Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

Just recently I came from Seoul to Gumi. The intonation/ dialect/ accent/ pronunciation difference is somewhat humorous to me. And I'm from Newfoundland! To me it sounds a bit Japanese. Something that strikes me about Korea (and I guess other countries in this region) is how things can be strikingly different between places not so far apart. Maybe it's the population density that makes such abrupt changes occur over small distances.

[Hater Depot]

The Jeju dialect really cracks me up. But it cracks up people from Jeju even more when I speak it.

[VanIslander]

My students here on Geoje Island say that people in Seoul talk funny! "strange" (to use an English word they know)

[jajdude]

A Korean teacher where I work was saying how cute she thought the accent of a student from Seoul was, and the others seemed to concur. But when I said I thought the "Gumi" accent sounds funny, I got a bit of a chilly response like I said something insulting.

[desultude]

You can really tell Daegu dialect, and most locals (of Daegu) are a bit embarrassed by it. I guess, to the Seoul ear, it must sound like Appalachian in the States- a bit country and rustic sounding.

Anyway, my very ignorant ear can even hear the difference, but to me, without the bias, it just sounds like Daegu, not like hillbilly.

[Picotrain]

Also being from Newfoundland, I kind of liken the Seoul pronunciations to Newfoundland English. The speech sounds faster becuase, like in NL, many vowels become unstressed and many phonemes and sometimes even entire syllables are dropped. A simple phrase like "Anyung Hase-yo" demonstrates that difference. Southerners will pronounce each vowel and syllable, while many people from the North of South Korea will have more of a nasal a (so no first n), the /u/ becomes a schwa, no h, the [ase] will survive, but the [yo] will sound kind of like the speaker has fallen asleep whilst saying it. My flatmate says that when he lived in the extreme South he noticed a distinct falling intonation in the sentences, whereas in the North the tendancy is towards a rising intonation. But the funniest thing about the Korean language is how they talk to one another on the phone; an entire conversation can sound like a series of moans and groans, especially when the conversation is between females. Oh, and the answer to almost every query can be "neeeeeeeeee"... I like that.

[Corporal]

I once had a conversation with a Daegu taxi driver while a Seoul woman was riding in the car. She commented on my dialect and he explained to her that Gyeongsangbukdo people spoke like that.

[ilovebdt]

Here in Seoul the teachers tell me that the accent of the people in Pohang, where I used to work, is very cute.