Why can Koreans learn Japanese so quickly?
 

I dunno, but I've noticed that many people from Korea seem to be able to learn Japanese real fast.

Examples:
the TRAX
BoA
RAIN

all of them seem to have learned japanese so quickly, I don't understand how they're learning so quickly!

Just wondering...

Well didn't BoA live for one year in Japan? I think when you're in the sort of environment where everyone speaks Japanese around you, you can learn it quicker.

I think that's the case with most artists who are submerged in an environment that they aren't used to.. not just Korean -> Japanese..

They are much more exposed to japanese around them daily I would presume thorugh popular artists an also due to the fct that they are neighbouring countries, kind of cultural imperialism, just like the americanisation that has been going through europe ever since WW2. This helps of course.

That's true. Since she was there for a year, she was forced to speak Japanese, or else she'd be stuck like that :|

That and the languages are much closer in relation to each other than they are to any other languages. I'm pretty sure the grammar is nearly identical.

what yaten said. in my opinion, i think korean sounds a bit like chinese and japanese mixed together

^I dunno, I speak fluent Mandarin and I don't think Korean sounds anything like the mix at all.

But the two languages have similar backgrounds and everything, kind of like French and Spanish. But yes, environment plays a factor, especially in a less-diverse environment, you tend to learn the language more easily. Plus BoA was pretty young when she started to learn Japanese, and Children learn languages easier. Personal experience for me.

^ i speak fluent mandarin, too...

iunno, it sorta sounds like a garbled version of it =D

Yaten basically nailed it with the comment on how the grammer is very similar. It's different than if an American were to learn Japanese.

However, I do not think that Korean and Japanese sound alike. There are certain words in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese that sound similar but sentences rarely sound alike.

BoA's japanese sounds weird for me
but she is not a native speaker, i understand

BoA was basically constructed to be an international pop singer. She spent years learning Japanese when she was young. She did a lot of studying and training before even her first Korean album debuted.

^True she said that those days for hard for her and she felt really lonely in Japan
So I guess learning a new language is hard for anyone - plus being around people who speak the language is easier

For BoA, it was easier for her since she was younger and as people said, she was had to live in an environment where she was forced to speak only Japanese.

As fro Rain, I thought he wasn't fluent in Japanese??? I remember in SMAP X SMAP, one of the SMAP members had to translate things from Japanese to Korean for him I think...

YES IT DOES! omg

I was watching Jewel of the Palace once, and well, I had NEVER heard Korean before ever, so I started watching it, and I was like, this isn't in Japanese....this isn't in Chinese...wth is this in? Because it sounded like a mixture of both.

But yeah, is it possible that Korean is somehow related to Japanese?

Most Korean singers I know have a good ability in English too. I also want to know about that. o_O
I noticed that mink, K, BoA, JYONGRI, & Rain has quite a bunch of English lines in their track, spoken quite fluent.

korean is abit like japanese, so it might be a little easier. i dont know tho.

must be the environment.

Cory should be posting on this, but whether japanese and korean is related or not and how close this is is very disputed. They are nowhere near the same as most european language and much more different than english and german or even english and russian.

Chinese is not related to japanese, but using the same "letters" helps a bit.

Both korean and japanese are considered language isolates, which means they may not be related to any others languages, except so way back it's imposible to trace. Some even linked japanese up to turkish.

The article on wikipedia on this is actually quite accurate for a change (It resembles stuff I*ve read in (validated) books), it's an interesting subject:
[QUOTE]
The genetic affiliation of the Japonic family is uncertain. Numerous theories have been proposed, relating it to a wide variety of other languages and families, including extinct languages spoken by historic cultures of the Korean Peninsula; the Korean language; the Altaic languages; and the Austronesian languages, among many others. It is also often suggested that it may be a creole language combining more than one of these. The various theories are detailed in the main article. At this point, no one theory is generally accepted as correct, and the issue is likely to remain controversial.[/QUOTE]

hmm...i think they have a hard time too...
we don't know the process right? we just know the result

BIG MISTAKE naming Rain.. he doesn't know a single word... well that's abit of an exaggeration...
but he doesn't know much at all.. that's why I don't like him releasing stuff in Japanese... It's just about money making.. he's simple just memorising lyrics and reading it out....

If you watch him in Japan, he speaks all in Korean except for the "Konnichi wa. Rain desu." and then at the ending "Minna san, Aishiteruyo!"...

Korean and Japanese have very similar grammar.. sometimes there are some grammatical structures which are identical... also there are words within their vocab which sounds almost the same as in Japanese... that's why its easier to pick it up...

But it takes time.. BoA wasn't really that good at the start of her career, but SM pushed her so she became fluent... it takes time and hard work... that's why I respect BoA... I remember seeing her on TV shows along time ago, where she had a blank face on when they asked her stuff.. because she couldn't understand when they speak...

Look at her now, she's really fluent and talks rather naturally... whereas someone liek SE7EN still hasn't gotten into that fluency... but its all good.... I commend SE7EN as well, as his Japanese is quite fluent...