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It still surprises me that the US' FSI rates Korean as one of the hardest languages to learn.

XR0CSWV3h3kZWg 9y ago
Growing up I was interested in learning a language that was very different than my native English, and ended up settling on Korean for a number of reasons, but the simple alphabet and lack of tonality really helped. Now I find myself wishing that I learned a tonal language, but it's much easier to say than to do.
malloryerik 9y ago
Why? In my experience English-speaking learners of Chinese do better than learners of Korean, and learners of Japanese do about the same if not better. I speak four and have studied several languages, including Korean and Japanese, Korean in a hardcore way, and found it about as hard as they come despite some things like hangul. Indeed hangul doesn't always help because reading Chinese words in Korean (meaning the majority), the sounds are clear but the information in the characters is lost. Since characters usually come in pairs or triples, knowing at least one will give insight to the others, and they commonly carry hints about pronunciation, whereas in Korean the purely phonetic approach of modern hangul relies on context. If you can't see what a sentence is about and don't instantly recognize some important words, you'll have a hard way in. That said, the Japanese multiple pronunciations for Chinese characters (native words using Chinese characters plus regular loan words) is maddening. Korean grammar gets confusing quickly, it's "backwards" or kind of inside out to English-speakers, kind of like the Lisp of natural languages. Written sentences grow into complex labyrinths. Japanese is another natural language Lisp but more streamlined in grammar and far simpler on pronunciation if outlandish in writing systems. Listening and pronunciation is also sometimes perilous. I'm not talking about the way that vowels can drift, but actually hearing what someone has said. This problem doesn't really come up you when people learn their hotel and taxi Korean and then claim to speak it. Anyway of course Korean can be learned but to engage in true discussion about a complex and subtle issue takes several years of focused study and practical experience, and I mean for most people more than five years, though experience in Chinese or Japanese will help almost as much as studying/practicing Korean itself. A year at the foreign service institute is just like a coat of priming paint when it comes to the more difficult languages.

Growing up I was interested in learning a language that was very different than my native English, and ended up settling on Korean for a number of reasons, but the simple alphabet and lack of tonality really helped. Now I find myself wishing that I learned a tonal language, but it's much easier to say than to do.

malloryerik 9y ago

Why? In my experience English-speaking learners of Chinese do better than learners of Korean, and learners of Japanese do about the same if not better. I speak four and have studied several languages, including Korean and Japanese, Korean in a hardcore way, and found it about as hard as they come despite some things like hangul. Indeed hangul doesn't always help because reading Chinese words in Korean (meaning the majority), the sounds are clear but the information in the characters is lost. Since characters usually come in pairs or triples, knowing at least one will give insight to the others, and they commonly carry hints about pronunciation, whereas in Korean the purely phonetic approach of modern hangul relies on context. If you can't see what a sentence is about and don't instantly recognize some important words, you'll have a hard way in. That said, the Japanese multiple pronunciations for Chinese characters (native words using Chinese characters plus regular loan words) is maddening. Korean grammar gets confusing quickly, it's "backwards" or kind of inside out to English-speakers, kind of like the Lisp of natural languages. Written sentences grow into complex labyrinths. Japanese is another natural language Lisp but more streamlined in grammar and far simpler on pronunciation if outlandish in writing systems. Listening and pronunciation is also sometimes perilous. I'm not talking about the way that vowels can drift, but actually hearing what someone has said. This problem doesn't really come up you when people learn their hotel and taxi Korean and then claim to speak it. Anyway of course Korean can be learned but to engage in true discussion about a complex and subtle issue takes several years of focused study and practical experience, and I mean for most people more than five years, though experience in Chinese or Japanese will help almost as much as studying/practicing Korean itself. A year at the foreign service institute is just like a coat of priming paint when it comes to the more difficult languages.