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I started to learn English in South Korea when I was in the 6th grade during winter vacation as a preparation for entering middle school. Beginning with the Alphabet, pronunciation, and grammar, I thought it was not difficult and even laughed about pronunciation. At that time I never imagined pronunciation would be the biggest challenge of listening and speaking English. I have taken English in middle school, high school as my first foreign language, and some courses in University. Teaching English was so focused on grammar and structure so most of students were not able to speak English in the 80’s in South Korea. We had to go English conversation class outside of school to learn how to speak. I’ve lived half of my life time in US and obtained three AA’s degrees, and worked for corporations for 20 years. However, I still have an issue with V and F, th and S, T and D, P and B or L and R sounds once in a while. I can say how to pronounce correctly but issues have happened, depending on people who might not be familiar with foreign accent or pronunciation. I made a trip to South Korea about three months ago. Normally I took a laptop with me if I stay more than a couple of weeks. On the way to airport I realized that I forgot to bring a mouse. I had a plenty of time to go back home to check if I left it in my room since we lived 15 minutes from the airport. So I asked to my husband to do that. He said he couldn’t find it or not in house. I thought I might pack in the big luggage which I already checked in. Then I flew to South Korea and arrived. I checked out the luggage and unpacked it in the room. I still couldn’t see the mouse. I decided to buy or borrowed from my family member. However, when I talked about the mouse with my husband on the phone I found out that he heard it as “mouth” and understood that I looked for a night goggle which I put in my mouth to prevent grinding of my teeth at night. It was Aha moment which was a big misunderstanding of pronunciation and/or listening even if I’ve lived with him for 27 years. Imagine with other people what can happen or be misunderstood. It was a frustration for both of us. Luckily it can be easily taken care of. I grew up, studied and lived in South Korea for a long time. They do not have a sound of V, F, TH, R and Z. In addition, I have experienced people in US often confused about letter of B and P, L and R, or D and P. Americans do not pronounce T sound in many words compared to United Kingdom where British clearly do. This is another example of pronunciation problem between South Koreans and Americans. In conclusion, since I know the pronunciation problem very well I understand and teach them better through my experience. Hopefully, I have a chance to teach and learn more for myself at the same time.
