Chinese vs Korean: Which Is Easier To Learn?

Perhaps you're an avid language learner looking to pick your next adventure, or maybe you're completely monolingual and unsure which language to start with.

In this article, we'll explore the key differences in grammar, vocabulary, and culture between Chinese and Korean, while also diving into the advantages of learning each language.

What is Korean? What is Chinese?

Those who aren’t very familiar with Asian languages and cultures might mistakenly think Korean and Chinese are similar, or even group Japanese in with them. In reality, all three are distinct in their own ways.

Although Korean and Chinese do share some commonalities and historical influences (predominantly Chinese influence on Korean), they actually belong to two completely different language families. Korean is part of the Koreanic language group, which is a small language family consisting of Korean and the Jeju language.

Mandarin Chinese (which is the focus of this comparison) belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, which encompasses approximately 400 languages in total. However, the largest branch of this language family consists of the Sinitic languages (also known as Chinese languages) such as Yue (Cantonese), Min, and Hakka.

Chinese vs Korean Grammar

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between Chinese and Korean lies in their grammar.

Chinese grammar is fairly straightforward, which is why it's often described as a language with "little to no grammar." 

There are no verb conjugations based on nouns, pronouns, or tenses. There's no grammatical gender, and no singular or plural agreement between nouns and adjectives.

Korean, on the other hand, can be quite a bit more complex. Verb conjugation does exist in Korean and is determined by several key factors that influence how a verb is formed: tense, levels of politeness (formal, polite, informal), and whether the verb stem ends in a vowel or consonant, plus whether it's regular or irregular.

A Chinese immersion program student works through grammar lessons with guidance from their teacher.

Chinese vs Korean Vocabulary

As previously mentioned, Chinese and Korean come from different language families, so in theory, they should be quite different and have unique characteristics regarding vocabulary. But in practice, there's a huge overlap of Chinese words in the Korean language.

Sino-Korean Vocabulary

Due to China's historical role and influence in Korea, Korean vocabulary was heavily influenced by Chinese. In fact, around 60 to 80 percent of Korean words are believed to be of Chinese origin, though their dramatic changes in pronunciation can sometimes make the similarities hard to spot.

Furthermore, Sino-Korean words are typically used in more formal or literary contexts, so the everyday Korean equivalent that native speakers use might be completely different.

In any case, if you already speak one of these languages, you'll get a helpful shortcut to learning vocabulary in the other language, especially as you become more advanced.

Here are some examples of Chinese words in Korean – notice their pronunciation.

Due to the geographical proximity of China and Korea, there are many words in Korean that come from Chinese.

Pronunciation

In most cases, Korean pronunciation is fairly straightforward and easy to pick up for non-native speakers.

Korean pronunciation tends to be more regular and predictable compared to languages like English. This is because Korean is a syllable-timed language, meaning that syllables tend to follow each other at regular intervals, with roughly equal time allocated to each syllable. 

This creates a more even rhythm that many learners find easier to master than the stress-timed patterns of English.

Chinese, however, presents a much greater challenge. As a tonal language, the pitch of your voice can completely change the meaning of a word. This makes Chinese quite difficult to speak because of its many sounds combined with its four main tones.

For many learners, this can be intimidating and even mind-boggling, especially for anyone who doesn't already speak a tonal language.

Writing System

One of the key differences between Korean and Chinese is the writing system. As you're probably already aware, Chinese uses a character-based writing system, or 汉字 (hànzì).

On average, a Mandarin speaker needs to know approximately 2,000 to 3,000 characters to read a standard newspaper or novel comfortably.

Luckily, beginners can depend on the Pinyin system, which is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in Mainland China. Once you've learned all the sounds and tone markers, you'll be able to read the pronunciation of any character in a dictionary.

Korean, on the other hand, has an alphabet called Hangul.

From Hanja to Hangul

The Korean alphabet has a fascinating history. Koreans originally used Classical Chinese characters (called Hanja 한자) as their primary writing script, and just like in China, texts were traditionally written top to bottom, right to left.

However, this meant that a large portion of the Korean population remained illiterate due to the difficulty of learning Chinese characters. In 1443, King Sejong the Great, the fourth ruler of the Joseon Dynasty, created the Korean alphabet (Hangul 한글).

Hangul is remarkably simple and consists of 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Thanks to its straightforward design, it dramatically increased the country's literacy rate.

Hangul is typically written from left to right in syllabic blocks with spaces between words, making it quite pleasant to read and, to some extent, easier to process than Chinese characters.

Although knowledge of Hanja is still used in high-level academic circles and remains useful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words, its use has declined drastically since the 1970s, when the South Korean government stopped requiring it in primary school curricula.

Hangul's elegant simplicity shines through its 24 letters. Students often start reading and writing Korean within hours of their first lesson.

The Influence of Culture on Language

Language is more than just words—it’s a reflection of how people think, feel, and connect with one another. In both China and Korea, centuries of Confucian thought have gently shaped the way people communicate.

From the tone of everyday conversations to the words chosen to show respect, traces of these timeless values still echo in how people speak today.

Confucianism and Chinese Honorifics

Both Chinese and Korean cultures are heavily influenced by Confucianism, a philosophy that developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius.

Confucianism emphasizes social values and places great importance on respecting and acknowledging hierarchies between people, believing that only through this can social harmony be achieved.

These hierarchies are expressed through the use of honorifics—conventional words, titles, or grammatical forms that signal respect, politeness, and social deference.

However, Confucianism in China was widely suppressed and seen as an obstacle to progress during the early communist era. With the establishment of the Communist Party of China in 1949, the notion of hierarchical class drastically lost its influence.

Today, while honorifics are still used in contemporary Chinese for formal documentation like business letters and when addressing elders in formal settings, they have been greatly simplified and are rarely used in everyday conversations.

Some examples of Chinese honorifics (中文敬语; Zhōngwén jìngyǔ) include using "本人" (běnrén; myself, oneself; formal) when referring to oneself instead of "我" (wǒ; me, I; informal), or "贵公司" (guì gōngsī; your company; formal) instead of "你们的公司" (nǐmen de gōngsī; your company; informal) when addressing a business.

Traditional Confucian values of respecting one's elders remain embedded in daily interactions, even as modern societies have simplified many formal hierarchical practices.

Korean Honorifics

Korean honorifics, however, are far more complex, and daily conversations are filled with them. This is because Confucian ideology remains at the foundation of Korean culture and continues to have enormous influence on how people communicate with each other.

In Korea, formal speech is always used when addressing people older than you or in positions of higher authority (such as a boss versus an employee, or a teacher versus a student). In Korean, you must consider your relationship with both the person you’re speaking to and the person you’re referring to.

It's therefore extremely common for Koreans to ask someone's age upon meeting. This establishes whether the person is older than you, in which case using honorifics is expected as a way to show respect.

Formal speech is even used among family members, especially as children grow up and reach adulthood. For example, it’s not uncommon for someone to refer to their dad as 아빠 (appa; ‘dad’; informal) as a child, but then switch to using 아버지 (abeoji; ‘father’; formal) once they become an adult.

Number of Speakers

One of the major differences between the Chinese and Korean languages is the sheer number of native and non-native speakers.

Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world by native speakers, and the second most spoken language in the world when including both native and non-native speakers. It is also the official language of Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore, and widely spoken by Chinese groups in Malaysia and many other countries around the world.

The Korean language, on the other hand, is spoken by approximately 77 million people, primarily in North and South Korea. There are also around 2 million Korean speakers in China, including the 朝鲜族 (cháoxiǎn zú), which are Chinese citizens of Korean descent who form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the Chinese government.

Lingua Franca vs Soft Power

As mentioned previously, Chinese is the most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers. Due to China's tremendous economic growth, Chinese has also gained popularity and gradually become one of the main second languages taught in schools worldwide.

In some countries and regions, particularly in Asia, Chinese may be more widely spoken as a second language than previously, and you'll often find public transport announcements in Chinese alongside local languages in major international cities and tourist destinations.

Growing global interest in Chinese culture encompasses language learning alongside traditional arts like painting, music, taiji, and travel to China's iconic destinations.

Korean, on the other hand, isn't experiencing the same rise in educational systems worldwide, though it is steadily climbing the foreign language popularity rankings due to the growing influence of Korean culture. 

Over the past two decades, K-pop and Korean dramas have given the Korean language widespread appeal far beyond Asia, with Korean language courses seeing dramatic enrollment increases in universities across North America, Europe, and other regions.

This cultural influence means that both languages offer an abundance of engaging learning materials, so you'll never be short on content regardless of which language you choose to learn.

Should I learn Korean or Chinese? 

So after all of this, you might still be wondering which language to learn!

At the end of the day, this is a personal decision based on many factors. Both languages are beautiful and come with rich cultures. Do you want to understand all of your favorite Korean songs, or be able to chat with locals in your neighborhood's Chinatown?

In general, Chinese has a steeper learning curve at the beginning due to its use of characters and tonal nature. But the more you progress, the easier it becomes, and the grammar is refreshingly straightforward, especially if you're tired of wrestling with languages that have complex tenses and conjugations.

And if you are interested in learning Mandarin, you can always consider enrolling in CLI’s one-on-one Online Program and learn Chinese from the comfort of your own home!

In comparison to Chinese, Korean has more complex grammar, but nothing you couldn't master. It also has a straightforward alphabet that you could learn within hours, meaning you can start reading and writing very quickly.

Regardless of which language you choose to learn, you ultimately won't have any regrets. Both are excellent investments that will require equal amounts of hard work and discipline. And if you're still in doubt, you can always learn both!

Chinese grammar lacks verb conjugations, grammatical gender, and singular/plural agreements, making it simpler compared to many other languages with complex grammatical rules.

Korean vs Chinese Vocabulary

Tania Yeromiyan

Tania holds a BA in Arabic and Chinese from the University of Leeds, which led her to spend two years studying in Taiwan and Egypt as part of her degree. Her interests include Chinese traditional theater, international education, and programming. Tania travels to China annually and is fluent in Chinese.