The goal of this paper is to look at English pronunciation in Korea. To understand Koreans’ pronunciation of English I believe it is important to understand, to a certain degree, Koreans’ understanding of English. English is often taught through Korean at schools and hagwons. To this end, this paper will attempt to educate the reader of the differences in English and Korean alphabet and basic phonemes.

First, both English and Korean are alphabets. They both have a set of symbols that represent a sound or phoneme. Both languages can be divided into two groups. Those groups are consonants and vowels. However, some letters in Korean change their sounds depending on if they are the beginning or end of a syllable.

We will first look at consonants. Many Korean consonants are very similar to those in English. M, N, B, P, T, and D are almost identical to their Korean counterparts of ㅁ, ㄴ, ㅂ, ㅍ, ㅌ, and ㄷ. ㅁ, ㅂ and ㄴ do not change, they make M and N sound when they are at the beginning and end of a syllable. However, ㅍ, ㅌ, and ㄷ change depending on where they are in a syllable. ㅍ, ㅌ, and ㄷ make similar sounds to their English counterparts when they are at the beginning of a syllable. When at the end of a syllable they are often not pronounced. Instead, they are a terminating sound. The mouth makes the shape that corresponds to the letter, but it is not strongly enunciated. ㄱ is often translated as G or K. When at the beginning of a syllable it is aspirated slightly but at the end of a syllable it is not. ㅋ is strongly aspirated like K when at the beginning of a syllable, however it is not aspirated at the end of a syllable. ㄹ is the most problematic in that it is very similar to R and L. It is closer to R at the beginning of a syllable and closer to L at the end of a syllable. Finally, ㅅ is often compared to S in English, but it is closer to SH.

The reader should have noticed there are a few letters that are not represented in the Korean language. F is often pronounced as B or P. V is pronounced almost identically to F. For example, FLUTE is said as PLUTE and VIOLIN is said as BIOLIN. Finally, Z is often pronounced as a stressed J. For example, PIZZA is said like PI JJA.

Vowels are less problematic. 오, 우, 이, 아, 어, are the same as long o, long u, long e, short a, and short u. However, 이 is very similar to short i, when it is followed by a consonant. 으 is similar to the sound made between consonants in English. 애 and 에 are similar to short a and short e when they are followed by a consonant, but both are closer to long a when not followed by a consonant.

This has been a very brief overview of Korean phonemes. It is in no way complete of comprehensive. Its intention is to give the reader a basic understanding of what their students already know. From this information the reader should be able to predict possible pronunciation problems that their students may have in English. Among the problems the reader may encounter there are a few that can be minimized. For example the reader should anticipate students not correctly pronouncing ending consonants. To compensate for this, the teacher should over pronunciate ending consonants.

Also the teacher should be prepared to spend extra class time, if needed, on certain consonants such as v, f, p, and z. The teacher should finally be prepared to spend extra time, again only if needed, on short i. It is often said as long e. Students are taught in Korean elementary school that 이 only makes long e sound. However, it is often said as a short i, particularly in the family name of Kim. The teacher should be prepared to use this as an example for the students. Is your name Kim or Keem? The students will almost certainly say Kim.

Ryan Green