Is korean a hard language to learn?

Question

Well, I know that all languages are hard to learn, but I've learnt Dutch and French and I found Dutch 'easy' and French quite 'easy'. Would you say that Korean was really hard?

I'm interested in learning it!

Answer 1

It depends on your background.If you are of Asian descent it won"t be hard.However, if your culture is Euro-American you"ll have lots of difficulty, since we have letters, not signs.Korean is an Asian language and it would be pretty hard for me to learn it.You say you speak French (Romance language) and Dutch (a mix of German and English) Why don"t you try Spanish or German?

Answer 2

Is Korean Hard To Learn

Answer 3

I agree with korean queen about the letters, it's actually very easy to learn to read/write the alphabet, there are something like 24 letters only... MUCH easier than chinese/japanese in my opinion =) I've been taking korean for combined 4 yrs and if you've studied other languages then you already have a leg up. since you said you've studied french and dutch then at least you're not going into it with no language background and not understanding that wow there are other languages besides english!!! =) check local community colleges around you or even korean cultural centers (that's where I'm taking it now) and just do some introductory courses and see how you like it. even check out some library books or language aids. I've given you the link to the cultural center in LA if you live nearby. good luck!

Answer 4

These days you can learn how to speak German over the internet. Check out this online course, it's voted as the best German online course of all time: http://www.rocketlanguages.link/german The course is very easy to follow, I was able to learn German in just 3 months.

I live in New York City, I wanted to go to a German language teacher but that would have cost me over $800 per month. Good thing with this internet, $800 it's a lot of money for me.

Answer 5

I'd say reading Korean is relatively easy as Hangeul(or Hangul) is alphabetic. But I guess you're European or American, then it would be relatively difficult for you to learn Korean because of the different culture, grammar etc. According to the recent study of the US Government Accountability Office, Korean is categorized as a superhard language along with Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. BUT you know, when you like to do something, you just enjoy it! So if you're interested in learning Korean, you'll probably enjoy it and learn it quickly. And I think Korean is a very tasty language.
One of my Vietnamese friends once told me that she thought the Korean language had a very beautiful sound, especially when she heard lovers speaking with each other. Of course, it's her opinion...At any rate, if you start to learn Korean, I hope you enjoy it!


(BTW, I've never heard Korean speaking people saying chokilrit or teipoo rakoda or chaejoo/jahjoo. They usually say chokoret/chokollit, teipeu rekodeo/rekoduh and jaejeu when they say those words in Korean. Maybe the person who wrote about this thought the same with me but maybe just because of the different ways of the romanization of the Korean language....:-))

Answer 6

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Is korean a hard language to learn?
Well, I know that all languages are hard to learn, but I've learnt Dutch and French and I found Dutch 'easy' and French quite 'easy'. Would you say that Korean was really hard?

I'm interested in learning it!

Answer 7

Both Dutch and French use the Roman alphabet, the same as English, with only a few variations. Korean has a unique alphabet, invented just for it. However, it is quite easy to learn and you can probably teach yourself in an afternoon to read (pronounce) Korean with great accuracy (since the spelling is quite regular). You might want to do this just to show off, or to be able to read proper names in Korean.
In fact, Korean is probably the easiest Asian language to learn, since it is not tonal like Chinese or Vietnamese and is purely alphabetic, unlike Japanese (which uses three different symbolic systems) or Chinese, which requires memorizing thousands of characters. Also, there is no grammatical gender nor subject-verb agreement. However, the grammar is unlike English grammar and the cultural differences would also be a barrier. Most noticably, Korean is big on noting differences in status of the speaker and hearer, and it uses different verb conjugations depending on their respective statuses as well as the formality of the situation.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_language
I say go for it, but know that you can't really be fluent without immersing yourself in the culture. But you can definitely teach yourself to read a fair amount of Korean in a surprisingly short period of time.

Answer 8

Korean is hard based on your accent. for some the l/r character is extremely difficult, but to others it is simple. the sentence structure is different from English so that may also be a factor. reading and writing Korean is easy because the letters make sounds, not meanings. hope that helped!

Answer 9

It takes an English speaking person 4x as much time to learn Japanese as they would a european language. Japanese and Korean are very similar so I'll say it will be difficult, but seeing how you know two other languages as well already, it should be a bit easier.

My brother right now is living in korea and was taught it in about 3 months, the basics atleast. If you push yourself very hard it will become easier.

If you learn Korean try Japanese, the grammer is very simaler.

Much luck~

Answer 10

Korean will be harder for you to learn than Dutch and French because you will be dealing with a lot more vocabulary that you are unfamiliar with as an English speaker.

Nevertheless, if you really love the language and are dedicated to learning it, you can do it. Practicing with as many native speakers as possible will also help immensely.

In the past 75 years, Korean has borrowed many words from English. Some of them have been borrowed indirectly - from Japanese and Russian - and some of them directly from American GI's like chokilrit (chocolate), helrikopt'yuh (heliciopter) and teipoo rakoda (tape recorder).

North and South Korean both have "jazz" but South Korean has borrowed it directly from American English and pronounces it "chae-joo" while North Korean has borrowed it by way of Russian and pronounces it "jah-joo".

These will be some of the easiest words for you to learn.

Hope that helps.

Answer 11

English is related to other European languages, German being the closest in way words are formed (in the back of throat) as opposed to Romantic languages like French, Spanish, and Latin, which are prounced with front of mouth (Y prouncing comes difficult to some). Since you are familiar with Dutch and English (duh) I think prouncing will be difficult cuz of cross reference (mixing up knowledge of other languages with new one)but not impossible. ***Most important thing about learning a new language is interest (even b4 necessity ---reason y friend of mine is learning Gaelic).****

I am semi~fluent in Spanish & got some Japanese under my belt & I think I'm doing fine w/ it.

Gambare! (Good luck!)