Korean has constants and vowels that are different from English. Korean phonology has three ways to distinguish constants. The p-like sounds have a soft sound with 발 (bal), a medium sound with 팔 (pal), and a stronger sound with 빨 (ppal). The tense or stronger constants do not exist in English. While English relies on voicing, Korean relies on tension. For vowels, English does not have (ㅡ) “eu” where the lips are not rounded. To understand the pronunciation, I need to learn the three different tensions for the constants, know which require air or tension, and hear the sound changes. To hear the changes, I will listen to native Koreans speaking and do dictation exercises to train my ear. Once I know the difference, I hope to use my vocal cords for tense and place my hand in front of my mouth for air sounds while speaking to practice and record myself to compare.
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