Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ricky_lamour]

When teaching money/numbers/shopping should we be saying "one thousand won" or "one thousand on?"

On won (you see what I did there?) hand it would be more authentic to use the Korean pronunciation but wouldn't it be more useful for them to learn the foreign pronunciation?

[CentralCali]

You're aware, are you not, that the Korean pronuncation of the unit of money is like the pronunciation of the English word won as in "I won the game last night"?

[anyangoldboy]

[quote="CentralCali"]You're aware, are you not, that the Korean pronuncation of the unit of money is like the pronunciation of the English word [i]won[/i] as in "I won the game last night"?[/quote]

You are aware that when koreans speak they also do say man on for 10,000 both are ok...but Koreans will tell you it's won

[poet13]

Yes, but what the OP is asking about, is the way Koreans actually say it.
They tend to say, chun 'on, or man 'on, instead of chun won, or man won, in the province where I live. I don't know about the rest of Korea.

OP, I think they will understand you either way. They may view your saying "chun Won" as stilted or as being something you tranlsated literally from a book.

[smurfetta]

I think you should teach it as "Won". That is how it is written in English in banks and websites such as xe.com.

[Fresh Prince]

I think if the word before "won" (pronounced wun) ends with an "n" they pronounce it as "un"

chun un
beg won
man un
o beg won
o chun un


As far as teaching; I would say go with the western style pronunciation of "won", (like wan in want). That way it will be in-line with the pronunciation standards for everything else in English.