Languages

 Hello, 친구 ! How are you doing? I was studying for my Korean test, and all of a sudden an interesting idea crossed my mind. I was thinking about writing a post about the differences and similarities, between learning Korean and English. I read some articles about this, and I decided to include them in this post.  I have to admit I’m not an expert in any of these languages, but I have found some significative differences and similarities. On with the post! 

The alphabet

Of course, the alphabet is going to be very different. First of all, Hangul (the Korean alphabet) has 21 vowels and 19 consonants. So, Hangul has 30 letters. In the English alphabet, you can find 26 letters. Hangul is written from left to right and top to bottom just like in English. But the Korean language can be written from top to bottom and right to left like Chinese.

Phonology

According to the Frankfurt International School, Korean is a syllable timed language in which individual word stress is insignificant. This is radically different from English. The most noticeable problem is the realization of consonants. For example, the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds in words such as then, thirteen and clothes, the /v/ sound, which is produced as a /b/, and the /f/ sound which leads, for example, to phone being pronounced pone.

Grammar

Korean does not conjugate verbs using agreement with the subject. This is a possible reason why it takes some learners so long to remember the -s ending in English in the third person singular present simple tense: He like… instead of he likes.

Korean has a Subject-Object-Verb word order. Since personal reference is avoided, it is common to encounter Korean sentences consisting of the verb only. Grammatical categories in Korean have no clear correspondence with those of English. This often results in Korean learners using a noun or adjective where English would have an adjective or a noun. For example: My daughter doesn't come to school today because she is illness.

Korean grammar is heavily influenced by honorifics. Verb endings and choice of nouns, adjectives or pronouns depend on the relative status of the speaker or writer to the listener or reader. Honorifics do not play a major part in the English language (except in conventions for addressing people as 'Professor' or 'Your Majesty'), which can make English much easier for Korean to learn than vice versa.

Differential Use of Vocabulary by Language

Does “see” mean the same thing in English as it does in Korean? You would think so, but the correct answer is “sometimes.” Used as “to view,” the meaning of the Korean word boda (보다) and its English equivalent “to see,” are the same. However, in Korean, one can not literally say “I’d like to see the manager,” as “see” in Korean only means “view.” In English, the context tells the listener that in fact you want to speak with the manager, but in Korean “see” is not used in this manner. You need to say “I want to talk to the manager.” These kinds of language-transfer issues work both ways, so be cautious when you speak.

  

 There are probably more examples of differences and similarities between these two languages. Actually,  I didn’t want to make a long post. So, I hope you have enjoyed reading about these two amazing languages. 

Btw, happy new year :) 

다시만나요! (See you later)

Links: http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/korean.htm

https://koreanalyst.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/the-korean-learner-of-english-english-korean-cross-linguistic-challenges/