Malay → Korean
Korean uses 34 sounds. You already own 19 of them from Malay. The other 15 are the work — and 15 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: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: house · written "ㅈ (initial)"
Plain ㅈ — between English ch and j, with the tongue flat. Voiced to /d͡ʑ/ between vowels.
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in cinta (love).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: very · written "ㅈ (between vowels)"
Your /d͡ʒ/ is the one in jalan (road / to walk).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: time · written "ㅅ before i, y-vowels"
The sh of Japanese shi, not the sh of English ship — tongue flat.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in syukur (gratitude).
the move: aspirated
Korean: arm; eight · written "ㅍ"
Aspirated — a strong puff of air. The p of English 'pot'.
Your /p/ is the one in pagi (morning).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: bread · written "ㅃ"
Tense: the throat stiffens, the release is sharp and there is no puff at all. The third kind of p. Also what plain ㅂ becomes after an obstruent (입구 ipk͈u).
Your /p/ is the one in pagi (morning).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: strawberry · written "ㄸ"
Tense t. 달 tal 'moon', 탈 tʰal 'mask', 딸 t͈al 'daughter' — one triplet to hear the three-way contrast on.
Your /t/ is the one in tahu (to know).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: flower · written "ㄲ"
Tense k. Also what plain ㄱ becomes after an obstruent: 학교 hakk͈jo.
Your /k/ is the one in kita (we (incl.)).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: uncooked rice · written "ㅆ"
Tense s: longer, harder, no breath. 살 sal 'flesh; to live' against 쌀 s͈al 'rice'.
Your /s/ is the one in satu (one).
the move: unrounded
Korean: that; he · written "ㅡ"
Say /u/ and spread the lips. Romanised eu. The same vowel as Japanese u and Vietnamese ư.
Your /u/ is the one in untuk (for).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal, aspirated
Korean: tea; car · written "ㅊ"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in cinta (love).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: to be salty · written "ㅉ"
Tense ㅈ.
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in cinta (love).
the move: trill → tap
Korean: we; our · written "ㄹ (initial, between vowels)"
A tap, like Spanish single r or the t in American 'water'.
Your /r/ is the one in rumah (house).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Korean sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- p = pʰ = p͈ → your p vs vs train this pair →
- t = tʰ = t͈ → your t vs vs train this pair →
- k = kʰ = k͈ → your k vs vs train this pair →
- t͡ɕ = t͡ɕʰ = t͡ɕ͈ → your t͡ʃ vs vs
- s = s͈ → your s vs train this pair →
- u = ɯ → your u vs train this pair →
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Malay | Korean | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed | Syllable-timed, phrase melody |
| Stress | Light and non-contrastive, usually on the second-to-last syllable — and it shifts when suffixes are added, without any effect on meaning. No Malay pair is distinguished by stress, which is one of the reasons Malay is regularly called the most approachable major language to pronounce. | 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. |
What you have that Korean doesn't
13 sounds with no job in Korean. 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 Malay has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Korean 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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