Teach English in BAqiao Zhen - Chongqing

Common Pronunciation Problems in KoreaProblems related to pronunciation greatly depend on what the speaker?s mother tongue is. Each language will present its own unique pronunciation problems due to not only phonological factors, but also based on the type of the language it is. In this paper, we will discuss the various pronunciation problems koreans have when speaking English. Pronouncing Every Syllable One of the main differences in English pronunciation verses korean pronunciation is the fact that English is a stress-timed language. In English, only certain words or syllables are given stress, while the others are quickly skimmed over. If a one sentence contains 15 syllables and another sentence contains 20 but they both have 6 syllables that are stressed, they will both take approximately the same amount of time to say. korean on the other hand is a syllable timed language, which means all syllables are given typically given the same amount of stress. Due to this fundamental difference, koreans will often stress every syllable and it can take them twice as long to read a sentence in this manner. Adding Extra syllables and Sounds The korean language has some restrictions in place that cause many native korean speakers to add extra syllables when speaking English. In Asia, there is a concept of the yin and the yang, and similarly it is applied to the korean language. Typically a syllable in korean consists of up to three sounds (consonant, vowel, consonant), and each syllable must contain a vowel. This means a word like ?drink? transliterated into korean becomes ??? (deu-rin-keu) stretches from 1 syllable (in English) to 3 syllables. Not only are two extra syllables added, it also adds to ?eu? sounds that were not present before. This is because two consecutive consonant sounds cannot be written next to each other, unless one of the consonant sounds comes at the end of a syllable and is followed by the first consonant in the next syllable. So D must form its own syllable separately, but must be combined with the vowel ?(eu), and the next syllable is ?rin? followed by a separate syllable for the K sound, which also needs to be written with the ?eu? vowel. Due to these habits when speaking korean, many koreans apply this speaking style to English forming extra syllables and adding extra ?eu? sounds. R and L Sounds Native korean speakers, like a lot of other people from East Asian countries, struggle with the R and L sounds of English. The R and L sound is represented by one letter in korean (?) and the sound it makes depends on what position it is in. Many koreans seem to have trouble consciously realizing which sound they are actually making, this problem seems to carry over into English. On top of this, the korean R is a different type of R than the English R, it is a flap consonant (?). So consequently, many koreans are pronouncing the English R as the flap consonant. V and F sounds korean does not contain a V and F sound. The V sound is replaced with a B sound(?) and the F sound is replaced with a P sound(?), although sometimes by an H(?) sound as well. Z sound koreans often say the English Z sound as a J like sound, making names like Jack and Zach hard to distinguish. Many koreans mistakenly believe that the J-like sound (?) is a Z sometimes, likely due to hearing their teachers pronouncing Z in this same manner. This has also lead into some humorous Romanization with things that were typically J?s becoming Z?s and vice versa, for example ?limojine.? Th sounds korean also doesn?t contain any type of ?TH? sound and it is simply replaced with an F sound. A lot of people will pronounce the word ?three? as ?sree? and so on. Learning a bit of korean can help give teachers more of an insight into the problems korean students face when learning English.