Korean Pronunciation for English Words

Posted on 22. May, 2008 by in Korean Language

french fries fry potato fast foodI’ll have fries with that! “French fries 주세요 juseyo,” I said to the cashier at 버거 킹 beogeo king. Her only response was a confused look. I repeated myself. She tried to follow my line of vision to locate what I was looking at on the overhead menu. It was written in Korean, so I went ahead and sounded it out with Korean pronunciation: 후렌치후라이 hurenchi hurai. A look of relief as she rang up my order.
I had until then been avoiding saying any words borrowed from English (and there are thousands of them!) with Korean pronunciation because I was afraid I would sound like I was mocking their accent. This French fry experience helped me to realize that Koreans regard such words as Korean, not English. To put this into perspective, Americans pronounce hors d’oeuvres and fondue nothing like the original French, and trying to pronounce it like a Frenchman while speaking English just ends up sounding pretentious. The same is true in Korean for pronouncing loan words from English. Just keep that in mind when ordering a 라지 치즈 피자 raji chijeu pija*!
*large cheese pizza!

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29 Responses to “Korean Pronunciation for English Words”

  1. abigail paras 7 March 2009 at 7:02 am #

    i want to receive update egarding korean language

  2. ching 24 June 2009 at 5:40 am #

    hi,.. you can do it… if u want io can teach u..

  3. kimiko 16 July 2009 at 6:03 pm #

    can someone teach me korean

  4. julia 22 August 2009 at 1:44 am #

    i want to speak korean again

  5. kim 2 November 2009 at 9:15 am #

    I would like to know the korean word for MORE and also how it is pronounced

  6. tricia 4 December 2009 at 6:26 am #

    can someone teach me how to speak korean? please….^_^

  7. Austin 6 December 2009 at 8:28 pm #

    verbal saying for “unknown island” in korean.

  8. hwaiting!! 10 December 2009 at 12:48 pm #

    haha. are u serious? i found this article so funny,, and since i can read korean a little bit (been learning by myself) i can only understand the words that were borrowed from english.. lol hurenchi hurai is french fries??? LOL thanks for this :)

  9. SparkyB 11 December 2009 at 7:58 pm #

    I need to know how to write the words “wei yu nei kong” in Korean. My understanding is that this phrase roughly means “gentle in appearance and upright in heart”. Help soon?

  10. john carlo marcelo 16 January 2010 at 5:10 am #

    please teach me how to speak korean.. i need to know how to speak..

  11. Yeddah 9 February 2010 at 10:05 pm #

    i want to know how to speak korean can someone teach me

  12. tale 26 February 2010 at 2:15 am #

    i want to speak korean can someone teach me also??????
    kamsahamnida {thank u} txt me this is my no. 09182726183

  13. nakimie :) 31 March 2010 at 3:24 pm #

    i like korean so much !
    i really want to speak korean !
    please teach me !

  14. mimie 27 January 2011 at 6:29 am #

    anyong haseyo, joenen malaysia esoe watsoyo

    hello, I’m malaysian…what up yo! ( that just example word that loan from english. “what up yo” with little bit smoothly pronunciation “watsoyo”

  15. chemberlie 16 May 2011 at 8:59 pm #

    i want to speak korean can someone help me? please teach me…kamsahamnida ^_^

  16. gelo 18 May 2011 at 1:13 am #

    NOO goo won ha da bae oo da ^__________^ kombei ^^,

  17. shairra mae 10 June 2011 at 11:21 am #

    i want 2 learn korean language can you help me………..

  18. stephanie liwanag 19 June 2011 at 9:10 am #

    i whant to know a lot about korean language….and how do i pronounce those words

  19. Peter 25 July 2011 at 2:59 am #

    Can someone please tell me how to tell a child everything will be okay in korean?

  20. sam 30 July 2011 at 3:29 pm #

    To Peter

    모든 게 잘 될 거야. Modun Ga Jal Deol-geo-ya or
    다 괜찮아 질 거야. Dah Kweon-chan-ah Jil-geo-ya.

  21. Jack Paris 12 August 2011 at 8:55 pm #

    I am writing a book. I need to know how to say “I’m dizzy” or “I am dizzy” in Korean.

    Oh jee rah wah?

    Thank you

    Jack

  22. ellen 20 December 2011 at 11:36 am #

    i want to learn a korean language…. im happy saying korean words… it makes me bundled my tongue… hehe and promised that im want to married in a korean person and also cute

  23. khylle 24 January 2012 at 2:35 am #

    can someone send me a tabular form of all korean conversations like in a store or in the house or someone else..thanks

  24. Linda 4 February 2012 at 8:40 pm #

    Hi Kylle, Could you please be more specific with your request? Would you like to say something (specific)? :)

  25. marily 28 February 2012 at 8:42 am #

    i like :)

  26. arlin 5 May 2012 at 7:57 am #

    anyonghaseyo

  27. monah 30 May 2012 at 2:29 am #

    i really want to learn korean language so that i would be able to understand korean more

  28. lyn 8 June 2012 at 2:23 pm #

    i want to know korean also..is thera someone else who can teach me? :D tnx poh

  29. abigail carreon 2 September 2012 at 4:02 am #

    i want to learn to about korean words … saranghamnida!!! :)


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