English Pronunciation for Korean Speakers

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Areas of Difficulty for Korean Speakers

Consonants

I.  /p/ vs. /f/

Practice contrasting /p/ and /f/ using the following minimal pairs:

Peel/feel     pray/fray          supper/suffer   leap/leaf           gap/gaff
Pit/fit         pat/fat              plunk/flunk                  pending/fending          

II.   /b/ vs. /v/

Practice contrasting /b/ and /v/ using the following minimal pairs:

Bane/vein  best/vest          bend/vend        rebel/revel        robe/rove
Beer/veer   bent/vent          bye/vie             libber/liver       bile/vile 

III.   /z/

Korean doesn’t have /z/, and Korean speakers of English tend to pronounce this sound as /dz/ or /ts/.  Pronounce /z/ in different word positions carefully:

Zero           zone     zoo      buzzer              guzzler             dazzle
Has            bruise              buzz                 graze                phase 

IV.          /b/ and /g/

Korean has both aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops, but it does not have voiced stops.  Practice discriminating between voiceless and voiced stops in the following pairs of words:

Rumple/rumble                  lapel/label        nipple/nibble    simple/symbol
Lacking/lagging                 brick/brig         sack/sag           rack/rag

V.            /s/ vs. /S/

Make the distinction between the two sounds using the following minimal pairs:
Sill/shill                 sign/shine        simmer/shimmer          sue/shoe
Sealed/shield         brass/brash      same/shame                 single/shingle
Now try this tongue twister:
She sells seashells by the seashore. 

VI.          /l/ vs. /r/

Korean speakers of English find it difficult to pronounce /l/ and /r/ in word-initial position.  In particular, their production of word-medial /l/ tokens sounds like an /r/ or a flap /D/.  Pronounce the following /l/ and /r/ tokens in word-initial position:

Lane/rain   lack/rack          lope/rope         light/right         ply/pry  flight/fright     pleasant/present           flame/frame    appeal/appear
Now practice distinguishing between /l/, /D/, and /r/:
Feeling/feeding/fearing                  sealing/seating/searing kneeling/kneading/nearing      billing/bidding/bearing 

VII. /th/ and /dh/

Pronounce the following minimal pairs carefully:

Breath/breathe       bath/bathe        cloth/clothe     
                              
                              Now try this tongue twister:

Those three thieves threw thirteen things in the thicket of thorn trees. 

VIII.  Word-final consonants

Practice pronouncing the final consonant in the following words: Please do not insert a vowel after the final consonant.

Match        sandwich         church             merge              search
Pronounce /dz/ in word-initial, medial, and final positions:
Gym/badger/ridge             jingoism/merger/bridge          
Germane/rigidity/lodge      joint/surgery/grudge 

IX.  Consonant clusters

Consonant clusters do not exist in Korean.  Because of this, Korean speakers of English insert a vowel before or after English consonant clusters.  Practice pronouncing the consonant clusters in the following words without inserting a vowel before or after them:

Sky            Mexico            scoundrel         frisk     mixture            skit

Vowels:
Korean does not make a distinction between short (lax) and long (tense) vowels.  Korean speakers’ rendition of English vowels falls between the short and long vowels.  Practice discriminating between the following short and long vowels of English:

I.  /I/ vs. /i:/
Practice pronouncing the following minimal pairs:

Hit/heat      fit/feet              sit/seat             fill/feel             live/leave

II. /e/ vs. /ei/
Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

met/mate    red/raid            led/laid             fed/fade           wed/wade

III. /U/ vs. /u:/
Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following word pairs:

full/fool     foot/food         should/shoot                book/boot

In addition to the above short (lax) and long (tense) vowels, Korean speakers also have difficulty with these four vowel sounds:

IV. /e/ vs. /ae/
Make the distinction between the short vowel and the diphthong in the following minimal pairs:

met/mat      set/sat              fed/fad             led/lad              wed/wad

V. /^/ vs. /a:/
Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

curd/card   heard/hard       curt/cart           burn/barn         hurt/heart
            

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