Korean Job Discussion Forums

[superacidjax]

Two questions: first, do any of you notice that many, if not all students print by dotting the "i" first or crossing the "t" first?

I have. Occassionally, I'll put some effort into doing some practice on it, do you? I understand that the reason they do it is because of the way Korean is written (top-bottom, left-right) but I'm wondering if any of you see any benefit for me to take the time to keep working on it.

Secondly, I started really emphasizing sylable counting in my classes. I've heard fin-ish-eed and yes-uh one too many times. Do you have any tips on correcting the polysylablization of words?

Thanks!

P.S.
I realize polysylabilzation isn't a word, but it's fun to say and I'm sure you all know what I mean.

[oneofthesarahs]

If you're teaching younger kids, putting words into chant form and making them count each syllable on their fingers seems to help most of my students. Older students might not go for it.

Here's one I did with some of my younger kids recently, with the syllables I had them count in parentheses:

Look! A big sand(1)wich(2)!
Look! A big sandwich! (Mime eating a sandwich)
Oh no! Sto(1)mach(2)ache(3)!
Oh no! Stomachache! (Groan, rub stomach, etc.)

[Canadian Club]

My 8-12 year olds like clapping games for syllables.

[Smee]

It's been a while since I had phonetics in college, so I'm less-than-expert on this: but, I think according to the International Phonetics Alphabet, the "shed" at the end of "finished" is comprised of two letters---the long "sh" one and the "d," which means that even in English the "sh'd" isn't one complete sound, or one complete syllable. We just say it really fast. So with students I say the word normally a few times, then over-extend it: "fi" (hold) "ni" (hold) "shed" (hold). Then we go faster and faster, even beyond the normal English speed. Since "d" is voiced---we move our voice boxes to say it---we can hear the "uh" sound even when native speakers say it, so I just try to minimize the obviousness of 으 as much as possible.

If the consonant at the end is a fricative or silibant, like "sh," "s," etc., then I just have them extend the sound for different amounts of time (usually I have them watch my hands, as I signal when to stop). So we'll say "Englishshshshshsh (can't type the symbol here) for, like, 5 seconds, then do it faster, longer, faster. Or, we'll start loud and go to soft, so they don't feel tempted to put an "uh" or "ee" sound at the end. YESSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssss, until it tapers off.

If the class is into it, and if they're a good enough group, I'll go around the room and have everyone say the particular word or sound, and not move on until everyone gets it.

Hope that made sense.

edit: oh, and the kids I've had---even the beginners---have been good at syllables. I mean, Korean breaks words down into syllabic chunks. For clarity I'll hold up my fingers and count out the syllables and have them do the same, particularly if it's for a word they've slurring. For example, the difference between "basketball" and "baseball." A lot of students were burrying the "ket," so we'd count it out.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Privateer]

Is it just me? cos when I ask them to count syllables I get more or less random numbers in reply, for a two-syllable word ranging from 1 to 5, with only about 1 in 5 students getting it right, which is what you'd expect if the answers were generated randomly, right?

This tells me that, so far from being 'good at' syllables, they have absolutely no clue, none, about how to break down English words into syllables - or perhaps even what 'syllable' means (which is doubly odd, because hangeul is syllable-based, and because we translate the word syllable too).

It's partly the non-phonetic 'phonetic' spelling out of English words in hangeul they get taught in school of course, but most students are aware that that's Konglishised so that can't be the whole reason.

Anyway, basically I find this response disheartening so I avoid trying to get them to count syllables. I just correct poor pronunciation of 'finished' (and the rest, like 'washed', 'watched' and so on) by emphasizing that it's just 'finish' with a tiny 't' ('tuh') sound tacked on the end.

Should I persevere more with the syllables approach?

[yingwenlaoshi]

"finished" is 2 syllable. There's no leeway. /fInIsht/. /fI/ + /nIsht/. You teach 'em that the "ed" is a "t" sound. Air comes out with "sh" so the "ed" is a "t" sound with air coming out rather than a "d" sound with no air. The catch on really fast.

It's not a "tah", it's a short "t". No vowel after the "t"

"I finished talking" has the exact same pronunciation as "I finish talking".

Counting syllabes is a good idea. It can be brought up well after you've taught them for some time, too. They're learning past, future, pronunciation and then one day, you bring up the number of sounds. It's quite fun if you can write Korean showing them the differences between Korean (Konglish) and English.

Take for example, my avatar. That's "Spark" detergent. One syllable. In Konglish, it's 3 syllables: 스파크 (seu-p'a-k'eu). Makes for a good lesson. They get a kick out of it.

[Boodleheimer]

dotting before putting in the 'i' and crossing before putting in the 't' drives me up the freaking wall. i know it's correct for Chinese characters and the Korean alphabet. but it's bad handwriting!!! i volunteered to teach a handwriting class, but no dice.


it's just a pet peeve, i guess, and i should get over it.

[Privateer]

[babtangee]

[yingwenlaoshi]