Bad Foreign Accent
Learning Korean was never going to be easy. Â I realized I divide languages into two degrees of foreign:
French, Italian, Spanish – anything using the roman alphabet – not so foreign.
Every other language – extremely foreign.
Since Korean fell into the ‘extremely foreign’ category, I expected to struggle. My intended approach was to memorize phrases and maybe, eventually, learn to read. Â It came as such a nice surprise when I learned how to read basic hangul (the Korean alphabet) in a matter of days. Â The rest of it has not been so simple.
Just as in the roman alphabet, certain sounds are attributed to certain symbols. Â What I did not prepare for was a whole catalog of entirely new sounds. Â It is logical, but my Korean-addled little mind still did not prepare for it.
For example, one of the Korean characters is a cross between the ‘k’ and ‘g’ sounds. Â This explains why my province is sometimes referred to as ‘Kangwon’ and other times as ‘Gangwon.’ Â There is no ‘v’ or ‘f’ sound in Korean. Â The sounds we think of as ‘L’ or ‘R’ are rolled together into one, making it understandable as to why many Asians have a tough time pronouncing ‘R’ in English words.
Beautiful Gangwon-do. Â Or is that Kangwon-do?
I noticed that my co-teacher was consistently using the same word in several of our classes. Â To me, it sounded clearly like ‘Man-ay.” Â At first, I thought it was this kid’s name, because he was always acting up and she was always saying it with an angry voice. Â Then I noticed that she was saying it in more than one class, to a whole host of naughty children.
“Hang on,” I thought. Â “Not all of these kids can be named Man-ay. Â That’s just too much of a coincidence. Â It must mean something else.”
So I approached her after class.
“What does it mean when you say “Man-ay?” Â I asked. Â “I hear it a lot.”
She stared blankly at me. Â “What word?”
“Man-ay,” I repeated. Â It sounded exactly the way it did when she said it. Â To me.
“No,” she said slowly, shaking her head. Â “That is not a word.”
“Man-ay?” I said again, more loudly. Â “Or ban-ay, maybe?”
“No. Â These words have no meaning.”
“Oh.” Â I hung my head in shame and tried to change the subject.
I had once again fallen victim to the Bad Foreign Accent. Â This happens whenever I think I am parroting a word, but in fact I am botching it so badly that it becomes unrecognizable to the native speakers.
She has since continued to use the mysterious word, which I figure either means “Listen,” or “Be quiet.” Â I suppose I’ll never know for sure.
* * * * *
The other possible outcome of Bad Foreign Accent is a language lesson that is trapped in a continual loop.
I thought I was being clever when I used one of my new words in a first grade class.
“Sseo, juseyo,” I said, thinking I was asking them to please write something down.
They ignored me, as usual, probably thinking I was still speaking English. Â But their teacher noticed I was making an attempt at Korean.
She cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows.
“Sseo?” Â I repeated, very quietly.
“Sseo?” Â she said, still not understanding.
“Sseo? Â Write it down?”
“Write?”
“Yes,” I said, making frantic writing motions in the air.
“Oh!” Â she said. Â “Sseoh!”
“Yes!” Â I cried. Â “Sseo!”
“No,” she said. Â “Sseoh.”
That’s what I said, I thought.
“Sseo,” I said out loud.
She frowned. Â We were getting nowhere.
“Susseyo,” she said, trying a different approach. Â “Is better. Â Susseyo.”
That is how I learned that it’s not important how I pronounce ‘sseo,’ because I was using it in the wrong context, anyway. Â Apparently I was basically ordering the kids to “Write!” Â when I could have been asking them to “Please write it down.”
My Bad Foreign Accent keeps on coming out, and I cling to the feeble hope that it will one day morph into a Good Foreign Accent, or, even better, No Accent At All.
Until then, I will likely continue to use imaginary Korean words and issue unnecessary commands, all spoken with an unintelligible accent. Â If I’m lucky, the language will eventually plant itself in my brain, osmosis-style.
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