This is one of my favorite poems. It shows just how ridiculous it all is - ridiculously wonderful, and ridiculously frustrating, too. Here's a link:
http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html
The BBC wrote about spelling in English here:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150605-your-language-is-sinful
Which is a very clever article. Personally, I'm very grateful for the spell-check function in most word processing programs, and even on this web page. Because you know what? It's difficult... It really is.
There are no spelling tests in Korean. People hear the words exactly as they're written, so it would be pointless to do so. However, for foreign speakers of Korean, there are there are a few sounds that are difficult to differentiate - 어 and 오, for example. The first one is a kind of "uh", and is usually written in Latin letters as "eo". It is found in the name of the capital of South Korea Seoul (서울). Note that "Seoul" in Korean is two syllables - "Seo-ul", and not one like most westerners pronounce it, as if it sounded like "soul". I'd liken this sound to the schwa sound in English pronunciation. The second one is more of a true "oh" sound, sounding like the "oh" sound in "oak". It can be difficult to hear the difference between the two, and I frequently had to ask which was meant when I heard them. Even Koreans have trouble catching the subtle (almost non-existent) differences between 애 and 에. They're written in Latin letters as "ae" and "oe", respectively, but they sound exactly the same. Perhaps there was an earlier need for the different spellings, something that has been lost in the generations since the Korean writing system (Hangul - 한글) This can be problematic when compared with other diphthongs that have similar romanizations. Again, Koreans have trained their ears from the beginning of their lives to hear the subtle differences, but foreigners have a more difficult time.
Further, Korean has pronunciation strangeness that makes sense when you speak it, but does not do as well when it comes to writing it. This is also found in English - for example, the word "speak" is actually spoken as "sbeak", rhyming more accurately with "beak" than "peak". But no one actually says "s-peak", even though that's the way it's spelled. Korean has the same kind of thing. Kimchi (the spicy pickled cabbage dish that is always present at a Korean meal) is typically pronounced with a somewhat harder "k" sound with the "k" being in the initial position. In Korean, there are three "k" or "g" type consonants - ㅋ, ㄱ, and ㄲ. The first is a very hard "Kh" sound, like "KICK" or "bloCK". The second is interesting, because as I mentioned, it depends on it's relative position in the syllable or word. If it is the initial "k" sound, it is a definite "k", although softer than the hard "Kh". If it is anywhere else in the word, it is a softer "g" sound, as in "golf". But Koreans cannot hear the difference between these harder "k" and softer "g" sounds, any more than we can hear someone really say "sbeak" when they're saying "speak" (although, now that I've pointed it out to you, you'll probably notice it). To Koreans, saying "kimchi" is indistinguishable from saying "gimchi", which is how it is romanized in other places. Foreigners who have not been desensitized to such pronunciations can definitely hear the difference, though. The last "k" of the series of three is a difficult one for foreigners, too. It's a "gg" sound, much stronger than the "g", but only in terms of volume. So, 가 is pronounced "ga", while "까" is pronounced "Ga!" or "gga!".
There are sounds that Koreans have to train themselves to use, such as "z", "f". "v", "th", and "see" (they say "sh-ee", and have a hard time with "see"). They also have a hard time with length of vowels, which can be problematic when saying words like "sheet" and "beach".
Anyway, the vagaries of language are fascinating to me. :) Yep. Geek.
http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html
The BBC wrote about spelling in English here:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150605-your-language-is-sinful
Which is a very clever article. Personally, I'm very grateful for the spell-check function in most word processing programs, and even on this web page. Because you know what? It's difficult... It really is.
There are no spelling tests in Korean. People hear the words exactly as they're written, so it would be pointless to do so. However, for foreign speakers of Korean, there are there are a few sounds that are difficult to differentiate - 어 and 오, for example. The first one is a kind of "uh", and is usually written in Latin letters as "eo". It is found in the name of the capital of South Korea Seoul (서울). Note that "Seoul" in Korean is two syllables - "Seo-ul", and not one like most westerners pronounce it, as if it sounded like "soul". I'd liken this sound to the schwa sound in English pronunciation. The second one is more of a true "oh" sound, sounding like the "oh" sound in "oak". It can be difficult to hear the difference between the two, and I frequently had to ask which was meant when I heard them. Even Koreans have trouble catching the subtle (almost non-existent) differences between 애 and 에. They're written in Latin letters as "ae" and "oe", respectively, but they sound exactly the same. Perhaps there was an earlier need for the different spellings, something that has been lost in the generations since the Korean writing system (Hangul - 한글) This can be problematic when compared with other diphthongs that have similar romanizations. Again, Koreans have trained their ears from the beginning of their lives to hear the subtle differences, but foreigners have a more difficult time.
Further, Korean has pronunciation strangeness that makes sense when you speak it, but does not do as well when it comes to writing it. This is also found in English - for example, the word "speak" is actually spoken as "sbeak", rhyming more accurately with "beak" than "peak". But no one actually says "s-peak", even though that's the way it's spelled. Korean has the same kind of thing. Kimchi (the spicy pickled cabbage dish that is always present at a Korean meal) is typically pronounced with a somewhat harder "k" sound with the "k" being in the initial position. In Korean, there are three "k" or "g" type consonants - ㅋ, ㄱ, and ㄲ. The first is a very hard "Kh" sound, like "KICK" or "bloCK". The second is interesting, because as I mentioned, it depends on it's relative position in the syllable or word. If it is the initial "k" sound, it is a definite "k", although softer than the hard "Kh". If it is anywhere else in the word, it is a softer "g" sound, as in "golf". But Koreans cannot hear the difference between these harder "k" and softer "g" sounds, any more than we can hear someone really say "sbeak" when they're saying "speak" (although, now that I've pointed it out to you, you'll probably notice it). To Koreans, saying "kimchi" is indistinguishable from saying "gimchi", which is how it is romanized in other places. Foreigners who have not been desensitized to such pronunciations can definitely hear the difference, though. The last "k" of the series of three is a difficult one for foreigners, too. It's a "gg" sound, much stronger than the "g", but only in terms of volume. So, 가 is pronounced "ga", while "까" is pronounced "Ga!" or "gga!".
There are sounds that Koreans have to train themselves to use, such as "z", "f". "v", "th", and "see" (they say "sh-ee", and have a hard time with "see"). They also have a hard time with length of vowels, which can be problematic when saying words like "sheet" and "beach".
Anyway, the vagaries of language are fascinating to me. :) Yep. Geek.
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