Mandarin Chinese and Korean are two very difficult languages. At first Korean seems easier since it is an alphabetic language, but the student soon realizes that most advanced written material in Korean, such as any newspapers and even street signs, require the knowledge of at least 1500 characters. Those characters (Hanjas) are derived from the Chinese characters and most are very close in both languages.

Chinese appears more difficult to pronounce correctly than Korean, because of its tonal system. Korean has no tones, but makes hard-to-hear distinctions between regular, stressed and aspirated consonants. Korean also has a rythm which is very hard to catch. All things considered, one cannot say that Korean is easier than Chinese in terms of phonetics.

Chinese grammar is much easier than Korean. No flexions, no conjugation, no declension. This makes for a sharp contrast to the extremely convoluted Korean grammar.

Vocabulary learning is a bit easier in Korean than in Chinese, since Korean borrowed hundreds of words from the English language. However, many of those loan-words are not pronounced in any recognizable way to the English ear.

Practicing your Chinese will be easier than for Korean. Many Chinese know no other languages, and they are not unused to speaking with non-native minority Chinese or with foreigners. They are also very proud of both their language and their culture and will be pleased by your interest in their country.

Koreans, however, are better linguists than Chinese, and there are now millions of Koreans who are eager to practice their English whenever they meet a foreigner. There is a strong social pressure to do so that those who cannot speak English will feel ashamed and will rather not speak rather than speaking Korean with you. The result is that if you are Caucasian, it is extremely difficult to get Koreans to speak their language with you.