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Discussion #4– Spring 2026
Russian consists of both soft and hard vowels and consonants which are used in different instances and when combined in different ways (as in, with different surrounding sounds in Russian). Many of these phonetic sounds have an English equivalent. However, sounds such as Ы, Щ (soft) and P (hard and soft), do not. The Ы sound is used in the following Russian words: мы [m-uh-ee]; English translation: my Cыр [syr]; English translation: cheese It sounds like a mixture between the ‘oo’ in book and the ‘ee’ in meet. Sometimes the letter y is cited as the closest English sound equivalent. It is also described as a guttural sound, made by pulling one’s tongue from the front to the back of the mouth during the sound production. The Щ (soft) sound is used in the following Russian words: Щека [sheh-KA]; English translation: cheek Ещё [yeh-SHCHO] or [yeh-SHOH]; English translation: still or more This sound is often described as the English combination of “shch.” The tongue is placed in the middle…
Read more…Discussion Post #4
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…
Read more…Cultural Post #2
Over spring break last year, I went to South Korea and decided to get each of my family members a gift from there. My dad has always been interested in masks and skulls, and these are two things I have seen in a lot of different cultures. When I went on a class trip to Puerto Rico, we did a cultural immersion activity where we learned about coconut masks, so I decided to look into masks in South Korea. I came across hahoe masks, which come from the Hahoe village in South Korea.The hahoe masks originate all the way back to the Joseon Dynasty, where they were used for different rituals in the village. They were carved out of wood and given different expressions, and they were then painted to provide more detail.I have linked a few examples of different masks and their expressions below.The performers who wore the masks and performed the dances were often peasants and people from the lower classes. The dances were often satirical and brought humor into the lives of those who watched…
Read more…Discussion 4
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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