Both Japanese and Korean are very difficult languages for native speakers of English and other European language speakers.
Japanese is easier to pronounce because of the simpler phonetic rules; Korean has a much easier writing system. Korean writing system, Hangul, is very logical and works so well that Korea can boast around 99% literacy in the whole country.
If you learn Japanese up to an intermediate level, you have to study at least 2000 Kanji which might take your lifetime to learn. Plus, reading Japanese Kanji is not that simple as the characters can be read two or more ways - depending on the contexts and the usage. For example, "風
" means "wind" and it can be read either "kaze" or "fu". In the word of "風船" , it should be read "FU-sen"; however, in the word of "神風", the "風 should be pronounced "kaze" and the word becomes "kamiKAZE". Also, the word "神" (meaning: god, ghost or spirit) can be pronouced either "kami" or "jin". In the word "神社", it is "JIN-ja" but in the word "神風", it is "KAMI-kaze". Non-native speakers of Japanese will never master these super-complicated rules.
The two languages' grammar systems(syntax) are pretty similar that are totally different from European languages. This enables the online translator works pretty well for translating Korean into Japanese and vice versa.
All in all, I would say they are around the same level in terms of difficulty.
<An excerpt from Wikipedi article>
"The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the US Department of State has compiled approximate learning expectations for a number of languages". Of the 63 languages analyzed, the 5 most difficult languages to reach proficiency in speaking and proficiency in reading (for native English speakers who already know other languages), requiring 88 weeks, are: "Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean", with Japanese being the most difficult.
Japanese is easier to pronounce because of the simpler phonetic rules; Korean has a much easier writing system. Korean writing system, Hangul, is very logical and works so well that Korea can boast around 99% literacy in the whole country.
If you learn Japanese up to an intermediate level, you have to study at least 2000 Kanji which might take your lifetime to learn. Plus, reading Japanese Kanji is not that simple as the characters can be read two or more ways - depending on the contexts and the usage. For example, "風
" means "wind" and it can be read either "kaze" or "fu". In the word of "風船" , it should be read "FU-sen"; however, in the word of "神風", the "風 should be pronounced "kaze" and the word becomes "kamiKAZE". Also, the word "神" (meaning: god, ghost or spirit) can be pronouced either "kami" or "jin". In the word "神社", it is "JIN-ja" but in the word "神風", it is "KAMI-kaze". Non-native speakers of Japanese will never master these super-complicated rules.
The two languages' grammar systems(syntax) are pretty similar that are totally different from European languages. This enables the online translator works pretty well for translating Korean into Japanese and vice versa.
All in all, I would say they are around the same level in terms of difficulty.
<An excerpt from Wikipedi article>
"The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the US Department of State has compiled approximate learning expectations for a number of languages". Of the 63 languages analyzed, the 5 most difficult languages to reach proficiency in speaking and proficiency in reading (for native English speakers who already know other languages), requiring 88 weeks, are: "Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean", with Japanese being the most difficult.