Meet Sung-youp Lee, the Voice Behind Your Korean Lessons

You’ve probably heard his voice hundreds of times, but you have no idea who he is!
Today, let’s finally meet our male voice – Mr. Sung-youp Lee (
!
Q: Tell us about yourself!
Lee: Hello! It is a pleasure to meet the users of LingoDeer. My name is Sung-youp Lee. It’s a new opportunity for me to greet the users of LingoDeer directly like this. After I graduated from high school and college and finished my work in Beijing, the capital city of China, now I’m living in Korea. My hometown is Daegu, located in Gyeongsangbukdo, Korea. Although I’m living in Korea now, I miss the life in Beijing now and then. I especially miss the hotpot in Beijing.
이성엽: 안녕하세요. 링고디어 이용자 여러분, 반갑습니다. 저는 이성엽입니다. 이렇게 링고디어 이용자 여러분들에게 인사할 수 있게 되어 정말 감회가 새롭습니다. 저는 중국의 수도 베이징에서 고등학교와 대학교를 졸업한 후에 직장 생활을 마친 후 현재는 한국에서 살고 있습니다. 저의 고향은 한국의 경상북도 대구입니다. 현재는 한국에서 생활하고 있지만 가끔 베이징의 생활이 그리울 때도 많습니다. 특히나 북경의 훠궈가 그립네요.
(He also recorded his responses at a normal speaking speed and tone.)

Q: What would you do to prepare your voice before a recording?
Lee: I usually ensure myself adequate rest the day before the recording, so that I can have a good voice for the recording which takes place the next afternoon. Also, I would drink moderately warm water an hour before the recording to protect my throat. What’s more, I sometimes eat mint candy to give myself a sense of refreshment.
저는 일반적으로 녹음하기 전날에는 충분히 휴식을 취합니다. 그래야 다음 날 오전에 시작하는 녹음에서 좋은 목소리를 낼 수 있거든요. 그리고 녹음을 시작하기 한 시간 전에는 되도록 미지근한 물을 마셔서 목을 보호해줍니다. 그리고 가끔은 민트 사탕도 먹으면서 청량감을 높여 주기도 합니다.
Q: Is there anything in Korean you consider particularly hard to pronounce? Anything particularly beautiful-sounding?
Lee: The ㄹ(r/l) sound was quite difficult for me. As a result, when recording Korean words or sentences involving loanwords, I had to record multiple times. Even if I am Korean, it is hard for me at times like that. To assure the experience of LingoDeer’s users who listen to my voice for learning, I practiced a lot by listening to pronunciation correction audio when I was driving.
My favorite Korean word to hear is 미리내 (mirinae). It is a native Korean word and it means the universe.
저는 ‘ㄹ’ 발음이 많이 어려웠어요. 그러다 보니 외래어로 표기된 한국어 단어나 문장 등을 녹음 할 때는 여러 번 다시 녹음하기 일쑤였는데요. 그때마다 한국인인 나도 어려운데 내 목소리를 듣고 배우시는 링고디어 이용자 여러분들에게 보답하기 위해 평소에도 운전 중에 발음 교정 오디오를 들으며 많이 연습했습니다. 그리고 한국어 중에 제가 가장 듣기 좋아하는 단어는 바로 미리내라는 단어입니다. 순 한국어인데요. 우주를 뜻하는 뜻입니다.
Q: If a LingoDeer user travels to Korea, please recommend an activity to him/her and explain why.
Lee: If you ever travel to Korea, I would recommend Gyeongju, a city with a rich history. Since the city itself is preserved as cultural and historic heritage, for people who travel to Korea for the first time, it seems to be a good place for you to approach Korean culture and history with relative ease. There are historic sites all over the city, so I think it will be a fun experience for you to visit.

There is another place I would recommend – Jeju Island. Koreans and foreign tourists love this island so much that they call it the Hawaii of Korea. As the saying “there are people who have never been to Jeju Island, but there are no people who have only been to Jeju Island once” goes, so many tourists come to visit Jeju Island again. Its beautiful natural scenery and clean seawater win the hearts of many visitors.
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한국에 오시면 저는 천년 고도의 경주 여행을 추천합니다. 도시 전체가 역사의 문화 유산으로 보존되어 있어 처음 한국으로 여행 오시는 분들에게 한국의 문화와 역사 등에 대해 비교적 친숙하게 접근할 수 있을 것 같네요. 도시 곳곳에 유적지가 있어서 오신다면 정말 즐거운 경험을 하실 수 있을 거라 생각됩니다. 그리고 한 곳이 더 있는데요. 제주도입니다. 한국의 하와이라 불릴 만큼 많은 한국인들과 외국인들에게 사랑을 받는 섬입니다. ‘제주도를 안 가 본 사람은 있어도 한 번만 가 본 사람은 없다.’ 고 할 만큼 많은 여행객들이 다시 찾게 되는 곳인데요. 수려한 자연경관과 깨끗한 바다로 인해서 많은 여행객들에게 사랑을 받는 곳입니다.
Q: Are you fascinated by any film, TV or literary works recently?
Lee: I don’t usually watch TV in my spare time. I mainly watch movies or read books. I would like to recommend a movie called The Way Home (집으로…). It is a pretty old movie. I could feel a warm feeling in my chest after watching it.

I would also like to recommend the book Baridegi (바리데기) by Seokyoung Hwang. Because there are many versions of foreign translations for this book, I think LingoDeer users can have access to it easily.
저는 평소 티비를 즐겨보지 않는데요. 평소에 주로 영화나 책을 즐겨보고 있습니다. 저는 영화로는 ‘집으로’ 라는 영화를 추천 드리고 싶습니다. 조금 오래된 영화이기는 한데요. 보시고 나시면 가슴 한 켠에 따뜻함을 느끼실 수 있을 겁니다. 그리고 책은 황석영 작가님의 ‘바리데기’ 를 추천해 드립니다. 아마 많은 해외 번역으로 인해서 링고디어 이용자 여러분들이 가장 쉽게 접근할 수 있을 것 같네요.
Q: What else would you like to say to our deer users?
Lee: In the end, I wish health and peace for all LingoDeer users. Please give us a lot of love and support if you find it useful. Thank you.
끝으로 링고디어 이용자 여러분들의 건강과 안녕을 기원합니다. 링고디어가 도움이 되셨다면 많은 격려와 사랑 부탁합니다. 감사합니다.
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Have you met the female voice yet?
If you haven’t, click here to meet Ms. Heo, the female voice behind our Korean lessons.
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Sung-youp is hot!!!
wow……
She’s so pretty!
안녕하세요 성엽씨! 감사합니다 for helping make my lessons in Lingodeer so awesome! I really appreciate it! I’m so happy that I can get to know who you are, and I’m excited to continue my Korean learning journey. 😊
Thank you for the fun recommendations! I’ll check them out. If we ever get to learn more about you, that will be awesome! I wish you the best as well.
Brandon
와.. 너무 잘생겼다 😇 Thank you so much for helping us learn Korean!
I appreciate both of mentor voice . I listen to male voice maximum of my lesson, I appreciate his efforts,and her too. I want to learn Korean as fast as possible.Thank you.🙂🙂
Im am truly grateful for all the help🤗🤗
Oh hes soo cute 💕
💜💜💜
Mr. Lee has been so helpful for me, thank you for making it easier to learn Korean❤️
Thank you Mr Lee! Your voice is super soothing and encourages me to keep learning! Thanks so much.😃😃
Mr.lee’s voice is very pleasant to hear. Also his pronunciation is very clear that really make it easier it’s been only a few days since I started learning korean and so I can see myself leveling up
To Mr.Lee, lingodeer groupe, 감사합니다 💝
I learned only the Korean characters when I was living in Daegu! I hope I can learn it now.
It was very nice hearing Mr.Lee, he seems like a very plesant person and enjoys what he does. He sure made it easier for me to learn Korean and I hope he continues to do his job in the happiest way possible.
OMG I love this. It’s nice to know what it’s like behind the scenes. To be honest I didn’t think Mr.Lee was human, I thought he was a robot. Anyways, THANK YOU Mr.Lee/lindodeer team for using your time to provide us a reliable resource to help us learn Korean. 🥰
So cool to learn about the man behind the voice teaching me pronunciation in Korean. Thank you for all of your effort! 🤘🏻