Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cyui]

So I know there are some SUPER long term Korean expaters" on this board..With the vast exception of Kyopo; how many of you English Native Speakers' have actually been able to pull of the Korean Native Accent?


I'll be REALLY surprised if even one person is able to claim this as a real feet as Korean always say speaking is good for the sake of politness and not real acheivment,.

[nick70100]

[jonpurdy]

For me it depends on the sentence. I've been here 2.5 years and can pull of a perfect Korean accent for some stuff. One thing I've tried right from the beginning is to not sound like a foreigner. Common things involving ordering food or riding taxis I can generally speak perfectly if I focus (since it's about timing too, especially with the Gyeongsangnamdo accent that I try to mimic). But anything else and I've got a slight or strong foreign accent.

Thus far, I've never met any foreigner who can speak with a perfect Korean accent (though I've met some people who speak quite well, just not 100% perfectly).

[Chet Wautlands]

Unless you started learning Korean from a very early age, there is a strong chance that you will never have a perfect accent. This doesn't mean you can't achieve fluency, but you (likely) will have a foreign accent forever.

Think of any adults you know who have learned English after their 13th birthday... generally they speak English with an accent. It's almost unavoidable.

There are exceptions, though. These people are usually linguistically talented and willing to put in the hours of practice.

When I ask Koreans about my accent, they always tell me it's excellent. If I follow up by asking them if I sound Korean, they laugh and say that I don't. I sound very good, for a foreigner. That's fine with me.

[cyui]

Thanks Guys'.

I was wondering if there was a chance that Language Acquisition could be more gentically based instead of envioromentally.

[Cedar]

--before-- my jaw was broken and healed off kilter and I had to re-learn how to make even my English sound the way it used to, I often could fool people on the phone as long as it was ordinary conversation.

[T-J]

제 발음은 한국 사람과 똑 같아!

[nate1983]

I've also noticed I pronounce things a lot better and use a more "Korean" intonation when I'm talking about things I'm comfortable with. If I start stumbling over words, I hear a pretty thick American accent come out, but in general the jury seems to be out...I've had numerous people I've spoken to on the phone (from just giving directions to a real estate agent) be surprised when they met me that I wasn't Korean, and people have said they don't hear any foreign accent/intonation, but at the same time I've had plenty of friends/teachers say my accent needs a lot of work. I definitely noticed a big improvement when I started paying attention to the "intonation" aspect though (for reference, my Korean ability is around level 5-6 on TOPIK).

I do know a handful of foreigners (American, European, and Asian) who seem to have totally nailed the Korean accent/pronunciation/intonation, the whole kit 'n caboodle. I'd say they all speak fluently though, so there's something to be said for first focusing on learning the language, and then when you do you'll naturally improve how you sound.

[sirius black]

There is a tv show that has foreign women and they talk about the cultural differences, etc. and I've been told by a couple natives that a couple of them are really good with their accents. They seem to speak great korean to me but i've been told its accented.
I am no where near fluent but I am a fairly good mimic. As a kid would imitate celebs, etc. and once when I ordered some hot chocolate in korean, my friends said I got the local accent perfectly and they were surprised but all I did was mimic their intonation.

As to the original question, I think its possible but not likely in most cases, unless you've been here since childhood. Lingquistically, its more difficult to pick up languages as an adult, just as how foreigners in our countries who have come as adults, even early 20s, still have an accent after being in our countries for 10 or 20 years.

There are exceptions but its not the usual case. I would think one would have to speak korean entirely to get close to being indistinguishable to a native korean when on the phone, etc.

[RMNC]

Countires with romance languages (save for France) usually are better at Korean, due to their pronunciation of syllable blocks, pronouncing all of the vowels and rolling their r/l's. The Italians and Spanish on that show always have very good accents. They're pretty much the same intonation and pronunciation, just with different vocab, grammar and alphabets.

[nick70100]