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Korean Pronunciation for English Words Posted by on May 22, 2008 in Korean Language

I’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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Comments:

  1. abigail paras:

    i want to receive update egarding korean language

  2. ching:

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

  3. kimiko:

    can someone teach me korean

  4. julia:

    i want to speak korean again

  5. kim:

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

  6. tricia:

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

  7. Austin:

    verbal saying for “unknown island” in korean.

  8. hwaiting!!:

    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:

    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:

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

  11. Yeddah:

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

  12. tale:

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

  13. nakimie :):

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

  14. mimie:

    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:

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

  16. gelo:

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

  17. shairra mae:

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

  18. stephanie liwanag:

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

  19. Peter:

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

  20. sam:

    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:

    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:

    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:

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

    • Linda:

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

  24. marily:

    i like 🙂

  25. arlin:

    anyonghaseyo

  26. monah:

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

  27. lyn:

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

  28. abigail carreon:

    i want to learn to about korean words … saranghamnida!!! 🙂

  29. Minsun:

    제 이름은 김민선 입니다. 어떻게 지내요? ㅋㅋㅋ

  30. Teeka Rai:

    i want to learn korean too.
    teach me more.