“철창살” Korean Tongue Twister
경찰청 철창살은 외철창살이고 검찰청 철창살은 쌍철창살이다.
Translation: The police station’s iron bars are single bars, and the prosecutor’s office’s iron bars are double bars.
Why Is It Hard?
The challenge is the cluster 철창살 (cheolchangsal — iron bars) which must be repeated in close proximity to 경찰청 (police station) and 검찰청 (prosecutor’s office). All three words contain the 찰/철 sound — a sharp aspirated consonant cluster — and the alternation between 경 (gyeong) and 검 (geom) at the start of each clause forces rapid switching between near-identical compound words. The contrast between 외 (single) and 쌍 (double) at the end of each clause adds an extra cognitive load.
History
This tongue twister belongs to a set of Korean jaenmalnori built around institutional names and legal vocabulary — a genre that reflects Korea’s highly formalised public sector language. The pairing of 경찰청 (police) and 검찰청 (prosecution) — two of Korea’s most well-known government institutions — gives the phrase immediate cultural recognition. It is commonly used in Korean acting schools and broadcast journalism programmes as a diction exercise targeting the ㅊ (ch) aspirated consonant.
Tips for Saying It
- Master 철창살 alone first — it is the hardest cluster: three consonants (ch-ch-s) in six letters.
- 경찰청 vs 검찰청: the difference is 경 (gyeong) vs 검 (geom) — focus on that first syllable to keep the two institutions separate.
- 외철창살 vs 쌍철창살: both end identically except for the prefix — use that contrast as a memory anchor.
More Korean Tongue Twisters / 더 많은 잰말놀이
Discover more tongue twisters from around the world:
- Korean Tongue Twisters — the complete 잰말놀이 collection
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