which people can learn chinese more easily?

[hkkevin]

A few years ago, I've met several Korean who learn chinese, and they speak really fluent and very native. I thought that they're just an outstanding learners, but this phoenomenon is so common. When koreans told me that they can speak Chinese, in my experience 50% of them are advanced learners. In Vietnam, accent may be a little bit different, but learners are generally fluent too after learning a year. I'm curious to know if people from India, Mymmar, Cambodian, Indonesia can learn Chinese in such rapid way too.

[gato]

See this thread. Those who have taken the HSK seem to think that the Korean students aren't any better than the Westerners in learning spoken Chinese.

But they have an easier time with characters they have to learn 1000 or more Chinese characters by the time they graduate high school.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=74514#post74514

[Jonny Wang]

Your observations about Koreans are correct. They can and do learn Chinese much faster than westerners (if they work hard at it - many are sent here by mommy & daddy to China to learn because they failed to get into a good Korean university, and so don't tend to be the top Korean students).

Here's why:

1. As Gato mentions, they do learn some Chinese characters in middle and high school. Before the 1400's I think, Korea didn't have it's own alphabet and just used Chinese characters. And while they have their own alphabet now, they still use some Chinese characters in formal situations (newspapers usually have some characters in them) - although they are traditional characters. People of the Korean War generation or older know tons of characters, but younger Koreans learn a few hundred or maybe 1000.

2. Korean isn't part of the same language family as Chinese (grammar is totally different - I think Korean is a Turkic-Altaic language actually - more similar to Turkish, Uighur, Norwegian!). But because of geographic proximity and China's dominating cultural influence in Asia, many Korean (spoken) words are "borrowed" from Chinese, just like English "borrows" from French & Latin, even though it isn't a Latin language (right?).

So, people like my wife, who is Korean, have an advantage when it comes to learning Chinese vocabulary, because sometimes they can relate it back to a Korean word with the same meaning and similar pronunciation.

[geek_frappa]

I'm curious to know if people from India, Mymmar, Cambodian, Indonesia can learn Chinese in such rapid way too.

diligent study, practice, and frequent interaction/stimulation is the only way to learn quickly... the country of origin of the student does not matter.

also, those countries you mentioned are created by artificial political boundaries created by a by-gone empire. chinese language has been spoken by people in each of those countries for centuries.... for example, i can speak cantonese no problem in vietnam

[wushijiao]

younger Koreans learn a few hundred or maybe 1000

.

I was talking to a Korean Phd student the other day and he confirmed that college students should know 1,800 hanja (like the article below claims). I think 1,000 is the number that high school students are supposed to know.

But because of geographic proximity and China's dominating cultural influence in Asia, many Korean (spoken) words are "borrowed" from Chinese, just like English "borrows" from French & Latin, even though it isn't a Latin language (right?).

I've read that about 50% of Korean words are of Chinese origin. So, like you said, they should be able to relate many Korean words back to their Chinese origins. So I would guess that for Koreans who have read a lot of history and academic books (in which Hanja are more likely to appear), they would have an easier time crossing over their knowledge from one language to the other.

http://site.answers.com/topic/hanja

[geek_frappa]

So, people like my wife, who is Korean, have an advantage when it comes to learning Chinese vocabulary, because sometimes they can relate it back to a Korean word with the same meaning and similar pronunciation.

definitely, it's amazing how we can translate between chinese and corean and the words sounds match up ... in fact, many of the linux guys and gals i work with in corea are fluent in chinese

So I would guess that for Koreans who have read a lot of history and academic books (in which Hanja are more likely to appear), they would have an easier time crossing over their knowledge from one language to the other.

well, that and corea was invaded about 200 times over the 150 centuries... right? no possible that a lot of language has melted together by now.. i could be wrong...

[wushijiao]

well, that and corea was invaded about 200 times over the 150 centuries... right? no possible that a lot of language has melted together by now.. i could be wrong...

Hehe. China has invaded Korea many times, but it is also worth pointing out that many Korean scholars also were very pro-Chinese, or at least they supported many aspects of Chinese culture. King Sejong's court invented an almost perfect alphabet to fit the Korean language, but the elite for most of the Choson dynasty were against using it.

One can imagine it would feel spending a whole youth writing characters, essays, and memorizing the Chinese classics, just to find out that in only one day of studying some new alphabet, "ignorant" women and farmers and slaves could read and write flawlessly. Why, you'd have to suppress that somehow, or the system would collapse.

People like John King Fairbank have mentioned that studying 10 years for the 科举(imperial examinations, which they also had in Korea) was kind of like a form of indoctrination. Especially if you passed the exam, it would be hard to admit that it wasn't the most necessary stuff to know.

[randall_flagg]

definitely, it's amazing how we can translate between chinese and corean and the words sounds match up

Yes, but are they 100% similar? I think not. And I believe that that is one of the reasons why many Korean students pronounce Chinese words less accurate than their Western counterparts; the sounds are so close to Korean that many don’t hear a difference. But this is just a wild guess.

[flameproof]

I'm curious to know if people from India, Mymmar, Cambodian, Indonesia can learn Chinese in such rapid way too.

Because they often don't speak English and have no other way to communicate.

BTW, some Chinese letters seem to be commonly known in Korea. Remember that Koreans used chinese writing till a few 100 years ago when Hangul was introduced. Means it was in integral part of Korean history.

[bhchao]

King Sejong's court invented an almost perfect alphabet to fit the Korean language, but the elite for most of the Choson dynasty were against using it.

Yes. The use of hanja was seen as a status symbol by the aristocratic elite. You were seen as a commoner if you used hangul, while using hanja reflected yangban status or one's achievement in higher learning.