Will Korean catch up to Japanese? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Will Korean catch up to Japanese?
Tags: Usefulness \| Korean \| Japanese
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

54 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

noriyuki_nomura
Bilingual Octoglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 5341 days ago
304 posts - 465 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, French^C2, German^C2, Italian^C1, Spanish^B2, Dutch^B1
Studies: Turkish^A1, Korean

Message 49 of 54

14 April 2010 at 11:02am | IP Logged

For me, as an East Asian working in the financial industry in Europe currently, I find that the knowledge of Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese play the most crucial role in my career/social life - be it in Europe or in East Asia. I have yet to encounter a situation whereby the lack of Korean knowledge will hamper/cripple/sacrifice my career/social life, if that answers the question posed.

Besides, learning a language should not be limited to just 'living' in that country concerned. I mean, I am learning Spanish, but I have never thought about living in Spain nor any other Spanish-speaking countries for that matter. Likewise for my Italian and Russian. But learning the languages open doors to the mentality, the culture, the history, a different way of life.

It might/could be true that South Korea (or a combined Koreas) might supercede the GDP/Capita of Japan, or that its environmental conditions are more favorable to that of China, if my interest nor career path nor social life do not coincide with Korea, it doesn't bother/cripple me even if I don't speak the language, even if South Korea or a combined Korea grows rich or over eclipses Japan or China. Likewise for learning Chinese/Japanese or any other language for that matter.

That said, I am learning Korean myself, because I want to learn more about its culture, its history, particularly more about East Asia. But I have never dreamt of moving to Korea to live.

Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 14 April 2010 at 11:14am
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Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5340 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes

Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German

Message 50 of 54

14 April 2010 at 9:40pm | IP Logged

Being a gamer, I think I would need to choose Japanese.

However, I like Korean just as much :)
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sebngwa3
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6165 days ago
200 posts - 217 votes

Speaks: Korean*, English

Message 51 of 54

14 October 2010 at 4:16am | IP Logged

qklilx wrote:

Economically, sure Korea might match up to Japan. They've made an amazing amount of
progress in 60 years. Culturally, no, it will not catch up. Japan's cultural exports are too popular with
westerners to die out any time soon. I remember when Looney Toons were THE cartoon to watch, and
then over short period of a few years now you're hard pressed to find it at a decent hour. It's all Japanese
animation. Even the American cartoons have a Japanese influence.

Yes, Korea has its dramas and music, but that's a different realm from Japan's main exports, and aside
from that and the shopping districts most westerners know more about North Korea than South Korea.
Japanese culture manages to draw in more people.

At this point I believe that Japanese is about to be the new Spanish. There are more and more people
reaching the advanced stages which means that to get a job with the language you'll need other skills to
make yourself stand out. I personally don't believe in the China hype and I'm not interested in the
country anyway. My interests lie in Korea. The only frustrating thing about it is when a fellow American
tells me I should learn Chinese instead. They're giving me economic advice they don't even
follow!

Why does your interest lie in Korea? Thanks for being interested in my country.
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sebngwa3
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6165 days ago
200 posts - 217 votes

Speaks: Korean*, English

Message 52 of 54

14 October 2010 at 4:21am | IP Logged

ericspinelli wrote:

You should not learn Chinese unless you plan to move to China in the next 3 years.
There are no uses for Chinese besides living there because there are almost no Chinese speakers outside
of China and it is nearly impossible to get books or other media in this language.

You should learn Korean because Korea has no pollution and its cities are incredibly clean. The GDP per
capita will overtake Japan's in 2021 proving that Korea is the future. Most American companies will start
phasing out their business interactions with the Japanese over the five years preceding this and start to
invest heavily in Korea instead. This will crush the Japanese economy and put the need for Japanese
speakers at an all-time low. Even the Japanese will be scrambling to learn Korean.

I am totally serious.

Could you give the evidence for this? I would like to believe it; it would be very encouraging for a Korean
like me if it were true. Also what do you mean by 'it is nearly impossible to get books or other media in
this language (Chinese)?'

Edit: I think I just realized that the whole post was a joke to demonstrate the relative uselessness of
Korean compared to Chinese and that not only China has pollution, Korean cities does as well, and the
unlikeliness of Korea ever surpassing Japan.

But you can't beat the omnipresent refreshing mountains in Korea.

Edited by sebngwa3 on 14 October 2010 at 4:26am
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ericspinelli
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 5784 days ago
249 posts - 493 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Italian

Message 53 of 54

14 October 2010 at 6:11am | IP Logged

sebngwa3 wrote:

I think I just realized that the whole post was a joke to demonstrate the relative uselessness of
Korean compared to Chinese and that not only China has pollution, Korean cities does as well, and the
unlikeliness of Korea ever surpassing Japan.

But you can't beat the omnipresent refreshing mountains in Korea.

Yes, I was being facetious. I was trying, through sarcasm and hyperbole, to point out that there are reasons for learning Chinese (or any major language) even if you never plan to live there.

The other point I wanted to make was not that Korea will never overtake Japan, but that even if it does that won't instantly destroy the Japanese economy and make the language obsolete.

Smart wrote:

Being a gamer, I think I would need to choose Japanese.

That depends entirely on what kind of games you like. Koreans sure do love their Starcraft.

Edited by ericspinelli on 14 October 2010 at 6:14am
1 person has voted this message useful

clumsy
Octoglot
Senior Member
Poland
lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5179 days ago
1116 posts - 1367 votes

Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish
Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi

Message 54 of 54

22 October 2010 at 2:46pm | IP Logged

Unfortunately it's impossible thanks to great "sun of the nation " :(

The number of Korean speakers is smaller, so I think it would be hard, but anyway Korean culture is quite popular.
Plus Korean technology, but I believe the Chinese is the language of future.

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