Captcha lecture

Today, I went to one of free lecture series in UofT.
The lecture began a bit later than it was scheduled which was good because my alarm didn't go off and I was late. Luckily, I was able to make it in time.
I asked my friend from ISM to go together. He was there talking to a Chinese girl who's doing her computer science PhD in UofT.
The lecturer was the guy named Luis von Ahn, who invented Captcha and is a professor in Carnegie Mellon University. I was surprised that he is very young like my age. He must be smart.
Even though I am not really into computer things any more, the lecture was quite interesting and entertaining. I didn't know This reCAPTCHA system is being used to aid in the conversion of scanned images into digital text. He said that because computer OCR system isn't perfect, so it makes some mistakes while scanning some texts. So reCAPTCHA system makes us finish that job. When you type letters of distorted image, the system keeps what you typed and uses to decode some images which computers didn't recognize.



Doesn't it sound different?
It's usually the other way, isn't it?
Since the computer was invented, it always assists and helps human get jobs done. With that system, we, human being, aid computers with an ability which human only has.
The lecturer told us about another project they are doing. That is image labeling.
If you use image search on Google, sometimes you can see some images which doesn't relate to what you typed. So, the team made an online game to improve accuracy of image search.
You can go to http://www.espgame.org to figure out how people contributes to that.
How the game works is player see images and types words coming to their mind.
I didn't get the fun part of the game but he said a lot of people play that game every day.
The words were typed are being collected and used for image labeling, so you play the game as well as you support image labeling.
I found it very interesting because image labeling itself would be very boring and repetitive job like typing and you also have to pay people for that.
But with that game and the background system, they can collect data for image labeling without paying them and people can also have fun with that game.
What an idea it is.

I thought the lecture was two and half hours long but it turned out it was just for an hour.
So, my friend and I went for lunch afterwards. He said that he's learned new words today since he's not young guy to follow all new computer words.
Sometimes, computer things evolve too fast, so even I can't catch up. But we don't need to know everything about computers. It's just too much somtimes. Haha.

Tomorrow, there are two lectures open to public. I think I will go at least for one. The one which is about environment issues.

Ahn hyun soo and a bit of subtitle work

I found the video of Ahn hyun soo made by SBS, a Korean broadcasting company, on a Korean website yesterday.
Once I thought about making that kind of video and put it on Youtube to let people know how good Ahn hyun soo is but I've been just lazy to do so but not that lazy to download that video and put a little bit of English subtitle in that video and upload it to Youtube.
Here they are.

World #1 Short track skater, Korean, Ahn hyun soo

- part1


- part2


- part3 + subtitle

He broke his kneecap after he hit fences so hard at a practice. So, he had a surgery and is now recovering. The hospital said that he can get back to ice after 3 months or so.
I am disappointed that I can't see his 6 time consecutive winning at World but glad that the injury is not going to stop his skating career.

Subtitle work #2

CEO of Apple, Steve jobs' 2008 keynote address part 1

Subtitle work #1 - MacBook Air

MacBook Air during Steve job's 2008 keynote speech


< part 1 >

< part 2 >

Stay hungry, Stay foolish???

It was back in 2006 when I got to see the video clip of Steve jobs Stanford commencement speech in 2005 for the first time. Before I watched his video, to me he was a guy in the international news section who I can get to see from time to time. When I saw the video for the first time, my English wasn't enough to understand the whole speech without the subtitle, but I thought it was really great speech, so I got some phrases from his speech and have used one of them for the MSN id. It goes like "Keep looking what you love to do, don't settle."

2006년에 스티브잡스의 스탠포트대학 학위수여식 연설비디오를 처음으로 보게되었다. 그 비디오를 보기전에는 가끔씩 신문 국제면에서 보는 그런 사람이였다. 그 비디오를 처음으로 봤을때 내 영어가 자막없이는 전부 이해할 수 없는 수준이였지만 아주 훌륭한 연설이라고 생각이 되어서 몇몇 문장들은 따서 내 MSN ID로 써 왔다. "안주하지 말고, 네가 정말 하고 싶은 일을 계속 찾아라" 이렇다.

Today, one of my skater friends corrected that quote, so I've just changed it. Now, it's "Keep looking *for* what you love to do, don't settle". Anyway, a couple of days ago, I saw the video again with no reasons. There was no subtitle. This time, I understood most of the speech but missed some words and phrases, so I googled and found his speech and made a subtitle file with it. A little later on, I watched it again with the subtitle I made. With the help of subtitle, I was able to understand the whole speech. I think It is great and inspiring.

오늘 스케이터 친구 중 한 명이 그 문장을 고쳐주어서, 바로 고쳤다. 지금은, "안주하지 말고, 정말 하고 싶은 일을 계속 찾아라", 어찌되었던, 며칠전에, 그 비디오를 그냥 다시 보게 되었다. 자막은 없었다. 이번에는 연설에 대부분을 이해했지만 몇몇 단어와 표현들을 놓쳐서, 인터넷으로 검색해서 연설원문을 찾아서는 자막파일로 만들었다. 조금 지나서, 만든 자막파일과 같이 다시 보았다. 정말 대단하고 영감을 주는 연설문인것 같다.

I love the way he delivered his speech. It sometimes gives us laughter and is not too formal as it could be and there were three stories from his life, not from famous books or something, so It was like the movie based on a true story. I didn't feel bored.

그가 연설을 하는 방식을 나는 정말 좋아한다. 때론 웃음을 주고 그럴수도 있는데 너무 딱딱하지도 않고 다른 유명한 책이나 그런것들로 부터가 아닌 그의 인생에서의 세 가지 이야기라서 실화에 근거한 영화같다.

Somtimes, I found some newpapers articles and writings from the internet very wordy and figurative. So, it doesn't interest me and then I just stop reading them. It is partly because of my lack of English and partly because of my preference for writing, but his speech is just simple and clear. I like it.
가끔 신문기사나 인터넷에서의 글들을 보면 정말 말도 많고 너무 수식어구가 많다. 그래서, 별로 관심이 안 가고 그냥 안 읽는다. 영어실력이 부족한것도 있고 원래 취향이 그래서 인것도 있지만 그의 연설은 정말 간결하고 명확하다.

There are a couple of things in his speech that surprised me. He was adopted at birth and he dropped out college not to spend his parents' savings; as he said, he was lucky that he found what he loved to do early in his life and became a successful businessman but got fired at 30 which was earlier than other people could be, and then got back to the company which fired him before. What a turn of event it was. I remember the time when I had to see a half bunch of my coworkers getting fired from the company back in 2003. I had worked with them more than two years. It was very difficult time for both them and me. After that, I actually started to doubt working as a salaried man and the passion about my job. After that, I worked one more year for another company. That was it. I quit the job and came to Toronto in 2004. But as Steve jobs said, if you like what you do, it might be easier to get back to your track no matter what happened to you before. But I didn't like what I did. That's why I am here trying to find what I am good at and what I love to do with my life. It's still unclear but I will keep looking for it.

그의 연설에서 나는 많은 사실에 놀랐다. 그는 태어나자마자 입양됐고 부모님의 돈을 쓰지 않으려고 학교를 그만두었다. 그가 말한대로 운이 좋아서 일찍 인생에서 하고 싶은 일을 찾았고 성공적은 사업가가 되었지만, 다른사람들보다는 이른 나이 서른에 해고고되었다. 그리고나서는 다시 해고되었던 회사로 다시 복귀했다. 정말 인생반전이 아닐수없다. 2003년에 동료직원 대여섯명이 해고되는 것을 경험했던 것이 생각난다. 그 분들과 이년 이상을 일했었다. 우리 모두에게 정말 힘든 시간이였다. 그이후에 월급쟁이로 일하는 것과 내 일에 대한 회의가 들기 시작했다. 1년을 더 일했다. 그것이 다였다. 직장을 그만두고 2004년에 토론토로 왔다.

Some of the people I know keep advising me, "You've got to get married sooner and you've got to come(go) back to Korea and started working." I don't know I guess it's just not the right time. When Steve jobs said like below in his speech, I really liked it because it makes me forget about those things.

몇몇 아는사람들이 계속 충고해주는데, "빨리 결혼해라, 한국와서 일 시작해라". 모르겠다, 그냥 생각하기에 지금은 아닌것 같다. 그래서, 그가 밑에서 처럼 얘기할때 정말 좋았다, 왜냐면 저런 것들을 잊게 만들기 때문이다.

"Your time is limited. Don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

"다른 사람의 인생을 사는데 시간을 낭비하지 마라. 다른 사람들의 생각에서 비롯된 삶을 사는 것처럼 고정관념의 덫에 걸리지 말아라. 다른사람들의 생각들이 너무 마음속에 있는 목소리리를 덥어버리게 하지 말아라. 그리고 정말 중요한 것은, 너의 마음과 직감을 따를 용기를 가져라. 그것은 어떻든 이미 너가 정말 무엇이 되고 싶은지 알고 있다. 그외 모든것들은 부수적인 것이다.

There is another part I like about his speech. He was diagnosed with cancer and faced death very close. So, with his experience, he gave us a very impressive message about facing death.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

그의 연설에서 내가 좋아하는 또다른 부분이 있다. 그는 암을 진단받고 죽음을 정말 가깝게 직면했었다. 그래서 죽음을 직면하는 것에 대한 아주 감동적인 메시지를 그의 연설에서 주었다.

"내가 곧 죽을 거라는 것을 기억하는 것은 인생에서 큰 결정을 내리는데 도움을 주는 내가 경험했던 가장 중요한 도구이다. 왜냐면, 거의 모든 형식적인 기대들, 모든 자존심, 곤혹스러움이나 실패에 대한 두려움 - 이런 것들은 모두 죽음의 직면에서 사라져버리고, 정말 중요한 것만을 남긴다. 네가 곧 죽을 거라는 것을 아는 것은 내가 뭔가 잃을 것이 있다는 생각의 함정에서 벗어날수 있게 하는 최고의 길이다. 너는 벌써 알몸이다. 너의 마음속을 따르지 않을 이유가 없다.

Like he said, it would be helpful to think about the fact that we all die someday when I need to make a big decision in my life. It would also help me not think about what other people think about my decision and leaves what is truly important to me.

그가 말한대로, 언젠가 우리가 언젠가는 죽는다를 것을 생각하면 인생엣 큰 결정을 내리는데 도움이 될 것 같다. 또한, 다른 사람들이 나의 결정에 대해서 어떻게 생각하지는 신경쓰지않고 진정 뭔가가 내게 중요한지를 남기는데도 도움이 될 것 같다.

I am still not sure when to go back to Korea, what I would do, where I start, and how. But, at least I am aware of that time is limited and I will do what I really love to do with my life. I will not make the same mistake as I did before. Until then, I really wish that I stay hungry and foolish like the last message from Steve jobs speech.

아직 언제 한국 돌아갈지, 무얼할지, 어디서 시작할지 그리고 어떻게 할지 확실하지가 않다. 하지만 적어도 시간은 한정되어 있고 정말 내 인생에서 내가 정말 하고 싶은 일을 할꺼다. 전처럼 똑같은 실수를 하지 않을꺼다. 그때까지는 스티브잡스의 연설에 마지막 문구처럼 배고프게 어리석게 지내고 싶다.

I don't mind vs I don't care.

It is always hard for second language learners of English to show appropriate level of politeness.
It is because of either lack of language proficiency or a difference between their mother tongue and English. I am not an exception, so I am quite sure my friends have experienced my rudeness. Sorry guys, it wasn't intentional.
What is ironic is the fact that I've experienced the same thing from other international students. Once, After ISM, I asked other students where to go for dinner. I said "Where do you want to go for dinner?” one Korean guy said "I don't care". At that moment, I was quite unpleasant but after a while, I realized that he wanted to say like I don't mind. Since in Korea, both meanings can be expressed with the same phrase but a different intonation.

At the language exchange meeting last Sunday, I happened to explain the difference between two to Korean students. One of them told me that 'mind' is a quite tricky word for him, so he preferred using 'I don't care' when 'I don't mind' is appropriate. That reminded me of three years ago when I was killing time by myself at a coffee shop. One girl came to me and said "Mind if I take this chair?” I said, "Yes". I meant "yes, you can take it". As a result of inappropriate response, the girl got puzzled and hesitated to take it. A moment later, I realized something was wrong. I signaled ‘go ahead’ by using my hands. That was quite embarrassing moment to me. Ever since that little incident, I smile whenever I hear the word 'mind'.

Time is always solution to many things. Now, I guess I am okay with that but I still see other brand new international students make the same mistake as I did.

- In Korean

영어를 제 2 외국어로 배우는 학생들에게는 적절한 공손함을 보이는 것이 항상 어렵다. 왜냐하면 언어능력에 결여나 모국어와의 영어의 차이점 때문이다. 나도 예외가 아니라서 아마 내 친구들이 나의 불손함을 겪었을 것이라고 생각한다. 미안 친구들, 고의가 아니였다.

웃긴것은 내가 똑같은 경험을 다른 학생들로부터 한다는 것이다. 한 번은 ISM을 끝내고, 저녁으로 어디를 가겠냐고 다른 학생들에게 물어보았다. “저녁먹으로 어디로 가고싶어?” 한 한국학생이 말하기를 “I don’t care”. 그 순간에는 아주 기분이 나빴지만, 잠시 후 그 친구가 I don’t mind라고 말하고 싶었음을 알아차렸다. 한국에서는 두 개의 뜻이 하나의 구문으로 다른 톤으로 표현될 수 있기때문이다.

일요일 language exchange 모임에서 우연하게 두 표현의 차이점을 한국 학생들에게 설명하게 되었다. 그중 한 명이 ‘mind’가 아주 헷갈리는 단어라 ‘I don’t mind’가 적절할 때 ‘I don’t care’를 사용하기를 선호한다는 것이다. 그 얘기를 들으니 3년전에 내가 커피숖에서 혼자서 시간때우고 있을때가 생각났다. 한 여자얘가 내가 와서는 얘기하는것이 “의자가져가면 꺼리겠어요?” 내가 “예”. 나는 “예, 가져가세요.”를 의미했는데. 부적절한 답변으로 그 얘는 멍하게 있다가 의자를 가져가기를 망설이고 있었다. 잠시후에 뭔가가 잘못됐다는 것을 알아차리고는 손으로 가져가라고 신호를 보냈다. 나에게는 정말 부끄러운 순간이였다. 그 사건이후에 ‘mind’라는 단어를 들을때마다 웃곤한다.

시간이 항상 답이다. 지금은, 나는 괜찮지만 다른 Brand new 국제 학생들이 내가 했던 같은 실수를 하는 것을 볼 수가 있다.

The new toy -> a mouse potato?

- An English entry -



I got a new MP3 player from Korea on Friday. My 4 year old 128MB mp3 is in the drawer now.
A month ago, I was actually going to ask my friend ,who went on a trip to Korea and Taiwan, to get me it on the way back to Toronto but I changed my mind because I am getting a new laptop soon.
However, I got a friend of mine something from Korea, so I just ordered the mp3 player as well.
So, the package arrived here on Friday and I dropped by my friend's office and picked up the mp3 player and came home earlier than usual. After quick dinner, I connected the mp3 player to the computer putting videos, songs and flash games and changing setup. I forgot how much time passed and realized I had spent about seven hours using the computer.
Since I have worked as a computer guy for five years, I am trying to spend as more time as possible reading or doing something else instead of spending time in front of a computer. But, I was completely a mouse potato at that night.
By the way, the word, a mouse potato has registered in dictionaries recently which derived from a couch potato. Likely a couch potato who spends a lot of time in front of TV surfing channels and watching TV, it refers to a person who spends a great deal of time surfing the Internet with a computer mouse.
I am getting a new laptop next week, I will need to be a mouse potato again inevitably.

- A Korean entry -

금요일에 새 MP3 플레이어를 한국에서 받았다. 4년된 구형 128MB mp3플레이어는 이제 서랍속에 있다.
사실 한 달 전에, 한국에 들러서 타이완에 가는 친구에게 부탁해서 다시 돌아오는 길에 가져와 달라고 부탁했다가 노트북을 곧 살꺼라서 그냥 마음을 바꾸었었다. 그런데, 여기 친구가 한국에서 뭐를 사달라고 부탁해서 그냥 MP3 플레이어도 같이 주문해버렸다.
여하튼, 금요일에 한국에서 물건이 도착해서 친구 사무실에 들러서 MP3를 받아서는 평소와는 다르게 일찍 집에 돌아왔다. 간단하게 저녁후에 MP3를 컴퓨터에 연결해서 비디오도 다운로드하고 CD음악도 변환해서 집어넣고 여러가지 플래쉬게임도 다운로드해서 집어넣었다. 정신없이 하다보니, 거의 7시간동안 컴퓨터를 사용했다.
5년동안 컴퓨터 직장에 다녀서 되도록이면 컴퓨터 앞에서 시간보내는 대신, 책을 읽거나 다른 것을 하면서 시간을 보내려고 노력하고 있는데, 그날 저녁에 완전히 mouse potato가 되어버린것이다.
그러나저라나, mouse potato라는 단어는 최근에 사전에 등록된 것으로 couch potato에서 유래되었다. 리모콘으로 채널을 돌리면서 TV를 보면서 많은 시간을 보내는 couch potato와 비슷하게, 컴퓨터 마우스로 인터넷을 서핑하면서 컴퓨터 앞에서 많은 시간을 보낸다는 의미를 가지고 있다.
다음주면 새 노트북을 받게 되는데 어쩔수없이 다시 mouse potato가 되어야겠다.

The story about 'cold' vs 'called'.

Last Friday, I was on the way to have dinner with a half bunch of students after Fee's open house. It was a quite cold and windy day compared to a couple of days previous. I overheard one of Korean students talking to another. "!@#$% called" he said, "called who?" I interupted their conversation. But shortly after I listened to him more about the story, I realized he meant it was cold.
That story reminded me of my story three years ago. It was this time of year on cold and snowy day. I just got in my friend's car to head to practice and said. "it's cold/kɔld/". My friend said, "called who?" it was the same lines as the Korean guy, haha. I didn't know why my friend misunderstood me at that time. Now I know why it happened. This is the common mistake for Korean students who learn English, especially this time of year with cold weather; should say and hear the word cold many times every day . Since we don't have diphthong vowels, the second sound of which is /w/, such as /aw/ as in bow or /ow/ as in cold or as in holy cow /howlikaw/. In many cases, it doesn't really matter to get a main point of a message but in this case, producing /ɔ/ for /ow/ caused misunderstanding. It might cause something else such as communication breakdown or an awkward moment depending on situations or who you speak to if you speak to a person who you do not really know or have not talked each other before. Without any background information, it is not that easy to guess a main point when second language learners make a mistake. However, Some are sensetive enough to their mistakes, so they use different strategies to cope with that situations and they finally get their message accross successfully without communication breakdowns.
According to the book I read (Teaching Pronunciation), mispronunciation for vowels is main cause of foreign accent. Regardless of all possible problems, it is inevitalble for the second language learners to have foreign accents, especially adults learners like me; I have been learning and speaking English since age of 32. There is no simple solution to get rid of them but if you keep practicing, talking, and interacting with people, you can reduce your foreign accent. Personally, I think it is okay to speak with foreign accents as long as people understand you. It sometimes depends on who you hang out with, though. There are some people who are familar with foreign accents but some are not who have a problem to understand people who have an accent. English is not just a language for American, Canadian, and British people anymore. It is used by many people in the globe. It's meaningless to talk about foreign accents too much in that sense but there is a standard accent which is used by majority. Thus, I can say it is good to have a standard like accent to make your friends' life easier.

'U' is a 'Q' stalker?

The letter 'q' is almost always followed by the letter 'u'. Can you name any words in which there is a 'q' followed by other than 'u'? As a nonnative speaker of English, I can't think of any words in my mind. Can you?
For 'u', he stalks 'ng' combination as well. When he follows 'q' and 'ng', he changes his face. what I mean by that, phonetically, U is pronounced as a /w/ after 'q' which is not final and 'ng' as in qustion, Quebec, language, and penguin.
Like this phenomenon, the letter of English alphabet doesn't represent one sound all the time and one sound doesn't represent a particular letter as well.
What I want to say is Korean alphabet doesn't work like that. Even though there are sounds variation like other languages, one consonant and vowel represent one sound as far as I know. Maybe I am wrong because I didn't study Korean seriously after high school but it is not as crazy as English.
I do a language exchange with some English speakers here. There are some very beginner learners. Although they don't know meaning of sentences, they can at least read as long as they know the Korean alphabet.
There is an extreme example of irregularity English spelling system. Do you know how to say 'ghoti'? It is pronounced the same as 'fish'. 'gh', /f/ as in laugh; 'o', /ɪ/ as in women; 'ti', /ʃ/ as in nation.
I remember I read a article about English spelling system. It said that English spelling system needs to be reformed. To support their theory, they gave a number of examples. I only remember one which is children in English spoken countries spend more time to learn word spelling. One day I turned on the TV and watched some kind of a word spelling quiz show. The host asks guests to spell very long and difficult words. The more they can spell, the more they score. That kind of show wouldn't exist in Korea because as soon as you say words, you can spell them unlike English.
This difficulty doesn't just apply to people in English spoken counties, because now English is an international language, people all over the world are suffering to learn English. I wish Korean would be one so that we don't need to have a hard time to spell words at least.

'q'는 다음에는 거의 항상 'u'가 따라온다. 'q'가 있는 단어중에 'u'가 다음에 오지 않는 단어를 말할 수 있어요? 영어가 모국어가 아닌 나로서는 지금 생각나는 단어가 없다. 너는?
'u'는 'ng' 조합을 또한 따라다닌다. 'u'가 'q'와 'ng'를 따라다닐때 그는 그의 모습을 바꾼다. 무슨뜻이나면, 음성학적으로 'u'는 마지막음절이 아닌 'q'와 'ng' 다음에 qustion, Quebec, language, and penguin에서처럼 /w/로 발음이 된다.
이런 현상처럼, 영어의 각 알파벳문자는 하나의 음을 나타내지 않고 또한 하나의 음이 특정적인 알파벳문자를 대표하지 않는다.
내가 말하고 싶은 것은 한국어 알파벳은 영어의 그것과 같지 않다는 것이다. 비록 다른 모든 언어들에서처럼 음의 변화현상은 있지만, 내가 아는 한, 하나의 자음과 모음이 하나의 음으로 소리난다. 한국어를 고등학교 이후로 공부하질 않아서, 아마 내가 틀릴수도 있지만 영어처럼 그렇게 헷갈리지는 않는다.
내가 여기에서 language exchange를 몇몇 영어스피커들과 한다. 몇몇은 한국어초보이지만 알파벳을 아는 한 문장들을 이해를 못하지만 읽을수는 있다.
이런 불규칙적인 영어철자를 보여주는 극단적인 예가 있다. 'ghoti'를 어떻게 말하는지 아는가? 이것은 fish가 발음되는 것처럼 똑같이 발음이 된다. 'gh'는 laugh에서처럼 /f/로 ; 'o'는 women에서 처럼 /I/로; 'ti'는 nation에서 처럼 /ʃ/로 발음이 된다.
신문에서 읽은 영어철자시스템에 대한 기사를 기억한다. 그 기사에서 영어철자시스템은 다시 고쳐질 필요가 있다고 했다. 그 주장을 지지하는 여러 예가 있었는데 지금 하나만 기억나는데, 영어국가에서 어린이들이 철자를 배우는데 더 오랜 시간이 걸린다고 했다. 어느날 TV를 켜서 보는데 무슨 철자맞추기 쇼가 방영되고 있었다. 사회자가 게스트들에게 아주 길고 어려운 단어의 철자를 묻는 것이였다. 더 많은 철자를 맞출수록, 더 많은 점수를 얻는 것이였다. 이런 쇼는 한국에서는 아마 존재하지 않을것이다. 왜냐하면 영어와는 다르게 단어를 말하자마자 철자를 맞출수 있기 때문이다.
이런 영어철자시스템의 어려움은 이제 단지 영어국가의 사람들에게만 적용되는것은 아니다. 영어가 이제 국제어이기 때문에 세계의 모든사람들이 영어를 배우는데 고통을 받고 있다.
그런 연유로 한국어가 국제어가 됐으면 하는 바램이다. 그러면 적어도 더이상 단어철자때문에 힘들지는 않을 것이기 때문이다.

My TOEFL is Tofu...

Phonetically, there are two L sounds in English. I am pretty sure people who didn't study phonetics in university don't agree with that. If you are one of them, you can test yourself saying the list of words below.

badly late clear wool bulk

Say them with focusing on the production of /l/ sound in each word. When you say 'badly', you definitely feel your tip of the tongue touching just behind the upper teeth(alveolar ridge). On the other hand, when you say 'wool' or 'bulk', you may or may not touch the same spot as you do when you say 'badly' in your mouth but raise your back of your tongue close to somewhere further back and up inside of your mouth(hard palate). In phonetic terms, these two different way for l sound are called light 'l' and dark 'l' respectively. The more you go to right in the list above, the more becomes dark. The tendency to use so-called dark /l/ varies depending on speakers and in different position of /l/.

The dark quality of /l/ is one of ways to tell foreign accent but it doesn't really contribute misunderstanding of speech. However, it did to me. Like one day I was in my friend's car heading to skating practice, a friend of mine and me hadn't talked each other so much beforehand, so we didn't really know each other. I was talking about TOEFL test but she thought I said 'tofu' instead of 'TOEFL' because I was at stage of trying to produce dark /l/ not touching the tip of the tongue when I pronounced l in TOEFL which sounded like 'tofu'. As a result, my friend got puzzled and lost.
Now it sounds like a very funny story but looking back it was quite embarrassing moment. But if I think of my friend, I can imagine how hard it was to put words all together in order to make sense of it. Talking about tofu? and totally unrelated words like reading, writing, score and test not like cooking, dinner or something.
I guess the degree of dark 'l' is not the thing I can learn with books or in class but from talking to and hearing from people. Sorry my friend.


음성학적으로, 영어에는 두 개의 l 발음이 있다. 확신컨데, 대학에서 음성학을 공부하지 않은 사람은 동의하지 않을 거다.
만약 너가 그런사람들중에 한 사람이라면 아래 단어들을 말해보면서 스스로를 테스트해 볼 수 있을 것이다.

badly late clear wool bulk

각 단어에 L 발음에 집중하면서 발음해 보아라.
'badly' 를 발음할 때 분명하게 혀끝을 윗니 뒤부분에 대는 것을 느낄 수 있을 것이다. 그와 반대로, 'wool'이나 'bulk'를 발음할때는 같은 지점을 닿을수도 안 닿을수도 있지만 혀 뒤분을 입속의 입천정 뒷부분에 올리는 것을 느낄 수 있을 것이다. 그래서 영어에는 두 개의 l 발음이 있다.
발음용어로는 각각 light 'l' 과 dark 'l' 로 불린다. 단어목록의 오른쪽으로 갈 수록 점점 dark 'l' 현상이 심해진다.
dark 'l'을 사용하는 경향은 사람이나 'l'의 위치에 따라 달라진다.

dark 'l'의 정도는 외국인 발음을 구별하는 한 가지 방법이지만, 그렇게 오해를 유발하지는 않는다. 하지만, 나에게는 그랬다.
예전에 스케이팅 연습가는 길에 친구 차에서 내가 한참 TOEFL시험에 대해서 얘기하고 있었는데 내 친구는 TOEFL을 tofu(두부)라고 잘못 이해한 거다. 그때 내가 한참 dark 'l'을 연습할때여서 혀 끝을 윗 니 뒤부분에 안 댔더니 tofu처럼 들린 것이다. 결국, 내 친구는 멍해서 촛점을 읽어버렸다. 지금은 정말 웃긴 얘기처럼 들리지만 그 때는 정말 창피했다. 하지만 내 친구를 생각하면 모든 단어들을 짜 맞춰서 이해하려고 얼마나 힘들었을까 상상이간다. 두부얘기? 근대 전혀 상관없는 읽기, 쓰기, 점수 그리고 시험, 요리 저녁 뭐 이런 단어들이 아니고?
dark 'l'의 정도는 책이나 수업에서 배울 수 있는 것이 아니고 친구들하고 얘기하고 들으면서 배울 수 있는 것 같다.

Two ways to say English /r/

It is very tough for Korean and Japanese to pronounce English /r/ sound since in their languages, there is no /r/ sound. I am a Korean so like other Koreans I also have a hard time to pronounce English /r/ sound. So, I have read some books and asked my friends about it to fix the problem. The books I recently bought say that there are two quite different ways to produce English /r/ sound. First, the tongue tip curls back into the mouth behind the alveolar ridge with the lips slightly rounded. Second, the lips are more rounded and the tongue tip remains low in the mouth, and the body of the tongue(the middle of the tongue) bunches up near alveolar or alveopalatal area. They say the first way is more common and described in more pronunciation texts but the second one is less common but some still use the second one.
I really don't know which one I use because I can't see inside of my mouth. Some of my friends who I asked about it don't know either for the same reason.
I really think that if you think about it too much, it gets more difficult, so just say it.

Which one are you?

The Phonetics Animation Flash Project

영어 r 소리는 한국인과 일본인에게 아주 어렵다, 왜냐햐면 r 소리가 한국어와 일본어에 없기 때문이다. 다른 한국인들과 마찬가지로 나도 r 발음을 하는데 어려움을 겪고 있다. 그래서 문제점을 고쳐보려고 책도 읽고 친구들에게도 물어보았다. 최근에 산 책들을 보면 r 발음을 하는데 두 가지 방법이 있다고 한다. 첫번째는 혀끝을 말아서 올려서 뒤로 빼고 입술을 약간 동그랗게 만드는 것이고, 두번째는 입술을 더 동그랗고 만들고 혀끝은 내리고 혀 중간을 윗니 뒤 부분이나 조금 더 뒤 근처에 올려주는 것이다. 첫 번째 방법이 조금 더 일반적인 방법으로 여러 발음책에서 찾아볼 수 있는 방법이고 두번째 방법은 조금 덜 일반적이지만 여전히 여러사람들이 저렇게 발음한다고 한다.
입속을 볼 수 없으니 내가 어떻게 발음하는지는 정말 모르겠다. 내가 물어본 다른 친구들도 같은 이유로 알 수가 없단다. 내가 생각해보건데 너무 신경쓰면 더 안되니까 그냥 내 뱉어라.

너는 어떤거냐?

Wow, that was an awesome lecture for me~~~

I got an email from Jay saying that he wanted to skate this morning. If I really want to do something in the morning, I can do it but I chose sleeping a bit more and going to take Phonetic lecture with Benji in UofT at 2 pm.
I met Benji a prior to the lecture but we were a bit late, we sat down at the back, it was kind of the second floor classroom. The funny thing happened a moment later.
The professor couldn't show his slides all of sudden, and called somebody to get it fixed. That was a dejavu of the previous attempt to sit and listen to lecture. Last time, a week ago, I went to another lecture with Benji but we couldn't get anything because of the same problem. Benji and I laughed and telling it's time to get up and leave. Fortunately, it turned out the best lecture I've ever had in Canada. After Benji took off for his class at 3 am. I finally solved my mysterious phonetic curiosity. As a Korean, the English /r/ sound is very difficult to pronounce. I've read many books and articles on the internet and asked many teachers and friends. They said different stories. Some couldn't figure out how to pronounce it simply because they just say it and can't see their inside of mouth. During the lecture, the prof showed us the video clip about /r/ pronunciation which was stunning to me.
There are two version of /r/ sounds. Some pronounce it this way, some do the other way. When I learned pronunciation from Eileen, who was my tutor two years ago. She taught me one of /r/ sounds which didn't work for me. So, I was trying to figure out why I had a trouble when I pronounce /r/. That's why I have read a lot of books and articles and asked many friends and teachers. Today, I finally figured that out simply by seeing that video clip. It showed us the vocal folds and the side view of tongue, which was black and white as same as the one when you see a baby inside women's body, and lips of a native English speaker when he pronounces /r/ sound. It really works for me, really. I felt like I found gold and the textbook they use for that lecture is the book I would like to read about phonetic. Two years ago, Richard, who is my skating buddy in the club, gave me a bunch of books which he studied English with here many years ago. One of books is named 'Teaching pronunciation'. It is a very good book and I got a great deal of Phonetic knowledge from it but it is published in 1980's. So, I need a new book about Phonetic so that I can get contemporary knowledge of it. After the lecture, I went to the U of T bookstore to check the price of that book. Gee, it's almost $50. Why books in Canada are so expensive. I will check out Amazon website to buy it, anyway.

The Sounds of Language : An Introduction to Phonetics Henry Rogers The Sounds of Language provides an accessible, general introduction to phonetics with a special emphasis on English. Focusing on the phonetics of English, the first section allows students to get an overall view of the subject. Two standard accents of English are presented: RP (Received Pronunciatio...

There is another thing which I found very interesting. The prof is a Russian native speaker. He is very fluent in English. I thought he is a native English speaker. He is teaching Phonetic of English in U of T, so I realized that non native speakers can teach English even in university in English spoken countries. That's what I would like to dream of.

Thanks Benji for taking me there. I really appreciate that.

I will go home soon to see Emily and Andre. They will drop by my place to give blankets and pillows on the way to the airport. They will fly to Macao tonight.

What language should I speak?

I'm kind of in a pensive mood since yesterday.
I do a language exchange every Wednesday, so we gathered yesterday as usual.
Since it has been chilly, some wanted to have a lesson inside rather than at the park where we usually do. The confusion had started. We tried the community center near Christie subway station and were told that we were not supposed to have a lesson there. One member offered one restaurant which is less busy that time of day. We walked there rather long time but there wasn't enough space for us. We tried one of bars near there afterward and asked the owner to keep the music down, but he told us that he didn't want to do it because he wants to keep their atmosphere as usual. After wandering for 30 mins, two people took off. We decided to just have dinner and talk about the place for the next time. We got two new people but they were headed home after short staying at the restaurant. I felt sorry for them. Anyway, I wasn't in a good mood but practically as a leader of that meeting, I couldn't express my feeling directly. I hid my feeling and I was heading the place where one offered to check out for the next meeting. He is a Korean and wanted to speak English with me, so we were talking in English, then I got an unexpected call from my friend, who is a landed immigrant from Korea and I talk with him in Korean, actually he is the only person I speak Korean with. I had spoken in English all day long, so I started talking English with him simultaniously over the phone and a moment later, I realized we speak Korean each other but I though it wasn't a big deal speaking English even though he spoke to me in Korean. He wanted to hang out with us. So, I just wanted to let him know that I was with someone who is Korean but we had been speaking English and if we speak Korean, it might have been awkward. But on the way to the place we were going to meet, I talked to the guy that I and my friend talk in Korean, so if he wants to speak Korean, we should speak Korean.
As we got there, I got very angry and sarcastic reaction from my friend. He talked to me in Korean that he got pissed off because I kept speaking English during the call and he might have to speak English with us. He thought I intended to avoid him and that's why I spoke to him in English. I was just a bit disappointed about his reaction at first but tried to calm down myself and explained what we were talking about on the way there.
As an international student, we are here to learn a new language and trying to speak a target language as much as possible even with Korean speakers, Time is limited for us, I don't have many close korean friends here, anyway. Yesterday's is very rare occasion for me. However, for him, he is a landed immigrant, he's not serious about a language; he always speak Korean to us without any consideration which I found it a little annoying. He has a plenty of time to pick up a language unlike us. He may not notice about this and has a different standard of it.
Anyway, I hid my upset feeling and had chatting with them for two hours, trying to make it up. When I got home, I was so stressed out and depressed about what I experienced before. I have no idea how I can handle that situation. I guess it would be better to speak Korean with Koreans. I don't have many chance to hang out with them anyway.
Did I make a mistake or that is just the thing every student face with every day.
Spending time with Korean is the most challenging thing here which seems to sound
weird because I am Korean and like Korean.
It is time to throw my skates on and forget about it.