ㅃㅉㄸㄲㅆ

Since there is no pronunciation thread I'll post here! 1st post intro: I'm Bryce, 20 yr college student from Indiana. I study Chinese in school, and met an amazing Korean girl girl in that class. Now, my focus is still Chinese but being around her makes me want to pick up Korean thus why I am here :) My problem is with ?????. I can't pronounce them at all. That Korean girl, now my girlfriend, tried to teach me how to say those letters didn't work. I am going to have a real problem feeling I have a chance at Korean if I can't even say all the sounds. Help me figure these sounds out!!! 欧博思 부라이스

Hi 브라이스, What good motive you've got there to learn a cool language like Korean! I'll do my best to help you impress your Korean girlfriend by pronouncing those consonants perfectly. First, you need to check your ㅂ before learning ㅃ. The reason you can't be any stronger in ㅃ is that your ㅂ isn't soft enough. ㅂ should be softer than alphabet 'b'. You know how you pronounce 'b' . Just use less air and slightly loosen your lips than that to say ㅂ. And then do just the opposite with ㅃ; more air and tighter lips. In romanized Korean, I use 'b' for ㅂ, and 'pb' for ㅃ. With ㅉ, and others apply the same rule. 'j' for ㅈ 'tj' for ㅉ, 'd' for ㄷ 'td' for ㄸ, 'g' for ㄱ 'kg' for ㄲ , 's' for ㅅ 'ts' for ㅆ. If you check constantly the result sound and changes in the height of your tongue and the thouching point of the tongue and the palate, you'll find the closest sound you want. Play with the sound all the time, and you'll be used to the right one. Thank you for your interest in Korean, and let me know if my tips helped or not ,so that, if not, I've got tens of other ways to try on you to make you sound perfect in Korean. 열심히 공부하세요! Sujung.

You were right! ㅃㅉㄸㄲ I can make them all, but I have difficulties making ㅂㅈㄷㄱ soft enough - even if I whisper. This sometimes turns innocent words like 동 (east) into.... not so nice words!!! Do you have any more tips for softening up my ㅂㅈㄷㄱ? I have no problem with ㅅㅆ -- those sounds are both in Mandarin. My cousin has a friend from college who is visiting his house right now. He is a native of Seoul. He told me my ㅃㅉㄸㄲ are fine and my ㅂㅈㄷㄱ I say too strong. My girlfriend, a Daegu native, thought I was terrible at ㅃㅉㄸㄲ back at the end of school in May. I could have just gotten better, but maybe there is some regional dialect difference between Seoul and Daegu you can tell me about?

Hi, 브라이언, Sorry I've missed the opportunity to answer the question about 전 and 제. But I couldn't have come up with any better answer than your own. Well done! Sometimes a lazy teacher produces an excellent disciple. ( ㅋ ㅋ , in English, l o l ) Now, about regional thing, I'm a Seoul native, but my parents are from Daegu, so I'm bilingual. Daegu people can't pronounce ㅆ. They cook 밥 with 살, not 쌀. I rest my case there. Let me just tell you how you can soften ㅂㄷㅈㄱ ㅅ. First, with ㅂ, think how you produce that sound using what part of your mouth. Lips, right? No need to wisper because it's not the air that can change the sound but how firmly you're holding your lips has the key. Try soften your lips, or tongue touching your palate when making ㄷ sound, and so on. 계속 연습하세요, 화이팅! ( in Daeguan, 잘해라, 쫌!) Sujung

hello, 브라이스 again with another pronunciation question. Above I said that I couldn't say ㅃㅉㄸㄲ ㅂㅈㄷㄱ very well. I also said ㅅ ㅆ are no problem. Erm, actually now my ㅂㅈㄷㄱ ㅃㅉㄸㄲ are alright and my ㅅ ㅆ are the problem!!! It seems my problem with ㅅ ㅆ is the same as before - my girlfriend tells me I can only make the ㅆ sound. Also, if I am listening to sound clips that only play the consonant like just 스 or 쓰 I cannot tell the difference unless they are played consecutively. Sujung, your tip for softening my other letters worked. So far I can't figure out how to soften an ㅆ though... Can you give me another tip on how I can try to soften my ㅆ sound to sound more like ㅅ? If you are familiar with any Chinese then so am I, so you can use both Chinese and English examples. 감사합니다!!

오랜만이에요 브라이스 ! With the ㅅ sound, you will need to create more space between your tongue and the roof of your mouth/back of the teeth. This way, more air will come through and soften the ㅅ sound. For ㅆ , do just the opposite and create more friction with your "ssss", like you are trying to emphasize something when you're telling a story :) I hope that helps! - Sujung