EPTJapanese or Korean? - Page 2
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oneill
Philippines278 Posts
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Phrogs!
Japan521 Posts
I'll tell you that for Japanese, the phonetic writing systems in japanese, hiragana and katakana, are easy and the pronouciation is easy. Grammer is logical and really quite easy to learn. I'm not going to say "Kanji are easy", but they certainly aren't as hard as they look. There's some logic in the fact that certain componants appear again and again in kanji with similar meaning. (for example notice 言 reoccuring as parts of 語 and 話 among others) The hangul writing system is logical and very easy to learn but that's all the input I can really give as to Korean. I will say that a huge part of language learning is not just learning vocab and rules but to read and listen to native speakers day in day out and learn to use the language like a native does along with slang and what words to use in what situation to sound natural and not like a robot foreigner. Considering this, in Korean there is a wealth of resources that you would have a genuine interest in and want to learn: every starcraft vod and article ever. I don't know how much you know about each language or language learning in general so all of my post may not be useful, however I hope you can gain something from what I've written. edit: On April 21 2009 18:47 Quint wrote: I have been told off by some Japanese students, as they claim that two/three years is too little time to learn more than the basics. To say that is simply incorrect. People need to think in "hours" not "years". Consider people who are taught a language in organised education like in a college. Have they really been studying three years? Do they have a Japanese class every day? How much work do they do out of the class? When I hardcore self-studied Japanese, I tried to make every "day" I learned the language truely a day. I felt like discussing chess, well damn well take the English sites off my bookmarks and go learn how the Japanese talk about chess on their forums.. want to watch tv or listen to the radio.. go fucking do it in Japanese on the internet, etc etc, do everything in Japanese. This is why people learn Japanese for "three years" in the classroom, showing very little initiative and effort outside of the classroom, go to Japan and fuckdamn they can't understand "more than the basics". | ||
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BlackJack
United States10574 Posts
On April 21 2009 21:27 Chill wrote: I don't understand the situation. Don't people usually get fluent at a language and then become interpretters? What situation has occured to make you a "professional interpreter in two to three years" ? naiveté lol | ||
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haduken
Australia8267 Posts
Australia have strict and very difficult qualification for interpreting. My friend came from China, she went to a foreign boarding school in China, majored in english literature for university then came here and i can tell you this, her language skills is beyond this world, she speaks everything clearly and is definately a better english speaker than me (who spend 10 years here). Guess what? she failed the interpreting accreditation exam 3 times. Good interpreters are extremely rare to come by. You are not only a language specialist, you have to know the 2 or more languages inside and out, you have to have deep understanding of linguistic. You have to have the wit and thinking to react fast under pressure. 2/3 years to become one is beyond what i would think a normal university level education. You must be studying hardcore or be extremely motivated. But if you become one, the money will flow to you lol | ||
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da_head
Canada3350 Posts
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Cambium
United States16368 Posts
Japanese is much harder to learn (unless you are Chinese) since Westerners typically have a lot of trouble with Kanji. When I was in Tokyo, a lot of people spoke Japanese find, but could not read anything for beans. | ||
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Quint
467 Posts
I am a language correspondent for English and French, which is basically the "light" version of an interpreter in Germany - I learned, how to translate both languages written as well as spoken, but I was not trained in the higher level techniques (like simultaneous interpreting) nor am I being recognized as a "real" translator/interpreter by the state (which is important if you want to work in the court for example). After my job training I freelanced a bit and then realized, that the competition for European languages is really, really big. Even with the combination of German, English, French and Spanish (what I initially wanted to do) you will have a very hard time to even find a job. That is why I went back to school so I could now go to uni and become a "real" interpreter recognized by the state. It usually takes three years, though due to my previous knowledge I may only have to take two years (that is why I wrote "two to three years"). In order to differentiate myself a bit from the mass of English/Spanish interpreters, I need a more exotic language to beef up my credentials - which means, learning either Russian, Chinese, Japanese or Korean. Since I have no connection to Russian nor Chinese (the latter supposedly even more challenging than Japanese), I am now either going for Japanese or Korean. As already said in here, the competition for Korean would be far less and it also seems a bit easier to me than Japanese. On the other side, who knows what will happen in the next few years? I would love to hear your experiences with both of the languages, so keep them coming. | ||
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konadora
Singapore66364 Posts
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Zurles
United Kingdom1659 Posts
On April 21 2009 19:13 Jibba wrote: My father got a degree in Japanese, translated for car companies for a while and then got his MBA, and I'm fairly certain he'd recommend Korean over Japanese at this point, because of the directions of each country. I can ask later though. Japan's economy might be bigger now, but it's contracting and it has a decreasing, aging population whereas S. Korea is still quickly growing and it's a much younger country. what did he saaaaay! =) | ||
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Boonbag
France3318 Posts
Basically, if as a foreigner you plan to study Korea for interpretation without Chinese, you're worthless, unless you're connected on a very high level in your country's diplomacy and plan for a national abroad career in Korea. Don't let the answers in this thread fool you. Korean would be a very stupid choice. Someone who is very wrong said Korean seems like an easier thing. As far as language's technical is concerned yes, as far as interpretating goes, no, as Korean interpretation schools are fucking nuts. You have to note also, that most of the Asian interpretators have a perfect english (for ppl unaware, a interpretator isn't your local tourist guide, its a highly graduated professional earning very large sums of money), aka they will be on par with you for english, but blow you out of the water at anything coming any close to Asian main languages. Also, you have to know that as far as interpretating goes for mid range / class abroad business trips/ operations around Asia goes, females will always be picked over males. Especially in China/Korea. Alas Korean foreign investments are tons smaller than Japan culture / economics, aka you'll end up getting less/no work as a Korean interpretator. I could go on for a long time, just so you know, I have two very close Korean girl friends that graduated a few years ago their interpretation degrees and that I had to help on various levels for their trips in Europe. I know everything there is to know about this field, you can actually PM me to know more. DONT PICK KOREAN FCS. Japanese all the fucking way. NVM, pick russian then. | ||
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snowbird
Germany2044 Posts
Even though I am half Korean I pretty much had to learn Korean from scratch, so my previous knowledge of both languages before I started learning was about the same (close to zero). My Korean is quite good by now, my Japanese totally sucks, so I can only compare my experiences from the beginner to intermediate level. Please note that I put much more effort in Korean, so my skill difference is not a result of one language being more difficult than the other. Japanese is incredibly easy in the beginning. Pronounciation is among the easiest in the world, especially for Germans (except for the R/L). Hiragana/Katakana are not really hard to learn and there are almost no special pronounciation rules, so you can read a text that is purely written in Hiragana/Katakana (no Kanji) in no time. It was also easy to learn and memorize new words, since Japanese words are usually longer than Korean words, hence more distinguishable. The Korean writing system 'Hangul' is also really easy to learn and also strikes you as far more logical and effective than the Japanese systems. The bad news is that pronounciation is a real bitch and there are like 100000 special rules for different pronounciation when this consonant meets that other consonant etc. And sometimes there aren't even rules, sometimes there are just single exceptions for no rational reason. As words are short and correct pronounciation is very important, listening comprehension and speaking are pretty difficult in the beginning compared to Japanese. Also Korean verbs change a lot when conjugating, making them sound totally different than the original verb stem, so for a beginner it can be very hard to even recognize the correct verb when listening. That problem exists in Japanese too, but to a lesser extent in my opinion. I also found it much harder to memorize the words. All those 1 syllable verbs come to mind. Grammar wise both languages are similar and since I have never reached advanced stages in Japanese, there's nothing more I can say about that. Both languages have very easy grammar up to intermediate level. I'd give the edge to Japanese though, Korean seems to have more exceptions. Up til now everything seems to look in favor for Japanese. But here's the bummer. I hate Kanji with all my heart. Words cannot describe how much I despise that Kanji bullshit. The only good thing about Kanji is that they can help you when reading. Sometimes you can guess/know the meaning of a word without knowing the word itself or its pronounciation, just because of the Kanji. In the beginning it's all easy and fun and you learn a few Kanji and are proud that you can write cool symbols. But over time you just have to memorize a ridiculous amount of Kanji and that's just pure hard work. Without knowledge of Kanji you're not gonna get anywhere in Japan. It's so hard to motivate yourself to learn that shit, especially for words you may never even use in your life. And it's not enough to learn them once, because you will forget them again after approximately 2 weeks. So if you're seriously thinking about learning Japanese, get ready to study Kanji 1 hour a day. Kanji are also the reason why I lost interest in Japanese, I just didn't want to put in so much effort for a language I don't even have any use for. In conclusion I'd say that if it weren't for Kanji, Japanese would be the easier language to learn by a HUGE margin (beginner to intermediate level that is). Including Kanji, it's difficult to say. It really depends on your motivation to learn the language and your ability to memorize that shit. My gut feeling tells me, that Korean is the harder language overall, also at advanced levels, but that's pure speculation. Because once you reach a certain stage with Kanji, they can help you a lot when you're confronted with a new text. In Korean you also have all the Chinese-derived nouns, but no Kanji to help identify them. Also sometimes I'm amazed at myself how much I can understand when watching Japanese movies, even though my Japanese sucks so bad. For Korean it took me a lot longer to understand stuff, because words are so short and the pronounciation is less clear. Anyway, that's all just my personal opinion, hope it helps. | ||
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ghostWriter
United States3302 Posts
On April 22 2009 00:50 Cambium wrote: The Japanese economy is the world's second largest. Case closed? I thought that it's third, behind China and the United States but the point still remains "Korea is pretty self-explanatory since I have been playing Starcraft for almost 11 years now and really liked the impressions it gave me into the Korean lifestyle." What kind of statement is this? How do you get an impression of a lifestyle of a people from a video game that has nothing to do with it? That's like saying you get a good impression of the U.S. lifestyle from playing Madden. | ||
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Raithed
China7078 Posts
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snowbird
Germany2044 Posts
Did you guys actually learn Korean and thought it's easy? | ||
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Boonbag
France3318 Posts
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Zurles
United Kingdom1659 Posts
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DreaM)XeRO
Korea (South)4667 Posts
However if you want to learn one of the two languages i would recomment korean first. With their writing system (Hangul) being significantly shorter than the japanese writing system (katakana, hiragana and kanji) It is easier to pick up korean. However, learning an asian language if you are a westerner is going to be difficult. The grammer arrangements are very different from Enlglish and other latin based languages. A strong background in Mandarin Chinese might also be benificial in learning. If you are prepared to learn one of those two languages, be prepared to study your ass off for 5+ years and still not have perfect fluent korean/japanese. I was blessed with korean parents who pushed me to learn both korean and japanese since a young age. But for those who have not had this blessing, be prepared to hit a wall. It's not that easy. | ||
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DreaM)XeRO
Korea (South)4667 Posts
On April 22 2009 03:52 Zurles wrote: maybe if north korea do something funky everyone will need korean speakers . go die please | ||
Rekrul
Korea (South)17174 Posts
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Zurles
United Kingdom1659 Posts
sorry batman | ||
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