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Is Korean practical? Straight answer? | ||
Tags: Usefulness | Korean | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| locheachles Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5661 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese* Studies: Polish, Russian, Dutch | Message 1 of 6 26 May 2009 at 4:40am | IP Logged |
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This is a wonderful community so I figured I could get the answer I needed here rather than on websites that have proven to be useless.
I am an International Studies and Asian Studies undergrad student in the US. That aside, I have a penchant love for languages. I have signed up for a Korean class next semester as my schedule is allowing. But I am on the fence after learning more. I speak Japanese and good Polish, Dutch and Russian, but really love Asian culture. Sadly from what I hear Korean isn't useful to learn. Can anyone convince me of this or the opposite? I've heard that (my greatest concern) no Korean will ever talk to you in Korean unless you are more or less completely fluent, which further i have heard is merely not worth the time commitment. As much as I'd love to learn it why bother if you will constantly be brought back to English (I had a similar problem with Dutch only fixed by being in the company of my Dutch girlfriend). Can anyone with experience attest to this? Would I be better to trade out for Chinese or Arabic? Great thanks to all replies 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Tigresuisse Triglot Senior Member SwitzerlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6005 days ago 182 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 6 26 May 2009 at 8:28am | IP Logged |
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Do you really want to learn Korean???
Go for it. If you search the forum you'll find a lot of posts on this kind of question. I strongly believe that if you want something, you just have to go for it. Not only in languages ... in every-day life. And do not care what people say or what sounds reasonable ... passions never are !!! cheers Marta 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6436 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 6 26 May 2009 at 10:08am | IP Logged |
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If you want to, just learn Korean. If you go to Korea, you'll find that more people will be comfortable around you if you speak Korean and they will respect/admire you for attempting to speak it.
Outside Korea, you'll find many (although not majority) Koreans, especially younger ones, who are more or less fluent in English. They may be more reluctant to speak in Korean with you if your Korean isn't of a decent level since it will be much easier to communicate in English only. But if you insist they use Korean with you, I'm sure most will oblige unless your Korean is absolutely horrible. As far as usefulness goes... Yes, perhaps it isn't that useful outside Korea in terms of economic benefits, and in that respect you'd be better of studying Mandarin, Cantonese or Arabic. If we are talking about academic pursuits, and considering that (a) you are an Asian Studies major and (b) you already speak Japanese, knowledge of Korean could boost your understanding of many Korean-Japanese relationship problems and issues, although it wouldn't be a prerequesite to study about such topics. Jiwon Edited by Jiwon on 26 May 2009 at 4:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Haksaeng Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6198 days ago 166 posts - 250 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 4 of 6 26 May 2009 at 11:33am | IP Logged |
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If you are an Asian Studies student, then I would say yes, studying Korean will be useful to you since it will contribute to your understanding and appreciation of an important Asian country. Even if you don't become fluent, you'll still benefit from learning some of the language.
Non-heritage learners of Korean studying in the U.S. are not usually successful in achieving fluency. Talk to one of your academic advisors about this, and think about what your goal are in the language. That said, there are many Korean language programs in Korea that have exchange programs set up with American universities, and if you ever decided to further your language studies that way, fluency or near-fluency is definitely achievable. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6186 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 6 26 May 2009 at 1:49pm | IP Logged |
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As Jiwon said, most Koreans will absolutely speak Korean to you, even if you don't know all that much. Since most Koreans don't know much English they will almost always prefer to speak in Korean. I actually only know a handful of Koreans who occasionally try to express more than a couple words in English, and they're also the only ones who seem to have any desire to learn English.
As an Asian Studies major, knowing Korean will indeed aid in your understanding of culture and society. And since you already speak Japanese (as well as 3 other languages), you'll find that Korean will come somewhat easily to you. If your knowledge of kanji is decent then that will help too. But if you want a straight answer, then I think that would be a no. Korean is typically only practical if you live in Korea unless you plan to get a job working with Korean companies or people. But it's certainly an interesting language! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| locheachles Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5661 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese* Studies: Polish, Russian, Dutch | Message 6 of 6 26 May 2009 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you to all who have replied. I'm sticking with Korean, as mentioned above. I followed my passions with Polish and Dutch which certainly can't be considered overly useful and they've turned out to be very much so.
I always say "a language is as useful as you make it" so thanks for helping me see that again. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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