Why we have silent letters in English, along with why the Great Vowel Shift happened, is fascinating research. And it's also why English-speakers pronounce so many foreign words incorrectly. With some notable exceptions such as French, it's usually safe to presume if there's a letter in a foreign word, it's there to be pronounced. Particularly if it's been given an English orthography recently. Korean had a widespread English transliterations from the early 40s, and was significantly revised with an update in 2000 for South Korea.
Correction. There is a North Korean movie from when Kim Jong-il kidnapped a director and actress. It's called Pulgasari and is a North Korean version of Godzilla. I watched it online. It's not bad.
North Korea actually has (or had) a film industry. We know this because there were a few Americans (usually disillusioned soldiers guarding the DMZ) who defected to the North in the years after the war... and some of these Americans became actors. One of the Americans fully embraced North Korean communism, and became rather famous for playing the ruthless, scheming American villain in these North Korean movies. But I think these Americans have all died by now (one of them famously came back to the US a few years back and was ceremonially dishonorably discharged from the US Army when he was in his 90s or something like that, I don't remember the details), so I don't know what the current status of their film industry is. Also, another issue with info coming out from the North is the defectors. There's a handful of defectors who've fallen in with rabidly anti-communist right-wing groups in South Korea/the US and tend to tell stories about North Korea that totally coincidentally align perfectly with these groups' narrative. That's not to excuse the abuses of the North Korean regime... but usually when you see a program/documentary discussing North Korea, it's the same 2-3 people whose stories are always pretty wild. Like that story about the Kims eating specially harvested rice... how would anyone know? Especially considering, as mentioned later in the podcast, that most North Koreans weren't even aware of the existence of the Kim family (aside from Jong Il). (EDIT - ok the second ep gets into this misinformation.)
I confer i had guns at 7 years old ......... Air rifles calm down it was the 80s ........ But if youd given me a Generals uniform as well , things would have gone real south real fast
It always hurts to hear the way Robert pronounces things, but this episode especially hurts because I speak Korean and Chinese. The first time you said "Juche", I thought "what the fuck is joosh?" Eventually I realized you were referring to "joo-chay".
He mangles the hell out of all sorts of words, and I mean of all languages including and especially English, which he's a native speaker of. If that's any comfort.
Oh yeah, the way he massacres German pronunciation (and thanks to Nazism, there's a TON of eps involving Germans), I pretty much have come to the conclusion that it's a running gag.
He does, but he also apologises in advance. He covers bastards from all areas so I don't begrudge him any pronunciations, he can hardly be expected to know the nuances of all regions and dialects ( although I cringed every time he mentioned an Irish person or place in the catholic church series :D ). He's an equal opportunities word mangler
As an American who tried to learn Korean and gave up, the spelling of Korean names in English letters is very inconsistent and tough to work out, which is weird, given how easy and simple hanggeul is. Like, which English asshole decided that the last name 박 needed to be spelled "Park", and why did they hate the Scottish, Irish, and Americans so much? (Edit: It should be spelled "Bak" or "Pak", because the r is NOT pronounced, is what I'm getting at.) "Joosh" is still inexcusable, though.
Btw everyone, Busan is a great city if you ever have the chance to go! So is Daegu ^^ (near Busan) also, the way they copied Japan's emperor myth homework but changed it is too funny considering
I feel like the format of this podcast doesn't serve trying to explain history that well, in South Korea the dictatorship built the economy up in a centralised fashion by giving enormous resources to a few specific families, it is only later that democratic reforms are made.
29:30 It isn't just Juche (self-reliance), there is also "Songgun" or "military first" and the phrase "Songgun Juche" is constantly mentioned. It's their version of Maoism, mixed with this Albanian-style military paranoia (except they don't build endless bunkers) about South Korea and Japan.
Juche is pronounced JOO-che, not joosh, which is unfortunate because joosh is hilarious.
This was driving me crazy. You can't suffix a syllable with the "sh" phoneme in Korean.
Why we have silent letters in English, along with why the Great Vowel Shift happened, is fascinating research. And it's also why English-speakers pronounce so many foreign words incorrectly. With some notable exceptions such as French, it's usually safe to presume if there's a letter in a foreign word, it's there to be pronounced. Particularly if it's been given an English orthography recently. Korean had a widespread English transliterations from the early 40s, and was significantly revised with an update in 2000 for South Korea.
Correction. There is a North Korean movie from when Kim Jong-il kidnapped a director and actress. It's called Pulgasari and is a North Korean version of Godzilla. I watched it online. It's not bad.
You can read the book "a kim jung il production" about that incident. It's WILD
I sure do love Products and Services! ꈍᴗꈍ
North Korea actually has (or had) a film industry. We know this because there were a few Americans (usually disillusioned soldiers guarding the DMZ) who defected to the North in the years after the war... and some of these Americans became actors. One of the Americans fully embraced North Korean communism, and became rather famous for playing the ruthless, scheming American villain in these North Korean movies. But I think these Americans have all died by now (one of them famously came back to the US a few years back and was ceremonially dishonorably discharged from the US Army when he was in his 90s or something like that, I don't remember the details), so I don't know what the current status of their film industry is.
Also, another issue with info coming out from the North is the defectors. There's a handful of defectors who've fallen in with rabidly anti-communist right-wing groups in South Korea/the US and tend to tell stories about North Korea that totally coincidentally align perfectly with these groups' narrative. That's not to excuse the abuses of the North Korean regime... but usually when you see a program/documentary discussing North Korea, it's the same 2-3 people whose stories are always pretty wild. Like that story about the Kims eating specially harvested rice... how would anyone know? Especially considering, as mentioned later in the podcast, that most North Koreans weren't even aware of the existence of the Kim family (aside from Jong Il). (EDIT - ok the second ep gets into this misinformation.)
> Juche (English: /ˈdʒuːtʃeɪ/ (listen), JOO-chay; Korean: [tɕutɕʰe] (listen))
It doesn't rhyme with douche. Though it should.
Kim Jong-Eun wearing JNCO's would be an exercise in ultimate stubbiness.
I confer i had guns at 7 years old ......... Air rifles calm down it was the 80s ........ But if youd given me a Generals uniform as well , things would have gone real south real fast
Very interesting podcasts, looking forward to listening to more now that I have discovered your channel.
11:20 the irony here is you can start from here and up until the Soviet speech-writers line, think they're talking about Jong-un from the jump
Absolutely love this podcast, it's criminally underrated. Its funny, interesting and chock full of information!
Thanks for making such a great show!
It always hurts to hear the way Robert pronounces things, but this episode especially hurts because I speak Korean and Chinese. The first time you said "Juche", I thought "what the fuck is joosh?" Eventually I realized you were referring to "joo-chay".
He mangles the hell out of all sorts of words, and I mean of all languages including and especially English, which he's a native speaker of. If that's any comfort.
Oh yeah, the way he massacres German pronunciation (and thanks to Nazism, there's a TON of eps involving Germans), I pretty much have come to the conclusion that it's a running gag.
He does, but he also apologises in advance. He covers bastards from all areas so I don't begrudge him any pronunciations, he can hardly be expected to know the nuances of all regions and dialects ( although I cringed every time he mentioned an Irish person or place in the catholic church series :D ). He's an equal opportunities word mangler
I'm a dumb white guy, and it hurt me to hear. He mispronounces a lot of stuff, even what I thought are pretty common names and words.
As an American who tried to learn Korean and gave up, the spelling of Korean names in English letters is very inconsistent and tough to work out, which is weird, given how easy and simple hanggeul is. Like, which English asshole decided that the last name 박 needed to be spelled "Park", and why did they hate the Scottish, Irish, and Americans so much? (Edit: It should be spelled "Bak" or "Pak", because the r is NOT pronounced, is what I'm getting at.)
"Joosh" is still inexcusable, though.
The book Evans mentioned is spelled
The Great Successor by Anna Fifield
Btw everyone, Busan is a great city if you ever have the chance to go! So is Daegu ^^ (near Busan) also, the way they copied Japan's emperor myth homework but changed it is too funny considering
You need to do an episode of sygmund rhee now, who's honestly just as bad in several ways
I co-sign this heavily, South Korea has had similar-yet-politically-inverse-issues with totalitarian leaders
the climate change part was super grim but its true sadly
That first segway might be the worst ad read in I have ever seen.
The plural of lego is lego
I feel like the format of this podcast doesn't serve trying to explain history that well, in South Korea the dictatorship built the economy up in a centralised fashion by giving enormous resources to a few specific families, it is only later that democratic reforms are made.
29:30 It isn't just Juche (self-reliance), there is also "Songgun" or "military first" and the phrase "Songgun Juche" is constantly mentioned. It's their version of Maoism, mixed with this Albanian-style military paranoia (except they don't build endless bunkers) about South Korea and Japan.
i am very sure you are pronouncing juche wrong. pretty sure its two syllables
""Joo-che" not "joosh" or "jooch".
1:09:30 what are Jenkos? Jinkos?
JNCOs were the pants in the 90s with the super huge legs. Like, you could have 36 pants with 44 inch legs.. each leg.
I will never understand the appeal of Ariana Grande.
Your summary of the Korean War was so bad it made me side with the North Koreans.
What made it a bad summary?
“Elaborate on that”
“No”
Joo-chay....not joosh. At least look at a pronunciation before doing a 1 hour+ podcast on a subject.
Robert Evans has never been able to pronounce foreign words.
Opening up with "indisputable" and uncorroborated conclusions. No doubt! 30 years! Come on now.
The only uncorroborated part is your claim the climate isn't fucked