Which language to learn first Korean or Chinese

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:00 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If I were in your position, I'd learn Chinese first because I think that's really really difficult language to learn, I'm not implying that Korean wouldn't be hard. It also depends on your major, if you were a business major, learning Chinese first would be the best because China's economy is rising. it will be a matter of time until they surpass the US. Just my opinion.

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:29 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I think i will need to read more newspaper in future Smile

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Anyway i will ask my father-in-law to help me (he is good Chinese writer Big Smile

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Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:35 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:40 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I know one guy who learn

Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Korean Suprise

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Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:32 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:42 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

All I can say is good luck as Chinese Mandarin is hard and I speak Cantonese! I think Korean is easier to learn as they have less syllables and consonants. Its seems when I watch Korean films or dramas I pick up words allot easier than Mandarin ones.

The 2 languages are totally unrelated so learning one will not help you with the other unlike knowing Mandarin and Cantonese which is a dialect rather than language.

Korean is easier in my opinion, but I think learning Mandarin will be allot more useful in the future.

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:02 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

very true. It is harder to find Cantonese classes. If you get the chance, learn Canto Smile

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:05 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I think you should learn Korean first Smile

im learning it right now and its a lot of fun, mostly becuz i speak japanese, so the grammar makes more sense... but anyway you should not just learn korean first becuz its more fun. most importantly: the whole world is learning or wants to learn mandarin. so in a few years time a lot of people speak mandarin. so it would not be more special than say: French or German. So start with Korean and then move on to Mandarin, cuz im not saying learning mandarin isnt important.

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:39 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

You word that question like it wouldn't take a lifetime to learn just one of them... Depending on your age and your native language, learning Chinese or Korean can take a very long time. If you don't have an immediate need or immediate environment where you can use the language expect to take 4 or 5 years before being able to function with any kind of basic fluency in any new language. Being able to ask for directions, order food and buy tickets is a big jump from being able to follow or participate in a conversation with native speakers...

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:32 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

My wife speak Chinese but in Singapore every one speaks English (a lot of Chinese kids even don't know how to speak Chinese Suprise

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I am going to join University for Chinese learning and can practice with my wife and my father-in-law Smile

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I will learn Korean as well, may be some time in future i will share my experience here Cool

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Pertaining to my age, i am aware it is big difficult to learn language when one get older i am in my late 20's but still not that old that i will take very long to learn a language (aja aja fighting) Smile

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Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:19 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

i think it is easier to learn korean first, but then i think it would be better if u learn chinese first since it is spoken by a huge number of people on this planet

Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:29 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I am currently studying at a university in Japan. One of the Korean students also studying here was trying to encourage me to learn Korean... despite having told me numerous times that the pronunciation was extremely difficult for foriegners to learn. She tested me on some pronunciation and I just couldnt get it right. I seriously couldnt tell what I was doing wrong, as far as I was able to tell I was copying her tones as well as I possibly could, but she told me it was totally wrong.

Despite the fact that just learning Japanese to a level at which I can finally feel some kind of satisfaction at my progress will probably by itself take quite a number of years, I still would not mind learning another language later. Definitely Korean or Mandarin. After reading the comments on this post I am somewhat leaning towards Korean.. even though it would probably be insanely hard for me, the similar grammar to Japanese should make things easier.

I just cant believe the university I was attending in Australia actually cancelled the Chinese course altogether... that makes no sense to me at all. Surely there cannot be a shortage of applicants..