[Guide] How to Read Korean - Page 6

On June 21 2009 11:51 2b-Rigtheous wrote:
Awesome guide. Although the subtleties in pronunciation make Korean one of the hardest languages to learn. If you mess up the pronunciation even slightly, no one understands what you're saying.

On June 21 2009 22:01 nataziel wrote:
Korean is very easy, at least compared to japanese, which I've studied for over 5 years (in HS, so not that high a level, but am currently studying it a uni). I've done one semester of korean and I can already hold a conversation, it's great. word order is so loose compared to japanese, particle usage is a lot easier (imo) grammar forms are easy to manipulate... Awesome language if you ever want to pick up another one.

On June 21 2009 21:20 alffla wrote:
hahaha bbak

edit: i just listened to the mp3 whatisprotoss is right, 박 should be more like 'pak' right?

On June 21 2009 21:53 2b-Rigtheous wrote:
Rekrul, maybe for you, but not for most of us unfortunately. Not that it should dissuade your studies, but Korean is far from one of the easiest languages to learn. I disagree agree that the grammar is easy. It's confusing for an English speaker to learn subject markers and object markers The grammar is also back to front, which increases the difficulty further. Also, Korean has so many particles and endings that it can easily confuse the listener.Then you have to learn 반말 and 존댓말. (2 politeness levels). It's definitely a great language to learn, but a challenge to be sure. Anyone can get the basics, that's a piece of cake, but attaining real fluency, well that takes time. Good luck fellas.

On June 21 2009 23:51 2b-Rigtheous wrote:
I strongly disagree that within a few months you can obtain fluency. It's one thing to be able to read (which will only take you a few hours), it's another thing to be fluent. Fluency isn't basic stuff like, where's this? how much is that? How are you today? etc. That stuff is nothing. If someone can answer a difficult question such as: "why do you or don't you believe in God?" Then that's fluency. I highly doubt an English speaker studying Korean for only a few months can get anywhere close to fluency. A few years maybe. Japanese and Korean are very similar, so a Japanese speaker can probably achieve fluency in Korean within a year. Not so for English speakers though. .

I personally think people brag about being fluent, but they're nowhere near it. I've seen this many times with foreigners over here. They've claimed they're fluent and my Korean girlfriend is like, "what he said makes absolutely no sense at all..." Not to put people off learning Korean, fluency is definitely attainable, you just got to put in the work and the time. Don't expect to be fluent in 3 months, that's misleading.

On June 21 2009 21:53 2b-Rigtheous wrote:
Rekrul, maybe for you, but not for most of us unfortunately. Not that it should dissuade your studies, but Korean is far from one of the easiest languages to learn. I disagree agree that the grammar is easy. It's confusing for an English speaker to learn subject markers and object markers The grammar is also back to front, which increases the difficulty further. Also, Korean has so many particles and endings that it can easily confuse the listener.Then you have to learn 반말 and 존댓말. (2 politeness levels). It's definitely a great language to learn, but a challenge to be sure. Anyone can get the basics, that's a piece of cake, but attaining real fluency, well that takes time. Good luck fellas.

On June 22 2009 21:55 Rekrul wrote:


no dude...yeah you can say all that...but you can say all that and then some for other languages

korean is easy to learn

it's not as easy to learn as riding a bike, but it's easier to learn than other languages (still hard obviously)