The Art of Seduction

[MikeH]

I don't think you need it. It's useful that Sam has though, he can tell us very quickly what sounds wrong and why and suggest an improvement.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Counting cycles is serial killer behaviour to be honest

I am not sure if it's serial killer behaviour, but definitely an indication of mental illness.

[FrustratedPoet]

Sonic Undermind are great: they've had gigs cancelled at some of the top venues in the south-east.

[MikeH]

[Drake Tungsten]

japanese doesn't really have the l sound, which explains them.

Japanese has a composite r/l sound, as Boshko mentioned. They make substitution errors for both letters, I assure you.

[FrustratedPoet]

Earrings on a teddy bear!!!!? That's paedo territory. Ask him about his collection of little shoes.....

[Alinestra Covelia]

To get this thread back onto one degree of jacking instead of the third or fourth degree of hostage taking that has occurred, I will volunteer the following:

Mandarin Chinese has distinctively different sounds for "L" and "R", so speakers from mainland China usually have less difficulty distinguishing the two as far as English goes. However, Mandarin Chinese never has an "L" sound at the end of a syllable, only at the beginning. Sometimes you'll hear a mainlander pronounce a name like "Bill" more like "Beer" because of it.

Cantonese does not, to my knowledge, have any "R" sounds at all. When you bear in mind that the first Chinese to go overseas throughout history are usually the Cantonese, then you can understand why many stereotypes have all Chinese as unable to differentiate between the two sounds. (This also explains why most foreigners called Beijing "Peking" for a while - that's what the Cantonese called it, although the Beijingers themselves would probably disagree.)

I've heard that Koreans have difficulty distinguishing between "R" and "L", and also (uniquely) "F" and "P" sounds. My friend Carrie has a lot of difficulty saying the word "barley", which is a bugger because she has some nice Korean barley tea in her fridge all the time. It usually comes out as "bowelly" or "Bali". Once when she was in a restaurant she asked for a fork and ended up with dead pig instead.

Also as far as I know, the Japanese have almost interchangeable "R"s and "L"s. One good example is in the name of the popular Street Fighter hero character - Ryu. Most Westerners only pronounce his name one way - with a distinct "R" sound - but I've heard Japanese people pronounce it as though it were an "L" sound or even sometimes a "D" sound.

Far out.

[Drake Tungsten]

but I've heard Japanese people pronounce it as though it were an "L" sound or even sometimes a "D" sound.

Ali speaks the truth. The "D" sound in particular threw me for a loop the first time I heard it.

[Q Classic]

It usually comes out as "bowelly" or "Bali". Once when she was in a restaurant she asked for a fork and ended up with dead pig instead.

there aren't any fricatives in korean. so no fs--meaning that when you romanize the korean name for france, you get p'eu-rang-seu.

you also get p'uk, instead of f**k. and p'on instead of phone, or pr0n (the final n sound is stronger than the final l, and you can't have a final r).
like japanese, there's no si sound. it's shi.

meaning a few years ago, they were marketing a nice little handphone with the name "seoul cityphone"...

but it came across as "seoul shi.ttypon".

[Bosh]

Counting cycles is serial killer behaviour to be honest, and the rest sounds like a cheesy porn film

Welcome to korean romance Waaay different expectations, especially when they start pushing 30 (I believe the word for someone who is more than a year or two past 30 and unmarried translates to roughly "unmarryable"). You get things like one of my students going through 49 blind dates to find his wife, you can't look at this seem through a western perspective or things look a lot creepier than they seem to both participants.

there are plenty more white people in cheongju, though, 'specially in city center.

I know, I've spend a couple nights in the bars in Sachongdong. Some good guys there, but because of gf-in-seoul situation I really don't have time to hook into the expat community there.

no thai restaurants that i know of, though.

Nope, definately not. There's on Italian place that makes some damn good Risotto though...

"F" and "P" sounds.

There's no F sound in Korean, or v, z, th or soft j.
My students sometimes get d/t, g/k and j/ch a little mixed up too, but they're usually not too big problems

[Alinestra Covelia]

I had another question for all you guys out there.

Does it matter if you're not her first?

[Drake Tungsten]

No. I'm not out to plant a flag.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
I had another question for all you guys out there.

Does it matter if you're not her first?

Preferably not. Experience is good.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Drake: You forgot to add "...up Mount Venus" in your sentence.

[Drake Tungsten]

Wakalimasen...