Retro Learns Korean: 7 sources from which to learn 경상도 사투리(Gyeongsang dialect)

Luckily due to it being the second biggest dialect in the country there is a huge variety of content that has been produced by speakers of the dialect and often a setting in movies. Much like the UK and many European countries you will find differences in peoples accent and words they use can vary even a village away.

Thankfully due to mass media we generally grow up hearing a wide variety of accents and although we will still likely not know every dialect specific word we can easily pick them up by spending time with or listening to natives of that region. 경상도 is also known as 영남 지방.

Movies

소원

The entire cast in this film speak with 경상도 dialect. An extremely emotional movie that you may only be able to watch one time. It's based on a true story of a sexual assault victim and it shows it the utmost respect in it's portrayal. The language is very natural and as it contains a child as the central character the dialogue is relatively simple. Might be a little hard to rewatch.

국제시장

With comparisons to Forrest Gump, this trip through time and locations shows some resemblance but the story is it's own self contained series of events. The majority of the movie uses 경상도 dialect but there are various languages strewn throughout.

해운대

Disaster movie set on the coast of 해운대, the vast majority of the characters speak with the dialect including old and young people. Lots of talking throughout the whole movie. Lots of conversational dialogue throughout. While it's nothing to shout about it's still an interesting watch just for the dialect alone.

Tv shows

응답하라 1997

If you want content this is the show to watch most episodes average 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes run time with a romance plot. All but 1 character use the dialect and even that character uses a dialect himself. Due to the length you could probably watch it through multiple times to get the most out of it. Reply 1994 has a few characters that use the dialect but it's not the majority dialect of the show.

I had difficulty in finding tv shows that have a focus on the dialect. I've come across multiple shows where 1 character uses it and I always find it quite funny that everyone understands exactly what they're saying so I guess that says something about how widespread the dialect is.

Podcast

팟빵

On the site you can search a variety of podcasts, sometimes from radio shows. I highly recommend searching the major cities 울산, 대구, 부산 and even the general area of 경상도. It might take a bit of searching to find the exact podcast you could listen to repeatedly or multiple episodes off but the pay off is high once you find the perfect one. You may notice that many of them use the standard dialect but they will still have snippets of their dialect thrown in such as would be the case with accents in most countries.

Radio

영주 FM

CBS Ulsan

PBC Daegu FM

Radio is pretty good especially if you can find the associated podcasts, Sadly they are only available when there is a DJ present so it's good to keep track of what time it is in Korea. Most run from 8am to 11pm KST but it can vary station to station. I tried finding more reliable ones with a search but it was a struggle just to find these.

Wikis

동남 방언 - Wikipedia

동남 방언 - 나무 위키

Gyeongsang dialect - Wikipedia

Youtube

This one just takes a quick search of 경상도 사투리 and you will be greeted with hundreds if not thousands of videos on the subject even videos comparing 경북 and 경남 differences. Most of them purely in Korean but this one by World Of Dave has English subtitles.

Natives on chat apps or visiting in real life

There are many chatting apps around the web these days. Some even have the ability to search by location. When you are feeling confident to output and test your skills you contact people and ask them if they are from 경상도 and even if they could teach you the 사투리. Tandem, Italki to give a few examples have many Koreans from various places to converse with.

The most effective method of all but being the most costly would simply be to visit the country maybe even long term, visa provided. If you go to the major city centres you may be a bit hard pressed to find people with stronger accents but the further you venture out you are likely to be surrounded by people for whom the 사투리 is a way of life.

Retro Learns Korean

7 sources from which to learn 경상도 사투리(Gyeongsang dialect)