A Memory from a Korean-American Childhood – English the Korean Way

This story isn’t actually mine. It’s my older sister’s. But I thought I should share it (with permission from my sis) because many of you will probably relate to it.

Many years ago in Kindergarten, Eonni (Korean for older sis to a girl) was learning the English alphabet. The teacher assigned a letter to each kid in the class. (I guess there were 26 kids in the class?)

And they were told to go home and learn how to pronounce the letter for the next day.

So the next day comes and Eonni goes to school. She did her assignment and was ready.

Each kid was told to stand up to say and pronounce their letter clearly.

“A!” Shouted the kid with the first letter. “A for apple!”

“B!” Shouted the next kid. “B for bus!”

And so on and so forth until it was Eonni’s turn.

She stood up proudly from her little desk and chair.

“Boo-ee!” She shouted just like every kid before her. “Boo-ee for vegetable!”

With confused looks, everyone was staring at her.

Well, they must not have heard her, so, still confident, again she yelled,

“Boo-ee! Boo-ee for vegetable!”

Whispers of “what?” came from throughout the room.

She said one last time, a lot less confidently,

“Boo-ee? Boo-ee for vegetable?”

The teacher mercifully finally stepped in and corrected Eonni.

No “V” for vegetable – No “V” for victory

You see, Eonni was assigned the letter “V.”

So she had gone home and asked our parents how it was pronounced and for a word with it, all according to the assignment.

Unfortunately, there is no letter “V” in the Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. Although our parents had a pretty good grasp of the English language, “V” was still a tough one. Back in Korea, they were taught, by their non-English speaking instructor, that “V” was pronounced “boo-ee” (부이).

Learning English the Korean way

“Boo-ee” is the closest you can get to spelling out “V” in Hangeul because there is a “B” (부) and “ee” (이) sound. So that’s what they taught Eonni.

There are many instances where sounds of one language simply do not exist in other languages.

One non-Korean example is the tilde like “ñ” in Spanish.

Another example is the diaeresis (or umlaut), e.g. “ü”, that’s in many languages but not in the English language.

We do the best we can to pronounce these letters by assigning them a letter from our own alphabet as best we can, just like my parents did.

Language learning has come a long way since back then. And now there are many native English speakers employed as English teachers in Korea. So students can hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

And unlike Eonni’s primary school days, there’s everything from regular old books to learning laptops that say and spell letters and words.

So, there should be a lot less kids out there saying “boo-ee” nowadays!

But kudos to my parents and Eonni for knowing vegetable! I think that’s pretty advanced for a Kindergartener!

Do you have a similar funny story? Share in the comments!