Discussion Post #4

[Jiwon Kang]

The phonetic inventory of Korean is very different from English. Korean has two parts to a basic word--a prefix and suffix. A Korean word has to have both elements and cannot have just one of the characters. There are many sounds in Korean that are not pronounced in the English language. Similar to the letter "V" to Koreans, there are many characters in the Korean language that does not exist in the English language. ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ, ㅊ (kk) (tt) (pp) (ss/t) (jj) (ch). All of these characters in Korean are sounds that the English language does not have. It is important to understand that pronouncing new sounds will be very hard and will take a lot of time to master. Since your mouth is not used to moving in a certain way, it will take muscle memory to learn to pronounce the characters correctly. In order to acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segments in Korean listening, I will have to listen to native Koreans speak. This will allow me to become accustom to the sounds and voices in the Korean language. In order to pronounce the characters correctly, I will keep using new mouth movements to practice speaking the different characters I am not used to. My student tutor will be able to help me correct my pronunciation and become more familiar with the characters in Korean that are not in the English language. 

[Global Studio]

Muscle memory is important, but there are also a number of useful phonetic drills to help you develop the mechanisms required to make the array of sounds present in Korean. Tongue twisters, for example, play a crucial role in developing your ability to mimic and repeat difficult segments. Ask your language partners for suggestions. On another note, please be sure not to conflate sounds and spellings.