[Shiro]

However the Americans are saying it may be different from how you Brits are saying it, but I guarantee you that neither of them are saying it correctly, correctly being how the Koreans would say it.

[steveb]

현대!

[H3LLRA1Z3R]

現代

[Shiro]

Good try hellraizer, but that's Japanese (and maybe Chinese)

Steve got it though!

[H3LLRA1Z3R]

Hahaha sounds about right lol.

[Maerk]

Originally Posted by Shiro

I guarantee you that neither of them are saying it correctly

Well yes, but I suppose snobbishly I felt we made more of a token effort by actually noticing the other letters in the word, rather than ignoring them entirely

[steveb]

That's very commendable, but you should keep in mind that English fucks up the Latin alphabet more than any other language, with the possible exception of French. Even when presented with a phonetic language like Finnish, newsreaders on the BBC are completely unable to pronounce names like Prime Minister Vanhanen or autoracer Räikkönen. I love seeing Finnish children of about 7 years reading the free newspapers like Metro on the bus in the morning - they just sound out the syllables and read the words. If they don't understand the word, it's a different matter, but they've at least read it correctly. I find it very touching, very impressive and hugely reassuring that they voluntarily love to read.

Going back to our word "hyundai", there are only two syllables. [hjun] = put your tongue in the position for saying a "y" as in "you" and breath out as if the make the sound "h". The "u" is like in "June", not in "sun" for you southern English. The "dai" part is not day, dee or any other fuckery - it's "da" like in Russian DA (yes) plus i like in "it", not like in "I". Da+i sounds like the English word DYE.

You can see how difficult it can be for English people who have learned one writing system to adapt to another. But it would be a big help if English speaking pupils were taught the traditional sounds of the Latin alphabet (from say age 10), and also the correct sounds of the other neighbouring countries' spelling conventions. How to say German ö ü, Scandinavian å, Spanish ñ etc.

[Maerk]

Aye we're hopeless.

And yup, it would be a help, I do feel hopelessly lost the moment I step out of my comfort zone (which is traditionally increasing volume levels of English )

[2Dfruit]

Pretty obvious they're making reference to their product. Who the fuck would want their luxury brand attached to some cheap ass car. Silly on "Hun-Days" part.

Hun-day. Bahaha.