Korean Class Speech
Saturday, December 6th, 2008Hey fellow KC101ers! I’m reviving this category for a brief moment to share with you a video I made recently. It’s a class speech I wrote (with extensive help from my teacher I might add) back in July of this year during my brief time at 이대.
This speech was supposed to be the culmination of what all we had learned. I was in the beginner class and was nominated to deliver the speech. How nice. The problem is that I’m lousy at verbal communication in any language and I’m an awful reader to boot. So, when you combine this with a sweet country boy’s accent you get a recipe for pure hilarity. I tried to read my speech from a crumbled piece of paper on stage in front of my peers and teachers. No dice. I got so nervous that my leg started jittering uncontrollably and my voice was shakin like a salt shaker. It was bad. And to go from bad to worse, I got so flustered that I said an unmentionable Korean cuss word softly into a microphone. Not smart. Fuel to a fire.
So, this video is my redemption. It’s not perfect but it’s twenty times better than what my peers heard on that fateful afternoon. I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback. We are all students of the language and I believe we can all benefit from constructive criticism.
Watch the video here
Transcript:
여러분 안녕하십니까? 제 이름은 매튜 스미스입니다. 미국에서 왔습니다. 우리 반에는 한국어 선생님이 두 명 있습니다. 우리 선생님 성함은 김하령, 전혜원입니다. 김 선생님은 친절한 분이 십니다. 그리고 전 선생님은 인내심이 많은 분이십니다. 우리는 자기 소개, 취미, 집, 날짜, 가족, 하루 일과를 공부했습니다. 또 우리 반 친구들 과 같이 노래방 과 찜질방을 갔습니다. 재미있었습니다. 저는 우리 반을 아주 좋아합니다. 그리고 우리 반 선생님께 정말 감사합니다. 그래서 제가 선생님를께 선물하고 싶습니다….들어주셔서 감사합니다.
Posted by Matthew in Listener Videos, Learning Korean, How Koreans Do It |
December 7th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I understand the leg shaking thing.. I actually fell over a couple times in middle school.
Your accent is pretty decent compared to others I’ve heard. Also, be thankful you don’t have a British accent–Korean and a British accent is very difficult to overcome. As for specific feedback:
- Your 까 in 안녕하십니까 sounds more like 카.
- Your 은 in 이름은 isn’t clear–sounds like 음
- You’re wanting to say Matthew Smith instead of 매튜 스미스
- The 서 in 미국에서 sounds more like 소
- Your 한국어 sounds like 한구코
- 두명 sounded like 투명
- 성함은 sounds like 성하무
- 전혜원 isn’t too clear.
- the 은 after 선생님 isn’t very clear–sounds like 선생님음
- 진철한 is unnaturally 또박또박
- 이십니다 there sounds like 이씹니다.
- 인내심이 sounds like 인내씸이
- 날짜 sounds good with goodㅉ articulation
- the ㅏ sound in 가족 ascends too high and thus it also stresses the ㅈ too much
- the ㅗ sound in 족 sounds good, too
- 일과를 sounds like 일과루
- 또 sounds like 도
- 친구들 sounds like 친구둘 and the 들 seems “too far” from 친구 in your speech
- 좋아합니다 sounds like 쫗아- or 촣아-
- 선생님께 sounds like 선생님케
- 그래서 sounds like 그래쏘
- 선생님를께: did you mean 선생님들께?
- 선물 sounds like 썬-무울
- 들어주셔서 sounds like 들어주쏘소
Of course, take it with a grain of salt–I’m not Korean. Best of luck in your future public speaking endevors (for the both of us)!!
December 7th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Also, you probably want to say:
선생님이 두명이 있습니다 -> 선생님 두 분께서 계십니다.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:18 am
All I can say is wow. Thanks so much Chris1 for such a detailed breakdown! There’s a lot of great suggestions here. It’s always helpful for a specific breakdown but no one has ever really sat down and itemized it before for me (especially from such a short sample).
Thanks so much for the great feedback! Keep’em coming!
December 7th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Dang!
December 8th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Glad I could help. I realized I made an error in the above post: it should be 두분이 not 두분께서. I hope to see a lot more posts in this category!
December 9th, 2008 at 6:03 am
I love your fighting spirit, Matthew! Not since the days of Street Fighter 2 on the SNES have I seen such an exciting matchup as “Matthew vs. Korean Summation Speech / Round Two / Fight!”
December 9th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Matthew,
Your Korean pronunciation is better than my English.
Don’t worry too much about the pronunciation; I have no trouble understanding your speech. I doubt any Korean would have.
As long as you can say, 안녕하세요, that is more than good enough for people who don’t speak English that good but know only a few words in English.
I kinda feel uncomfortable having poor English when I hear your poor Korean better than my poorer English.xd
With my broken English, I have no problem getting around here in NYC, even as far as NJ, PA or CT where I sometimes go for delivery and run into local people who are definitely different from Asian people, but, as I say ‘hi’ and start talking, however poor English, we all feel just like people only with different color, language or culture.
With your efforts and friendliness, I am sure you will run into a lot of good Korean people being appreciated your good character.
When I run into Hispanic, I say ‘gomostas’, and most of time I received a warm smile from them.
If I see Chinese, I say ‘nihao’, and I make a friend right there.
What you are doing is not in vain.
Keep it up!
December 9th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Daniel: I was always ready for round two on SFII: Turbo. Ewha’s got nothing on me ^^ Plus, I wasn’t about to let that be the end of my speech-giving days.
Henry: That’s incredibly kind of you to say. I also tend to agree on your opinion about simply trying and how much that actually matters. I have found time and time again that Koreans are, generally speaking, very understanding and forgiving when I attempt to speak the language. I also get smiles from Spanish-speaking kids at the school I student teach at. They always get so happy when they hear something as simple as “¿Cuál es su animal favorito?”
December 9th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Matthew: You have a gift I don’t have. I’m a perfectionist and have no confidence in speaking. It would take a miracle for me to put a video of me speaking Korean up on the Internet, but I’ve started to think about being a little more participating and making a greater effort to adopt the “just speak” philosophy. However, it’s very difficult for me to do (goes directly into my public speaking confidence). My ability would be a lot better had I not have been so embarassed and seculded in speaking it. Henry is right–keep it up.
December 9th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
alright that’s it - drinks are on me guys! line’em up!