All day long he tucks and fits, and fits and tucks, and tucks and fits....
August 17, 2010 8:15 AM

Please help me find similar pronunciations of profanity and non-profanity for my Korean class e.g., "beach" and "NSFW"

I'll be volunteering to teach a pronunciation class and so many of my students always ask me about the more vulgar words of the English language or they accidentally pronounce an innocent word in a way that isn't so innocent. Please help me find any resources or let me know the words that you think sound similar.

e.g., "beach" "bitch", "sheet" "shit", "sit" "shit"

Also, more tongue twisters like this one would be useful:

"Suzie, Suzie, working in a shoeshine shop.
All day long she sits and shines,
all day long she shines and sits,
and sits and shines, and shines and sits,
and sits and shines, and shines and sits.
Suzie, Suzie, working in a shoeshine shop."

Or things like the : swearing Korean teacher

Anything at all might help and even though I'm focused on a Korean class other problematic pronunciations for other languages would be an interesting read as well.

Lastly, don't worry, I can't be fired since I'm a volunteer (that and this is based on request, I never swear in real life--I swear ;)
posted by Knigel to Writing & Language (13 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
I've heard kids try to say "truck", and it comes out more like "fuck" or "cock".
posted by SuperSquirrel at 8:23 AM on August 17, 2010


Well, my two year old has been pronouncing "fork" as "fuck" lately. And yesterday she had some "good penis." Peanuts, dear. Also, my son played with "big dicks" (sticks) as a baby.
posted by artychoke at 8:27 AM on August 17, 2010


If they have trouble with English R's, then "fork" and "shirt" can both turn out... not quite as planned.

possibly helpful info: are you teaching American or British pronunciation? (Or I guess you could also be teaching Australian or something else)
posted by brainmouse at 8:30 AM on August 17, 2010


South Park has their "City Wok" running joke.

When I was little, you'd get someone to curse by saying "Sunshine City" three times fast!
posted by NoraCharles at 8:43 AM on August 17, 2010


I always enjoy hearing Middle East folks with heavy accents talk about "world piss".
posted by fish tick at 8:44 AM on August 17, 2010


The Italian man who went to Malta is a longish joke that relies on several "dirty word" mispronunciations.
posted by thatdawnperson at 8:58 AM on August 17, 2010


My college French teacher always used to pronounce "focus" as "fuck-us."
posted by Dr. Send at 9:56 AM on August 17, 2010


Rude tongue twisters

I was looking for the one about the pheasant plucker.
posted by leahwrenn at 10:51 AM on August 17, 2010


How about joke names, Mike Hunt and Seymore Butz and Long Duk Dong and such?
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:40 AM on August 17, 2010


I once did a class presentation with an overseas student from China. As part of a discussion on work-life balance, he told the class, "The woman in our case study is feeling a lot of stress, because she got too much pleasure from her boss...then she goes home and she gets pleasure from her husband."

He meant pressure.

I don't know if this is a pronunciation that Koreans also find tricky, but it might be worth mentioning. Although neither is a swear word, saying 'pleasure' when you mean something else can lead to a range of exquisite double entendres.
posted by embrangled at 12:57 PM on August 17, 2010


I had a friend who had a Puerto Rican acting coach. She would tell her students to "fuck-us" (focus).

Sincerely,

Ben Dover.
posted by chairface at 5:16 PM on August 17, 2010


Puck, I should have previewed.
posted by chairface at 5:17 PM on August 17, 2010


"ass water" = ice water
"whores" = horse

pleasure/pressure is something i hear a lot too. The r's are difficult.
posted by mittenedsex at 8:50 AM on July 23, 2011


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