Teaching in Korea: Englishee

One of the things ESL teachers in Korea deal with on a day-to-day basis is correcting pronunciation of certain English words. Now this isnt unique to language instructors, but here in Korea it can be a daunting task and some new teachers become frustrated or mock their students without knowing the linguistic background causing the problem.

The root of the problem stems from the way Hangeul is written. For those not familiar with Hangeul, heres the Wiki: Hangeul is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It was created in the mid-fifteenth century, and is now the official script of both North Korea and South Korea, being co-official in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China. Hangeul is a phonemic alphabet organized into syllabic blocks. Each block consists of at least two of the 24 Hangeul letters with at least one each of the 14 consonants and 10 vowels. These syllabic blocks can be written horizontally from left to right as well as vertically from top to bottom in columns from right to left.

When one delves into learning Hangeul, you start learning what each letter makes and the different combinations possible. That is one of the strengths of Hangeul: it can be made to approximate almost any sound. However, the consonant and vowel combination can sometimes cause a problem. For example, there is no consonant representing the /sh/ sound in English. The sound is formed by writing /시/ which is pronounced /shee/.

This is where some of the most common pronunciation problems occur with words like English and finish. Students native tongue kicks in and when they get to the /sh/ sound add /ee/ to the words making them /Englishee/ and /finishee/, respectively.

Some ESL teachers repeatedly get upset by the consistent use of /Englishee/ in class, but I dont. Having studied several languages over the years, I hear my English pronunciation drop into Spanish, Tagolog, etc. all the time. When I hear ?Englishee/ or /finishee/ in class, I dont negatively enforce the students, but provide a gentle reminder that English has a different structure and that the word is /English/ or /finish/. I try to positively reinforce the students as much as possible, for as limited as some of their English may be, it is significantly more advanced that my Korean.

My students often comment on how hard it is to learn English. I agree, but thats also why Im here- to try and make it easy and fun for them.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• qiranger
• South
• Korea
• Dongtan
• Hangul
• Hangeul
• englishee
• english
• TEFL
• ESL
• teaching
• learning
• language

[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.

[dlh127kor]

Thanks for clearing that up. I had the issue when i first came to States and took me awhile to ajust.Having friends to converse helped me correct my self greatly(although they made fun of at times)LOL! ; )

[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.

[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.

[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..."