Learning Journal #4

[Tanjila Islam]

Korean has 19 consonants, and 21 vowels. I have been trying to memorize the alphabets, and expand my vocabulary. As expected, the words that I have been having the most difficulty remembering or pronouncing properly are the ones that don't exist in English. For example, the consonants ㅈ and ㅊ sound very similar to me because their sounds exist in English. The closest comparison in English would be a j and a ch sound, but none of them actually give the ㅈ and ㅊ sound. I have also been having difficulty with the vowels -- I am not used to using so many vowels and having to deliberately change the pitch in how I pronounce i's and e's. In Korean there are different i's, e's, and o's. Moreover depending on which consonant they are paired with, the stress that you use also changes. So far, I have been trying to listening to more recording, and have conversations with my language partner more often. Although I haven't been able to perfect my pronunciation, I think practicing has definitely helped me in distinguishing the sounds when I hear native speakers.