I think this is a question people with initial interest in Korean will ask. And this is perhaps something this blog has to tackle quite adequately before launching into the Korean talk.
I read from a website somewhere (which I regrettably forgot) that claims, from the English speaker's point of view, Korean is a hard language. In face the website says it's even harder than Mandarin, because Mandarin has a sentence structure that is similar to English while Korean does not. While I agree that Korean sentence structures are very different from English, that does not necessarily make it any harder.
As I pointed out in italics, it may be that for native speakers of English, Korean will come across as something that is mind-bending, something that needs a 180 degrees mental turnabout, because in Korean language is not as English understands it. A few examples in case:
1. English typically has a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order. Sometimes it can be changed to SOV or OVS. However Korean typically has an SOV order in which the verb must always be placed at the end of the sentence. It is the same as Japanese. This rigidity creates linguistic situations in Korean which the English speaker may find peculiar.
2. English has a grammar function we all know as Subject-Verb agreement. Korean does not have this grammar function. In fact subjects, singular or plural, can disappear from Korean sentences altogether as long as the context provides for clarity.
3. Korean expressions are different from English. While English, through colloquialism and variation, has myriads of cliched expressions, Korean is usually more straightforward. Will this frustrate the average English speaker to express himself in Korean? It could.
4. Korean has the concept of honorific expression in which honorifics are applied to senior or more important persons. This is due to Confucian influence. English does not adhere to this concept as strictly as Korean.
However, other than some things that the English speaker will have to accustom to, Korean is straightforward and relatively easy to understand most of the time. This is no doubt due to its relative directness and especially the use of Hangul, the Korean alphabet which unlike the Latin alphabet, can be arranged in syllable blocks and are phonetic. This makes Korean much much easier to write and pronounce than English. Surprised?
On the other hand, English is not phonetic, meaning you cannot know how to pronounce a word based on its spelling. Personally, being not a native speaker of English, I spent nearly 10 years trying to figure out English pronunciation until I came across the concept of phonetic alphabets. If the English speaker finds it difficult to learn Korean, the same can be said vice versa.
If we were to do a short comparison with the other East Asian languages (Mandarin and Japanese), there are several advantages Korean has which the above website I spoke about clearly failed to point out.
1. Both Mandarin and Japanese mandate the use of Chinese characters, which I understand can be very hard for English speakers. Korean does not - it is always optional to use Chinese characters in Korean.
2. Mandarin and other Chinese dialects are all tonal, again something extremely difficult for English speakers. Korean is not.
3. The Japanese scripts hiragana and katakana are more complicated and difficult to use than Hangul.
4. Japanese does not have a uniform, single pronunciation for kanji (Chinese characters) - one kanji may potentially have 3 to 5 different pronunciations. This is not the case with Korean - and we're talking the official Seoul dialect (the national language of South Korea).
Here are some of my old blog's posts comparing English and Korean. If you're interested feel free to take a look:
English vs Korean 1
English vs Korean 2
So is Korean a hard language to learn? Yes and no. Korean has several plus points that will make it easy for the English speaker - the alphabet, non-tonal pronunciation, the import of many English words into Korean itself, the straightforwardness. On the other hand, there are some aspects the English speaker should make some effort to get used to - the sentence structure, grammar, vocabulary. Come to think of it, isn't the latter the same for every new language we learn?
Whether it's easy or difficult is always up to the individual. When I first started out I already had a base in English and Mandarin. My Mandarin base made it very easy for me to understand Korean vocabulary because a majority of Korean vocabulary is imported from Chinese. All I needed to do was tackle the grammar. Therefore my take on this issue is - never doubt your own abilities, and don't just take what people and websites for their word. If you are serious enough about learning Korean, you will learn it. It's probably easier than blogging. :P
I hope this will clear your doubts a little. If not, I suggest you ask questions - post your comments in the comment box. :)
I read from a website somewhere (which I regrettably forgot) that claims, from the English speaker's point of view, Korean is a hard language. In face the website says it's even harder than Mandarin, because Mandarin has a sentence structure that is similar to English while Korean does not. While I agree that Korean sentence structures are very different from English, that does not necessarily make it any harder.
As I pointed out in italics, it may be that for native speakers of English, Korean will come across as something that is mind-bending, something that needs a 180 degrees mental turnabout, because in Korean language is not as English understands it. A few examples in case:
1. English typically has a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order. Sometimes it can be changed to SOV or OVS. However Korean typically has an SOV order in which the verb must always be placed at the end of the sentence. It is the same as Japanese. This rigidity creates linguistic situations in Korean which the English speaker may find peculiar.
2. English has a grammar function we all know as Subject-Verb agreement. Korean does not have this grammar function. In fact subjects, singular or plural, can disappear from Korean sentences altogether as long as the context provides for clarity.
3. Korean expressions are different from English. While English, through colloquialism and variation, has myriads of cliched expressions, Korean is usually more straightforward. Will this frustrate the average English speaker to express himself in Korean? It could.
4. Korean has the concept of honorific expression in which honorifics are applied to senior or more important persons. This is due to Confucian influence. English does not adhere to this concept as strictly as Korean.
However, other than some things that the English speaker will have to accustom to, Korean is straightforward and relatively easy to understand most of the time. This is no doubt due to its relative directness and especially the use of Hangul, the Korean alphabet which unlike the Latin alphabet, can be arranged in syllable blocks and are phonetic. This makes Korean much much easier to write and pronounce than English. Surprised?
On the other hand, English is not phonetic, meaning you cannot know how to pronounce a word based on its spelling. Personally, being not a native speaker of English, I spent nearly 10 years trying to figure out English pronunciation until I came across the concept of phonetic alphabets. If the English speaker finds it difficult to learn Korean, the same can be said vice versa.
If we were to do a short comparison with the other East Asian languages (Mandarin and Japanese), there are several advantages Korean has which the above website I spoke about clearly failed to point out.
1. Both Mandarin and Japanese mandate the use of Chinese characters, which I understand can be very hard for English speakers. Korean does not - it is always optional to use Chinese characters in Korean.
2. Mandarin and other Chinese dialects are all tonal, again something extremely difficult for English speakers. Korean is not.
3. The Japanese scripts hiragana and katakana are more complicated and difficult to use than Hangul.
4. Japanese does not have a uniform, single pronunciation for kanji (Chinese characters) - one kanji may potentially have 3 to 5 different pronunciations. This is not the case with Korean - and we're talking the official Seoul dialect (the national language of South Korea).
Here are some of my old blog's posts comparing English and Korean. If you're interested feel free to take a look:
English vs Korean 1
English vs Korean 2
So is Korean a hard language to learn? Yes and no. Korean has several plus points that will make it easy for the English speaker - the alphabet, non-tonal pronunciation, the import of many English words into Korean itself, the straightforwardness. On the other hand, there are some aspects the English speaker should make some effort to get used to - the sentence structure, grammar, vocabulary. Come to think of it, isn't the latter the same for every new language we learn?
Whether it's easy or difficult is always up to the individual. When I first started out I already had a base in English and Mandarin. My Mandarin base made it very easy for me to understand Korean vocabulary because a majority of Korean vocabulary is imported from Chinese. All I needed to do was tackle the grammar. Therefore my take on this issue is - never doubt your own abilities, and don't just take what people and websites for their word. If you are serious enough about learning Korean, you will learn it. It's probably easier than blogging. :P
I hope this will clear your doubts a little. If not, I suggest you ask questions - post your comments in the comment box. :)
