International Living, Marriage & Travel

Which language is harder to learn, Chinese, Japanese or Korean? All of them seem to be similar to me. I'm just curious as to how difficult each is to learn.

I think there are different difficulties in learning these three languages. Among these three languages, I think Chinese characters are the most difficult to write as there are many different characters and with different pronunciations. I am not sure about Korean characters, but they are different from Chinese characters now. I am a Chinese and have been learning and using Chinese since I was young, but there are still lots of Chinese words I might not know how to write or pronounce. Many of my Chinese friends told me that Chinese is really difficult to learn, as compared to English. As for Japanese, I have heard that it might be easier for those who know Chinese characters. I am not familiar with Korean language, but I suppose Chinese might be the harder language to learn among these three languages.

From my experience with reading and learning other languages, it's definitely all Asians languages that seems to be very difficult in my opinion to master well.

It's not like other countries languages that doesn't really prove too difficult to learn but Asian language is very hard to me.

One of the Caucasian mountain languages for sure, for example Ossetian has a backward translation of a phrase. For example "To the park yesterday we have gone"

To me, all of them are extremely hard to learn. I put them in the same difficulty category as learning Russian. Any foreign language...especially these, takes a lot of dedication and commitment to learn. When trying to learn a new language, I think that you should first sit down and develop a successful learning plan to follow.

I worked in a Japanese software house so I'd say Japanese is not that hard. My little orientation with Chinese snapped my patience because it is not just the pronunciation that matters but also the intonation. Korean is easier, I guess, although the words are also tongue twisters. By the way, I am going to Tokyo on Thursday (March 28) and I have to practice my Nihonggo again so I can at least converse informally with the people there.

Alexandoy wrote:I worked in a Japanese software house so I'd say Japanese is not that hard. My little orientation with Chinese snapped my patience because it is not just the pronunciation that matters but also the intonation. Korean is easier, I guess, although the words are also tongue twisters. By the way, I am going to Tokyo on Thursday (March 28) and I have to practice my Nihonggo again so I can at least converse informally with the people there.

Seriously, if it's not a job with big paycheck, I doubt if I would easily give into punishing myself with trying to learn Chinese language. Korean language is a bit easier for me because I'm more familiar with Korean culture than any other Asian countries.