Americans Pronounce K-Pop Star Names

[theemii.livejournal.com]

Source: BuzzFeedVideo

Comments

[chomsky.livejournal.com]

lmao I definitely know the third kid in this video.

I think it's interesting that people are trying to apply phonological rules from different languages. I definitely do this, interestingly with German even though I haven't studied it in a decade - I see Jung and apply German J immediately.

[stoppedclock321.livejournal.com]

But isn't that just the liaison between ㅊ and ㅅ which gets pronounced as ㅆ? I don't think I've really heard anyone native pronounce the 't' (especially not harshly). Like...pronunciation-wise it ends up sounding more like 며 싸리에요.

[setsuna16.livejournal.com]

Fellow westerners, I understand your plight. My tongue and lips do not wish to conform as needed to properly pronounce many things related to my biases.

Thankfully, I don't have this problem with BoA. Unless I'm singing her songs, in which case, butcher city.

Butcher with love though.

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

cryin' at "O-K Taecyeon'

lmao

i like to think i've watched enough variety shows with my faves to know how to pronounce their names now, but who knows tbh

[audiograms.livejournal.com]

luckily i hardly have to say names out loud, but thanks to variety tv i've heard names enough to pronounce them. i still would stick to stage names if i met them just to be safe tbh

[tokyocinema.livejournal.com]

not as cringeworthy as I was expecting, but this is coming from someone who still can't figure out the right way to say "omonatheydidn't"

only disappointment is the lack of Eugene (homeboy is foiiiiine~)

[dreamerbri.livejournal.com]

i was saying omona for the longest time (until i heard park joon-hyung say it on roommate).

i used to think it was oh-moh-nuh but it's actually ohm-uh-nuh. i hope that was clear.

[annhh.livejournal.com]

omg OH MY GOD with what logic do the H's turn to CH or J sounds? and J's to H or even W? like.. why? what goes on in their little heads do they create their own language if something is incoherent

[chomsky.livejournal.com]

J -> H is spanish phonology

[keki7.livejournal.com]

"the only thing I super disagree with is when (white) people go 'your name is too hard I'm gonna give you a white person name' or give up and ask 'do you have an english name'."

I find that rather annoying myself. But the sad thing is whenever I make resumes, CVs, and cover letters to apply for jobs, I use my middle name because it's a "common english" name. At least it gives me a shot at the interview.

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

i butcher the names a lot. i usually read them in my mother tongue, if you know what i mean.
i have a problem with swapping the sound of for example s and sz [~sh] in polish with the ś (it's a noisy s coined with i, more of less) and that affects how i say ㅅ. similar thing happens to  ㄴㅊㅈ too.
it's a dialect thing and i don't mind it but it can sound funny. i get a lot of shit sometimes for not speaking the "proper" way so i try to hide it. it shows up when i get angry tho :p

i always find it funny that btob ilhoon is nicknamed iruni so that 일훈 becomes 이루니, it took me while to get that.

[fraudandfantasy.livejournal.com]

I'm such a beginner in my Korean studies and purely self taught at that. So, I am not great. But I find it so much easier to pronounce things if it's in Korean characters. Because the romanization is sometimes so off. Like for the last names Park, Choi and Lee. Mind was blown when I realized that the L was silent.

[htothem.livejournal.com]

The worst is when I've seen a romanization and then realize how off it is. I somehow can't let go of the mispronunciation.

[adlyeith.livejournal.com]

Significantly easier for me to use their stage names (if different from their real names) than embarrass myself butchering their Korean names.

[simneesee.livejournal.com]

100% This.

[stoppedclock321.livejournal.com]

'O-K Taecyeon' and pronouncing 'Jung' with a W killed me. The ㅓ (so also ㅕ) and ㅡ vowels were kind of hard to wrap my head around at first, but now I just get it and can't figure out how to explain them to anyone else.

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

"O-k Taecyeon" lmfao good god

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

What is the name that's the hardest for you to pronounce?
It took me the longest time to get Eunhyuk right. I think I still say it wrong sometimes.

[midnightindomie.livejournal.com]

Lol Ryeowook is hard for me

[921227.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly not that bad. The jackass with the light blue shirt somehow managed to apply pronunciation rules from 3 dif languages as well as just sound like a dumbass was the worst, but everyone else seemed to pronounce the names semi-similarly enough considering they'd never heard them before

[hyunbiased.livejournal.com]

I was hoping they would have Ryeowook in there because I still struggle with that one after 2 yrs of studying Korean

[midnightindomie.livejournal.com]

Lol Chanyeol... I know a lot of my friends struggle with his name

[psharp10.livejournal.com]

i never realized that people found it so hard to pronounce the idols' real names... i guess it was also easy-ish for me to say it as they were called during shows/bts videos?

and idk if this is correct or not but my mom's often told me before that my mother tongue (hindi) is actually one of the most helpful languages to know since we have a lot of different sounds in our language and that helps with our pronunciation in other languages..

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

I've been told the same about Spanish (Mexican Spanish to be exact) since we have a lot of letters and sounds that are supposedly seldom used other languages. I'm not sure how true that is to be honest, but I do seem to pick up on foreign pronunciation quite fast, even if I don't know what the hell I'm saying at the time. I would describe it as accurate imitation rather than proper enunciation.

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

But they didn't even ask Ryeowook's name, where's the real challenge??

[senshicalico.livejournal.com]

I can't hate since I don't think I've heard of like 99 percent of the artists' names I listen to. (I don't watch variety shows or dramas, just listen to kpop.) I think the only one I've heard is Lee Hyo Ri, and that's because of U GO GIRL lol.

I remember hearing Hyuna's name the other day and was boggled. It didn't sound anything like I say in my head. Was like "how." I know Korean romanization's are basically fool's games, but yikes.

[nandexdame.livejournal.com]

the only reason i know how to pronounce names is because i watch way too many korean dramas oop

[kicking-tenshi.livejournal.com]

lol it could be a lot worse. I have a friend who's name is XiZhou and literally everyone pronounces it as ZiZu. Of course, chinese is a whole other monster.

My issue w/ korean names was Hae vs. Hye. Turns out they're pronounced pretty much the same (at least to me).

[dreamerbri.livejournal.com]

i still don't know how to say most of the kpop idol/entertainer's names unless i hear them say it. i don't watch a lot of variety shows though.

[blkjck.livejournal.com]

I've been saying Chae-Rin like Sharon all this time.

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

Romanization can be so misleading sometimes. I'm still confused at why they writeㅕsometimes as "yeo" and sometimes as "yu". I still don't know if pronouncing that with an "o", "u" or "a".
But I think I usually pronounce them correctly for the most part.