안녕하세요! 🤗 If you studied Korean before you may disagree with my title. You probably think that Korean is not an easy language to learn! Yes, you are right. It isn't. However, some points make it easy compared to other languages. Today, I'll show some aspects of Korean that make you feel easy. 😉
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1. Easy to Learn Alphabet
We'll start with the easiest part to learn - the Korean alphabet, known as Hangeul(한글). The Korean alphabet was not a natural development, but rather an invented set of letters. It was created by the Great King Sejong in 1443 during the Joseon Dynasty. His goal was to create letters that people could easily learn.
Hangeul is a phonogram just like English. It means a character represents human speech sound as a symbol. There are only 24 letters you have to memorize. Compared to a logogram, in which you have to memorize every single word to mean a thing, it is very easy to learn!
2. No Number Agreement
In many languages, nouns, verbs, and adjectives must agree in number. For example, in English, if there is one cat, it is "a cat". If there are more than two, you have to say "cats."
However, Korea does not have this requirement. Korean nouns can mean both singular and plural as it is. For example, 사람 can mean both "a person" and "people". 친구 means both "a friend" and "friends".
If you really want to emphasize the "plural" meaning, you can add the word "들". If you say 사람들 it is definitely people. 친구들 means friends. However, it is not necessary.
Not only for nouns, but grammar also doesn't require number agreement either. In English, singular subjects require singular verbs, and plural subjects require plural verbs. For example, compare "She reads a book," and "They read books."
그녀는 책을 읽어요. (She reads a book.)
그들은 책을 읽어요. (They read books.)
You don't have to worry about that in Korean. No matter what subject comes, you'll say the same verbs or adjectives. This lack of number agreement significantly reduces the grammatical burden for learners.
3. No Gender Agreement
Recently, I started learning Spanish and realized how it can be so difficult to match genders! Koreans don't have gender agreement concepts in nouns and grammar. It is similar to English.
I'll explain the noun gender agreement first. For example, in Spanish, a male friend is "un amigo" while a female friend is "una amiga." In English, a male or female is just a friend. You can add an extra word like girlfriend or boyfriend to it to make it specific, but the word "friend" itself doesn't change.
It is the same in Korean. "friend" is 친구 in Korean. You can add 여자(female) or 남자(male) to 친구 and say 여자 친구 or 남자 친구. However, 친구 itself remains in the same form.
In Spanish, depending on the gender, grammar parts are changing as well. "He is a good friend," in Spanish is "Él es un amigo bueno." "She is a good friend," is "Ella es una amiga buena."
In Korean, "she" is 그녀, and "he" is 그. Those pronouns usually can be seen in written language rather than speaking language. Anyway, no matter which one you use, it won't change any other sentence parts in Korean.
그는 좋은 친구예요. (Él es un amigo bueno. He is a good friend.)
그녀는 좋은 친구예요. (Ella es una amiga buena. She is a good friend.)
See how Spanish has so many different parts in one sentence depending on the gender? But you don't have to worry about that in Korean! No need to memorize branch-out words!
4. No Articles
An article is a part of speech placed before a noun in English, French, German, etc. to indicate singular, plural, gender, case, etc. As you know "a," "an," and "the" are the articles in English.
Guess what! The Korean language doesn't have this "article" at all! So, you don't need to memorize or apply different rules for using articles, which reduces the complexity of sentence construction.
You can use demonstrative pronouns that are similar to "this" or "that" to point things out. But that's about it. Here, take a look at the example. 영화 means "movie" and how there is nothing attached in front of the noun.
영화를 봤어요. I saw a movie.
영화는 재미있었어요. The movie was fun.
5. No Importance of Accent
One of the distinctive features of the Korean language is its minimal reliance on tones and stress to convey meaning. This characteristic sets Korean apart from many other languages, particularly tonal languages like Chinese.
In tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese, the pitch or tone used when pronouncing a word can change its meaning entirely. For instance, the Mandarin syllable "ma" can mean "mother," "hemp," "horse," or "scold" depending on the tone used (high level, rising, falling-rising, or falling).
In Chinese
妈 (mā) – mother
麻 (má) – hemp
马 (mǎ) – horse
骂 (mà) – scold
The Korean language does not use tones in this way. The pitch or intonation of a syllable does not alter the fundamental meaning of words.
There are homonyms in Korean too. But people only distinguish the words one from another from the context. In pronunciation, you won't be able to tell the difference.
It is the same with the length of the sound as well. I have a separate post about this matter, so if you are curious, please click here to read about the sound length of Korean.
6. Wrap-up: Korean is easy to learn!
Korean is an easy language to learn in many respects. The scientific and systematic structure of Hangul enables learners to quickly master reading and writing. The lack of number and gender agreement allows learners to use the language easily. No articles and minimal use of accents also help to make things easy. These aspects make Korean a friendly and accessible language for foreign learners!