Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Qinella]

The Short I sound has become the final frontier in my pronunciation technique dissemination crusade. The consonants and other vowel sounds they pretty much have down. This is the only one that almost every student, and even one of the co-teachers, consistently can not produce.

"It" becomes "eat".
"Fit" becomes "feet".
Sit, seat.
And so on.

I've tried practicing until the cows came home and sat on my throat. I tried likening the throat to a ladder, where Short A is the top rung and Short U is the bottom. That works... except for the blasted Short I.

Any tips? Purty please?

Qinella

[some waygug-in]

here's a game for you.

using the game sorry as an example,

have cards like this:

one pair of cards is........... another pair "E's"

It's ........... eats
hit ............ heat
will .......... wheel
still ........... steal
pill ........... peal


The idea is that they have to ask each other for one of the cards and they will have to try to pronounce it in a way that can be understood by the other students.

I'm not sure if this will help or only make the problem more obvious, but I hope it's helpful on some level.

Do the same thing using word bingo. Write the ordered pairs on the board and the students write them randomly on their cards. The students then have to take turns choosing words for the game. They will have to try to differentiate the pronunciation so that other students will not get confused.

[kermo]

I've struggled with this one too.
I tend to give two tips to my students:
1) Students can find short "i" between "ah" and "ee." This is similar to your "ladder" idea. I ask my students to slide a few times from "ee" to "ah", then stop in between.
2) I ask my students to relax their throat as much as they can, and lower the back of their tongue.

It's tough but with practise, and minimal pairs, it can be improved.

[ontheway]

Qinella,

The short i sound is one of the hardest. Many of my students have got it down. Many don't. Just keep correcting them and practicing.

[prairieboy]

If you have any ��'s in your class, ask them to pronounce their family name.

The vowel sound in this word is basically the same as the short I sound. That is, it sounds like Kim not Keem.

They have the sound, they just don't recognize it as being different from the long E sound.

Cheers and goodluck.

[Hanson]

[Qinella]

I don't know about the ��. When I moved here, my boss corrected me (I was saying it with short I, like an American would say Kim) and told me it should sound like, well, ��, with long I sound and �� being more of a G/K mix. Anyway, I'll ask a few and see how they pronounce it.


Today, I tried the suggestion from Kermo. It worked fairly well, actually, and was funny.

Thanks for the help, everyone.

Q.

[SPINOZA]

[kermo]

[Captain Corea]

I'm glad someone finally said it.

I'm sick of hearing how the short "I" should sound like EEEE

[SPINOZA]

I'm not suggesting Kim is ponounced Keeeeeeem - like the ��sound they teach you in beginner Korean classes. What I'm saying is that it's a short 'ee' sound - "kgeem" - and NOT "Kim", a sound comparable to "him" in English. The name �� isn't pronounced "im", it's "eem" (I re-emphasize, should that lead to confusion, that it's a short 'ee' sound and not 'eeeeeeee'). Anyone who thinks �� is pronounced 'Kim' must be deaf.

[mj roach]

OP - Put your index finger under your chin and push upward while saying "pig", "big", "igloo", "indian", etc.

[Qinella]

[mj roach]

Quinella -
Using a set of physical/visual cues seems to help.
Short "e" - Push (jut) the lower jaw out and forward while making a straight forward motion with your finger.
Short "i" - Push (jut) the lower jaw out and upward while making an upward motion with your index finger.
Since the difference in sounds is slight, exaggerate both sound (really "squeeze" the "i") and movement while modeling. Sure to get some laughs and, hopefully, some results.

[EFLtrainer]

The reason they do this is because they have been taught that �� is equivalent to i. Write the this on the board:

�� = ee
�� (not equal to sign) i

Tell them it is Konglish/Koreanized pronunciation. There is no short i in hangulmal, so associating it with �� is impossible. Not incorrect, impossible.

Now go into your minimal pairs or what have you.

They have associated these sounds to hankul so thoroughly sometimes I find it useful to simply break the tie that binds. Seems to free them up a bit to deal with i as a sound they don't have in Korean.