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Japanese is Harder than Korean | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| trauma2020 Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6368 days ago 58 posts - 64 votes  Speaks: English*, Korean | Message 17 of 57 09 May 2007 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read over that site in the post above, and felt like he left one thing out.
In Korean, the pronunciation does look fairly straightforward, but you have to remember that it changes depending on what other words/syllables come before/after it. Also, while Hanja is not needed in beginner/intermediate Korean, it is definitely becomes much more prominent in the advanced levels. There are so many synonyms that you simply cannot distinguish from one another without looking at the Hanja. Even then, it can be tricky. I've never studied Japanese, nor do I know much about it. I can't say which is harder, but I just thought I'd put these two thoughts out there. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| virgule Senior Member Antarctica Joined 6634 days ago 242 posts - 261 votes Studies: Korean | Message 18 of 57 09 May 2007 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the link.
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| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6598 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English* | Message 19 of 57 12 May 2007 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Many Chinese characters in Japanese have multiple readings, which become a pain when you go past the standard 2000 characters or so set by the government. Some words also have ateji, which is a reading that cannot be guessed from just reading the characters alone. For example, the characters for "cigarettes" is 煙草, which might look like "kemurigusa", if you know the Japanized readings or both characters and try to combine them together, but actually just pronounced "tobako". In this sense, learning Chinese characters is tougher in Japanese than in Korean.
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| Alex Lee Newbie Korea, South victorymanual.com Joined 6309 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 20 of 57 12 May 2007 at 10:34am | IP Logged | ||
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It could be that I've been speaking Japanese for years now, and speak only Japanese on a daily basis with my wife (who's Korean...), but Korean is definitely more difficult than Japanese, if only because of the pronunciation.
I've put aside all thoughts of learning 漢字 (kanji, hanja) for Korean for now because a significant portion of them are more difficult than their Japanese counterparts. (万 in Japanese is 萬 in Korean, but only for money, for example. Or 学 vs. 學) Also, although there are similar structures, Korean has a larger tier of grammar forms than Japanese. Japanese grammar is a walk in the park if you compare it to the mess that is English. In Japanese you'd have, for example, 行く for a plain form, and 行きます for a polite form. In Korean you have 가 for plain, 가요 for polite, and 갑시다 for even more polite. And that's completely ignoring the formal and humble forms of each language, of which Korean has more. (Side note to NHK9: 煙草 is タバコ [tabako], not トバコ [tobako].) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6598 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English* | Message 21 of 57 14 May 2007 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Korean pronunciation is slightly harder than Japanese, but it's not hard compared to some other Asian languages, given that the learner has a chance to immerse in the country for a month or two. Learning a dialect (eg. Pusan dialect) though, might be much harder, I'd think, perhaps due to the prosody effects.
The grammar of the two languages are of similar difficulty. As you pointed out, while Korean may have more polite forms, the honorific language used in daily life in Japanese is considerably tougher, for example one would have to know when to put which honorific prefixes before certain words (ie. お、ご). Also, in Japanese, deciding when to use honorific language depends on which circle one is in, or who you are talking with (among other factors), so determining those factors alone sometimes can be quite challenging. (eg. if you talk with your friend about your teacher, you can use plain form to describe the teacher's actions, but you have to use honorific language if you were to talk with another teacher, or other acquaintances). In Korean, as long as the subject being talked about is of higher social status (or older etc.), one must use honorific language to describe the subject's actions. Mmm I don't smoke so maybe thats why I had it mistyped. Thanks for pointing it out (On site note, my name is nhk9, not NHK9 :) ) Edited by nhk9 on 14 May 2007 at 2:24am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| trauma2020 Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6368 days ago 58 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English*, Korean | Message 22 of 57 14 May 2007 at 2:46am | IP Logged | ||
Korean is the same way. You can use plain speech when describing a more respected figure's actions to a friend, but you just must use -시 .. what that is called escapes me at the moment. Example: you would use chondaemal (polite form) to talk with the teacher, but you could use panmal (plain form) to describe the teacher to a friend, providing you use the 시. Another thing worth mentioning is the alternative vocabulary Korean utilizes. There are two ways of saying certain things ex) house - jip/taek etc. Depending on who you are talking to you must not only adjust verb endings, but vocabulary as well. Edited by trauma2020 on 14 May 2007 at 2:49am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6266 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 23 of 57 14 May 2007 at 3:03am | IP Logged | ||
I have heard about this phenomenon in Japanese (especially, but not only, with verbs: you sometimes use a completely different verb instead of just changing the ending), but I have no idea how much it happens in Japanese compared to Korean... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6562 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 24 of 57 14 May 2007 at 3:24am | IP Logged | ||
This happens all the time, but it's no big deal. Only a handful of verbs have special humble or honorofic versions. Politeness levels and honorifics have never been a problem for me. My only issue is with the order in which Japanese teachers teach these verb forms; it's harder to form a correct picture of how Japanese verbs work if you don't start with the plain form. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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