Thursday, 21 August 2014

영어 단어를 - 어떻게 한국어 단어를 발음합니까? How do you pronounce English words used in Korean?

영어 단어를 - 어떻게 한국어 단어를 발음합니까?
How do you pronounce English words used in Korean?

Korean language contains lots of English words for things such as 커피테이블 (Coffee table), 컴퓨터 (Computer), 박스 (Fax) 스테이플러 (Stapler), 프로젝트 (project), I am curious how non-native Korean speakers pronounce English words like these, that are used in Korean.

The pronunciation can be quite different and I have heard Korean people pronounce with the English pronunciation (perhaps to show their English ability) and the Korean (perhaps because it is more natural).

But one thing that sticks in my mind is - when a Korean friend (Who speaks little English) was talking about her husbands long working hours, I used the expression "와우, 그는 슈퍼맨입니다!" = "Wow, he is superman!" - I pronounced "superman" as you would in English - the Korean friend couldn't understand me.
So, My wife translated saying "와우, 그는 슈퍼맨입니다!" with Superman pronounced like "shu-pa-men". And she understood immediately.

I found this amusing as to me it was exactly what I said... of course there maybe more complex linguistic reasons, but the word super is English and so is man, so to say that the friend was unaware that it was an English word doesn't to my mind, account for it.

Another example, at work we had Pizza, a colleague described the flavour "이 피자는 4치즈입니다" "This pizza is 4 cheese Pizza" - "이 피자 페퍼로니입니다" This Pizza is pepperoni" Pizza pronounced with Korean inflection - Pi-Cha, pepperoni and four cheese with a perfect "American" accent.

So how do you pronounce English words used in Korean?

At work should I say "이 프로젝트는..." or "이 Project는"

Same goes for Emails should I write 이 프로젝트는 or 이 Project는?

What's your opinion?
(Oh I forgot, no one actually reads this blog....ㅋㅋㅋ!)

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