What Should I Study – Japanese Or Korean?
These days, both Japanese and the Korean languages are popular foreign languages to study. Japanese language has been popular for many years, especially with the rise of popularity of Japanese culture including Japanese food, manga and fashion. Interest in Korea has also increased, helped by its economic rise in the last decades. More and more foreigners are spending time in Korea, both for business purposes and for learning about Korea and the Korean language.
Japan was once the most popular country to go to teach English. As well as teaching English, the teacher would also learn the local language, and come back to their home country with a useful foreign language skill. These days however, although Japan is still popular, it is now joined by China and Korea as competing destinations for those looking for an adventure abroad and to learn a useful language for the future. If you are thinking of going to Japan, Korea or China, among the considerations ought to be if you will be able to learn the language in the time you have there. The most popular period to stay in one of these countries is one year, often a school year. If you are not able to speak, read and write the language after spending the time there, you may be disappointed and think you have wasted your time.
In case you are considering Japan and Korea as possible destinations for your trip, here are some pointers about the written language that may help you decide. After all, if you cannot read the language, it makes life much more difficult. Imagine your everyday life when you are unable to read a newspaper, directions, signs and have to rely on others constantly for help.
Japanese and Korean are actually quite similar. It makes sense as they are both located close to China and both languages are derived somewhat from the Chinese language. For the most part, Korean is an easier language to learn than Japanese. It is easier in both grammar and honorific structure which can get quite difficult in Japanese. The biggest different though in both languages is that Korean has one writing system, whereas Japanese has three.
The writing systems in Japanese are called Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. The reason it is so difficult to learn Japanese is that you must be able to read using the three writing systems to be able to understand a sentence.In Japanese, sentences use the three different writing systems as they are each used for different purposes. Katakana is used for foreign words, words that have been adapted from other languages as they did not exist in the Japanese language. Kanji are characters which have been adapted from China and have a meaning of by themselves . and represent a thing or concept. Lastly there is hiragana that is used to complete sentences and for grammatical purposes. The best way to learn Hiragana is to get a Hiragana Chart.
Related posts:
- Japanese Writing Systems – Kanji, Katakana And Hiragana
- Study Hiragana Fast With A Chart
- A Brief On Japanese Language
- A Preface To Japanese Learning
- Ways In Improving Your Japanese Pronunciation Skill
Tags: Hiragana, hiragana chart, japanese language, learn Japanese