Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Juregen]

[Qinella]

Usually Koreans don't switch out an L for an R. What I usually hear is just a bunch of ㄹs if the speaker has bad pronunciation. Like, really turns into 릴리. No way to really write that in English because it's rougher than "lilly".

Changing fly to fry? That's really odd.

[vox]

At a wedding in NJ, I heard a tenor soloist (must have been a New Jersey native) sing the opening line of his solo from the gallery -

" Oh po-oi-fect love.."

[Teufelswacht]

[Guri Guy]

Exactly. They murder English as much as we murder Korean. Both languages are a b**** for pronounciation.
Maybe that's why I like Japanese so much. It is far easier to pronounce and you can get great amusement out of the crappy Janglish.

[the eye]

[Julius]

Worst are those live "norae" shows on the radio where people call in and sing. Especially if the bus driver has it on a long trip. Some terribly scalded cats to be heard squaling. They sing the same song over and over, then play a few western hits, subtly belittling and patronising them as they go.

[Privateer]

[Zulu]

Actually the r/l thing doesn't matter to me, probably because I'm used to it, and like somebody said, my Korean pronunciation isn't anything to write home about either.

But if you've ever gone to the webpages of some of the biggest companies and government agencies in the country, well, let's just say the English language there ain't purdy. Likewise trying to get information in English (from their 'English' page) makes Microsoft's Online Help Center seem attentive by comparison. It'd probably be better just to delete those pages and drop the pretense of English customer service.

[VanIslander]

The commercial was on again TWICE in the last ten minutes on OCN.

I don't have the t.v. on often, so I assume the commercial has been on frequently this month.

Funny when you first hear it, eh?

[basplar]

It's quite sad that the Korean music scene/ Korean musicians in Korea are so lame that they actually get paid MAJOR BUCKS by advertising companies to sound so ignorant! They could do so much better, but just seem content with copying everybody else and just being what I like to call "textbook" musicians. I don't go around trying to make advertisements using Korean because I know that if I did, my accent would be horrible. If you're going to spend all of that money to pay musicians to sing English songs, at least make sure they don't do something as embarassing as sing "fry me to the moon" and ruin a perfectly good Frank Sinatra song. I know quite a bit about being a musician/ commercial writer/ recording/ AND teaching English, because I do all of them and have studied all of them for years. That's just the commercial side. On the side of musical integrity, there's nothing wrong with copying other musicians as long as you eventually are creative and innovative. My observation about the music scene here (especially Korean musicians) is that most of the musicians are afraid to go "out of the box" when it comes to music. Most of the musicians are "textbook" musicians. The rockers play "textbook rock", the jazzers "textbook" jazz, etc......and never try to innovate and be creative. They seem more content with rehashing the same stuff over an over again. It's been said that, "imitation is the highest form of flattery,� but, you still have to be creative, innovative and don't be afraid to go "outside of the box." This is all beside the fact that for the most part, the music scene here is pretty lame because most people here don't support live music. If the live music scene here had more support, people might have a little more incentive to be creative. I understand that there's a commercial side to music, having studied commercial music/recording in college, but that's no excuse to not be creative. On a final note, Korean musicians owe it to themselves to try to be innovative and creative and stop being such "textbook" musicians. Sorry everyone, but I had to vent about something I've been thinking about for the 3 years I've been in Korea. BE CREATIVE!!!!

Peace

[Mashimaro]

[basplar]

[Mashimaro]

[basplar]