Easiest language to learn between Japanese and Korean?

Question

I am looking to learn a language in addition to learning Vietnamese.

However, since I am around mostly Vietnamese, I am able to brush up on it; however, since I'm not around Japanese it will be a bit difficult to brush up on the language.

With Korean, I understand that there is a study group out here in the South Bay Area (but DeAnza is the only school that teaches it!)

Still, it's a toss up between Japanese and Korean...in addition to Vietnamese, which I'm learning.

Answer 1

Japanese and Korean are two of the hardest languages for a native English-speaker to learn. I myself am Korean-American (first langauges were Korean and English), and I'm also taking classes in Japanese (along with sign langauge, and Spanish.) I must personally say that Korean is much more difficult than Japanese.

For example, Korean, at first, seems fairly easy to read and write. But there are so many subtle nuances between vowels and dipthongs. There are also a bunch of spelling rules (equivalent of English's "'i' before 'e' except after 'c,'" etc.). In Japanese, you merely have to memorize characters. What about those pesky Chinese characters (kanji in Japanese, hanja in Korean)? Well, although they're not used as frequently in colloquial Korean writing, many Korean newspapers frequently use them, and it would take the knowledge of 1000+ to read through a whole paper fluently.

With the vowel nuances of Korean, it may also be harder to speak. It seems as though Americans (native English-speakers) can catch onto Japanese's pronounciation easier than Korean's.

Honorifics are a HUGE part of Korean. It's a ppart of Japanese too, but it has a larger role in Korean. The way to speak informally-polite is different from formal-polite, which is different from general-address, and almost any other thing you can think of (almost.)

But learning Korean would be so rewarding. Personally, I feel as if Korean is a more "confident" sounding langauge compared to the "soft-spoken" Japanese (both sounding just as euphonious as the other.) Korea also has a rich culture (including history, cuisine, way-of-life) that goes, for the most part, unspoken. Let you tell you too that Korea would be a larger player on the world stage (with South Korea's growing economy and North Korea's growing impotence.) I've also reliezed more people jumping onto the Korean Wave (K-Pop a/k/a Korean pop culture), and off that of Japan's.

Personally, I'd say learn both. After learning one, learning the other would be much easier (I'd suggest kgoing Korean to Japanese; I seem to catch on really quickly.) They both have similar grammatical structures, and the influence of Chinese culture on both of them create another similarity. This is probably the only similarity Vietnamese would lend to these lagnauges: a cognate here or there.

Answer 2

If you really can't choose between the two, then this may help. Japanese is ranked No. 9 world language in terms of 1st language speakers at 125 million; Korean, however, is ranked 15 on the same basis. There are about 45-50 million South Koreans and 20-odd million North Koreans, but you're not likely to have much contact with the latter. So Japanese will give you more access to language use. Don't expect either language to be similar to Vietnamese in any way, however.

Answer 3

Well, I'm studying Japanese right now, and it's challenging, but rewarding.

From what I hear, there's a lot of similarities between Japanese and Korean. The big differences are in the writing system, really. Korean has a very nifty mode of writing, which is a phonetic syllabary composed of the alphabet- my teacher demonstrated it to us because she was so tickled with it. It truly is very easy and straightforward, in comparison to Japanese, which has hiragana, katakana, and borrowed characters from Chinese called kanji- your only recourse is to start the slow, gradual collection of kanji- and you'll need about two thousand to be roughly literate. Just because that thought makes me weep, Korean definitely sounds better.

But on the other hand, I hear that Korean has more polite structures and levels than Japanese (which is crazy- Japanese is already so politeness-conscious!), which means more difficulty in trying to navigate which forms to use with whom to not be offensive, etc., etc..

It's a toss-up. I think both are fantastic languages, and good luck on your studies!

Answer 4

I don't know to be honest but what I can tell you is that Japanese is moderately simple. Its easy to learn key phrases and reading becomes quite easy over time. There are also lots of online facilities that can help you with this. This is also applicable for Korean too.

Another reason why I'd suggest Japanese is that you'd have more media easily accessible to help you practice with. In particular Manga and raw anime on youtube

Answer 5

I think Korean, because Korean is phonetic, Japanese is character based. Once you get the vocabulary all you have to do in Korean is spell it out. In Japanese there are lots of characters tomemorize.

Answer 6

If your decision is based on which is easier, it would be Korean. The grammar is similar, but the Korean has a much much simpler writing system.

Answer 7

Both are going to be very important in the future (south korea is the fastest growing country in the world - measured in GDP)

Answer 8

Japanese is easy to memorize phrases in. And it's way prettier than Korean. Japan has "sumis" and "kawas" and "ishis" (nice susurrus stuff), while Korean is full of kludgy, blocky, non-syllibant syllables.

Answer 9

its not a case of easy or hard the ease with which you will learn a language is related to your interest in it which one interests you more pick that one and learn it