# how hard is learning conversational Korean for Mandarin speakers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178 "2010-06-06T16:10:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/21 "2010-06-08T05:31:40Z")
**jasg** : I also graduated from DLI. In my case, the course of study was Vietnamese-Hanoi. The total length of the course was 47 weeks; however, the last few weeks concentrated were devoted to learnign the differences between the Hanoi dialect and the Saigon dialect. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/22 "2010-06-08T05:41:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > How many characters are they required to learn? According to [the wiki article on Hanja](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja#Education), the students are required to learn 1,800 characters total in junior and senior high. The number for North Koreans is much higher at 3,000. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Captain\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/23 "2010-06-08T14:45:02Z")
One nice thing about Korean is that unlike Chinese and Japanese, it is an alphabet. The alphabet called Hangul is very easy to learn and is phoentical. Each Korean letter makes one sound, and each block is one syllable. Correct about Korean being a language isolate, although they do have several loan words from Chinese language. For example: (K) Korean © Chinese Island © Dou (K) Du Beer © Pijiu (K) Mekju Hat © Mouzi (K) Mojia. There are probably much more, but the Chinese and Korean languages are different. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/24 "2010-06-08T14:49:13Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > Each Korean letter makes one sound That’s not strictly true. Hangeul (한글) is more of a “phonemery” than an alphabet. A letter does represent more than one sound; however, the rules for which sound it represents in what situation are pretty well attributed. For example the G (ㄱ) can also represent the NG sound. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/25 "2010-06-08T21:09:31Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Korean and Japanese are virtually identical grammatically and phonologically speaking, IIRC. > [@Monty](#): > > The phonology of the languages seems to not be virtually identical. In addition, the grammars, while having many similarities, also have many differences. Whereas \*my \*experience during my semester in Japan was that several of my Japanese friends commented that Korean was relatively easy for Japanese speakers to learn, due to similarities in the structures of the languages. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/26 "2010-06-08T21:10:59Z")
Similarities does not equate to virtually identical. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/27 "2010-06-09T01:56:44Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > According to [the wiki article on Hanja](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja#Education), the students are required to learn 1,800 characters total in junior and senior high. The number for North Koreans is much higher at 3,000. As a student who went through the system, I have to say that very few of those 1800 characters have actually stuck in my brain since graduation. 😛 The average Korean’s knowledge of hanja (of my generation) might be similar to the average American’s knowledge of French/Spanish (or whatever language class they took in middle/high school). I would agree that Korean/Japanese speakers would probably find it easier to learn each other’s languages than to learn Chinese. I feel like it was easier for me to pick up Japanese just watching anime than it was for me to learn Chinese at school. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/28 "2010-06-09T16:08:14Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Similarities does not equate to virtually identical. No, but the fact remains that native speakers have told me that Korean and Japanese are relatively easy for respective native speakers to learn, compared to other languages. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/29 "2010-06-09T22:55:21Z")
That is not the assertion put above. That assertion was that the phonologies of the two languages, Japanese and Korean, are “virtually identical.” They are not. Two quite likely reasons for the relative ease of learning Korean for a Japanese speaker or learning Japanese for a Korean speaker are (1) the high number of loan words from Chinese and (2) the similar (_not_ identical) typology of the languages. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/30 "2010-06-10T15:00:58Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > That is not the assertion put above. That assertion was that the phonologies of the two languages, Japanese and Korean, are “virtually identical.” They are not. Two quite likely reasons for the relative ease of learning Korean for a Japanese speaker or learning Japanese for a Korean speaker are (1) the high number of loan words from Chinese and (2) the similar (_not_ identical) typology of the languages. I have a half a hair for you here. Where would you like me to ship it? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/31 "2010-06-11T03:56:39Z")
That’s not hair-splitting. The phonology of Korean _is not_ the same–and certainly _is not_ virtually the same–as the phonology of Japanese. As to where you should ship it, you’ll have to wait quite some time for an answer as this thread’s not in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/32 "2010-06-11T04:10:46Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > That’s not hair-splitting. The phonology of Korean _is not_ the same–and certainly _is not_ virtually the same–as the phonology of Japanese. As to where you should ship it, you’ll have to wait quite some time for an answer as this thread’s not in the Pit. **Monty** ’s right–he’s not hairsplitting. Incidentally, I was really surprised how different those charts are. I lived in Japan for a year, and spoke it well enough by the end to do a lot of my daily business in the language, but even then I had trouble distinguishing Japanese and Korean. The sounds of the languages seemed so similar to me. One explanation might be that Korean makes phonemic distinctions which my own language (as well as Japanese) does not–for example, the distinction between plain, tense and aspirated p. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/33 "2010-06-11T15:47:32Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > The phonology of Korean _is not_ the same–and certainly _is not_ virtually the same–as the phonology of Japanese. Whoops, I’ll concede that one. For some reason my brain decided to read “phonology” as something else more like morphosyntax. My point was simply that the languages are similar enough in structure that a native speaker of Japanese or Korean has a reasonably easy time learning the other language, compared to other foreign languages, and the question of \*how \*close they are is moot for a layman. > [@](#): > > As to where you should ship it, you’ll have to wait quite some time for an answer as this thread’s not in the Pit. Should you find the chutzpah to back that promise up with some action, I’ll happily meet you there. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/34 "2010-06-11T22:40:10Z")
When it comes to linguistic matters, I’m not a layman. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/35 "2010-06-12T00:52:46Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Should you find the chutzpah to back that promise up with some action, I’ll happily meet you there. Chutzpah? You admit your error and then make that comment? That’s kind of entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178/36 "2010-06-14T14:32:29Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > When it comes to linguistic matters, I’m not a layman. But most people who’re reading this are. > [@Monty](#): > > Chutzpah? You admit your error and then make that comment? That’s kind of entertaining. Whereas I find it entertaining that you take the safe and easy route of “Gee if I were in a position to do X I sure would!” without actually putting your ass on the line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-learning-conversational-korean-for-mandarin-speakers/542178.md?page=1)