If you compare both languages, you will notice that both of them are equally challenging. The Korean language's writing systems are hard to learn, whereas the Japanese alphabet is complex to understand. 40 Alphabets, which makes creating and understanding sentences easier. Easier as the writing system is more simple.
However, due to the sheer volume of English speakers who want to learn Mandarin or Japanese, there are more resources for those languages. From that practical standpoint, learners might find that the hardest language to learn of the three is Korean.
However, considering the larger number of sounds and the different particles in Korean, Japanese is definitely the easier language to start in. If you're not good at distinguishing new sounds and pronunciations, you're definitely going to have a hard time with Korean.
Generally speaking, we might assert that Korean is easier for an English speaker to learn than Mandarin Chinese. But this is very relative. In fact, the US Foreign Service Institute assigns Mandarin Chinese and Korean the same level of difficulty. Both languages are in “Category Four”.
However, since Korean is the easiest language to read due to its letter-based reading system, that also means Korean is the easiest language to write. You still need to know the grammar, though.
Is Japanese or Korean More Used? Japan has a larger economy and a population of 127 million people speaking the Japanese language. The combined population of North and South Korea totals about 75 million people.
If you're the type of learner who likes to jump right in and start speaking the language, Korean might be a better choice since it has a more straightforward grammar structure. On the other hand, if you like to take things slowly and really understand the rules before using them, Japanese might be a better fit.
Thai will get easier as learners progress. Most of the challenges will exist in the beginning - tone, unfamiliar sounds, and reading. However, once a learner begins to acquire these, the language gets easier. Korean, on the other hand, will become more difficult for learners.
The FSI puts Korean as a Category V language. Which means, it's one of the hardest languages to master. They estimate 2200 hours of study before you can reach fluency in Korean. Or 88 weeks of extremely intense study.
Korean and Japanese grammar and sentence construction are extremely similar. They both share a number of Chinese loanwords, but their original vocabulary and pronunciation are very different, rendering these two languages mutually incomprehensible.
Similarities between Japanese and Korean
It's very obvious upon listening to people speak both of these languages that they sound different. Speakers of each respective language wouldn't be able to understand each other without some prior knowledge of the other language.
Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for English natives to master. This is because it does not have a lot of likeness in structure to English. Approximately it will take 88 weeks, or 2200 hours of studying, to become fluent. But this article shows tips and tools to expedite and make the process easier.
Japanese is slightly easier to learn. But, Chinese is much more widely spoken. Both languages have their pros and cons. Ultimately whichever language pulls on your heartstrings the most is the winner.
Arabic is usually considered one of the most difficult languages to learn, topped by only a few languages like Japanese in terms of difficulty. Plus, it's even harder (or so they say) if you are a native speaker of English or a romance language.
If you are a native speaker of English, learning Japanese can seem like an ambitious endeavor. In fact, the US Foreign Service Institute considers Japanese to be one of the most difficult languages to learn for an English speaker (along with Arabic, Chinese, and Korean).
How long does it take to learn Korean fluently? It will take about 1200 hours to reach a high intermediate level. You'll need additional practice, so you may want to double that number to 2400 hours to get towards fluency. That would be about 23 hours of study per week for two years.
It takes about three months or 90 days to learn enough Korean to have at least 3-minute conversations in Korean if you study for 7 to 10 hours per week. Moreover, after one year of looking at this pace, you will become fluent and comfortable with Korean conversation.
Omo: This is short for "omona" and means "oh, my."
The Japanese language is one of the most popular and beautiful languages in Asia. It is an ancient language of Asia. It is a very musical language.
1. Mandarin. The most difficult Asian language (and sometimes viewed as the most difficult language) is the same language that is spoken most in the world; Mandarin Chinese.
One of the most challenging areas of Korean grammatical structure is the concept of particles. Because there is no corresponding construct in English grammar. Thus, the idea of using particles appears even more perplexing to new learners. In Korean grammar, particles serve as sentence markers.
And it ranks as 18th in the most used languages in the world. This makes the language useful for travel, or business. If you plan on doing any sort of business in the country, you will need to know Korean.
Anime is a form of Japanese animation whose origins go back before the 1920s. Later, before and during World War II, many organizations for artists and cartoonists were established.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.