Korean has 14 consonants and 10 vowels that make up its basic sounds. All these sounds are simple ones that we can make a direct translation from into English. When I work with Emily, she gives me the Korean sound but with English letters or relates it to an English word to help me understand it better. Some sounds sound similar, so we had to do extra work on them. For example, euh, and oh were two sounds I had a hard time differentiating. I learned that the position of my mouth and even my jaw were important to hear the difference.
As I am progressing in my learning, I am beginning to struggle with tenses. For example, there are double consonants in Korean, such as ㅅ, which makes an s sound. When two of those consonants are put together and are side by side, they make a ss sound. The ss is much more prominent, like if a snake was hissing at you. This is something that I am already working to differentiate. Another example was when I was talking to my friend, and we were discussing the Korean word for “sleep,” which is pronounced “jam”. When I repeated it back to him, he corrected me and told me that I was saying “cham,” which can mean “truth”. Even though in English I do not have any difficulties telling these apart, in Korean I have a lot harder time. It is important to see the intensity behind the sounds. When I am reading basic words, I do not struggle with seeing the difference, but when I simply listen to the words, I struggle a lot more with the tenses. As I continued practicing with him, I learned to soften the “j” in jam to make it less explosive.
As I continue learning the language, I need to really focus on these tenses. I need to work to hear the difference between g/k and gg and kk. I know that there is a rhythm that I will learn, so I honestly think it will just take a lot more practice. I think that I will be able to improve these skills by finding words that are really similar to each other and trying to hear the difference between them. Honestly, to get better at seeing the difference, I just need to continue listening to the difference in pronunciation and then repeating it back. Because we do not have tenses in English, I know it is important to work on these subjects and ask clarifying questions during my meetings with Emily.
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Your process to learning to differentiate different sounds really resonates with me. I am also strugling to hear the difference in Russian sounds that do not have an English translation or sounds where in English there is no subtle pronunciation difference that changes the meaning.
I am also prioitizing practicing above all else. Similarly, I am working on the intensity of certain sounds since that also makes a difference in what I am saying in Russian.
I love that you shared this. Sometimes I forget how similar language learning blips are across different languages. Truly we are all more conneted than we think!