Korean? Worth it?

Well . . . I wanted to learn Korean . . . but then istarted to think. I read on a website that korean would be more or less useless in the future (as opposed to chinese/arabic) because lots of Koreans speak english. And the site said that only bother learning Korean if you are going to go and spend a lot of time in that country . . .what do you guys think? Would learning Korean be a waste of time? SHould I just start something more useful like french?

Reply 1

Hanoi

15

Well if you like Korean then you can learn some and see how it goes...don't always look at which one is more useful or which one will earn you the most money...or if you are a good enough linguist then you could learn a few at the same time :smile:

However, I wouldn't say that most Koreans speak English, and S.Korea is one of the GS 'Next 11' countries which means that they have forecasted that SK will experience good economic growth, so if you're in it for the money then there you go.

Reply 2

generalebriety

16

Who cares? I'm learning quite a few languages just for the hell of it, languages don't have to be "useful" to be interesting. Depends what your aim is in learning it.

Reply 3

username51312

15

All koreans i met in uk spoke english so learning it would be a waste of your time

Reply 4

I-said-haha

I've been learning korean for the past couple of years, did one of those lang exchanges on gumtree, definately worth it. Very interesting language and culture, the economy is growing rapidly and actually quite a few people don't speak english in Korea. I'd recommend it. Though I was thinking of studying it at soas degree level but decided against it as it was more of a hobby. Go for it :biggrin:

Reply 5

Hyeree

UAG

All koreans i met in uk spoke english so learning it would be a waste of your time

yeah in the UK... :P
not in korea though. not really. they say they can but they teach english grammar, not the language so they dont really speak the language. but they are alright at written stuff.

but there are people like me. korean but lived somewhere else for a long time, and they sometimes tend to go back since they are pretty much fluent in both languages (or even 3 like me :biggrin:

)

yeah ofc it's good if you're going to do something related to korea in the future or going to live there or what not, but otherwise not really...

might come useful if you want to be a spy for kim jong il :P :wink:

edit: korean has an alphabet. using only an alphabet. not like chinese where you have everything in characters, so you have to learn each and every one of the characters for every single word. and japanese is half alphabet and half chinese characters. ergo korean is the easiest out of the three :biggrin:

Reply 6

user152713

Only do it if you enjoy it. Oh yeah and i wouldn't recommend you learn arabic, it's very hard and complex.( even though I speak it, that's only because I'm iraqi. :yep:

Reply 7

notepad

OP

10

haha thank for the help! I think i might have a go at it and see how it goes, thanks!
anyonelse have an opinion on this matter?

Reply 8

Goldenballs

I was going to study French, but then I realised how useless a language was in terms of career prospects, as I really want to pursue a career in investment banking or law. I then enrolled for a foundation degree in Broadcast Journalism at Wolverhampton University. I really don't see the point in any languages, let alone Korean. Sorry.

^troooll

KwungSun

^troooll

How dare you accuse me of trolling. What evidence do you have for that assumption? Check my profile and you'll see where I attend, you fool.

Reply 11

KwungSun

13

Goldenballs

How dare you accuse me of trolling. What evidence do you have for that assumption? Check my profile and you'll see where I attend, you fool.

I don't really care where you attend, your post didn't make any sense.

Reply 12

Goldenballs

KwungSun

I don't really care where you attend, your post didn't make any sense.

Why? Because I don't see the point in languages, and wanted to open up my prospects with a proper degree that would take me places?

Reply 13

KwungSun

13

Goldenballs

Why? Because I don't see the point in languages, and wanted to open up my prospects with a proper degree that would take me places?

There was never any mention of doing a DEGREE in Korean, just learning it for fun.

Also a Wolverhampton degree in Broadcast Journalism won't take you very far in banking or law.

Reply 14

xJessx

18

Goldenballs

Why? Because I don't see the point in languages, and wanted to open up my prospects with a proper degree that would take me places?

Hi, where you attend doesn't make any difference. You may not have been trolling but saying that languages won't take you anywhere is a bit ignorant and not the smartest thing to say in the section full of language students! :rolleyes:

Reply 15

notepad

OP

10

xJessx

Hi, where you attend doesn't make any difference. You may not have been trolling but saying that languages won't take you anywhere is a bit ignorant and not the smartest thing to say in the section full of language students! :rolleyes:

true

AND thanks for everyone's input

Reply 16

gaijin

1

notepad

Well . . . I wanted to learn Korean . . . but then istarted to think. I read on a website that korean would be more or less useless in the future (as opposed to chinese/arabic) because lots of Koreans speak english. And the site said that only bother learning Korean if you are going to go and spend a lot of time in that country . . .what do you guys think? Would learning Korean be a waste of time? SHould I just start something more useful like french?

Its very valuable. Asian languages on the whole are very desirable to employers. Plus Korea is considered one of the tiger economies in asia. Also, the vast majority of Koreans do not speak English. In fact the government has been driving home various schemes and programmes in the country to improve this (such as subsidies for foreign English teachers.)

Learn a language you want to learn...don't be swayed by practicalities.

Reply 17

KwungSun

13

Korean's correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there some similarities between Chinese and Korean? So could learning Korean not serve as a stepping stone to learning Chinese as well?

Reply 18

ob.is.a.bit.good

2

if you like it and have an interest for the language i say go for it!! if you dont want to consider learning it full time like at university you could possible see if there are any evening classes at your local college and go via that route

thats what im doing with mandarin :biggrin:

Reply 19

Hyeree

we have an alphabet :smile:

we used to be like japanese and use some chinese characters... but we pronounced them differently so we used the pronunciation and wrote it in o ur alphabet ^^.

alphabet created by king sejong :biggrin:

awesome king lol.. before we borrowed chinese.. :/

Korean? Worth it?

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