Korean → Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin Chinese uses 42 sounds. You already own 20 of them from Korean. The other 22 are the work — and 18 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: close, but not identical
Mandarin Chinese: moon / month · written "yu + vowel", "ü + vowel"
Your /w/ is the one in 왜 (why).
the move: alveolo-palatal → retroflex
Mandarin Chinese: middle · written "zh"
Tongue curled back.
Your /t͡ɕ/ is the one in 집 (house).
the move: alveolo-palatal → retroflex
Mandarin Chinese: to eat · written "ch"
Your /t͡ɕʰ/ is the one in 차 (tea; car).
the move: alveolo-palatal → retroflex
Mandarin Chinese: to be · written "sh"
Your /ɕ/ is the one in 시간 (time).
the move: close → near-close
Mandarin Chinese: middle · written "ong (the o)"
Your /u/ is the one in 우유 (milk).
the move: unrounded
Mandarin Chinese: to drink · written "e"
Not English e. Say 'o' and unround the lips.
Your /o/ is the one in 오늘 (today).
the move: rounded
Mandarin Chinese: woman · written "ü", "u after j q x y"
French u / German ü.
Your /i/ is the one in 이 (this; two; tooth).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
Mandarin Chinese: rice / meal · written "f"
Your /s/ is the one in 사람 (person).
the move: alveolo-palatal → alveolar
Mandarin Chinese: at · written "z"
Your /t͡ɕ/ is the one in 집 (house).
the move: alveolo-palatal → alveolar
Mandarin Chinese: vegetable / dish · written "c"
Your /t͡ɕʰ/ is the one in 차 (tea; car).
the move: open → open-mid
Mandarin Chinese: thanks · written "ie", "üe", "ian (the a)"
Your /a/ is the one in 나라 (country).
the move: open-mid → open
Mandarin Chinese: busy · written "ang (the a)", "ao (the a)"
Your /ʌ/ is the one in 서울 (Seoul).
the move: alveolo-palatal → velar
Mandarin Chinese: good · written "h"
Rougher than English h — like German ach, lightly.
Your /ɕ/ is the one in 시간 (time).
the move: alveolo-palatal → retroflex, voiced
Mandarin Chinese: person · written "r"
Your /ɕ/ is the one in 시간 (time).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
Mandarin Chinese: love · written "ai"
Your /a/ is the one in 나라 (country).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
Mandarin Chinese: black · written "ei", "ui"
Your /e/ is the one in 네 (yes).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
Mandarin Chinese: all · written "ou", "iu"
Your /o/ is the one in 오늘 (today).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Mandarin Chinese sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
Genuinely new
Nothing in Korean sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
good
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, open-mid → open.
two
Also the Beijing -r suffix: nàr 那儿.
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → mid, back → central.
four
Not /i/! Hold the s and voice it.
Closest thing you own: — but close, but not identical.
ten
Not /i/! Hold the retroflex and voice it.
Closest thing you own: — but close, but not identical.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Korean | Mandarin Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, phrase melody | Syllable-timed |
| Stress | None at word level. No syllable is reduced and no vowel becomes a schwa; every syllable is said in full. What an English ear hears as stress is the phrase-initial rise. | Stress is a matter of length and clarity rather than pitch: a stressed syllable holds its full tone, an unstressed one goes neutral and short. |
| Pitch | Not tonal, and not a pitch-accent language either in the standard: Seoul Korean gives its pitch to the PHRASE, not the word. Each accentual phrase rises over its first two syllables and falls at the end (low-high … high-low), and the very first syllable starts higher after an aspirated or tense consonant than after a plain one — which is how listeners tell 달 from 탈 at the start of a phrase. Questions rise at the end, as in English. The Busan and Daegu dialects DO have lexical pitch accent (가지 is 'branch' or 'aubergine' by pitch there), which is why southerners sound sing-song to Seoul. | lexical tone — pitch changes the word |
What you have that Mandarin Chinese doesn't
14 sounds with no job in Mandarin Chinese. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Korean has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Mandarin Chinese from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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