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Korean difficulties | ||
Tags: Korean | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| morganie Newbie United States Joined 5424 days ago 31 posts - 41 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 9 16 March 2010 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I've thought that I should pick up Korean one day, probably after I become better at Mandarin to at least a basic fluency level. I hear that Korean is a difficult language, but I want to know which parts are the difficult parts. Could you explain to me?
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| remix Groupie Australia Joined 5668 days ago 41 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean | Message 2 of 9 16 March 2010 at 12:48am | IP Logged | ||
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http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=33&PN=2
Might want to check out that thread. Can I just say - if you start focusing on what is difficult before you even start, you are setting yourself up for failure. Why not find out if you really want to study Korean and if you do, go and do it. Suffice to say, it is difficult, but you can do it, if you really want to. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5535 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 3 of 9 16 March 2010 at 4:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with remix. There isn't really a point in focusing on the "difficulties" of a language. If you really want to learn the language, that will all become moot anyway and you will find a way to learn those things. In fact, Korean has its share of features that I would consider much easier than other languages, which usually get overlooked when discussing the language difficulty.
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| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6437 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 4 of 9 16 March 2010 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Easy Parts: - the writing - reading - spaces between words when writing (hooray!!!!!!!!!) Hard Parts: - Pronunciation (multiple forms of the same consonant that all sound the same (to you, but not to Koreans)) - Pronunciation (over 2 dozen vowels and dipthong possibilities, many of which sound the same (to you, but not to Koreans)) - Slurring (words consisting of multiple "clusters" aren't always pronounced exactly how they are written, hearing a new word doesn't always mean you will be able to write it or pronounce it correctly, unlike in Japanese) - Many short words, many of which all sound the same (see "pronunciation" comments above), however this may be less of an issue for you if you already know Chinese simply because you are already used to short words - Grammar (it's like a more complicated version of Japanese grammar, with many particles to choose from in situations where Japanese only uses one, and even more possible verb endings than Japanese has) That's basically it. Practical examples: - You may not be able to understand a spoken sentence despite knowing every word in the entire sentence - You may not be understood and have to repeat a certain word to a native Korean over and over again and they still won't understand you, so you just give up and write the word and then they're like "oh lol, you meant [word]" and you're like "duh, that's what I was saying this whole time!!!" - You will spell words wrong constantly despite having an easy writing system. There are other things, like sometimes the subject is dropped from a sentence in much the same way as it happens in Japanese, but I don't even think that's very complicated, especially compared to the things I listed above. Edited by IronFist on 16 March 2010 at 7:43pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vientito Senior Member Canada Joined 6338 days ago 212 posts - 281 votes | Message 5 of 9 16 March 2010 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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if you are saying something to a native and they can't understand you, the fault is always on you. Take that as rule #1.
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| omuraisu Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5396 days ago 7 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 6 of 9 16 March 2010 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||
I noticed that same thing! I'm not completely fluent in Korean, but I am a (native) heritage speaker, and one day I was explaining how Hangul works to a friend of mine. She was a native French speaker with excellent English and Japanese skills with an amazing ear for languages, so I thought that she'd easily hear and comprehend the differences between ㄷ,ㄸ,and ㅌ, along with ㄱ,ㄲ,and ㅋ. I kept repeating and repeating it but to her they all sounded the same. I suppose it's very subtle. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6437 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 9 17 March 2010 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
Oh, I know it's my fault. But that doesn't change the fact that Korean pronunciation is extremely difficult. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6437 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 8 of 9 17 March 2010 at 4:27am | IP Logged | ||
I hate them!!! Also, s and ss. One time I thought I heard the difference between j, ch, and CH'. I remember thinking one of them sounded like "dz," and not a j or a ch at all. Of course, the other two still sound exactly the same to me. You Koreans have amazingly sensitive ears!!! (kidding, I know it's a function of what you're raised with). That being said, most ESL Koreans I meet cannot pronounce many of the sounds in English that I think are easy, such as Z. I will leave the English "R" out of that list because apparently it's very tough. Even little American kids usually cannot say it correctly for awhile, replacing it with an "aww" sound. Like they'll say "togethaw" instead of "together." 1 person has voted this message useful |
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