Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bogey666]

the Korean neh.. which means yes...

I constantly and consistently hear a "d" sound in there.. meaning I hear something akin to "deh" or "dae", rather than the pure n sound.

this has been driving me nuts and last time I checked my hearing was fine.

anyone else experience this and or knows what I am talking about? IO hear this all day long as the teachers around me say.. deh deh deh deh about a thousand times each day.

but they claim not to know what I am talking about when I inquire.

[dirty_scraps83]

I too have heard this.

When I asked a Korean about it he just said I'm hearing things.

Maybe when Koreans say 'ne' they put their tongues a bit further forward between the teeth than speakers of other languages giving it a slight but unintended 'd' sound.

[sistersarah]

I only hear this out of children and women. It kind of drives me crazy too....

[Benicio]

Kind of like Canadians who are adamant that Canadians don't say "abut" instead of "about"!

Denial!

[bogey666]

[Benicio]

Anyway, yes I have heard it, too.

It sounds like an affectation, like someone has a cold or something.

It could be like Castillian Spanish- spoken with a lisp.
The language is not originally supposed to sound like that, but they grew up hearing it like that. That's why it continues.

Most of the time if you ask a Korean to reflect deeply on anything having to do with their customs or behaviors, they either toss out the party line that they were told by their teachers, parents, etc. or they are totally clueless.
It's not that they are stupid. They have just never been taught or had experiences using critical thinking skills.
They memorize the who, what, when, where till the cows come home, but are generally clueless when it comes to the why!

[bogey666]

[Tjames426]

I always concerned it influence from the Chinese language.

Chinese, for yes, can be "dui". From the Korean, I hear "dea". So, I assumed it comes from the Chinese.

I have no reason to believe the Korean "yes", does not.

[bogey666]

[sistersarah]

Men and women speak differently, probably not just in Korean. I'm no expert by any means, my Korean being very poor, but a male professor of Korean at Edae told me that he once met a male Japanese student who had been studying several semesters under a female professor in a class full of females. He said that the student spoke exactly like a woman, so much so that it was embarrassing. Kind of an amusing story.

I asked my husband and my language exchange partner about this difference between male and female speaking habits, but neither seem to know what I'm talking about.

Sorry about the hijack... I totally hate the "deh"... It sounds really fake.

[bogey666]

[Imrahil]

I will say if true, it'll be the first time I've heard a substantial pronounciation difference between the sexes in any language.

Once they realize this will make them unique that will start spouting off about that like the "we have four seasons," and "kimchi prevents sars" stuff.

[danby_ll]

I asked my boyfriend (Korean) about this because it often sounded to me as though Koreans were pronouncing 누구 (nugu, "who") with a d instead of an n. He had no idea what I was talking about and kept repeating it to himself to see if he could hear a d.

I also find that Koreans pronounce k and g interchangeably...I have a friend named Kyoung Min and some people pronounce his name like Gyoung Min while others say Kyoung Min. I hear the difference, but they don't.

[spliff]

It's a speech particle that signifies understanding. Lao and Issan language has it as well.

[bogey666]