Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ABC KID]

Korean is regarded in the West as a difficult language to learn, an opinion that was expressed as early as 1880 by German businessman Ernst Oppert, who wrote:

"The difficulties in acquiring and properly speaking the Corean language are by no means inferior to those which beset the study of the Chinese; they are even considered by many to be infinitely greater, and they cannot be likened to the comparatively easy manner with which even foreigners are able to acquire a knowledge of Japanese in a proportionately short time.

The United States' Defense Language Institute classifies Korean alongside Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese as a Category IV language, meaning that 63 weeks of instruction (as compared to just 25 weeks for French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian) are required to bring an English-speaking student to a limited working level of profiency in which he or she has "sufficient capability to meet routine social demands and limited job requirements" and "can deal with concrete topics in past, present, and future tense." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_language

So if this is to be believed, Korean is up there with Chinese in the difficulty stakes and takes well over twice as long as major European languages to learn

So, if like me, your Korean is not where you want it to be or you have tried and failed, don't despair because Korean is bloody difficult!

[mistermasan]

if you think something is difficult, it will be difficult. maybe the DLI is just wrong.i used to live in backwater taiwan. they used to bring in young ladies from SEA to look after grampa. they would arrive in country w/ no chinese skills and after two months or so could carry on sparkling conversations.

but, yeah, we really could do w/ some improved methodology in foreign language training. you know korean is a western script and related to all western alphabets?

the korean ㅍ is but the greek pi (3.14) disguised. the korean ㄱ is but gamma.

there is so much english "embedded" in korean it is an addictive game to spot where it isn't.

fascinating indeed that a german in 1880 had knowledge of the US DLI's assessment of Chinese just 15 years after the US civil war.

[pesawattahi]

They classify languages based on difficulty for native english speakers to learn since that is who theoretically that is who would be attending that school. On the other hand it is very easy for Japanese to learn Korean since the 2 languages have similar grammar and share many of the same Chinese words which are pronounced slightly differently.

Its amazing how people born 100 years apart can say the exact same thing and can continue to be correct isn't it?

[mistermasan]

learning korean in 1880 would have been much harder for a westerner than 2007. well before 1880 and up until the end of the japanese occupation (circa 1945) reading korean woulda required knowledge of both the korean script and chinese characters as they were used together.

[littlelisa]

I've found Korean harder than Chinese, personally, so I'll agree. But it's certainly not the hardest one I've studied. The award for that one would go to Classical Chinese. If you're looking for a difficult language to learn, forget modern Chinese and Korean, and go study Classical Chinese. I guarantee that it's way harder. Compared to that, Korean is a breeze.

[pesawattahi]

[kingplaya4]

The volume of vocabulary in Korean that one needs to know seems to be immense.

Also, I don't know if this is just me, but when a word gets conjugated, it sometimes sounds nothing like the original word, or sounds like another word altogether.

[CasperTheFriendlyGhost]

I've made various attempts to learn Korean. First it was the alphabet. Then phrases. Then sentence construction and vocabulary. Pretty much you can gt by without it. Learning more Korean can yield in more rich cultural experiences because you'll probably be more confident to explore.

However, you never not find yourself being jabbered at in a gibberish you don't understand.

I only understand the Korean that I've used. When you use some Korean, Koreans will 'open the floddgtes' on you. Whereas in America, when faced with a foreigner with limited profceincy, we slow down (and speak loudly for some reason) and use the most simple grammar possible. In Korea adjustments to the language aren't made to help you out. At best I can pick out one or two words in a volly and try to go from there.

It's usually easier to get along if I feign having no Korean.

[littlelisa]

[GoldMember]

This is why Koreans are more intelligent than anyone else, they have the ability to easily learn a difficult "scientific" language better than anyone else.
The biggest problem with learning Korean is that the learning materials/books are crappola.

[Atavistic]

[bellum99]

[CentralCali]

[Justin Hale]

It's got a phonetic alphabet with hardly any inconsistency. Learn to read it and buy some books and you're away!

English is much more difficult for Koreans than vice versa. I know Western guys who have made an effort and they've all got pretty far with it. The main problem in English is spelling and pronunciation. Because Korean is so easy and consistent, to a Korean person, especially those not too bright who have English imposed on them, English spelling and pronunciation seems so inconsistent as to be almost random.

I agree Korean is difficult. I still have times when I understand nothing of what's been said. I would imagine though that Chinese, Arabic or an African language or something would be more difficult than Korean.

[Ilsanman]

I don't agree. It's not hard at all.

I find Koreans use this 'our language is difficult' as a point of pride. They hear it once and never forget it.