Korean and Japanese language?

<<Um, Alba, I don't know what kind of Chinese you think you are talking about. You have clearly demonstrated your ignorance in this reply. You also seem to lack in English skills...>>

Ok asshole no need for personal attacks, I speak and write English better than you, thank you very much. I just said that because a Chinese person told me she can understand Japanese, and she said it's very easy for her. Don't worry about my English skills though, I have published more writing in English in the past eight years than you can ever hope or dream to in your entire lifetime.

Whoa whoa~
Take a chill pill dude!

Anyway, Chinese people can't understand "SPOKEN" Japanese language.
They might understand written form of Japanese a little bit though.

As a native Chinese speaker, I have learned japanese for several years.
And I would say learning japanese is just a piece of cake for most chinesee young man, because we need not memorize the kanji used in japanese expression.

But I must admit, although korean language borrowed more chinese words than japanese language did, learning korean is not so easy for chinese people. Korean people introduced their own writting system and gave up their chinese wrtting system during 1950s.

«Don't worry about my English skills though, I have published more writing in English in the past eight years than you can ever hope or dream to in your entire lifetime. »

Your editors must be miracle workers. I'm interested in your published works. Could you fill me in on them? From what you say, you are quite the accomplished writer. Next time I'm at Barnes and Noble I'll try and find out WHAT A BLUFFER YOU ARE!!

«North Korean has tried to avoid borrowing American English words»

It's pretty hilarious to watch North Korean news broadcasting. Their accent sounds so stiff like Alba decided to stick something up the anchor's butt. You'll also catch the little Korean words they use in place of the words borrowed from English. They call cameras "photograph machine". I think old people call them that sometimes.

IF Korean and Japanese are related--would have to have diverged several thousands of years ago. However, I have my doubts as to their kinship.

Several attempts to show cognates between common words (numerals, personal pronouns, basic nouns, etc) do not support any relation. In this respect, Japanese and Korean are no more closely related to each other than ENGLISH and JAPANESE.

I agree, syntax and honorifcs can be borrowed (Ancient Japanese was influenced by Korean), and this is probably the case.

Most likely, Korean and Japanese were languages isolates that were both heavily influenced by Altaic or Altaic-like languages. But Korean and Japanese are not related. And that assessment is not based on any anti-Japanese sentiment.

Attemtps to simply lump them together and call it 'done' result from laziness and lack of interest.

Dear Brennus:
<<Korean has five dialects, three spoken in the North, and two in the South. They all seem to be mutually intelligible.>>

South Korean has five or six dialects not two!
All of them are mutually intelligible except for Jeju Island Dialect.
The island has its unique and strong dialect!

You can find more information at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_language#Dialects

«Attemtps to simply lump them together and call it 'done' result from laziness and lack of interest.»

AMEN!!

I'm sorry presley but it is 'im-shin' not 'nim-sin'.
and I don't think it's good to insult languages by saying that those are nasty or crazy.
as for me, a native Korean speaker, it is nothing.
but still, some difficult Korean words composed of Chinese characters matter to me though.

anyway, since I've been learning Japanese, Chinese, and English for several years on and off, I figured out that Japanese resembled Korean in a way we have got almost exactly the same vocabularies composed of Chinese characters. but as for Chinese, I find many differences of vocabularies not so much as Japanese{e.g. seonseng(Korean), sensei(Japanese)which mean a teacher, are laoshi in Chinese}
like that, although we use Chinese CHARACTERS.

and further more about Korean and Japanese, I have to try hard to memorize Japanese verbs which are not ended by -suru and some adjectives and adverbs which they're completely different from Korean.

so my point is the words that are composed of 2 Chinese characters are somewhat easy for Korean native speakers to study. cause they're similar in sounding and meaning.

anyhow, among Koreans we say, it is very easy to learn Japanese first but as we get to learn it further more Chinese characters which we know nothing about, it becomes the most difficult than ever and we give up.

and Chinese...sorry to say...is the most avoided 2nd foreign language in my high school, while Japanese learning students are a lot.
Of course, English is a must. and the 2nd foreign language doesn't affect us at all to appy for univs.
so I'd say "STUDY ENGLISH!!!!!!!!" :-D
It is the best here and we love mixing English into our Korean like my ancestors did with Chinese vocabularies.

In South Korean, they understand democracy. In North Korean, they speak and understand The Glory of Kommuneezma. Da Tovarich, Da.

Both languages may disppear in the long run. Japanese will turn to be more Engilsh or more Chinese. Korean may turn out to be a language like Irish, therefore, in the future, Korean people would speak Engilsh or Chinese in most cases.

I have no intention to offend anyone and his/her language.

«I'm sorry presley but it is 'im-shin' not 'nim-sin'. »

Whoops. I got mixed up with Japanese and Korean. Thanks for the correction! And I don't think I said that any language was nasty. I'm sorry if that's how I came across.

You have to admit though, that North Korean newscasters can sound pretty strange when you're used to the pronunciation used in news from Seoul.

Hi,
I am Japanese language speaker, Teacher, Trainner. I am learning Korean language. I am Indian. I like to learn more Foreign Languages. I find Japanese Language is Similar to Chinese In only Japanese Kanji. But the Pronounciation is totally different. Kanji is Chinese origin. meaning in both the Languages Japanese & Chinese is almost same.I am learning Italian & Korean language. I really like to learn more & more Languages. A Language is now a days becoming a powerfull mean to be closer to the world. The world is now more communicative by all such means of the language.

This is a very interesting topic. I am a native Mandarin Chinese speaker and have noticed that some people have pointed out that Korean and Japanese phrases/words that were borrowed China often don't have the same pronunciation as modern Chinese. That's actually NOT true.

First of all, you have to remember that there are several Chinese languages (dialects). Some dialects are more conservative, meaning they've changed little over time (pronunciation, syntax). Cantonese, Fujianese and Hakka tend to have retained some classical chinese pronunciation. YOu will find that pronunication for most borrowed Chinese phrases in the Korean and Japanese languages is much closer to Southern Fujianese, Cantonese and Hakka. It is also possible that some borrowed words originated from various parts of China (but I am not certain of this...)

Also, classical Chinese vocabulary tend to be retained in Korea and Japan. Sometimes the written Chinese phrases in Korean and Japan differ from those used in modern China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, but are similar to Chinese phrased used in classical Chinese texts. Sometimes, it's also a matter of preference in the use of synonyms (i.e. frequently vs often).

Chinese phrases/charcters used in Japan and Korea tend to be more formal as well (since they were borrowed hundreds/thousand of years ago). Think of the evolution of the English language... Do we in the US or England speak like characters out of a Shakespearean play? We don't, but would any educated English speaker not know that "Thy" means your? Now, imagine if the word Thy was borrowed by another group of people... And certainly many Chinese today know very little about classical chinese vocabulary. Just as an American or English person today know very littel about classical English vocabulary. The further we go back in history the more foreign the vocabulary....the more different it is from the modern spoken language.

Being Chinese, I find Japan and Korean cultures fascinating. In some ways, they are more Classical Chinese than the Chinese today. It's like seeing a snap shot of Chinese culture (from various periods of China) - the kimonos, traditional korean clothing, ideals, furniture, architecture, musical instruments, and of course, chinese text / vocabulary.

<< The two languages are distantly related to each other. However, for nationalistic and political reasons most Japanese and Koreans will deny it. >>

And what gives you the authority to say this? Lots of people outside Japan and Korea also believe the two languages are unrelated.

- Kef