Korean Job Discussion Forums

sargx · Joined: 29 Nov 2007

Forgive me if this was posted previously. The search function didn't turn up any results for me.

Can someone give a list of the common pronunciation mistakes Koreans have.

An example being:

"Bad" and "Bed"
Everything ends in "ee"
Z's vs. S's

Atavistic · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject:

Th sound.
Not everything ends in ee. Sometimes it ends in uh. Chi-juh.

nobbyken · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Location: Yongin ^^

R & L sounds.

The korean character 'ㄹ' is promounced R at the beginning of a letter group, and pronounced L at the end of a letter goup in Hangul.
They also use a form of Konglish, spelling English words with Korean alphabet characters, which makes words beginning with L, sound like they begin with R.
Young learners get over the difference pretty easy, older people take longer to learn.

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

F,V,B,P sounds.

Fast -past. Van - ban. etc.

Also the "short" vowel sounds - e, i, u, o, but not so much a.

Ask a Korean student to say "fast food" and quite often you'll hear -

'pest pood' . It's an uphill battle because even after you show them the right way, they often will just revert back to their old habits.

Good Luck

ajuma · Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Location: Anywere but Seoul!!

I have a great list of sentences that Koreans have a hard time with. If you PM me with your email address, I'd be glad to send it to you, along with some teaching tips when you use the sentences.

chaz47 · Joined: 11 Sep 2003

^ i would like a copy too please? PM sent.

Justin Hale · Joined: 24 Nov 2007 Location: the Straight Talk Express

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

rl sound is in "giRL", "peaRL".

I haven't a non gyopo Korean that can get it right.

ernie · Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Location: asdfghjk

i'll summarize MY list... these are the pronunciation problems, not the reading problems like bad/bed...

f (eh-puh)
short i (they always make it long, so 'fish' becomes 'PC'... lots of laughs... you like eating PC? mmmm crunchy)
l / r (of course)
s (they always make it 'sh'... i live in the shi-tee - the shi-tee what? you mean your parents have a shi-tee house?)
th (both voiced and unvoiced)
short u (becomes long u)
v (boo-ee)
w (in many situations, like 'wood')
x (e-kuh-suh)
z (becomes j)

the limited sound palette and strict 'padchim' (ending consonant) rules of hangeul and bad hangeulization are big problems for koreans learning english, IMO...

CasperTheFriendlyGhost · Joined: 28 Feb 2007

I've nticed that some of my students will take a word like apple and change it into affle. Or change February into Fevruary. The changing p's into f's and b's into v's is a difficult habit to get out of. Fortunately it only happen with a few students.

Easter Clark · Joined: 18 Nov 2007 Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong

Here are some sentences (not mine, admittedly) I've used with my students. Be sure to tell them not to worry about the meaning of the words--the focus isn't on vocab! You can have them do pair dictations or dictate them yourself. Also, you could tell them to read a sentence to you and you write exactly what they say on the board!

1. The pool is full of fools.

2. Jeffery plans to pick up a leaf for his faithful wife.

3. The professor professed that professional proficiency would be preferred.

4. Fine gifts are difficult to find.

5. They failed to fulfill their promises to perform a perfect play without faults.

6. Phoebe laughed at an awful photograph of her nephew's falling off a fence.

7. Definitely that pessimistic philosophy inflicted a sophisticated philanthropist.

8. The fancy-pants lapped, laughed, lept, and left.

9. Firefighters are fighting painfully against forest fires.

10. Sophie sipped coffee and sifted files to find phenomenal facts.

cbclark4 · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Location: Masan

Right out of the MS Grade 1 text book:

Larry and Laura really love red roses.

I do a chant "red roses" three or four times.

then chant "really" about 20 times.

I draw crude diagrams of teeth on the board showing placement of the
tongue, try to touch your back tooth on one side of your month for an r
sound, exaggerate the rolling "r".

Then chant larry and really.

Then chant the whole sentance.

regicide · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Location: United States

What about pronouncing the article an like "un" ?

Woman-- Un apple.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

I remember in kindergarten my teacher used to have this giant plastic mouth like a dentist would have. The mouth could be separated between the top and bottom halves. I remember she would take a pencil/pen and point to the spots on the roof of the mouth for placements of the tongue.

I wish i had one of those.

yingwenlaoshi · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Location: ... location, location!