[Deleted]
Have you found difficult the pronounciation of some sounds when you began Korean ?

If yes, which ones and how did you master it ? I need some advice. Thanks very much :)

Mar 23, 2015 4:21 PM
Comments · 4
3

I started learning Korean in August 2014, and there are a few sounds I still struggle with (though I've gotten a lot better!)  The sounds I still struggle with are ㅉ vs ㅈ and ㅆ vs ㅅ.  When I began, I struggled with all the double consonants, and I also struggled with ㅡ vs ㅜ and ㅓ vs ㅗ.

For the vowels, my teacher gave me some tricks that helped.  For ㅡ, she told us to make the same mouth shape as for ㅣ, kind of a smile, and then try to say "ooh."  ㅜ, on the other hand, is a rounded "ooh."  For ㅓ, she told us to think of it as being in between ㅏ and ㅗ.  It's not the rounded sound of ㅗ, and it's not the forward sound of ㅏ, it's in between.

For double consonants, the ones I've mostly got the hang of now are ㄲ, ㄸ, and ㅃ.  It's important to understand the consonants in the context of the related consonants, so ㄲ is understood as compared to ㄱ and ㅋ, and ㄸ is understood as compared to ㄷ and ㅌ, while ㅃ is understood as compared to ㅂ and ㅍ.

First, for ㄱ/ㄲ/ㅋ: I think ㄲ sounds the most like the English letter G.  ㅋ is definitely the English letter K, and ㄱ sounds mostly like K, but it's subtler.

Similarly, for ㅂ/ㅃ/ㅍ: ㅃ sounds the most like B, ㅍ is definitely P, and ㅂ is like a subtler P.

But for ㄷ/ㄸ/ㅌ: ㄷ sounds the most like D, and ㅌ is definitely T, but ㄸ is like a D that feels stickier.  It's similar to the Spanish D.

If anyone has tips to differentiate ㅆ/ㅅ and ㅉ/ㅈ, please add to the discussion!

March 23, 2015

Thanks to the tons of K-dramas and Kpop songs, I was able to imitate most of the pronunciations easily. And my Korean teacher was a native Korean with Seoul dialect, so it helped a lot. 

And singing Kpop songs really REALLY helped. 

 

For ㅆ/ㅅ and ㅉ/ㅈ, ㅅ is just S and ㅆ is like more pronounced dragged out S (note that it's NOT the same as "ss" in the word "expression"), I guess. And same with ㅉ/ㅈ, ㅈ is kinda pronounced differently on a certain words, but to me it sound like inbetween of G (as in giraff) and Z, sometimes G and Ch.  And ㅉ sounds like more pronounced dragged out J (jam is written as 쨈 sometimes 잼, so that "j" is ㅉ)

I hope it made sense haha.  

March 24, 2015

Amy has hit most of the tough ones.  I still have problems with ㅆ and ㅅ and a few others, especially when I am not conscious of my pronunciation and am just talking. 살 and 쌀.. I can do it correctly about 50% of the time (or so I have been told). 에 and 애 used to be really hard for me to copy.  I could hear the difference but not repeat the difference in isolation.  At that time there was a difference, and professional teachers attempted to drilled it into us.  Nowadays, many young Koreans say that even they don't hear a difference.  Thank goodness... finally I am off the hook!

 

No sound has been more difficult for me to learn that ق (a Persian letter).  But after enourmous hours.. yes I mean hours and hours AND hours of practice, I learned to do it ...(just not all of the time). :P

 

Chin up! It can be done!  화이팅!

March 23, 2015

I overcame this by listening to korean news on Ustream and also watching kdramas. My pronunciation isnoes that of a native speaker.

March 23, 2015