Teaching in Korea: Englishee

[deedee1233211]

But I'm just slow learner-.-

[destructicon500]

This video is great. I think that being a learner of other languages really helps you empathize and understand how language learning takes place. I know some people who teach/volunteer teaching ESL and they only know English and can't understand why the students have problems. I ask them, "have you tried to learn another language?"

Understanding where the students are coming from is very important, and definitely reduces the tension one may feel from encountering "bad" pronunciation.

[Mikebmc]

I know Korean and this is so true. I also taught English in Korea for a year and I have to say, you are really a good teacher for the Korean people since you understand this about Hangeul. It was really a big advantage for me to teach Engslish since I knew alot about the Korean Language. Your students are lucky you have you as a teacher.

[seouliteguy]

The double vowel system is also helpful in making students distinguish 'R' from 'L'.

For example, '라'이트(Right) sounds like "L" while '롸'이트 like "R". '로'이열(Royal) sounds like "L", wheras, '뤄'이열 like "R".

[seouliteguy]

Korean vowels have two different kinds ; single vowel and double vowel.

To better pronouce "sh", you can apply a double vowel, "ㅟ", that is a combination of 'ㅜ' and 'ㅣ'. So its sound is somewhere between '수' and '시', near to 'sh' of '쉬'.

[TyYann]

When I was teaching pronunciation, I first told them never to use hangeul to write foreign words, and explained them that 'sh' sound was voiceless. At first, they wouldn't believe me. But once they aceepted it, they started to pronunce it right. I taught French pronunciation for 6years.

[LillithePink]

I am a native English speaker in a Swiss German speaking University... I feel your student's pain!! Learning high German is hard enough without having to then learn Swiss German, which is an oral language, not written. In English we pronounce TH and Thhhh in German it is T H separately. Boy have I had fun with that...

[fehquig]

Sometimes very amusing things come out of the mouths of foreign language speakers that can't help but make you laugh,

like the time a man wanted to go to Roseberry street, but he pronounced it "Losebelly..."

[soulofbass]

in japanese the only consonant sound that can be at the end of a syllable is N and its pronounced differently than in english even, with the mouth closed and nasal. you probably already knew that tho :) have a good one

[korea148]

korean words are dosn't use "thung twiste" .

and "시" is not "shee" just "see"

she = 쉬

korean words has easy and simple Pronunciations better than english .

[XeoTerminus]

Coming from someone born and raised in Korea? Don't you think that's a little subjective?

[nkkim1002]

I know!! 우 doesn't sound like Woo. Hard to write 'wood' in Korean. When they do , they write '우드' which sounds nothing like it. it sounds closer to '워-ㄷ'.

[nkkim1002]

Great Point! I live in the States and I try to teach my parents the proper pronunciation such as 'wood' . I understand why bc I speak Korean and so it's so much easier for me to explain to them.

[qiranger]

Certainly!

[01davethecouchguy]

My in laws came out to Australia from Italy more than 30 years ago. My mother in law says ham booger instead of burger. ...but my Italian is terrible.

[qiranger]

I can understand many more languages than I can speak.

[jhk2h]

good point

[qiranger]

Thanks!

[TrueBlueAustralian]

Good point..

[qiranger]

Thanks Pauly.

[etatauri]

Maybe you can create a hybrid language for them. Instead of teaching 'English' as 잉글리쉬, maybe you can write down the pronunciation code as '잉글리-ㅅ'. In Korean grammar this notation wouldn't make any sense but maybe it can help visualize that you shouldn't put a vowel at the end. Maybe for 'finish' you can use 'ㅍ-히니-ㅅ'. Too bad the archaic Korean characters went out of style as you were able to express the 'f' as a combination consonant comprising of 'ㅍ' on top of 'ㅎ'.

[qiranger]

Interesting.

[myargonauts]

This happens all the time with Japanese students learning English. One humorous example along the same lines is "ci" or "si" sound as found in city or sit. The Japanese tend to revert to their pronunciation and use "shi" for these words, result in "shit down" and a recent hot song by Orange Range about "City Boys" which sounded like "Shitty Boys."

[qiranger]

;-) I see that here as well.

[BusanKevin]

Brilliant video my man! Very sound advice. I also find that studying the language of your students or any second language also gives your more empathy. You can understand some of the hardships your students feel!

[qiranger]

Tell me about it. We had Halloween games yesterday, and one poor girl couldn't get any of the answers right, so they asked me to tell her something in Korean. So I said, "힌색 달."

Some of the class got it, but my "달" was so off from what she was used to hearing, that she didn't get that either. And here I thought my Korean was getting better.

[agentm83]

Interesting! I definitely want to try to learn at least a bit of Korean when I head over there.

[qiranger]

It's pretty easy.

[VirtuallyAddicted]

Yes, that is definitely one of the banes of my existence here in SK. :P

It's especially hard when my co teachers make the same mistake and my students tend to follow their lead more than mine. :O

When I first came to Korea, their was also a famous comedian whose bit was to mispronounce English words, but sadly a lot of my students thought he was right. I tell you if I ever meet that guy in a back alley. :P

[qiranger]

Yeah, I really cringe when I hear some of the English from Korean English teachers in some schools.

[itsHyunish]

hahaha I know what you mean!

And the actors/actresses on TV... MY EARS!

[4q2pab]

Mokoli-ee is Tasty-ee

[key8422]

That school is very lucky to have you as a teacher.

[qiranger]

Thanks.

[choi911z]

its just like this guy pronounces 한글 as 한굴 since theres no 'ㅡ' in english and they put 'u'

for example 'sm(sounds zm)' like in reali'sm' or manneri'sm' has no vowel but when you write down the sound of 'sm' in korean it goes 즘 that is with 'ㅡ' one of korean vowels and when you write the sound of 즘 back in english it comes out like zum or zeum

like this its matter of lack of the language's letters

[teamgh0ul]

You're an awesome teacher dude

[qiranger]

Thanks.

[janetkk89]

I think the hardest thing for native Koreans to pronounce is "f", "v", and words with "r"'s in the middle

[qiranger]

It can be a challenge. It also requires a bit of effort to learn the /z/ and /woo/ sounds, since they are not native to Hangeul.

[hnklee]

Other similar cases include Koreans' adding of the vowel sounds /ㅓ/ and /ㅡ/ to words like "Hamburger" (pronounced as /햄버거/) and "France" (/프랑스/).

I would say that the phonetic difference is not necessarily a "problem" unless it is framed as such. Personally I think that accent is just a part of linguistic evolving process, which makes that language more dynamic and alive.

[hnklee]

And I find it a little bit odd when the criticism of the Korean English accent and linking it to Koreans' intelligence in a negative way come from in particular those who pronounce "빠리" [paʁi] as "Paris" /ˈpærɪs/ or those who come from a country with various English dialects and accents.

[qiranger]

It's more of a problem on the side of the teacher who doesn't understand. It also grinds my nerves when ESL teachers make fun of Koreans when they say English words as they're written in Hangeul.

[thizizliz]

cgkitti said it best: "phonetic fun".

[qiranger]

;-)

[Mobbs1]

Aww, there's no wink at the end. So you are pretty multilingual?

[qiranger]

LOL.

I enjoy languages. I've spent time learning English, Spanish, Tagalog, Indonesian, Hangeul, and will add two dialects of Chinese as well.

[Mobbs1]

Wow. I'm really quite useless at learning new languages. Luckily for me, Hanguel seems quite logical to me. and progress is pretty good so far. I'm finding it much easier to write and read than to speak it though.

[OhCurt]

It's a shame that we regard language differences as signs of lower intelligence. Ironically, it's those of us making those kinds of assumptions who lack the knowledge to fully understand.

[qiranger]

Very true.

[psychosolodiver]

Wow! My Korean friend still talks like that, and he's been here 35 years. Know I know why.

[qiranger]

;-)

[Truedantalion]

Excellent! Such an intricate detail - I love this piece of information I got from you there. Very nice job with the Korean characters, too. Your videos are such a pleasure to watch, Steve :-)!

[qiranger]

Thanks mate.

[VioletKitty411]

Very interesting, thank you!

[qiranger]

Thanks VK.

[ogunshi]

I never thought of that.....

thank you

[qiranger]

You're welcome.

[ronbrendon]

I noticed this with my Korean students but they are doing their best to pronounce the English words correctly. and they are doing better now.. weeeeeeeeeeeeee

[qiranger]

Yeah, they really strive to learn, but having the background to understand the difficulty makes it easier on the teacher. Way to go Brendon.

[ronbrendon]

i agree...

[cgkitti]

I don't know too much about Korean, but I based most of my bachelor's around sociolingusitics so I think a lot about how languages work.

My favorite mispronunciation is when the /wu/ sound comes out just /u/. I notice my students whose names have a "Woo" in them...it's just pronounced "Oo" so I think it must be uncommon to have a /w/ and /u/ sound together. So then I get sentences like "Ood comes from trees". Or "The man and the Ooman".

I live for phonetic fun...haha

[qiranger]

Ah... that's because there's no /woo/ sound in Hangeul.

[cgkitti]

It makes sense. I just don't understand why they spell names differently than words. I have a student... Je Woo...why is there a W?!? I would have said the name the way it looks if someone hadn't told me about the "silent" W. Same thing with the common last name of "Lee"... Aaahhh...

[qiranger]

There are some strange rules when it comes to Romanization of Hangeul that result in 이 being written as Lee and 우 writen as Woo.

[hnklee]

To cgkitti: Their native language is Korean. While the phonetic difference between "woo" and "oo" may be obvious to you, it is not to them. In reverse, the sound differences between, oh let's say, "ㅅ" and "ㅆ", is obvious to Koreans, but not to English speakers.

Also I don't see any problem with one choosing to spell his/her name in one way and to pronounce it in a slightly different way (e.g., "Stephen" being /stivon/, not /stefen/).

[hnklee]

In my case, when I had to decide how to romanize my name "이한눌" for getting my passport, I knew "Ee Hanul" would sound closer to the way my name is actually pronounced but I still decided to go by the romanization easier for English speakers, that is "Lee Han" (I even dropped the second syllable), to avoid the hassle of having to make extra-sure that my name spelled right (especially on official documents) or being made fun of (or even worse discriminated against) in the U.S.

[cgkitti]

True, I guess that it's more frustrating for me when I said "Woo" when talking about him to my coteacher and he gave me a hard time like I should have known about the fact that you don't say the W. Because for someone who doesn't know Korean...how are we supposed to know that? Oh well.

Languages in general are just confusing but in a good way.

[yeomjiwon]

My kind friend tought me how to pronouce Westwood whenever I say "oestood." I practiced

that sound for several months until I was approved. It makes me smile at your comment.

from LA.

[dannisjc]

Very interesting! However, I've also heard Koreans add an "i" at the end of words that don't have the final "sh" sounds, so I think there also may be an element of assimilation.

[qiranger]

The /sh/ to /shee/ addition isn't the only instance. A lot of time you'll hear /wichee/ instead of /wich/ for the same reason.

[MidiPunk]

Very interesting!

[qiranger]

Thanks. Glad you thought so.