Line 2's 'Ryangchai' Korean announcement clearly says 'Yangjae'

Concerns Raised Over Confusion Caused by Original Chinese Audio Broadcast

Starting from August, the Chinese announcement broadcasts used at Gangnam Station on Line 2 and Yangjae Station on Line 3 will be changed to use the proper nouns Gangnam and Yangjae.

Unlike most histories broadcasted with native Korean proper nouns, there were concerns about confusion as only two histories were transmitted in the original Chinese pronunciation (Gangnam Station - Jangnan, Yangjae Station - Ryangchai).
[Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@]

In 2016, with the opening of the Shinbundang Line, Chinese announcement broadcasts were pilot-operated at Gangnam Station and Yangjae Station to promote Chinese tourism. Among these, unlike most stations where announcements are made using Korean proper nouns, only these two stations broadcasted the Chinese original pronunciation (Gangnam Station - Jangnan, Yangjae Station - Liangchai), which caused confusion.

Accordingly, Seoul Metro announced on the 31st that starting in August, the Chinese arrival announcement broadcasts at Gangnam Station on Subway Line 2 and Yangjae Station on Line 3 will be changed to use the Korean proper nouns.

Internationally, it is customary to pronounce subway station names using the proper nouns of the respective country. Therefore, the corporation plans to replace the Chinese announcement broadcasts at Gangnam Station and Yangjae Station, which were under pilot operation, with the Korean original pronunciation.

The corporation will have the broadcast scripts reviewed for appropriateness by the Korea Tourism Organization and hire professional Chinese voice actors for recording. The new audio files will be sequentially applied from the 19th of next month to 75 trains on Line 2 and 49 trains on Line 3. Additionally, announcements for newly constructed stations will also be produced and broadcast using Korean proper nouns.

A corporation official stated, "The subway is the most used public transportation by Seoul citizens, and we will strive to provide passenger satisfaction by implementing this according to international conventions and principles to avoid confusion in announcement broadcasts."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.