said Monday it will stop pronouncing some subway train station names in original Chinese during its station arrival announcements starting August.
At present, Seoul Metro offers prerecorded voice announcements in four languages -- Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese -- inside trains to give the upcoming station name, possible line transfers and the door exiting side. All station names are pronounced as proper Korean nouns in the foreign language announcements.
To the confusion of many passengers, however, two stations have been pronounced using the original Chinese sound, as Gangnam Station on Subway Line 2 and Yangjae Station on Subway Line 3 are referred to as "Jangnan" and "Ryangchai," respectively, in the Chinese language announcement.
The use of the original Chinese pronunciation for the two stations began on a pilot basis in 2016 to promote Chinese tourist visits.
Seoul Metro said the original Chinese pronunciations will be replaced with proper Korean nouns beginning mid-August to avoid confusion among passengers.
Source: Yonhap News Agency