Is Korean Hard to Learn?
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- 🇰🇷 A language with a simple alphabet, easy word formation, and K-Pop? What's not to love! Is Korean hard to learn? Keep watching to find out!
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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:23 - The Story …
0:44 - Really Easy: Hangul & Pronunciation
2:36 - Also Really Easy: Konglish
3:10 - Easy: Word Formation
4:24 - Easy: Predictable Verb Conjugation
5:44 - A Little Harder: Being Polite
7:56 - Hard: Different Word Order for Sentences
9:19 - Hard: Particles
10:29 - No Subject
11:19 - Different
12:21 - Helpful Things
13:10 - What’s the Verdict?
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🇰🇷Watch the shocking origin story of the Korean lanugage 👉🏼 ruclips.net/video/6rIABKAE-S0/видео.html
lanugage
@@stargazer0016 lol lanu gage
newsflash
there are no tiger in korea😂
to be fair there is no dragon in china neither😂
@@dwadd7528 yeah they WERE but after japan colonized korea, most of them were killed and hunted :(
@@dwadd7528 But it is true that the tiger is one of the symbol animal of Korea.
Learning a writing system is easy. Learning the language itself is about practice and dedication.
Yep, I started learning Japanese a few weeks ago and I already know all of hiragana and katakana. Writing systems are the easiest parts of a language.
@RedPanda kanji is the reason i specifically said hiragana and katakana
@RedPanda: Kanji is easy.
@@zennayo1 learning a new alphabet takes hours, learning an abugida or abjad takes a little bit longer. Learning a syllabary takes a few days. Learning grammar takes months. But learning vocabulary for language that does not share a lexifier with the language we already know? That takes years. Probably a thousand hours of study, not just of use.
@@zennayo1 The point is that kanji are just as much a part of the Japanese writing system as are hiragana and katakana, so the OP was wrong to say, "Learning a writing system is easy." It depends on the writing system. Learning the writing system of Japanese is very difficult indeed.
Lived in Korea for 6 years (not consecutive) when I was in the Army. Picked up the alphabet quickly and was immediately able to sound out road signs and items on the menu. Never had an issue with honorifics. I understood levels of politeness and tried to speak accordingly. Yes I made mistakes when talking to elders, but they were gracious and understood I was speaking as polite as my vocabulary allowed. Thoroughly enjoyed my time there; the people and food are awesome! Not a fan of K-Pop as it must me a generational thing, but really like the historical dramas.
I would never say I became fluent, but did become functional. Getting out among the people and attempting to communicate is key.
Fellow soldier that was stationed in korea too! I was too young to appreciate the language, but the honorifics are REAL. We used to work with the KATUSAs daily and they would get so upset if you didn't speak to the older guys more humbly (despite us being american). I got into a fist fight with one of the older KATUSAs because I wouldn't give up my seat to him when he asked me to. What a wild time. 2ID!
I would love to have gone to the military, but I was diagnosed with a mental illness. Now I have to marry a rich man in order to afford my prescription meds.
his correct
@@FitProVR 2nd to none !
@@asdfwefq7733 lol! Haven’t heard that in a while!
I've been studying Korean by myself since 2010 I basically learned by watching several dramas and listening to all kind of Korean songs. I haven't lived in Korea by the way. Now I'm a certified Korean language teacher (I took an online course for Korean teachers) my mother tongue is Spanish so I mainly teach Spanish and English native speakers but these days I even have asian students. I'm so happy to see more people learning and speaking Korean these days. :)
대박!! 멋지십니다❤❤
너무 멋집니다 !! 응원합니다👍
That is the best way to learn foreign language. Just follow what they say after learning some basic structure.
👍👍
한국어 좋아하고 가르쳐 주셔서 감사해요
I'm Korean. I don’t know why but this video kept popping up in my algorithm so I clicked on it. Learning Korean isn't easy, but I cheer for anyone who does. 화이팅!
Half Korean here. One tip to sound more natural (as mentioned in the video) is to be polite when talking about people who AREN'T in the room. Many non-native speakers will say to a friend 부모는 어디에 살아? But to show more respect to the parents many native speakers will use the (시) as mentioned and say it like "부모님은 어디에 사셔? (to your friend)" but if you're talking directly to the parents you can say "어머님/아버님은 어디에 사세요?" Also the more polite form for "있어요?" is "계세요 (for people)?" which is where the '계세요' comes from in "안녕히 계세요 (stay well)." but to friends people will just say "잘 있어~". Also the (시) is why you hear people say "안녕히 가'세'요 to people who are leaving (politely) vs. the casual "잘 가".
If you're wondering now which one people use for objects like a pencil, but want to sound polite, you can say "혹시 연필 있으세요?(to a complete stranger)" or "연필 있나요(to a stranger or someone you slightly know, and to whom you want/should show respect)?"
I heard it because of the algorithm. I am Korean but I am a RUclipsr related to Japanese study. My personal opinion is that language can be improved only when you keep practicing. Have a good motivation to learn a language! I will support everyone who learns Korean. 파이팅!!!! Fighting!!!
I would debate Korean being easy to pronounce, sometimes letters change due to what is following it, but compared to English, it's easier! Korean is NOT easy, at least for me. I married a half Korean and wanted to learn to better communicate with my mother in law. But I also want to be able to read it! There's so many fun things to read in Hangul!
Yeah the pronunciation is very hard
@ForeverDreamWithinADream Thanks so much for the suggestions!! I will look into these resources.
agree, sometimes i just hate how English is so hard to pronounce :")))
The pronunciation of the letter doesn't necessarily change, but when you say it fast it sounds a little different.
한글은 엄청나게 쉽지만 한국어는 엄청나게 어렵습니다. 하지만 걱정마세요 한국어를 조금만 공부해도 한국사람들은 당신 말을 대부분 알아들어요.
예: ‘나는 마트에 간다’ 를
‘냐뉸 마튜예 걎댜 ‘ 라고 발음하거나
‘먀투에 걋뉘다 냐뉸’
이런 식으로 순서를 바꿔서 발음해도 한국 사람들은 모두 알아 듣습니다.
단 난이도 고급으로 들어가는 순간 지옥이 펼쳐지지요^^
As a Korean person, I have been thinking that Korean is a difficult language to foreigners, but I have changed my thought after watching this video. Korean definitely has some points that sound easy to "start" to learn, and I think most of foreigners can "speak" in Korean without too much difficulty in most of situations. If you use "요(yo)" at the end of your sentences, almost all Korean would understand that you are trying to be polite. But if you once start to "listen to" Korean, it would make you confused. Hope you all Korean learners do not give up too early!
한국인입니다. 이 영상은 한국어에 관한 중요한 특징들을 잘 설명하고 있습니다. 심지어 꽤 깊이가 있습니다. 외국인이 본 내용을 전부 이해한다면, 그는 한국인이나 다름없습니다. 외국인들에게 한국어가 어렵게 느껴지는 줄 몰랐네요. 그런 한국어를 외국인이 이렇게 잘 정리해서 설명해주시니 새삼 신기하고 놀랍네요. 좋은 영상 잘 봤습니다.
당연히 영어권이 한국어 어려워하고
우리는 영어가 어럽고.
같은 로마자 쓰는 서구권 언어배우는데 레벨1이면
한국어는 레벨10
우리도 영어 배우는데 레벌10
@@TNT5TNT 중국어가 더 어려움
@@user-in9pt7of8s 한국어를 배운지 3 년 된 학습자로써 동의 못 해요. 중국어는 억양과 한자에 관한 복잡함을 가득한 걸로 유명하는데 문법이 영어의 문법과 비슷하고 너무 이해하기 쉽고 자기의 어휘력이 좀 부족해도 간단한 문장들을 잘 할 수 있는 언어라서 의사소통이 좀 빨리 잘 할 수 있게 될 가능성이 높은 것 같아요.
@@aftertheoblivion663 외워야 할게 너무 많자늠 글자수만봐도
@@aftertheoblivion663 한국어를 배운 지 3 년 된 학습자로서(써X) 동의 못 해요. 중국어는 억양과 한자에 관한 복잡함이(을X) 가득한 걸로 유명한(하는X)데, 문법이 영어의 문법과 비슷하고 너무 이해하기 쉽고 자기의 어휘력이 좀 부족해도 간단한 문장들을 잘 할 수 있는 언어라서, 의사소통을(이X) 좀 빨리 잘 할 수 있게 될 가능성이 높은 것 같아요.
외국인이 한국어로 답글을 달다니, 정말 멋져요. 눈에 크게 띄는 잘못된 표면 몇 개만 수정해드립니다 ㅎㅎ😜
As a korean, I can say
Hangeul = So Easy to learn
Korean = f***ing HARD
True
fr
I was about to say the same.
I'm a Half Korean. My dad Is korean and I'm involved into Korean culture soo much. But that doesn't mean that learning the language was easy for me. It took me around 3-4 years to became actually fluent. The language itself has a lot of different variables, differents words, different grammar, different everything. I think what you mentioned in the video it's just the basic things, but what about the intermidiate and advanced things; those are actually the hardest one. It's sad but is real, to actually become fluent and minimum b2 in korean it can take longer than we all thought.... As i said, I live with a Korean dad, have a lot of korean friends, living in a korean enviroment every single day, and it was so hard for me.... i just want to be realistic about this language
사실.. 영어를 잘하는게 사는데 더 편하고 좋긴 합니다.
@@user-hy1zb1tw1r hi I love Korean and I m Turkish I learning English but I don't have a friend for practice English 😢
Sorry Olly, but I have to disagree on Korean pronunciation. Hangeul itself is easy to learn, but Korean pronunciation is difficult. Compared to Japanese, there are a lot more sounds, complex vowels and sound changes. Korean grammar isn't easy either with a variety of structures that seem to have the same meaning, but then you realise there's a small difference between them. Finally, written and spoken Korean are very different from each other and this adds to the complexity of the language. I have been learning Korean since 2015 and I still wouldn't consider myself advanced. Upper intermediate would be more realistic.
If you compare it with English or French, it's a fair game... OC Japanese pronunciation is easier compared to Korean, apart from some nuances such as rendaku...
Koreans immigrants have an obvious accent in English, so your point, who will speak like a native anyways unless you’re the kid of an immigrant and even then.
Japanese pronunciation is super easy... if compare to Russian French Cantonese or Vietnamese... , then Korean pronunciation is super easy. And if compare to the Slavic languages or even the same 'Altaic language family' - Turkish, then Korean grammar is just a piece of cake.
This is very true. Let's assume they were talking about speakers of English who are learning Korean. The phonemic contrast between aspirated and unaspirated is something very difficult for English speakers to master. Add to that yet another phenomic distinction namely the ejectives, and it becomes more difficult still.
Central vowels are extremely difficult not just for English speakers but for speakers of many other languages, and these come up a lot both individually and in diphthongs.
Sandhi rules are less difficult to learn, but many people will then struggle with how there are a number of different spellings for the same pronunciation, especially for consonants across syllable boundaries.
But for speakers of English and for many other languages, two things absolutely stand out making Korean extremely difficult. One is the syntax. Being left branching and relying on post positions instead of being right branching and relying on prepositions is far more difficult than it might sound. In addition, using nominalize expressions instead of relative clauses is a huge challenge for speakers of many other languages, including English.
And then there's the vocabulary. Except for vocabulary connected with things following the middle of the 20th century, neither English nor Latin has been an important lexifier for Korean. This means that if someone wants to learn Korean even to an intermediate level, the vocabulary work that is necessary is vastly greater than for an English speaker who is learning some other language that has had Latin as a lexifier. This means that romance languages but also languages like Indonesian are vastly easier for English speakers than is Korean.
I know of what I speak.
@@williamwolf2844 Your comment is excellent (and I appreciated its technical nature). I think discriminating between the untensed and tensed consonants is also very difficult for native English speakers.
One thing in Korean’s defense, aside from the relative ease of learning and reading Hangul, is that Korean is fairly regular-and even the exceptions tend to be regular in themselves. But that certainly doesn’t make up for all the difficult aspects that you mention.
And, yeah, from what I’ve heard, Indonesian is easy for English speakers. I’ve heard it has all the advantages of the analytical Sinitic (Chinese) languages with none of their difficulties (e.g., tones, character-based writing system).
I, as a native Korean, acknowledge it's an extremely subtle language. My highest respect to all the foreign students who struggle in learning Korean! Speaking of which, hangul is a great alphabet system for real. I've taught some of my Iranian friends a long time ago at school during break time quickly for fun, about how to read hangul words and pronounce them, and even though it was only a 10-minute lesson, they indeed could read hangul words and make Korean sounds by simply combining vowels and consonants. I felt surprised, and they as well were surprised. It was a magical experience for all of us. I can't forget that.
Great video! I've been speaking Korean fluently for about 4 years now and I will admit the hardest thing for me BY FAR was pronunciation. It's a lot easier to read words on a page in your head as opposed to out loud. Even to this day, I struggle occasionally (which might not necessarily be the case for other languages if you equate the time I've put in)
I love how you include both Korean Unnie and Hailey teaching video for your explanation.
As a Korean who went to a college in Boston, man, learning English was one of the most challenging things in my life. and you'll see why if you see the world map. we're geographically on THE OTHER side on the planet. which makes the whole language system being almost diametrical understandable, but once I learned and became relatively fluent in English, learning any other language became so easy because they're all in somewhere between Korean and English. now I speak 6 languages and will learn more.
I'm living in Korea, Daegu now. The thing is Daegu has something called satturi, which is an specific accent. So whenever I want to understand what s1 is telling me is so freaking hard to understand and getting used to both the language and the accent haha. I'm here for 1 year in order to become an interpreter, wish me luck! 🤠
So cool you will be a Korean interpreter! I'm coming in June for teaching English. I can't wait! I hope I can learn the language-!
I wish you a luck
satturi = regional accent/dialect
가가 가가? 이 문장을 이해하시면 대구 억양을 다 배운겁니다.
저는 대구 사람인데 경상도 사투는 조금 강합니다. 열심히 하세요^^
Hello!! I'm korean learning English! I think English and Korean both have very diffirent grammer and expressions. So as Korean difficult in some parts, English-speakers also experience same thing. When I was student, I studied English for test, but recently I've been starting to study English for dailies or business. Cheer up your korean study!
What a great video on Korean language. 올리님 좋은방송 감사합니다^^
Yes, Korea is one of the 10 most powerful countries on Earth. More people should start learning the Korean language.
military: 6th in the world
passport: 2nd in the world
I'd rephrase what you've said and and I say the language deserves way more attention.
honestly, korean military is overrated. trainings are nothing practical, NCOs lack of professionalism, infantry gear remains in the 50s, conservative and incapable generals, conscript more than 95 percent men and still running out of enlisted, treats soldiers like housekeeping slaves... and so on. ranking does not mean anything, which is proven by russians.
ive been learning korean for 11 years now and the hardest things about korean is the pronounciation and grammar, especially verb conjugations, subject/object particles, and word order. formal speech is also really challenging for me because theres different levels, and koreans can get reallllly mad if you use the wrong level. for pronounciation i was able to pick it up from learning rap lyrics to korean songs so for me its not too challenging, but i admit that its very hard to learn because even now after singing korean songs for a decade, its very difficult for me to pronounce certain things especially in fast songs. when you add difficult grammar with hard pronounciation, its an incredibly difficult language especially to speak and understand. my writing and reading comprehension is far superior because its just easier. i would say that so much of what you learn from a textbook is just so different from actual colloquial speech. and yeah, a lot of languages are like that, but with korean its complicated because of koreas history. not only is there different dialects, but people in diaspora may use different words because of japanese loan words getting phased out by native koreans, internet slangs, generational gap between post war koreans vs gen z koreans, etc. its to a point where i can tell when i read a comment that the person isnt a native speaker. it may be gramatically correct, but no one actually says it. no one says youre welcome or excuse me, its more common to ask if you've eaten than how are you, etc.
정말 정확한 지적입니다
한국어는 한국인인 제가 생각해도
굉장히 어렵습니다 영어로 설명할수없는 수많은 단어들이 많아요
예를들면 영어로 yellow 라는 단어는 하나지만
한국에는 노랗다, 노르스름하다, 누렇다, 샛노랗다, 노란색 이런식으로 대충 5가지 이상의 표현이 있어요
그리고 각각의 의미도 다릅니다
쉽지않지만 그만큼 자신의 생각을 세분해서 설명할수있다는 장점이있죠
아름다운 언어 한국어를 사랑해주셔서 감사해요^^
어느정돈 동의합니다만 영어의 슬랭 또한 외국인에겐 똑같은 어려움입니다. 젊은 층의 사용 언어가 다른 것은 미국, 일본, 한국 등등 여러 국가에서 일어나는 현상이고 비단 한국만의 현상은 아니란 말을 하고 싶습니다. 또한, 한국어에 있는 일본어는 사실상 조부모 세대 한정으로만 쓰이지 젊은 층은 존재 자체를 몰라 조부모 세대와 어린 세대간의 의사소통에 문제가 발생하는 경우도 있습니다. 이러한 현상은 식민지배를 당했던 나라라면 공통적으로 일어나는 현상이라고 생각합니다,
I'm about 10 months into learning Korean, and while it can be challenging, it's been a lot of fun and really interesting. This is a really great overview of the main learning points. And great to see you reference some really good RUclips teachers I watch all the time.
Do you learn Korean on your own?
@@heavenly_girl Yes, mostly on my own. I mainly follow the Talk to Me in Korean classes alongside some really good RUclips teachers. And I use Anki flashcards to improve my vocabulary. Recently I started video chatting with a language exchanger partner from Seoul, which has helped. Unfortunately there are not many Koreans where I live with who I can practice. I have also used an iTalki tutor to help out. As you can probably guess, the main challenge of learning on my own is that my listening comprehension needs the most work. But still, my brain is enjoying being pushed to learn something new.
@@northice Do you understand Korean contents without English subtitle?
@@heavenly_girl Not even close. Though I do better when words or common phrases are spoken on their own (eg. 걱정하지 마세요) and it's nice to slowly understand more and more. But 95% still need subtitles I do think that watching dramas has improved my pronunciation and tone though, even though I don't know all the words I'm hearing. When I try to pronounce a new word, I think I get closer to how it should sound because of watching dramas.
@@northice I'm also a fellow Korean learner. I have been learning Korean since 2016. I'm now able to understand Korean content without any subtitles, but I still prefer content with English or Korean subtitles! Because I'm also an English learner. So I want to improve my foreign language skills through subtitles! Even though I understand it, I observe every word and sentence structure of the subtitle! If there's a word that I don't know, I look it up in the dictionary to find out the meaning. Just keep learning! You will improve in no time! 🙂👍🏻🙏🏻🇰🇷
좋은 영상 감사합니다.
I am always amazed by your storytelling abilities 😍 This is one of the most interesting language channels on YT. One more compelling vid, Olly 👏🏻😊
Just agree.
한글은 쉽지만, 한국어는 배우기에 문법적으로 어려운 부분이 많아요.
그건 다른 언어도 마찬가지입니다.
ㄹㅇㅋㅋ
@@Ernest_Khalimov360 가다를 명사형[가기, 감, 가는 것], 관형사형[가는, 갈, 가기위한, 가야하는, 갈 수 있는], 부사형[가기위해서, 가기에, 가서]로 바꿔야 하지만 영어에서는 to go로 표현이 가능한 것만봐도 한국어가 문법적인 변형이 다채롭습니다. 옆나라 일본만 봐도 동사 변형이 한국어만큼 많지 않아요. '다른 언어도 마찬가지입니다.' 라고 퉁치기에는 한국어의 문법 난이도가 높은 것은 사실입니다.
@@idkwym다른 굴절어 보면 훨씬 많아오
As someone who's doing a korean language degree, I can say it's only as hard as any other language to learn. You do need to tune into how it sounds, and I think English speakers can struggle with the expression style as it doesn't translate well, but besides, it's very enjoyable to learn! There are not many difficult conjugations like Spanish and French.
Panka....you might be Iranian with that name?
@@lazstan no, I'm Hungarian
It's not enjoyable to learn. It's frustrating and painful
I would like to say something: Korean is a language with particularly developed verbs. (verb-centered language) To give just one example, when using the English word 'wear' In Korea, different verbs are used depending on the body parts.
For example,
신을 신다wear shoes, 장갑을 끼다wear gloves. 마스크를 쓰다wear a mask 허리따를 차다wear l belt. 장비를 착용하다 wear equipment 목도리를 두르다wear a scarf 옷을 걸치다 wear coat......
Different verbs are used in every similar situations.
I like how you included Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring as a Koren flick to watch, but it isn't exactly a verbose film if I recall correctly. Probably not the best for picking up on the language. But you can recommend it (and other Kim Ki-Duk films) to your arthouse nerd friends
I love these videos
Thank you !
I'm Korean and I got a quite good grade at Korean grammar. But I frequently find it hard to make complex sentence in a way that expresses my nuance accurately and is nature. Not only does it have complex grammar rules, but it also have so many vocabularies having similar meanings.
Good luck😊
love this
this is a very nice explanation to strat with korean i think ^^
As a Korean, I agree that the agglutination of particles must be the hard part.
But also influenced words from of Chinese and Japanese in every day to day use will be even harder!
2 months into the Korean course at Seoul National University, and it might be hard, but its also so much fun
would love to see more videos on korean ❤
Thanks to make this contents
as a south korean it's very helpful to learn the chinese letters and its meanings bc it makes it so easy
As if learn Spanish for French or Italian
@@--__--__--__--__It's different from that. This is because 60-80% of Korean words are Chinese characters, and Chinese characters are one of the things that make up the Korean language.
한국인이지만 영상이 재밌어보여서 클릭했어요! 영상 재밌어요 :)
Glad to see you referenced Talk To Me In Korean @TTMIK several times. They are an amazing company and the largest provider of Korean language learning materials. I guess you aren't aware of Korean Jream, a highly educated native speaker who has taught at prestigious US universities and now is focusing on online learning.
Korean is difficult mainly in that for the majority of learners the sentence structure is very different. Other than that, Hangul is pretty simple to learn, sound change rules will take some practice, and then it's just vocabulary and grammar structures.
Korean Jream is the channel name?
@@ettilasharif yes
How long are u studying Korean? Could u share your experience so far?
@@pabliciosoares903 I've been studying for about 3 years and my teachers say I'm at an intermediate level. One thing to know is that I'm an older learner and I work a full time job plus run two part time businesses... so I don't have as much time as perhaps others have. My experience has been overall good (minus one teacher). I self-study and do 1:1 lessons on iTalki and with one private teacher. Korean, for me, hasn't been particularly difficult. What has been a challenge is remembering all the different grammar forms and vocabulary. If I had learned Korean when I was a teenager, I probably would have gotten further in 3 years as I had more time and less distractions from life in general.
"then it's just vocabulary and grammar structures." LOL. Yeah, and they are confusing as hell! You make it sound simple. It isn't.
Thank you for this really nice video. As a Korean native speaker, I can say this is a great introduction.
Just one thing I would like to point out is even 'Hangul' (Korean Alphabet) was designed to be phonetic, there are too many cases that the 'real Korean' is not written as it was suppose to be pronounced. In most cases, what is written is different how to pronounce, just like most of other languages using phonetic alphabetic systems.
And, at least for a speaking, don't worry too much about that complicated ordering structures (different expressions to elder people, to younger people, to boss, to mom, to son ...) Of course you need to understand all forms if you want to be a perfect Korean listener, but at least for speaking, just learning general polite form and general plain form would be fine, and no one will blame you for your speaking less polite form where a higher polite form is needed. Even native Koreans are not perfect when it comes to the politeness level. One of the best example is '압존법' which is how to speak of someone lower than the listener but higher than you in front of higher person. For example, you are talking about your father in front of your grandfather, or your direct manager in front of your company boss. That is what it is called '압존법/Ahp jjhon bbup' and even a lot of native Koreans don't get it correctly. So don't worry too much. If you start speaking Korean even though it is not perfect at all, Korean will love it. Cheers.
Basic politness levels are ok but once it gets beyond that my brain is like "ok who are we talking to? What level do we need? I'm not sure and I'm panicking. Just be polite and play the foreigner card". And just follow the native speakers, I'm always listening and observing.
일본인들을 제외한 외국인들에게는 한글의 자모를 익히기는 쉽지만 한국어 자체는 어려울겁니다, 일본인들은 쉽게 배울 수 있어요. 일본어는 한국인들에게 쉽고요, 같은 한자어가 어휘에 공통적으로 많고 일본인들의 조상 상당수가 한반도에서 건너갔기 때문에 비슷한 점들도 많겠죠. Foreigners except Japanese people may have difficulty in learning Korean, but they can learn Korean alphabet with ease. Korean language and Japanese have common vocabulary and have the same sentence structure, relatively the same grammar, which results from the history. Most of Japanese people’s ancestors are from Korean Peninsula. They moved on to Japan Islands long time ago. This is one of reasons why two languages have common things.
+ 일제강점기로 일본식 한자어, 외래어 유입으로 인해 더욱 비슷해짐
Regarding word order: particles matter more than word order. Provided you attach the correct particles to the correct fragments of the phrase, the overall sentence order does not change the meaning of the sentence.
알고리즘이 날 이곳으로 이끌었다. 😂
Thank you for teaching. 👍
The alphabet of Korean language is really easy to learn, but its spelling is really difficult. Korean is one of the agglutinative languages and the particles(or suffixes) are treated as independent words so some spellings may change the context and pronunciations.
as a example, 밭이랑 can be separate with 밭 + 이랑, but the pronunciations of the word differ in some context. If 이랑 means 'and' or 'with', it sounds '바치랑'. Otherwise, if the word means 'furrows', it sounds '반니랑'. It makes Korean spelling so difficult, and many Koreans who have learnt their mother tongue are also challenged to communicate in the standardized spelling. And the word spacing in Korean also make the Korean much more difficult.
It is definitely hard and takes a lot of getting used to. I think compared to other languages I have learnt, Korean required the most input and exposure before I was able to produce it naturally. Even after I reached a high level on paper I still had to think a lot before I say anything (and even now that Korean is my best foreign language I still get tripped up sometimes).
Also I will disagree with the part about Korean pronunciation - it is not easy at all, once reason being that the same syllable can often change pronunciation based on syllables that come after it.
For example, the letter which represents 's' can be pronounced like 's', 't', or 'n':
옷 (spelt 'os' but pronounced 'ot')
옷이 (spelt 'os-i' and pronounced 'osh-i')
옷 입어 (spelt 'os ib-eo' but pronounced 'on ib-eo')
And the name that's written like "Ro^" is pronounced "No^"!
Why are those sound changes?
It's called consonant assimilation and it happens in a lot of languages. I guess it's just a slow evolution that makes it slightly more comfortable to pronounce. The example with 's' is quite extreme, but a more subtle example would be 악몽, which is spelt 'ag-mong' but pronounced 'ang-mong'. Even in English there's a bit of it, like in the phrase 'meet you' which many speakers would pronounce like 'meech you'
@@Ewan_Smith yeah and I'm Korean high school student, I learned it happens 'cause of the ease of the pronunciation!!!
@@Ewan_Smith yes, it is just a lazy pronounciation.
however, in Korean language, if you pronounce the words exactly as written, people will understand you fine.
I've been learning Korean for the past few years BECAUSE it is hard. I wanted a challenge and it is a challenge. Yes it has easy aspects but every language does. Korean is very hard and most people give up. I find it fun though because I'm a gamer and thrive on being challenged.
Weird flex but ok
Any language is difficult when you get deep and into literature level. Shakespeare is not easy. But just to get to comfortable communication level, it takes most foreigners 3-6 months to learn Korean. You watch these foreign RUclipsrs in Korea who speaks pretty good Korean and says they only learned it 3 months. Having only one way to pronounce written words is why Korean is easier than most. In English for example, you have to memorize how to spell, AND pronounce for EACH word. On top of it, you also have to memorize where to put the accent. If you put accent on M in MacDonalds. Nobody understands you.
As a Korean, I believe the writing system and the alphabet is undoubtedly the easiest language in the world, but the grammar, sentence structures and how people speak is a lot harder than you think.
I guess K-pop is an excellent resource for picking up Korean but referencing BTS’s, admittedly, extremely catchy “Dynamite” 12:22 - which is _entirely in English_ - seems like some unintentionally ironic joke.
good luck, from Korea
Placeholder 'ㅇ' is very interesting. When I first see a word '인민', I thought it was read like 'ngin min'. But I have never heard a Korean speak with a syllable that starts with ng. And now I finally got it. 😁
That FLT language difficulty table has always bothered me. How can they put Norwegian, Swedish and Danish at the same level of difficulty as Romanian, Spanish and Italian? That's odd. You don't have to learn imperfect subjunctives in the Nordic languages as you do for Spanish and Italian. Romanian has three genders and a case system like German. I just don't agree with it.
Understanding Korean grammar first would make learning Korean easier. In Korean grammar, there are functional parts that define the word class in every sentence. This makes it easier for learners to understand the meaning of the sentence compared to other languages. For example, in English, one part of speech can be used in many different ways, and verbs can be transitive or intransitive. Therefore, if learners do not understand the meaning and nature of the word or the sentence structure according to the word order, it can be difficult to understand the meaning of the sentence.
However, in Korean, even if learners do not know the meaning and nature of the word, they can easily recognize the word class thanks to the role of the case particles attached to the word, and quickly identify which part is the subject or predicate.
However, there have not been many good textbooks for learning Korean so far. Therefore, many foreigners misunderstand that learning Korean is difficult.
This topic is interesting.
As a korean, learing korean letter(hanguel) is super easy when you read and write, because it has only one sound on one word. Korean grammar, however, especially formal expression, has a lot of version, so hard to memorize i think.
But if you think of your language, you must be hard to know all the grammatical things. If you are not asian, then its more difficult to understand and pronounce exactly.
As many comments, it depends on how much time you spend on studying on the language!
한글만큼 쉬운 글자가 없음 장담함 세종대왕은 진짜 천재임 근데 한국어는 극악임ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 발음부터 어법까지 외국인에겐 쉬운 게 하나없음 나도 외국인 친구한테 문법 설명하려다가 식겁함 너네 이런걸 배우는거야...? 하면서ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 한국어 배우는 모든 외국인들 응원하고 진짜 너무너무 대단함.....
로마자나 한글이나 난이도는 비슷함 단지 영어가 로마자를 어렵게 쓰고 있을뿐 스페인어, 이탈리어 등 보면 소리나는대로 쓰는 경우가 많음 한글이 특출나게 쉬운 건 아님
the hardest thing I find in Korean learning is word order OMG especially for long sentences, maybe because I am at a beginner level still, but I could be reading the sentence and know the meaning of all the words within that sentence, and I still wouldn't know what message it is exactly trying to convey. The sentence order is so different, like for short sentences I get used to it, but for stories and such, it is SO hard TT especially when all other languages I know follow similar sentence structures.
If you think beginning word order is difficult, you're going to have a hell of a lot of trouble down the road. Korean beginner level word order is actually very elementary, and very simplistic - much easier than beginner English word order with it's various verb agreements and plural elements. Word order gets massively more complex after beginner, lol!! And there's a lot of stuff that is more difficult in Korean than word order...
@@fransmith3255 oh yeah the problem is that I understand simple ones, those are easy but sometimes I read really long sentences and that's screws me up
영어는 이런 거 안 되잖아
영어는 안 되잖아 이런 거
이런 거 영어는 안 되잖아
이런 거 안 되잖아 영어는
안 되잖아 이런 거 영어는
안 되잖아 영어는 이런 거
@@elee9056 ㅋㅋㅋ. 영어 word order is very difficult indeed. 한국 is very difficult in many ways, but 영어 word order in particular, I think is very, very difficult to understand. I teach English in Korea. I can speak beginner sentences quite successfully, but getting my kids to do the same in English is very difficult. They don't know how to start sentences unless it's exactly the same as a sentence they have been specifically taught. And that's even after I teach them a LOT of of verb agreement stuff beyond the curriculum.
This is exactly what i experience when learning english as a korean.
재미있게 잘보고 갑니다
As a Korean, I confirm this lecture is awesome.
My experience with korean is that the alphabet is quite easy to get used to.
The pronunciation is a bit harder, but the fact that you don't have to worry about tones (like in Chinese) makes it quite a bit easier. The sentence structure of having the verb at the end is just something you get used to fairly quickly. Ofcourse, longer sentences get more tricky, but I personally try to avoid long sentences in any language. They just make things harder to understand.
My BIGGEST problems with korean is politeness levels and particles. The fact that you have to choose an ending to "house" to tell if you are going towards it or from it takes a lot of time to learn. I also think some words are very long (thanks in part to all the particles), particularly the verbs at the end can be real tongue twisters sometimes.
The biggest advantage of learning korean is the vast amount of easily accessible korean, through dramas, music and more. And there are SO many language teachers online.
My personal summary of the difficulties of some popular asian languages:
1. Korean: Easy alphabet, hard grammar, unfamiliar sentence structure. Honorifics can be tricky.
2. Chinese: Hard alphabet, easy grammar, familiar sentence structure. Honorifics not a big issue. TONES.
3. Japanese: Hard everything: Three simultaneous alphabets, honorifics, particles... the works. Sentence structure similar to korean as far as I can see.
That said, I am a firm believer that anyone can learn anything as long as they have the motivation and keep at it.
I've taught an American friend how to read Korean in several hours. Once you learn the alphabets you can learn to read right away. You won't know what it means, but you can read.
이앳 유 알 댐 라잍
@@ahmadmuhdi190 댐 롸잇 브로
화이팅!!
네. 6살 우리 아들은 한국 유치원에서 일주일만에 완전히 배워서 놀랐어요! 한글은 정말 쉽습니다
도전 되는 언어이에요 ㅎㅎㅎㅎ 진짜 어렵다!
힘내세요. 모든 언어가 그렇듯, 아주 잘하려면 정말 어렵지만, 시작은 어렵지 않습니다. 지금 한것처럼 계속 하면 돼요. 화이팅.
Cheer up. It would be hard if you aim really high level just like any other languages, not really hard for starting. Keep going just like what you did now. Wish your best!
맞아요 어렵지만 포기하지않길 바래요^^
I have been casually learning korean for almost a year (aka at a relaxed pace and just a little every day) and honestly there are days when everything in korean makes sense... until it doesn't. Those are the days where i question my sanity and ability to ever actually learn it to a sufficient level, hahahaa. Ah well, it is still fun, if of a bit an insane kind xD Love the language tho, it is very familiar to me by now (sounds, words) through near daily (kdrama) exposure. However, I disagree about the part of the pronunciation being easy. Depending on the word the string of sounds not only breaks my tongue every time but can also be pronounced very differently than it is written. As with all in korean the general rule is "it depends" (on context and what letter follows next) but it ain't simple AT ALL.
Also i picked up spanish on the side and it feels like language learning vacation regarding its learning difficulty and curve in comparison. It is soooo easy to pick up for me where all of it takes extra effort in korean. I have to remind myself to write out the genders/pronouns and articles tho, as i don't need that in korean and thus i keep forgetting lol
Relate to all of this so much. I'm close to 2 years in and just starting to get to an intermediate level..... Have had to remind myself many times that this will be a long road, and to accept the ebbs and flows in feeling like "I'm getting it". Hope you continue to enjoy the slow-burn payoff as it comes! 정말 잘하고 있어요! 화이팅!
I absolutely agree with the final verdict. I've got around 300hrs into Korean, and can JUST BARELY make short sentences to get me through a conversation. The worst part of it is learning the vocab and the particles. Then hearing the conjugations on the fly is another issue since there are sound change rules and words that sound very similar due to different forms of consonants. I'm not giving up though, and I can pick out words I know when listening to conversations in videos every now and again.
the most difficult part of pronunciation is how the final consonant jump to the next word that has a "Ieu Ng" in it. For eg it can be hell saying the dates 12th December.
thanks a lot for such an amazing video actually i have been learning korean for 5 months only and I feel like I started to understand a lot of common phrases and I managed to memorize a lot of words I really wanna come to South Korea!
행운을 빌게요
I think you should do a video on Thai if you haven't already
Korean writing is Tetris
좋은 비유
왠지 그렇게 보일거 같았음 ㅎㅎ 블록 같이 생기긴 했죠.
i dont know if you have made a finnish video but i would love it if you do or if you have done
I criticized your previous video for the blatant reading ad that was beyond annoying, and wanted to tell you that I like this style much better. Little reminders throughout the video are awesome and i don't feel like you're shoving it down my throat. I am starting to learn korean this month, maybe I'll check out your stories for it! Great work, love the channel!
I feel like you forgot to mention the hardest part of Korean language which is vocabulary - grammar can be pretty difficult to, but it is just a question of practice. Korean is the language with a dictionary that has over 1 million terms, and the number of words to memorize is the hardest thing in Korean, especially when you reach advanced level. I have been doing technical translations for over a year, and a word in English (for example: fall or material) has at least 5 options in Korean (떨어지다, 낙하하다, 추락하다... 자재, 물질 etc)
분노, 화
Fury, Anger, Rage, Wrath
I'm curious about as a Korean is, why does one word mean so many things in English? ex) get, take , have, make....a phrasal verb are also hard to understand. Why combine words to confuse learners?
영어도 똑같지 않나요?
떨어지다, 낙하하다, 추락하다... == fall, down, collapse...
@@dloxmw241 더하자면 fall만 해도 decline, drop, decrease, lessen, lower, reduce, plunge, diminish... 등등 한 열댓게는 되죵. 그런점에선 Sandra분의 comment는 본인이 한국어에 수준 높으신분이란걸 알것같네요.
Just the same for other languages as well
Interview non polyglots actually learning a language from beginning to end.... Show their progress following your course or just your books (i used 2 of yours for Spanish but more harry Potter books)...or Italki... But show regular people making it work
Good lesson! 👍
Olly, Korean should be easy to learn for you since you already know Cantonese and Japanese 😺
한국어에 관심있는 사람들에게 굉장히 유익한 영상입니다!
피어나
It is quite fun to watch How to learn Korean as Korean ㅎㅎ
한국어를 배우는 가장 쉬운방법은 한국인친구를 만드는것
한국인은 외국인에게 호의적이라서 한국인친구를 만드는것도 어렵지않다
İn the future, I want to learn Korean. İt is very different language
As a korean, learning Korean would be really beneficial as most of the langauges out there share the same SOV word order, especially if you want to learn japanese later on cause korean and japanese are literally the same language with different sounds and alphabets (doesn't mean that they are originated from same language family, korean being koreanic and japanese being japonic). There are so many gramatical similarities existing only in those two languages like the syllables you put at the last (~입니다 / ~네 / ~다)
Korean pronunciation is difficult bcz it has many sounds and is very flexible to separate and combine sounds. By this separating and combining, Korean language makes many compound words.
But once u accustom urself to it, it is very convenient. You could express a word very short in Korean language that should be expressed very long in any other languages
나한테는 당연한 논리들이 외국인의 입장에서 입자처럼 분석되고 있는 걸 보면, 같은 행성에 사는 인간이 맞나 생각이 들 정도로 굉장히 차이가 크고 흥미롭네요.
Really Korean can be the one of the trickiest languages..
** for example **
"모르다" (don't know). It can be said in one of its most complex forms, "몰랐겠더라도 ~~~"
And it means "I learned that you were not able to get it, and even though it was the case ,~~~"
So if we look into every part,,
1. 랐 adds "past tense"
2. 겠 adds "were not able to (talking about the capability)"
3. 더라 adds the meaning that I learned the new fact
4. 도 adds "even though"
..sorry for the mess
As a korean, there are some more English loan words that we use commonly!! For example, we say remote control as remocon / We call air conditioner as aircn etc..... It is so interesting to see non-Korean people speaking korean! I wonder how you guys think when I am speaking an English
its been a day since i started learning Korean and now I'm able to read a little bit, I've been practicing all day. i haven't memorized some consonants thoo
Learning Korean isn’t all that hard. However, mastering it, that’s where the problems kick in.
Those roots are actually Chinese origin Hanja words. “Hakseng” (student) is a cognate of the Japanese word for it “gakusei”.
As a native Turkish speaker who speaks Japanese I might be a little luckier about this.
Actually no but there are some words of different origins such as English, Japanese, Chinese, etc.
@@isal9765 韓国語の単語は半分以上が中国語由来です。調べてみればすぐわかります。
@@Takuaku867 それは日本語も一緒だけど。
@@volcanosg4562 there are some similarities with the Chinese reading though. Japanese has a similar situation. Native Japanese words are also assigned to kanji. But the “onyomi” Chinese readings are also used. I kinda see more similar readings to Cantonese than Mandarin.
Before Hangeul was created, Chinese characters were borrowed and used to write Korean. The sound of pronouncing words is completely different and has nothing to do with Chinese and Korean. However, there are many words that have similar pronunciation in Japanese that have been greatly influenced by Korean.
당연하게 생각했던 한국어가 이런 특징이. 뭔가 꼭 찝어서 잘 설명해 주셨다.
I was learning Korean and Japanese. I'd always heard Japanese was more difficult, but I had to take a step back from Korean because I just couldn't get it. Hangul and the pronunciations are so hard 😂. But I'm determined to learn it eventually
Hanja(chinese characters) is problematic but thanks to Sejong, Koreans don't have to deal with Hanja.
in these modern days, it's occasionally used(like in newspapers) to differentiate words that have similar pronunciations.
한국인 입니다. 영어를 모르지만 좋은 영상인거같네요
멋지시다!
Actually, korean is much easier for hindi and punjabi speakers! Their grammar is particularly so much similar
Like,,.. है/था or ਹੈ/ਸੀ serves the same function as 이에요/예요
The subject-verb-agreement and sentence structure in these languages are same. यह/वह or ਉਹ are same as 이/그
These 3 languages have so much similar grammar ❤ almost like 60 percent same
I'd imagine that language spoken in North Korea has a lot fewer English words...
It's true! Often times South Koreans and North Koreans have some minor troubles understanding certain vocab. words (think like the confusion an English speaker from the US and one from the UK would have). A translator was created to make defecting North Koreans' transition a bit easier when settling into South Korea. Idk how effective it is, though.
Which is good, actually. Except the reason for it, which could be good, but the whole picture isn't.
한국어 배우는 분들 참 대단합니다. 이렇게 어려운 언어를 배우시고 있다니..ㄷㄷ
Korean is a simple language. I mastered it in less than 6 months.
As a Korean, learning Hangul is easy but Korean.. hard..
재밌네여
Are you planning to do uncovered courses for Hebrew and Greek?
Thanks
Olly Richards가 드디어 한국어에 대한 비디오를 만들었군요 ^^
외국인에게 한국어는 초기 접근은 쉽지만 표현의 다채로움 때문에 배우면 배울수록 어려워지죠. 아무튼 요즘 많은 외국인들이 한국어 학습에 관심을 갖는 것 같아 흐뭇합니다.