Korean Job Discussion Forums

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

There's no doubt that Korean is easy to read, but it is definitely not easy to speak. Not many foreigners can do it. However, whenever I go to Japan, I always see foreigners speaking Japanese. Is it because it is easier? Or are they more inclined to learn Japanese? Or maybe they studied in College? What's up?

komtengi · Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Location: Slummin it up in Haebangchon

Im sure it has to do with a larger(much larger) percentage of people learning Japanese as part of their tertiary education as opposed to Korean.

Guest · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 2:02 am Post subject:

I think Japanese is easier to speak in a pronouncation sense. It seems much more syllabic in a western/English nature. Even my first time there on the subway, the station names were so much easier to say that some of those in Korea. I don't know the whole origin of the Asian languages and how one evolved from another or anything like that. But in my limited experience Japanese is easier to speak and understand -- not sure, again, about ease of learning the language.

My thoughts

komtengi · Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Location: Slummin it up in Haebangchon

having three alphabets makes learning japanese much harder. The Kanji, Hanja or Chinese characters certainly much it much more difficult. As Hanja is barely used in Korean.

Mashimaro · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location

matko · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: in a world of hurt!

I agree with all the answers so far.

Japanese is just a lot easier for a native speaker of English to pronounce and comprehend.

Korean is much easier to read though.

Korean pronunciation is tough and I take my hat off to those foreigners who are understood by other Koreans.

mithridates · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 3:50 am Post subject:

Let' see, everything Mashimaro said plus:

In pretty much every city in Japan there is a community centre where one can learn Japanese, usually for free. All the people I know here who are learning Korean are either going up to Sukmyung U to learn it on Saturdays, are being taught by me, have managed to find a Korean tutor that is decent, or is paying for lessons at a school.

mithridates · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 3:51 am Post subject:

By the way, this doesn't look off-topic to me.

??

IconsFanatic · Joined: 19 Jan 2003

mithridates · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:23 am Post subject:

The bb is interesting:

Take these two words for example:

To part
Top part

When you're saying top part, your lips close for a fraction of a second before you say the second word. Now say it again, but put a bit more effort into the second word - top Part!
Then, take off the t and the o.

p Part!

That's pretty much how it's done.

peppergirl · Joined: 07 Dec 2003

I lived in Japan for 5 years and am quite fluent. The pronunciation of Japanese is VERY easy as there are very few sounds (only 5 different vowels).

Grammar: Korean and Japanese are very very similar.

Reading and writing Japanese is MUCH harder than Korean: 3 alphabets, hiragana (about 40 'letters', don't remember exactly), mixed with kanji (hanja) which have at least 2 and sometimes up to 6 different readings according to context and combination with other kanji!! (need about 1000 to read newspapers etc), katakana which is parallel to the hiragana, used only for foreign words (like beer, tv, computer, etc, also foreign names and foods/drinks - that's how I practiced reading it, by ordering lots of cocktails Wink

). One other difficulty is the spacing between words - there is none! Not always easy to know where one word ends and the next one starts.
Compared to that, hangul is very very easy.

I'm now studying Korean, and knowing Japanese sure helps!

jaebea · Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Location: SYD

The bat-chim is an issue with Korean too. :)

Japanese is phonetically "flatter" for lack of a better word. I think it's much easier to speak than Korean, and I speak Korean! :)

jae.

peppergirl · Joined: 07 Dec 2003

[quote="jaebea"]The bat-chim is an issue with Korean too. Smile

Japanese is phonetically "flatter" for lack of a better word. I think it's much easier to speak than Korean, and I speak Korean! Smile

jae.[/quote]

Yep, Japanese you just pronounce it exactly as it is written.. can't say the same about Korean (nor English!).

little mixed girl · Joined: 11 Jun 2003 Location: shin hyesung's bed~

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Tiger Beer · Joined: 07 Feb 2003

JAPANESE is significantly easier to speak for two MAJOR reasons:

1) each syllable is maximum CONSONANT+VOWEL. (As opposed to Korean which can be maximum CONSONANT+VOWEL+CONSONENT). So meaning you have a lot more a-bo-ca-du.. as opposed at-bab-cal-dar or whatever..

2) all the foreign language sections in English-speaking bookstores have TONS & TONS & TONS of everything you can possibly imagine on learning the Japanese language. The Korean language study material is something similar to wanting to find books and resources on Swahili - although Swahili probably has more books and resources strangely.