Animal Sounds!

[javiskefka]

I just wrote this up for a comment on one of the lessons, and I thought I would share it here so that it is easier to find.

Although animals make the same sounds all across the world, each language has its own words to imitate or describe these sounds. Let's talk about the Korean words that describe animal sounds.

As an introduction, watch this video where a Korean dad talks about what sounds baby animals make with his little girl: http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZWU73pRDxk&locale=ko_KR&persist_locale=1
It was shown to me by our Japanese friend 비누 in the comments for a lesson.

What animals do they talk about:
animal: sound
꼬꼬: "꼬꼬대~"
강아지: "멍멍"
송아지: "음메~"
염소: "매애"
고양이: "야옹"
호랑이: "으르렁"
돼지: "꿀꿀"
참새: "짹짹"

I think it's very interesting that you're find a standardized spelling for all of these in the dictionary, and that they can take a number of different roles in a sentence depending on how they're used.

In English, we have both words to imitate the sound, and words to describe the sound, and they're not always the same.
rooster: "COCKADOODLEDOO" to crow
puppy: "RUFF RUFF" to bark
calf: "MOO" to low
goat: "BAAH" to bleat
tiger: "ROAR" to growl
pig: "OINK OINK" to grunt
sparrow: "CHIRP" to chirp, to sing

What animal sounds do you know from Korean?

EDIT: Thanks to Hyunwoo, I now know that roosters actually say 꼬꼬댁 in Korean.

[ddong_gae]

Yes! That was one of the more interesting lessons learned. My nieces teach me Korean and I teach them English. I never thought about that animals make different sounds in different countries.

The look on my nieces faces! They thought I had lost my mind. The youngest one got angry and started crying because I kept telling her frogs say "rib it rib it". She screamed "NO NO NO" and ran to my sister-in-law.

[holdfast]

that little girl is so cute!

[javiskefka]

I wonder what are the Korean words for the sounds of some other animals that "bark" in English:
seals
squirrels

[holdfast]

squirrels bark? i guess i had never thought about that before..

and to think, i call myself a preschool teacher... we do animal sounds all day!

[javiskefka]

I only notice squirrels because I live on an urban campus that is literally crawling with them. They're usually the first thing that I see when I leave my house in the morning and the last thing that I see when I come home at night.