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Should I learn Korean, or Japanese?

So I decided that I want to learn an Asian language. I already am fluent in English (my native language), French, ASL, and I'm conversational in Spanish and Portuguese.

My best friend is Korean, and I really got hooked on learning Korean. The only problem was that I didn't have a lot of the resources I had for things like French and Spanish (Easily available music [I hate Kpop] or DVD audio tracks), and I can only say I've found two consistently good resources.

I really got into Japanese recently, mostly through video games and film. I like the look of it better than Korean, and the sound. But there's so much to learn. I have a teacher and personal friend who's been studying it for probably twenty years now, and he still has to work on it regularly. He lived in Japan, and his wife is a Japanese immigrant.

Here's basically why I'm on the fence;

Korean is FAR easier to pronounce. There's also a pretty solid Korean community in my area. My best friend is Korean, which gives me some practise ability.But resources are slim, and most free resources are low quality (I'm a high school student with no job). There aren't many ways I can practise listening, aside from music (Only ever found one Kdrama I liked). Hangeul (Korean alphabet) took about three days to learn, and I can read it with basic fluency, even without knowing what words mean. The only hanja (Chinese characters) I've ever seen were to distinguish between north and south, and most Koreans I've talked to don't know or use them. Pronunciation, on the other hand, is less facile. My friends still correct me often on pronunciations that I just now can sometimes hear the nuances in.

Japanese has A LOT of resources, A LOT of free help, and A LOT of ways to practise (TV, film, video game, books). However, with 92+ kana characters, not including the plentiful kanji,result in over 2100 characters needed to reach fluency. Korean totals to about fifty or so. But pronunciation is far easier, and very uniform, whereas Korean is not. Japanese music is in the same boat as Korea: no pop, and other stuff is hard to find, but films are plentiful and generally very good. TV and anime are watchable, and easy to encounter. Video games tend to be great, but hard to find in America. I plan to study in Hawaii, where Japan has had some major influence.

So which do you think I should choose? I do plan to learn both eventually, but I just feel like there's not enough to do Korean on one's own yet. Contrariwise, Japanese is so extensive, and I want to study other languages too! Which one!

Thanks for your help,

2 Answers

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  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Who says you can't do both? You can try and do Korean first because out of all the Asian languages I've heard it's the easiest. I think you should go for Korean first.

    And well done on all the languages you've learnt so far that's amazing!

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    Japanesse but it will take time and patience, if you want to learn it fast try Korean GOOD LUCK :D

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