TeacherJoy

These guys are troublemakers, especially when you try to compare them to English sounds.

In English, you’ve got voiced and unvoiced pairs like:

• job [dʒɑːb] vs chop [tʃɑːp]
• joke [dʒoʊk] vs choke [tʃoʊk]

In Korean, it’s different. It’s not about voicing. I think it’s about the tongue position and how suddenly and strongly you release the air. Like adding an accent to make it pop.

As a teacher, I wish I could give you a perfect English equivalent, but I have to work with what I’ve got!

The Korean consonant ㅈ (지읒) is made right behind the teeth. People say it’s like the English /j/, but that’s not quite right.

In English, your tongue and lips move more. In Korean? It’s simpler. Just place your tongue behind your teeth and release the air. That’s exactly why King Sejong designed the letter shapes based on the position of the tongue, not the sound itself.

Also, with /ch/ in English, your lips move too. But for the Korean ㅊ? It’s all about the tip of the tongue and the accent. No lip movement needed. In Korean, what really matters is the accent and how much air you push out.

• job [잡]
• chop [찹]

Let’s practice more. Try focusing on the accents and the lip shapes.

• 자 (ruler) vs 차 (car, tea)
• 자다 (to sleep) vs 차다 (to kick)
• 종 (bell) vs 총 (gun)
• 전 (Korean pancake) vs 천 (thousand)
• 진하다 (to be dense, to be thick) vs 친하다 (to be close, to be intimate)
• 지다 (to lose) vs 치다 (to hit)