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Linguistic Differences: Where Do They Come From?

Learning a second or foreign language (L2) has a variety of cognitive benefits, including improving memory, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, the ability to multitask, and so forth. However, it is at the same time a formidable task. When we try to learn a foreign language whose sound or grammatical structure is quite different from that of our mother tongue, the process can be long and painstaking. When learning Korean as a second or foreign language, English speakers typically have more difficulty than native speakers of Japanese, whose linguistic structure is similar to that of Korean. Meanwhile, Korean speakers spend much more time learning English than Germans or French people do learning the typologically similar English. What is the reason? Many factors can cause this kind of difference in learning, but linguistic and cultural dissimilarities may be prime ones.

1.1 Linguistic Differences

Korean is the native language of about 80 million people in South and North Korea and more in expatriate communities across the world. In terms of typology, it is often said to belong to the Altaic language family (although some controversies remain). In terms of grammatical structures, Korean is similar to languages like Japanese in that it has an SOV (subject-object-verb) order. In terms of vocabulary, it is heavily influenced by classical Chinese. A large proportion of Korean words are either coined in Korean using Chinese characters or borrowed from the Chinese language directly.

On the other hand, English belongs to the Indo-European language group, which includes French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and so forth. The earliest forms of English were related to a group of West Germanic dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the fifth century and developed over more than 1,500 years. Modern English has been spreading since the seventeenth century, due to the worldwide influence of Great Britain and the United States, and it now serves as a global lingua franca. In terms of structure, it has an SVO (subject-verb-object) order, and the vocabulary of English is characterized by at times massive influences from other languages like Latin, Greek, French, and so forth.

Many English-speaking language learners feel that Korean is one of the most difficult languages to learn. It is often said that it requires three times more effort for native speakers of English to learn Korean than another Indo-European language like French. This, in turn, implies that English is one of the most difficult languages for Koreans to study. A primary reason for this has to do with the substantial linguistic differences between Korean and English. For example, (1) illustrates major structural differences between Korean and English:

1. (1)   ??-?-? ??-?-? ???-?-?-??-?. sensayng-nim-i haksayng-tul-ul salangha-si-ess-supni-ta teacher-HON-NOM student-PL-ACC love-HON-PST-FRML-DECL 'The teacher loved students.'

The first line represents the Korean alphabet system Hangul and the second line the Yale Romanization system.1 The third line shows the glosses for each expression, and the fourth is the English translation. As seen in the example, Korean places the verb salangha-si-ess-supni-ta 'love-HON-PST-FRML-DECL' in the sentential final position. The Korean verb also has a rather complex inflectional system. While the English verb love has only the past tense suffix -ed, the Korean counterpart salangha- 'love' occurs with four suffixes si-ess-supni-ta 'HON-PST-FRML-DECL,' and each of these has its own grammatical function (see Chapter 3).2 The subject sensayng-nim-i 'teacher-HON-NOM' and the object haksayng-tul-ul 'students-PL-ACC' are also marked with an overt case marker: nominative (NOM) -i and accusative (ACC) -ul. The nominative marker is usually attached to the subject of a sentence, whereas the accusative marker goes with an object (see Chapter 3 for details).

In addition to such differences between English and Korean, the two languages differ in their sound systems. For example, unlike English, Korean has no voiced consonants among its basic sounds (called phonemes). That is why Koreans have difficulty distinguishing between voiceless consonants like [f] and voiced ones like [v]. For example, if speakers are not conscious of or have not learned them, they would have trouble differentiating or producing English pairs like the following:

1. (2)  
   1. a. pin vs. bin
   2. b. tin vs. din
   3. c. fine vs. vine

However, this does not mean the phonetic system of Korean is simpler than that of English. Unlike English, Korean has triplets for many consonants. For instance, the basic sound [k] or [t] in Korean has three different variants of each consonant sound that are not easy for English speakers to identify (the Korean writing system, Hangul, is a phonemic alphabet, and the Yale Romanization is given immediately after each Korean word here):

1. (3)  
   1. a. [k]: ? ka, ? kha, ? kka
   2. b. [t]: ? ta, ? tha, ? tta

As just illusrated, in learning English or Korean, we need to appreciate the key linguistic differences of the two languages to reach the desired level of linguistic competence within a limited time. It is important to understand why Koreans or foreigners have difficulties pronouncing some sounds or producing certain constructions in their target language. Language learning requires patience and tireless effort, but recognizing the linguistic reasons for these difficulties will help language learners  greatly.

1.2 Cultural Differences

In addition to these linguistic difficulties, language learners also encounter cultural differences in their target languages. It is often noted that learning a target language cannot be done without understanding the culture imbued in the language. Without understanding the life, culture, history, and society of America or England, it is hard for Korean students to master English. The same goes for English speakers trying to learn Korean. For example, if students are not accustomed to American culture, they will have trouble figuring out the meaning of paper or plastic, for here or to go, any cash back, etc. Korean or Japanese people often ask English-speaking people personal questions like How old are you? Where are you going? Are you married? and so forth, since such expressions are used daily in the mother languages. However, these personal questions often embarrass foreigners, including native speakers of English, since such questions are considered impolite in Western culture.

Cultural differences are often reflected in languages. An intriguing example can be found in the uses of the pronoun wuli 'we' in Korean. Consider the following dialogue occurring between a greeter and a greetee with his wife:

1. (4)  
   1. A:   ??? ?????. manna-se pankap-supni-ta meet-CONN glad-FRML-DECL 'Glad to meet you.'
   2. B:   ?? ?????. ce-to pankap-supni-ta me-too glad-FRML-DECL 'Glad to meet you too.'
   3. A:   ?? ??????. wuli cipsalam-i-pni-ta our housewife-COP-FRML-DECL (literally) 'This is our wife.'

This conversation demonstrates one striking difference in the usage of the pronoun ?? wuli 'we/our' in Korean. In English, the correct pronoun here is the first person, 'my.' It is often observed that Korean speakers use the first person pronoun 'our' in place of the...