What is the Timeframe to Reduce Native Korean Accent?

Accent Reduction

SJ (VP of Customer Engagement)

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Korean is one of the most complexes, yet a popular language is spoken around the world. Well, learning a new language can be a daunting task for you, but reducing the accent can be a more complicated aspect. When it comes to Korean language, reducing accent can be a little time consuming because there are various linguistic notions that need to be worked upon.

Well, the Korean language is a syllable-timed language. And, each syllable in the Korean language is distinctly shaped, with equivalent pressure. By distinguish; English is a stress-timed language. Korean is not a tonal language. Some experts think that Korean has less variation in terms of pitch and stress in comparison to English. English spoken by Korean Native Speakers can sometimes be perceived by native English speakers as monologue and monotone.

 

Vowels – Different Techniques

The Korean language has 10 vowels, 11 diphthongs, and 2 semi-vowels. In standard production, all Korean vowels are non-nasal and voiced such as English vowels, although they may be produced nasally if preceded or followed by a nasal sound.

Korean speaker may have difficulty perceiving and producing vowels in a similar way as native English speakers. There are around 7 vowels in English that do not subsist in Korean: /I/ (as in “bit”), /ae/ (as in “apple”), the “u” sound as in “put”, the “or” sound (as in “for”, “author” and “gnaw”), the /aI/ diphthong (as in “like”), the “or-I” diphthong (as in “boy” or “oil”), and the “au” diphthong (as in “cow” or “allow”).

Certain common issues, including knowing and producing the differentiation

The short “e” sound (as in “egg”) and the short “a” sound (as in apple); and

The long “ee” sound (/i/) as in “beet” and the short “i” sound (/I/) as in “bit”;

“u” (as in “put”), “or” and “er” sounds.

 

Consonants – Perfect Blend of Easy and Complex

The Korean language has around 19 consonants. Whereas, English has 12 consonants, that are quite different than the Korean language. Sounds such as /f/, /v/, “th” (voiceless, as in “bath”), “th” (voiced, as in “bathe”), /z/, “sh”, “ch”, “zh” (as in “measure” or “vision”), “j” and “r” don’t exist in Korean. /b, d/ and /g/ are often unvoiced.

Generally, Korean consonants are differentiated by the degree of aspiration and density. In English, Consonants are illustrious by the degree of aspiration and voicing. According to some researchers, the tense feature of Korean consonants can affect vowels, too, giving Korean speech a “throaty” or “laryngeal” quality.

For instance, “Stopping” of hissy fricative sounds like /f/, /v/, “th” (voiceless, as in “bath”), “th” (voiced, as in “bathe”), /z/, “sh”, “ch”, “zh” (as in “measure” or “vision”) is common when Korean native speakers speak English.

In syllable ultimate position, only 7 consonants transpire in Korean (/p, t, k, m, n, l/ and “ng”).

The Korean consonant /s/* has only a trivial air escape, which builds it different from the English /s/.

 

Let’s discuss the two American English consonant linguistic sounds that are challenging for Korean speakers.

The first is the /f/ sound.

Korean speakers often pronounce the /f/ sound like a /p/ sound.

  • That implies that the word ‘stuff’ sounds like ‘stop’.
  • The word ‘coffee’ sounds differently in both languages.
  • The word ‘laugh’ sounds like a ‘lap’.

 

When it comes to American English, the letter ‘S’ is frequently found at the end of both verbs & nouns. When the letter ‘S’ occurs at the end of words, it can be pronounced as a /z/ sound or /s/ sound.

Korean speakers can be inclined to leave out the 2 sounds of word-final ‘S’. Well, this sound is never noiseless in spoken American English!

Word-initial ‘S’ is often prominent as /ʃ/ by Korean speakers. That implies that ‘Sue’ sounds like ‘shoe’ & ‘city’ sounds like ‘shitty’.

Most often Korean speakers who replace /r/ with a voice quicker to the English /l/:

Because Korean does not have the reverberation /v/ and /f/, Koreans speakers of English often alternate them with sounds which are more rapidly to /b/ and /p/:

As with word stress, English does not pertain the identical amount of stress to each and every word in a sentence. Moreover, Koreans generally discover this complicated and be predisposed to provide similar prominence.

Korean speakers would require a good time to attain accent reduction. The reasons behind this are many, including technical aspects, sounds, pronunciations, and mouth muscles actions.

 

Feel free to contact LocalMasters, to find the best Accent Reduction Coach.

 

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