Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jensen]

[syclick]

What really gets me is when they add an "ee" sound to the end of a word ending with a CH or J sound.

Like speech - ����ġ "Speechee"
or sandwich - ������ġ "Saendweechee"

Trying to correct it later in English class is an exercise in frustration.

[Shincheon_Blues]

[Inigo Montoya]

Actually, the reason that words that end in ch or g or s all have e or schwa added to them is that it is physically impossible in the Korean language to end a word on those letters. If the word ends on those letters the sound is changed so they add the e or schwa to keep our consonant sound.

For instance, my name is Pat which is spelled ��. Note that it ends on an s but it sounds like a t. At first I found it confusing when people talked about me because the subject marker added changes it to Pashee ���� because the consonant sound moves up to the vowel and '��'reverts back to its 's' sound.

[waggo]

Too all the liguistic boffins out there..would it be possible for Korea to incorporate the letter f into their alphabet as a consonant...?

[Deconstructor]

Hi Guys,

Since we're talking about what Koreans do to the English language or just mimic the West, I saw this modern clothing store that had a sign above it that said SINCE 1556. I cracked up. When I asked the clerk inside as to how long the store had been operational, he said, "About 5 years".

"How do you explain the sign outside?" I asked.

His shoulders went up.

[jurassic5]

[Eazy_E]

[lunachick]

Well, I know about how it's impossible to end a word with certain consonants in Korean, but when my students say "orangee", I suggest "orangeuh " as a better option, and really don't stress the last syllable. It seems to help a lot.

[Gwangjuboy]

[Swiss James]

what's the whole score with switching an 'f' for either a 'p' or an 'h' ?

I've heard french fries spoken as "pu-rench-ee pu-rie" but apparently "hu-rench-ee hu-rie" is fine too, as is
"Hamily-mart-eu"/"Pamily-mart-eu"
"Korea High-ting!"/"Korea Pigh-ting!"

Have I got the wrong end of the stick, are they really both acceptable? Or do different regions tend to use one over the other? Does it depend on the word?

[sid]

I think �� (h) has come into use more recently, perhaps cos its a softer sound and not quite so inelegant. But it doesn't seem to work for some words: fish... pishi... hishi??

I also believe the correct (sic) pronounciation is hwa-mily mart and hwighting

[lastat06513]

The reason Koreans are using english words these days is because its easier to write and remember compared to "hanja" (people had to memorize 5,000 characters to read a newspaper in the "hey days" of Korea.)
As a history note~ The gov't of Rhee Syngmun tried to wipe out all resemblance of foreign domination by trying to get rid of the use of "hanja" in mainstream society.
But this caused a vacuum because there aren't any Korean equivalent to many of the new words being used.
So, they decided to start using Enlgish because of the predominance of western (mainly US) culture in Korean society and because it can easily written and remembered in Hangeul.
Besides, Korean is made simpler by reading the Korean letters first before the English. Once you hear the sound of a word in its English form, it makes learning Korean alot more bearable.


And is for those who didn't know.....
_______________________________________________________
And knowing is half the battle........ (remember what comes next?....)

[Gwangjuboy]

[mithridates]

The number is close to 1-2000. 1000 is enough for some people, but 2000 are required to be fully literate in them. Actually now that they have realized that hanja are too deeply imbedded to get rid of, they are reintroducing them into the educational system. I think this year's university entrance exams now have hanja as well.