Korean vs Japanese - Korean Taking Over?

KoreanDog   Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:59 pm GMT
Is Korean set to overtake Japanese as the language of choice after Mandarin in Asia in the next decade given the boom Korea is undergoing and the stagnation of Japan? Also, given Korea's exportation of popular media, tourism boom, and potential re-unification?

Goldman Sachs predicts that Korea could pass Japan in GDP/Capita in the next 40 years, and that a combined N/S Korea could actually pass most of the current G7 countries in total GDP (including Japan, Germany, France, etc) by 2050.

Is Korean considered on par with japanese now in terms of usefulness?

Which one would you consider learning and why?
GuestUser   Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:08 pm GMT
Reunification is what will kill South Korea, and the instability caused because of this potential is what will ultimately prevent South Korea from achieving domiance over Japan.

South Korea is developing a good general economy, but they have a long way to go before they will suppass Japan in specialist technology that quite frankly only Japan can do.
DOG   Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:18 am GMT
Hardly. The Goldman projection has S. Korea's + N. Korea GDP above Japan by 2050.

Anyway, whether unification happens or not, what do you think about the original question regarding Japanese. Is Korean going to be just as valuable and as interesting to lean as Japanese given Korea's development in all things cultural and economic? Is Korea are more exciting culture and does it have more beautiful and interesting cities as Japan?

b
South Korean   Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:18 am GMT
Chinese≒Japanese>Korean.
South Korean   Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:30 am GMT
It depends whether you like Korea or not. If you like Koreans, learning Korean will make that feeling mutual. Especially more so, because it's harder to get by in Korea with using English than in Western countries, and also because they are very proud of their culture and wants you to indulge in it, as long as you are in Korea. It is a very homogeneous culture.

If we were to examine which language would be more useful in business, for example, the answer would be Japanese for sure,for Japan has much bigger population and economy.
Just me   Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:57 am GMT
I think that both languages are only useful if you have any kind of relationship with Korea or Japan. The Goldman Sachs you stated clearly says that a united Korean economy COULD surpass that of Germany and Japan IF the appropiate policies are followed. Still, from what we have seen in the recent years 20 years is too far in time to predict what will really happen, so although I think Korea will be in a good economic situation by then, we can't really tell, can't we?? .

Back to the main topic, the problem with learning different languages for business purposes is that ALL languages are less useful than english and you will find it difficult to find a company only interested in doing business with Korea or Japan or any other country, so instead of hiring someone who speaks japanese,e korean, mandarin and vietnamese you will hire somenoe who speaks english. Still as I stated before, there are going to be specific cases where Korean will be more useful than english but that should be judged on a specific basis.

Just think about it, although everyone agrees that China will be the superpower of the future the number of Chinese students has not increased at the same rate as its economy...
GuestUser   Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:18 pm GMT
<<Just think about it, although everyone agrees that China will be the superpower of the future the number of Chinese students has not increased at the same rate as its economy... >>

I think this is mainly because people do not want to accept China will be the super-power. Many people, particularly Europeans have this unconditional love and respect for America, they dread Chinese masters and love their American masters. Europeans, particularly the British are only too quick to put their troops on the line for American interests and it seems the troops love greatly dying for Americans.

There is a lot of hatred towards China and this is why the study of Chinese is not increasing - but it will in time when the language becomes more and more of a neccessity.
the West   Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:13 am GMT
<<There is a lot of hatred towards China and this is why the study of Chinese is not increasing - but it will in time when the language becomes more and more of a neccessity. >>


But if it becomes a necessity it'll be over our dead body. So we'll either be not learning Chinese, or stacked in mass graves. Either way, we won't be learning Chinese.
ming wa   Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:17 pm GMT
Korean is an interesting language. To be honest, it sounds much more like a Cantonese variant mixed with Japanese rythmic patterns.
ming wa   Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:51 pm GMT
Korean is an interesting language. To be honest, it sounds much more like a Cantonese variant mixed with Japanese rythmic patterns.
Xie   Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:05 am GMT
>>Just think about it, although everyone agrees that China will be the superpower of the future the number of Chinese students has not increased at the same rate as its economy... <<

At large, China's rapid development has only increased the number of Chinese students abroad, not foreigners learning Chinese. I don't care whether foreigners will learn Chinese. Chinese students are very self-conscious and they will grab whichever opportunity possible to study abroad, settle abroad, start investing, etc. If that should be brain drain, let it be, as always. The more students leave China, the more students (though the percentage is very low) will eventually return and contribute to China.

This is very realistic and many Asian people can feel exactly why so many Chinese students are leaving their country.
GuestUser   Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:49 am GMT
<<But if it becomes a necessity it'll be over our dead body. So we'll either be not learning Chinese, or stacked in mass graves. Either way, we won't be learning Chinese. >>

Ignorant red-necks like you probably don't have the mental capacity to learn it, so its little loss.
GuestUser   Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:51 am GMT
The west seems to have done a very successful job at getting all non-Westerners to feel inferior to the likes of the US and UK in particular, when the UK at least is pretty insignificant.
KoreanDong   Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:28 pm GMT
<<Is Korean set to overtake Japanese as the language of choice after Mandarin in Asia in the next decade given the boom Korea is undergoing and the stagnation of Japan? Also, given Korea's exportation of popular media, tourism boom, and potential re-unification?>>

No.


<<Is Korean considered on par with japanese now in terms of usefulness? >>

No.


<<Which one would you consider learning and why? >>

Neither.
Xie   Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:26 am GMT
>>The west seems to have done a very successful job at getting all non-Westerners to feel inferior to the likes of the US and UK in particular, when the UK at least is pretty insignificant. <<

Speaking of the academic world only, I consider the UK a hot choice. UK is just as big as Germany in this regard, probably even smaller, given a smaller economy and population, but nonetheless it is Britain (like USA) who earns a significant part of her GDP from international students..., not Germany.

With such a limited knowledge of the outside world, any decent British credentials would be so much more welcomed than "German" ones. Who knows Germany anyway? People do recognize Germany's industrial and economic strengths, but as long as people don't know German, but know that the Germans speak English anyway, most students and their parents would only want to see how they could do with education in Britain.

British university degrees are far more expensive than ALL other non-English-speaking western countries, but people nonetheless flock into Britain and other English-speaking countries even for the least desirable credentials, if you can call them credentials.

So, by simple maths,
if a British degree is 100,000 USD for a foreigner (particularly a non-westerner; Britain offers a low price for British nationals, EU citizens, etc; Americans can attend universities back home anyway),
and if a German degree is only 10,000 USD for a foreigner (even less; German people, you know this fact),
it's obvious that the British isn't just by far more expensive,
but more worthwhile to be named a degree.
People won't even care whether you have any background related to Germany or what have you, unless they are, predictably, German-speaking or have a interest in it.
British degrees are expensive but millions of foreigners want to study in Britain anway;
German degrees are just as inexpensive as many other continental ones elsewhere in Europe, but people don't even know their language and their country, or even what kind of a country Sweden is (Germany is bigger, so more heard of). So, even given a low price like this, you won't see a lot of international students going to Germany anyway.

But even Germany is a popular enough choice that Brits and Americans can't disregard the potential of German guys in both business and academic fields. The rest... is more dismal.

I wouldn't personally take Germany, for example, as seriously as US/UK. To some extent, even Australia looks like a more plausible choice for work, study, and emigration. It doesn't surprise me even a single bit why people tend to hold even Australia in much higher regard than Germany in economic and academic terms. After all, it's Australia, despite the small population, who SPEAKS ENGLISH.

People still have a decent level of wisdom with at least a decent worldview limited to the eyes of their own world (such as Chinese-speaking) and that of the Anglophones. More stupid would be employers who only know Stanford, Harvard, Oxbridge, but not Warwick, UCL, Tokyo, Heidelberg, to name a few.