Sound is known to commonly be a sequence of phones which are represented as symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. An essential part of sound is our airstream and numerous parts of the mouth area in order to produce speech. On the other hand, spelling is a representation of sounds in writing which may sometimes not accurately represent the sounds that are being made.
Being able to understand the difference between sound and spelling is important when learning a new language. This distinction is significant because it helps those who are learning to be able to enhance their pronunciation. For example, when learning Korean, I can hear that the words are written as they are pronounced. This idea is supported by how King Sejong created the hangul system using how the mouth produced sounds. The Korean writing system is different when compared to the English writing system. That is because there is a mismatch between the sound and spelling, making it harder for someone trying to learn because there is a lot of confusion. Therefore, it is important to note these differences in order to create a plan that will help the person learn their target language. Since Korean is written the way it is pronounced, I can learn to master the pronunciations while trying to write and read at the same time.
The Korean language does have certain sounds that do not exist in American English and vice versa. While learning phrases and words, I notice that there are sounds that seem to have a combination of letters in the American English alphabet. Therefore, it can be difficult to try to perfectly pronounce the word because of this since I end up leaning towards the pronunciation of one letter. One example of this is when I was learning how to say that I am going alone (혼자가) the last word 가 was hard to correctly pronounce due to the ㄱ character because it sounds in between of [gk.a]. There are also words that require more or less aspiration. For example, learning how to pronounce save me (살려줘) the first word, 살 [sal] has more aspiration when it is said.
There are many ways that will help me acquire the ability to discriminate between segments in my listening and to produce these sounds in my speech. To do so I would need to listen to native speakers so I can be able to hear the differences in pronunciation. Whenever I am learning how to speak, I always make sure to ask my learning tutor to repeat the words several times and correct me if needed to make sure I pronounce it correctly. She would also explain which letters in the English alphabet are similar to the sound that I am trying to produce so I would have a better idea on how to correctly pronounce it. I would also make sure to practice what I learned with my roommate and she would also help me with my pronunciation. This makes it easier for me to remember by practicing.
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