Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kermo]

I've been in Korea a couple months, and I finally worked up the courage to ask someone about this strange sound I've been hearing. When I saw an older lady in a hanbok on TV ad doing it, I knew this was not just something stuck in the throats of my co-workers.

It tends to show up between words, usually when the speaker is quite excited about something, and I've only ever heard adults do it.

It reminds me of a German or Dutch consonant, like when you hear the proper pronunciation of "Van Gogh". It's guttural, scraping noise in the throat, and it's a little scary.

At first, the man I asked had no clue about what I was referring to. However, someone made this "khkhkhkhk.." sound within earshot and I was able to clue him in.

He thought about it for a long time, before describing it as "a habit that we don't recognize" and a noise indicating that the speaker is excited (whether positively or negatively), or perhaps just thinking between words. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a way to express this noise onomaticapaeically (i.e., I don't know how to spell it).

So, have you noticed this? Do you agree with my friend's explanation? Do you ever do it when you're speaking Korean as a second language? Does it scare you?

(edited once to change subject line)

[J.B. Clamence]

Yeah, it's sort of how in English how you might say,

"Oh, I reAAAAAAAAAly like that!"

or,

"I don't know whaaaaaaaaaaaat he was thinking!"

Except a lot more annoying. I guess they probably find our elongations annoying as well. With ours, at least you don't have to worry about getting hit by phlegm.

[Buff]

I think it's the equivalent of uh or um... in Korean it's �� ... it means the. Kind of like "It's the... the... the uhh... y'know that thing."

[casey's moon]

you're right about �� meaning "um" but I think the OP is referring to a different sound that can't be written romanised or in hangeul... I sometimes hear it in the middle of the word "����" ("very" for the really new newbies)... and it doesn't have any meaning except "very very very" in that case.

Methinks.

[the eye]

yes, the OP is referring to something that makes my hair stand up when i hear it...i flinch thinking someone's about to hork a spitball.


J.B. and casey's moon are correct... it is used to 'emphasize' when speaking.

[Universalis]

I think it's like us when we emphasize "big" by exaggerating the plosive-ness of the intial 'b' sound. You know... like the times you say "big" and end up spitting on other people.

Brian

[Yangkho]

�������������������������������������ϳ��� ����!

[own_king]

Yeah it's the most annoying bloody noise and you're right most Koreans probably don't even know they're doing it. And whenever I ask a korean about it, they don't know what i'm talking about.

[the eye]

haha. true.

[Pulgasori]

A couple of the Korean girls I talk with on MSN often use 'kkkkkk' in place of 'lol or haha'. When I asked what it meant they refered me to that 'khkhkhkh' sound, and told me it was similar to giggling.

[chronicpride]

[Buff]

ooohhhhh THAT. at first i didn't know what it was but my bf pointed it out to me this morning when we were walking.... yeah i can see how that would be annoying. Great... now I'll start noticing it all the time...

[Swiss James]

I think it sounds wicked- really hammers a point home (although I don't know what the point is).

The most annoying noise korean people make is the ajumma gum clicking, but then that's a totally different topic.

[rapier]

I do it all the time. Before I even game to Korea, in fact.
The reason is that we have a highly similar effusive, gutteral exclamation in Zimbabwe/ S.Africa. Although ours is more like "Aaakkkggghhh", it basically means the same thing. Used to express dissapointment, disgust, or frustration.

[Chillin' Villain]

I gotta admit, I think the hairball-emphasis sound is awesome... It really expresses emphasis sometimes... I've never (and I doubt I ever will) quite used THAT sound, but do sometimes add a native-style emphasis sound to some adjectives/adverbs in Korean (a-ju, ja-ju, neo-mu, man-hi... office 'puter lacks the 'geul...) I'm certainly not an advanced speaker yet, and my use of the emphasis sounds are more experimental mimicry (mimickry? what's a dictionary?) than anything, but I never really get any negative feedback from it- they just act like I was saying something normal....

Anyways... hairball= expressive & entertaining (in my perspective), as long as it's coming from someone speaking boisterously and not cantankerously.... And I can certainly understand why it would annoy the hell out of some people as well.