Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I'd say it would have to be long E and short I. Combos like sheep / ship, heel / hill, etc., they just can't seem to differentiate for the life of them.

[Ya-ta Boy]

That's one of the biggies, isn't it? I ran across it today (live/leave). We did the trusty old sheep/ship game.

Draw a sheep on a ship and a ship on a sheep on the whiteboard. Ask: Is the ship on the sheep? while pointing to one of the pictures. They answer, "Yes, it is/No, it isn't". And then I say, "Yes, right/I'm sorry, no the sheep is on the ship."

Another fun activity is to do a Pronunciation Journey. Prepare a set of minimal pairs for the sound(s) you want to work on. Draw a 'tournament bracket' on the white board with 8 cities on the right. Write the minimal pairs on the board in pairs and tell the students to turn 'up' if they hear a word from column A or turn down if they hear a word from column B. Starting at the left, where the 'tournament winners' would be) at the first branch, say one of the pairs. At the second and third branch, say a word. Then ask which the city the students are in. I gave candy to the two or three who were in the right city.

After a few times, I would give students a chance to say the words and reward the speaker if 4 people ended up in the right city.

[sjk1128]

dog-duck

open "o" vs. "uh"

but it doesn't happen much in English without other consonant clues to identify the word

I torture my kids with sets of four:

beat-bit-bet-bat
seat-sit-set-sat
meet-mitt-met-matt

etc.

These are also incredibly difficult - at least for kids down south in Busan.

[sjk1128]

Try long - lung.

It might be equally difficult to differentiate in pronunciation for a Korean, although the context won't likely be as funny in real life as with the animals.

I'm always taken aback for a moment when I'm invited out for "dog" (tr. "duck").

[Omkara]

maybe teach them that sheep "smile," but ships do not?

[jajdude]

You are probably right OP. I've always noticed the short "O" pronounced as a long one though. That's the way they write it and say it usually, in Hangul. I've had a few difficulties due to this. Some student saying, "Low Bin" and it takes a while to figure out it's "Robin." Even "on" or "long" or "dog" can cause grief. Gender confusion arises when "John" and "Joan" (and zone) sound the same in Korean pronunciation.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

What a coincidence, I was just teaching /i/ and /I/ today!

I used the materials from this site:

http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/Page1205.aspx

You can get a good two hours out of each lesson. The dictations are a bit higher-level. The lesson is pretty adaptable.

I have my students read the tongue twisters and record themselves in PowerPoint, then email the file to me as an attachment.

An alternative is for them to find a partner and record the dialogue on an mp3 player.

Oh, my Korean students said that /f/ and /r/ are extremely difficult for them...

Sorry if this went too far off-topic!

[Whistleblower]

Try getting Koreans saying:

"There's a sheet on the beach". It will have you on the floor rolling with laughter.