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So in Korean, the word for "you" is 니가 (pronounced "nee-gah"). Example usage: 니가 언제 먹었어요? (When did you eat? "Nee-gah un-jeh mug-uss-uh-yo") I can't help but wo

So in Korean, the word for "you" is 니가 (pronounced "nee-gah"). Example usage: 니가 언제 먹었어요? (When did you eat? "Nee-gah un-jeh mug-uss-uh-yo") I can't help but wonder if the use of this word would also elicit a similar reaction... EDIT: I briefly forgot this, but there is a similar Korean word "내가" which is "me" or "I", and pronounced "ne-gah". Example usage: 내가 이 밥을 먹었어요. (I ate this food. "Ne-ga ee bap-uhl mug-uss-uh-yo") EDIT2: Korean is not my native language so forgive me for this, but "you" is usually just 니 ("nee"), and "me" or "I" is just 내 ("ne"), but the 가 ("gah") part is used like a conjunction to connect to the rest of the phrase. EDIT3: Ok, so I talked with a better Korean speaker about this and 니가 "nee-ga" is sort of a regional dialect (kind of like a slang term) for 너가 "nuh-ga". 니가 "nee-ga" is more commonly used in southern parts of South Korea, as the proper way of saying/spelling "you" is 너가 "nuh-ga". My Korean is influenced with the southern regional dialect as my parents were from that region. Sorry for the possible confusion. (So just "you" is 너 "nuh".) EDIT4: PSY (of Gangnam Style fame) has a song titled "Champion" that uses 니가 "nee-ga" a lot:https://youtu.be/uA4fV7Y14eg?t=49 https://youtu.be/uA4fV7Y14eg?t=49

nullsense 6y ago
Probably not. The difference in vowel sounds, timing and intonation don't give it the same feel. It's pretty noticable when you hear Mandarin spoken because the word is usually spoken pretty quickly then the speaker trails off because they're thinking of what to say... Sometimes they say it two or three times on a row. So it really stands out.
logicchains 6y ago
"You" and "me" are pronunced "nee-gah" and "ne-gah"? Those sound very similar, does that ever lead to misunderstandings?
- seodisparate 6y ago
  In Korean, the vowels ㅣ (ee sound) and ㅐ (eh sound) are different in the written language. There are actually more difficult things such as ㅐ and ㅔ (both "eh" sound) which can get confusing when trying to spell Korean words. In practice, I personally don't get confused differentiating between "nee-gah" and "ne-gah", but that may have been due to me having Korean parents and being used to that terminology since birth.
- eru 6y ago
  I just popped 'em both into Google Translate to have the machine pronounce them for me. I speak no Korean at all, but had no trouble telling them apart. Speakers of the language will undoubtedly be more competent than me. https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto&tl=en&text=%EB%8B%88%EA%B0%80%20%0A%0A%EB%82%B4%EA%B0%80 https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto...
- globular-toast 6y ago
  I know nothing about the language being discussed here, but the answer is no, it doesn't lead to misunderstandings. How do I know this? Because it's a natural language. The language exists for no reason other than the fact that it works. If the words sounded exactly the same you could safely assume that they either communicate the difference some other way, or the difference simply does not matter to them. An example of communicating something in a different way would be how in Spanish the pronoun is completely dropped in most cases. This is because it's completely redundant as the verb will be conjugated to include the pronoun. An example of things not mattering is in English where we don't distinguish between rivers that flow into other rivers and rivers that flow into the sea. French speakers might be confused (how do you know whether it's a fleuve or a rivière?), but the answer is we simply don't care. When learning a natural language, always assume that it works for them. Your aim is not to be able to translate your language to theirs, it is to be able to communicate your thoughts into their minds. Keep an open mind about what's important to transfer and how this can happen.
  - hombre_fatal 6y ago
    > but the answer is no, it doesn't lead to misunderstandings Natural languages offer misunderstandings between native speakers all the time. A sentence like "Bajó" in Spanish or "They went downstairs" in English can have many different antecedents for the listener to choose between (bad subtitle translations can give you a master class in this). If I say "the food is hot," do I mean it's temperature-hot or spicy-hot? I would refine your statement to simply point out that natural languages aren't damned by misunderstandings because: (1) You have the tools to disambiguate ahead of time if you think it might be ambiguous. "Maria bajó", "Maria went downstairs", "They both went downstairs together". (2) The listener can simply ask for clarification. (3) It doesn't necessarily matter. The point of the story was that John couldn't enjoy the soup, not whether it was too hot or too spicy. All that said, I think the person above was just asking how similar the pronunciation was between two words.
- silicon2401 6y ago
  Do you ever misunderstand dean and den?
wwwhizz 6y ago
Oof, we better fire all Korean professors. /s
- koheripbal 6y ago
  Asian's receive an enormous amount of hate from the African American community. ...so I would not be surprised to see that at some point happen at a real university. At RPI, the number of Asian professors and students plummeted after Shirley Ann Jackson took over.
  - Yetanfou 6y ago
    I wonder how those who want to find the cause of their failure in other people's success eventually deal with the fact that Nigerian immigrants into the USA are far more successful compared to African Americans while they are visually indistinguishable from them. Will the Nigerians be accused of having some form of privilege? Will they be called 'white' just like Asians are now often considered to be 'white'? Will saner minds prevail, find the reasons for their success and emulate these so they end up on the same level?
    - anthk 6y ago
      >Nigerian immigrants into the USA Nigerian inmigrants travelled an ocean, for sure they have money and a huge set of values, and they are not afraid at all of either racists or potential disadvantages. They had it worse in Nigeria. Here in Spain the Nigerians are seen as hard workers with an incredible spirit of superation.
    - neonate 6y ago
      It's not so hard to understand. The issue is the legacy of slavery, and Nigerian immigrants aren't dealing with that.
      - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
        Most racial justice activists don't agree - they believe that there's significant ongoing racism in addition to the legacy of slavery.
whalabi 6y ago
Yeah https://youtu.be/s_jWTrRguzU https://youtu.be/s_jWTrRguzU
oh_sigh 6y ago
Here's a fight(more like an assault on the elderly) that broke out between a black American on a South Korean bus because the elderly people, who probably don't speak a word of English or know English racial slurs, referred to him as "you" in their own language in their own country: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/88xlz4/a_black_guy_in_korea_freaks_out_and_hits_older/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/88xlz4/a_bl...
- bezmenov 6y ago
  Black fragility.
  - dang 6y ago
    Would you please stop creating accounts to post flamebait with? We're trying for something else here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
crc32 6y ago
Of course they would, dropped into a communication course with no prior warning. If it was a German professor talking about buttermilk do you think he would given a build up?

nullsense 6y ago

Probably not. The difference in vowel sounds, timing and intonation don't give it the same feel. It's pretty noticable when you hear Mandarin spoken because the word is usually spoken pretty quickly then the speaker trails off because they're thinking of what to say... Sometimes they say it two or three times on a row. So it really stands out.

logicchains 6y ago

"You" and "me" are pronunced "nee-gah" and "ne-gah"? Those sound very similar, does that ever lead to misunderstandings?

seodisparate 6y ago
In Korean, the vowels ㅣ (ee sound) and ㅐ (eh sound) are different in the written language. There are actually more difficult things such as ㅐ and ㅔ (both "eh" sound) which can get confusing when trying to spell Korean words. In practice, I personally don't get confused differentiating between "nee-gah" and "ne-gah", but that may have been due to me having Korean parents and being used to that terminology since birth.
eru 6y ago
I just popped 'em both into Google Translate to have the machine pronounce them for me. I speak no Korean at all, but had no trouble telling them apart. Speakers of the language will undoubtedly be more competent than me. https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto&tl=en&text=%EB%8B%88%EA%B0%80%20%0A%0A%EB%82%B4%EA%B0%80 https://translate.google.com/#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto...
globular-toast 6y ago
I know nothing about the language being discussed here, but the answer is no, it doesn't lead to misunderstandings. How do I know this? Because it's a natural language. The language exists for no reason other than the fact that it works. If the words sounded exactly the same you could safely assume that they either communicate the difference some other way, or the difference simply does not matter to them. An example of communicating something in a different way would be how in Spanish the pronoun is completely dropped in most cases. This is because it's completely redundant as the verb will be conjugated to include the pronoun. An example of things not mattering is in English where we don't distinguish between rivers that flow into other rivers and rivers that flow into the sea. French speakers might be confused (how do you know whether it's a fleuve or a rivière?), but the answer is we simply don't care. When learning a natural language, always assume that it works for them. Your aim is not to be able to translate your language to theirs, it is to be able to communicate your thoughts into their minds. Keep an open mind about what's important to transfer and how this can happen.
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  > but the answer is no, it doesn't lead to misunderstandings Natural languages offer misunderstandings between native speakers all the time. A sentence like "Bajó" in Spanish or "They went downstairs" in English can have many different antecedents for the listener to choose between (bad subtitle translations can give you a master class in this). If I say "the food is hot," do I mean it's temperature-hot or spicy-hot? I would refine your statement to simply point out that natural languages aren't damned by misunderstandings because: (1) You have the tools to disambiguate ahead of time if you think it might be ambiguous. "Maria bajó", "Maria went downstairs", "They both went downstairs together". (2) The listener can simply ask for clarification. (3) It doesn't necessarily matter. The point of the story was that John couldn't enjoy the soup, not whether it was too hot or too spicy. All that said, I think the person above was just asking how similar the pronunciation was between two words.
silicon2401 6y ago
Do you ever misunderstand dean and den?

wwwhizz 6y ago

Oof, we better fire all Korean professors. /s

koheripbal 6y ago
Asian's receive an enormous amount of hate from the African American community. ...so I would not be surprised to see that at some point happen at a real university. At RPI, the number of Asian professors and students plummeted after Shirley Ann Jackson took over.
- Yetanfou 6y ago
  I wonder how those who want to find the cause of their failure in other people's success eventually deal with the fact that Nigerian immigrants into the USA are far more successful compared to African Americans while they are visually indistinguishable from them. Will the Nigerians be accused of having some form of privilege? Will they be called 'white' just like Asians are now often considered to be 'white'? Will saner minds prevail, find the reasons for their success and emulate these so they end up on the same level?
  - anthk 6y ago
    >Nigerian immigrants into the USA Nigerian inmigrants travelled an ocean, for sure they have money and a huge set of values, and they are not afraid at all of either racists or potential disadvantages. They had it worse in Nigeria. Here in Spain the Nigerians are seen as hard workers with an incredible spirit of superation.
  - neonate 6y ago
    It's not so hard to understand. The issue is the legacy of slavery, and Nigerian immigrants aren't dealing with that.
    - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
      Most racial justice activists don't agree - they believe that there's significant ongoing racism in addition to the legacy of slavery.

whalabi 6y ago

Yeah https://youtu.be/s_jWTrRguzU https://youtu.be/s_jWTrRguzU

oh_sigh 6y ago

Here's a fight(more like an assault on the elderly) that broke out between a black American on a South Korean bus because the elderly people, who probably don't speak a word of English or know English racial slurs, referred to him as "you" in their own language in their own country: https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/88xlz4/a_black_guy_in_korea_freaks_out_and_hits_older/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/88xlz4/a_bl...

bezmenov 6y ago
Black fragility.
- dang 6y ago
  Would you please stop creating accounts to post flamebait with? We're trying for something else here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

crc32 6y ago

Of course they would, dropped into a communication course with no prior warning. If it was a German professor talking about buttermilk do you think he would given a build up?