It looks like North Korea actually got a 3G phone network. Wow! For a country who still suffers from mass food shortages that’s quite an accomplishment. Wait a second. There’s a couple of problems here. #1: Where’s the juchae? Don’t they believe that they don’t have to rely on foreigners? Having an Egyptian company come in and set it up? That’s just low, North Korea, even for you. #2: Here’s a quote that speaks a thousand words:
[The service has begun] to meet the wishes of users who want to see news about the republic at any place and anytime
Now that’s just creepy. I love my country, but who the freak wants a mobile 3G phone just to see the latest news on your evil overlords? Just imagine what their iphones must look like … (see image below)
People say the funniest things when they learn languages don’t they? Well, I’m no different. Last time I explained mistakes that Koreans commonly make when speaking English so I decided I needed to tell on of my mistakes (I only made one right…)
While teaching a teenage girl (making it even more embarrassing) I made the mistake of trying to say spiritual (we do spiritual things on Sunday) but instead said sexual. Both roots have the same spelling so you have to make sure you use them the right way.
Enjoy!
English Transcript
Hi everyone, since I talked about mistakes Koreans make speaking English last time, this time I’ll talk about a mistake I made when I first learned Korean.
I was a missionary when I first learned Korean, so I learned a lot of church words. And since I learned Chinese I really liked characters. So when I learned ‘church’, seung-gyung, I learned seung. That seung means holy. And if you add ‘cheug-in’ to a character then it changes from a noun into an adjective. So, I put together ’seung’ and ‘cheug-in’ I thought it would mean ’spiritual.’
Later while I was teaching as a missionary, a girl asked me a question. She asked what people do on Sunday when they go to church. I said that people go to church and do sexual things.
That’s a big mistake, eh?
The problem is that there are two ’seung’ characters, a ’seung’ meaning holy and a ’seung’ meaning sex. If you say ’seung-cheug-in’, it’s the ’seung’ meaning sex. If you want to say spiritual, you need to use ‘geu-rook-han.’
Maybe when she heard that, she was thinking ‘Huh? Is this a pervert church?’ Or maybe ‘I should join…’ I have no idea what she was thinking, but please make sure not to make a mistake like that!
This was a great production that took place in Vancouver, Canada in May 2007 by the local community showcasing the diverse culture in the area. I got to be in the Korean part where we wore hanbok (한복) (traditional Korean clothes) and danced and sang doraji (도라지) and jindo-arirang (진도 아리랑) although it’s hard to hear our voices over the accompaniment. I got to be one of the white (as in color of the hanbok, no pun intended) servants. You can see me at 1:48 walking behind some girls in the front of the servants with my shovel doing some grade-A shoveling. At the end we do a traditional Korean bow. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!
Is the video broken? Please comment so I can find a new copy. Thanks!
In this video I explain about some common mistakes made by Koreans speaking English. It’s all in Korean so I hope I didn’t make too many mistakes =). Here’s a summary of what I talk about:
If I find some more things to talk about, I’ll make another video on the same subject. Don’t worry, I’m going to talk about an embarrassing mistake I made in Korean too…
English Transcript
Hello everyone, today I want to talk about common mistakes that Koreans make when they speak English. First, I want to talk about the word yak-sok. In Korean, yak-sok can be used in many situations. For example, if you are meeting someone you can say “I’m going to an appointment” You can use it like that and you can also use the promise yak-sok. But in English, both have different meanings. First, the yak-sok you go to is appointment in English. So, if you want to say ‘I have an appointment that I have to go to’ in English, you have to say: Oh, I have an appointment I have to go to. Occasionally Koreans say ‘I have a promise.’ But, that promise is a mistake. If you want to say promise, and say something like: ‘I promise to try really hard to speak Korean.’ You need to say: ‘I promise to try to speak Korean.’ That yak-sok is promise.
Also secondly, when Koreans speak English the hardest pronunciation is r and l. It’s because Korean has the re-ul pronunciation. But re-ul is kind of between r and l. l is the re-ul from chin-ri (the truth chin-ri). The r pronunciation doesn’t exist. So just learn it from someone who speaks English. But the most important thing is that if you switch r and l it’s really strange. For example, ‘I like to eat rice’. In English it’s, ‘I like to eat rice.’ But when Koreans first speak English, They say ‘I like to eat lice.’ That means something like I like to eat bedbugs. So learn the r and l pronunciation well! Also I attend college right? One of my Korean friends told me something last semester. She said: ‘everyone stood up and started crapping.’ When I heard it, I thought what? what did you say? what? Because in English, it means everyone stood up and started pooping. It means something like that. But she should have said: ‘everyone started clapping.’ that means everyone stood up and started clapping. So the r and l pronunciation is very important. Don’t make a mistake like that!
And third, when people ask questions, the answer is very important. For example, in Korea if you say yes when someone asks: “Are you not going to speak Korean?’ It means ‘yes, I won’t speak Korean.’ But that’s wrong in English. When people say: Are you not going to speak Korean anymore? Koreans usually say yes. But when you answer in English it means: ‘Yes, I will speak Korean’. But if you say no it means ‘no, I’m not going to …’ If you say yes in English, It means: Yes, I’m going to do that. But if you say no it means: ‘No, I’m not going to …’ So use yes and no well!
Fourth, the s-i pronunciation is really hard for Koreans. It’s because Koreans have the ’she’ pronunciation. But they don’t have a si pronunciation. But like r and l, the si sound is very important. If you say it wrong, you’ll swear. In English we have s-i-t, sit. In English, it means sit. So don’t use the s-h pronunciation. If you use s-h, it’s s-h-i-t, shit. poop. So: ‘I’m going to go sit on the chair’ means I’m going to go sit on the chair. But: ‘I’m going to go shit on the chair’ means I’m going to go poop on the chair. So please say the s-i pronunciation well!
Also, when Koreans speak English Sometimes they add an e sound at the end of words. Church is church in English. But, I’ve heard a lot of Koreans say churchy. Please don’t add the e sound to the end of words. Just add ‘uh’. So if you have to use konglish, don’t say ‘Chyeu-chi’. Say ‘Chyeu-chuh.’ That’s really important.
Lastly, Koreans sometimes use konglish when speaking English. Remember what the konglish is in English. For example, when my friend came here she said … <sorry, just junk> Some guy gave my friend a ride. But when my friend saw his car, she said: ‘Nice open car!’ But in English, open car is convertible. So if you say open car to someone who speaks English, it’s strange There’s also eye shopping. People who speak English don’t say eye shopping, they say window shopping. But since I learned konglish sometimes I say eye shopping even though I speak English.
Those are mistakes that Koreans make when they speak English. But those aren’t all. There’s a lot of other things but this video is a little long isn’t it? So if I think of something new I’ll make another video. If you have a question, go to my blog or comment below Well, have a good day! Bye.
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