What's an Easy way of telling Korean words apart from Japanese ones?
 

My friend's struggling with it and he can't tell if a song's in Korean or Japanese.....soo does anyone have a tip on how to tell them apart?

edit: >> sorry for it being in the wrong section :X

Koreans words flow together more and sort of slur onto each other. Japanese syllables are more distinct.

Also in written form, Korean characters are mostly various circles and lines. :)

Korean:한국 엔터테인먼트
Japanese:浜崎あゆみ, 張曼玉, 章子怡

^^- ya it's easy to tell written...i'm talking about vocally >P

~K+ thanks! Anymore noticably different things?

Oh whoops. Sorry. ^-^'

But it's true about that slurred thing. Korean sounds kind of smooth/soft and it all goes together while Japanese is really sharp. I think the round thing mentally relates to the sounds. Korean music "sounds" round, while Japanese never really "sounds" round. That doesn't really make sense but I sort of think it does. XD

ah mah gar there is most of the time the ah sound and alot of slurring i can tell it is easy now listening to alot of BoA lol

but if you hear "Watashi", "Watashi wa","Boku" and "Anata" its Japanese. Those wors are used alot in songs

What words are common in Korean songs?

Haha I know sarang is :P

That's odd. I don't think Korean and Japanese sound anything alike... But yeah Japanese syllables sound more sharp.

you can easilydistinguish syllables in Japanese songs. With Korean language and Chinese seem a bit more bunched up, or slurred

I think any slurring sounds are based on how a person pronounces them, IMO it's very easy to distinguish syllables in Chinese.

Anyways, Korean has words with the ending of "-ng" so if you hear that sound, it's Korean. Also, many Korean words end in consonants whereas all Japanese words end with vowels. Otherwise, there are words that sound an awful lot alike. For instance, the word "library" sounds pretty similar in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.

I used to have a Korean roommate, so I can tell if someone speaks Korean right away because there are words that they use often (arusou, etc). But in music, sometimes it's hard to tell (especially if you aren't really paying attention).

:) My friend's got it now! :) thanks to all of you ^^ -hug-

That's true.
Korean is .. uh .. well, not my favorite language to hear :o I can definitaly tell the difference between Japanese and Korean.
Korean in my opinion is too rough of a language on my ears. I really love Japanese, it's so creative.

I disagree, Korean is a beautiful language to hear. It's so rhythmic, but soft and smooth, not jagged or piercing.

Like people mentioned, the consonants are a dead give away: Korean syllables often end in consonants (some of which don't appear in Japanese, "ng"). The only consonant sound a Japanese syllable can end in (although it is actually it's own syllable - listen for Japanese singers holding this sound), is "n". Aditionally, listen for vowels. Japanese only has 5 vowels, all pure: a i u e o. Korean has those 5, plus several "lazy," in-between vowels (ae, û, ô, etc...) and therefore several dipthongs that don't appear in Japanese.

Japanese and Korean share a lot of words which come from Chinese. Once you learn how a certain Chinese character is pronounced in Japanese and Korean, it's really kinda fun and easy to pick out differences and similarities in the two languages. For example, "promise" is "yaku-soku" in Japanese and "yak-sok" in Korean. Eternity is "ei-en" [J] and "yông-wôn" [K]. The changes are pretty standard, so for instance, if you come across another Japanese word with an "ei"-Kanji in it, it will probably have "yông" in its Korean form.

There are a few other ways to tell the difference, but I think the consonants are the most obvious.

Some common words to look out for in K-pop songs might be: sarang, na, nô, kûdae, kû, kûnyô, byôr, yaksok, yôngwôn, maûm/mam, wae, ônje, mosûb, ôdum, bit, sungan, et cetera...

Ah! So do i! I think korean is beautiful ^_^b along with russian.

I always mix Japanese and Korean. I just wait until I understand a bit of it, or write it off as Korean ^^ haha

But really... I was trying to figure out if all these BoA songs were Japanese or Korean, and I find in her Korean music eery phrase ends with the syllable 'jou'. Listen to 'My Sweetie', you'll see what I mean :) Now I dont know a word of Korean, but maybe it's a clue!

My Korean friend always talks to her boyfriend when I'm around in Korean, and they'll be babbling along and I'll be like.... wha...? But I listen becasue in our Phonetics classes we have a lot of questions about Korean... so I try to hear the things we study... fun fun...

although i agree with you that japanese is a creative language and i do think it is beautiful also, but i disagree with the korean language being rough. far from it. a rough language is us westerners out here. i think we got a pretty rugged language sometimes. actually, not any language is rough on the ears but if there had to be one, korean would be the last because its soft and smooth. dont know what your hearing but maybe your confusing korean with another language :yes

Well, Japanese is spoken with syllables. Korean...I dunno. I just know. If I recognize a word, then I'll know it's Korean. But Japanese, as I already said, is spoken with syllables! Haha. =) So for those who take spanish, you will recognize it. ^^

^all languages are spoken with syllables...