From: furufuru@... (Ryo Furue) Date: 2004-10-08T10:59:47+09:00 Subject: Re: Bit of the Matz Interview (in Rubyist Magazine) Paul Battley wrote in message news:<2ab6a502041007060729ee3110@mail.gmail.com>... > On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 12:24:49 +0900, Ryo Furue > wrote (among other things): > > Korean and Japanese are *very* similar in grammar and in pronunciation. [...] > The grammar is definitely close, but I'd disagree that the > pronunciations of the two languages are "*very* similar". True, > Korean pronunciation is closer to Japanese than, say, English or > French. [... good examples of the differences ...] We don't disagree. We are merely disagreeing on the definition of what is meant by "*very* similar". In fact I know all those differences you mention. If you focus on each sound, you'll find siginificant differences, as you pointed out. On the other hand, as you also agree, in a broader picture, among the world languages like, say, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hebrew, Hindy, Japanese, and Korean (alphabetical order), Japanese and Korean are very similar in pronunciations. You often here these languages on Radio and TV and on the streets. If you ask me which sounds the most like Japanese, I'll say it's Korean. Judging from my observations, Koreans are generally the best non-native Japanese speakers. (I'm not talking about Koreans who grew up under the Japanese occupation before WWII. I'm talking about young Koreans.) If you compare a Korean whose Japanese isn't fluent with an American or a Frenchperson who speaks extremely fluent Japanese, it's usually the Korean whose Japanese *pronunciation* is better. I guess that that's because the *system* of pronunciations is similar between the two languages, differences in each sound notwithstanding. Cheers, Ryo