Can Japanese understand Korean

Unless a Japanese person is able to speak Korean they won't understand the language as they are two different

Is Korean more similar to Japanese or Chinese?

Korean is more similar to Japanese than to Chinese although all three are very different languages

What's easier Japanese or Korean?

Although both languages are difficult in different ways its believed that Japanese is an easier language to start out with

How Similar Is Korean To Japanese?

How similar is Korean to Japanese? Not that similar! Although Japan and Korea are geographically near each other, the languages are in no way related and are very different.

Ok we get it, they’re not the same language, but how similar is Korean to Japanese? Well let’s take a look at the different components of each language and see what they have in common and what is different.

Writing System

The writing systems are very different between Korean and Japanese with Korean having a much easier system to learn. The Korean alphabet uses a phonetic system where every letter represents a different sound. This means that if you spend a week learning the language you should be able to read Korean and pronounce the words even if you don’t know what any of these words means. The Japanese writing system, on the other hand, is much more difficult to learn. This is because they use three different writing systems. You heard us right, three systems. They use Chinese characters, Kanji and Kana, which are very different from the Korean system.

Tones

You’ll be pleased to know that unlike Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai, both Japanese and Korean do not use tones. Tones can be one of the things that make people nervous about learning Asian languages but if you’re interested in learning either Japanese or Korean then this isn’t something you need to be worried about as neither language is tonal.

Korean to Japanese Similarities – Grammar

So we’ve looked at ways the two languages are different, but if you’re wanting to learn both and transfer some knowledge then this isn’t going to be all that useful to you. Luckily for you, as well as the language having differences there are also ways that they are similar.

Formal Forms

Another similarity between the two languages is that they change how they speak depending on who they’re speaking to with an emphasis on formal speak and speaking to your elders or superiors with respect.

We hope we’ve managed to answer your question of ‘how similar is Korean to Japanese?‘ As you can probably tell by now the two languages aren’t that similar although they do share some common words through cultural influence. If you’re looking to learn Korean then check out some of these learn Korean websites and if you’re interested in learning Japanese then take a look at these Japanese translation apps.