Choose the one whose people, media or places you care about more: the FSI rates both at 88 weeks of training, the slowest group for English speakers. Korean is quicker to start reading, with one 24-letter alphabet against Japanese kana plus kanji. Their grammar is remarkably alike, so whichever you learn first gives you a head start on the other.
- FSI time
- 88 weeks for both (Category IV)
- Scripts
- Korean: Hangul only · Japanese: hiragana, katakana and kanji
- Kanji in Contos A1 Japanese
- About 25% of the characters; 368 different kanji in 24 free chapters
- Average free A1 chapter
- 297 Korean syllable blocks · 303 Japanese characters
- Contos teaches
- Standard Seoul Korean and standard Japanese, A1 to B2
Is Korean or Japanese harder for English speakers?
By the best-known measure, neither. The Foreign Service Institute, which trains US diplomats, puts both in Category IV, its "super-hard" group, at 88 weeks of full-time study to a professional level, the same as Arabic and Mandarin. Where they differ is in when the difficulty arrives.
Korean front-loads less. Its alphabet is small and regular, and once you can read it, every word on the page can be sounded out. Japanese asks for two kana scripts and then a long climb through kanji: Japan's official list for everyday writing, revised in 2010, has 2,136 of them. For how the Japanese side looks in detail, see is Japanese hard to learn?, and for Korean, is Korean hard to learn?
How similar are Korean and Japanese grammar?
Very. Both put the verb last, mark each noun's role with a particle after it, and change the verb ending for politeness. The Contos libraries have a bookshop mystery in each language, written separately, and one line in each happens to be built the same way, piece for piece:
서연은 쪽지를 낡은 차통에 넣었습니다.Seoyeoneun jjokjireul nalgeun chatonge neoeotseumnida.
| Job in the sentence | Korean (The Bookshop Notes) | Japanese (The Secret Notes of the Old Book Shop) |
|---|---|---|
| Topic: the person | 서연은 (Seoyeon-eun) | 春子は (Haruko wa) |
| Object: what she puts away | 쪽지를 (jjokji-reul), the note | 手紙を (tegami o), the letter |
| Place: where it goes | 낡은 차통에 (nalgeun chatong-e), in an old tea tin | 引き出しに (hikidashi ni), in the drawer |
| Verb, polite past, last | 넣었습니다 (neoeotseumnida) | 入れました (iremashita) |
The match goes beyond word order. Korean 은/는 and Japanese は both mark the topic; 을/를 and を the object; 에 and に a place or time. If you know one, the other's grammar will look familiar from the first lesson. The vocabulary and the sounds are where they part company.
How different are the writing systems?
This is the biggest practical gap. We compared the free chapters of the two Contos libraries (October 2026), which are written to the same CEFR levels:
| Level | Korean: average free chapter | Japanese: average free chapter | Japanese characters that are kanji | Different kanji in the 24 free Japanese chapters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | 297 syllable blocks | 303 characters | 25% | 368 |
| A2 | 432 | 438 | 31% | 493 |
| B1 | 521 | 533 | 32% | 675 |
| B2 | 667 | 660 | 34% | 858 |
Chapter for chapter, the two are almost the same length on the page. But a Japanese A1 reader already meets several hundred kanji, while a Korean A1 reader meets one alphabet, assembled into blocks. Japanese is also normally written without spaces; Contos adds spaces between Japanese words so each can be tapped, whereas Korean spacing is part of the ordinary spelling. Our Korean writing system guide explains how Hangul blocks work.
Do Korean and Japanese share vocabulary?
Yes, through Chinese. Both languages borrowed a large layer of words from Chinese, often the same words built from the same characters. Japanese still writes them in kanji and Korean now writes them in Hangul, but they still sound related. Every pair below appears in the free chapters of both Contos libraries:
| Korean | Romanised | Japanese | Romanised | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 사진 | sajin | 写真 | shashin | photo |
| 전화 | jeonhwa | 電話 | denwa | phone |
| 비밀 | bimil | 秘密 | himitsu | secret |
| 경찰 | gyeongchal | 警察 | keisatsu | police |
| 계단 | gyedan | 階段 | kaidan | stairs |
| 회사 | hoesa | 会社 | kaisha | company |
| 시간 | sigan | 時間 | jikan | time |
| 학교 | hakgyo | 学校 | gakkō | school |
| 신문 | sinmun | 新聞 | shinbun | newspaper |
The share is large on the Korean side: in the National Institute of Korean Language's analysis of its Standard Korean Language Dictionary, 57% of the main headwords are Sino-Korean. The everyday core, though, is native in each language and unrelated: 집 and 家 (ie) for house, 하다 and する (suru) for to do. Expect to recognise patterns, not to understand the other language.
Which is easier to start reading?
Korean, clearly, because of the script. The two libraries also differ in how their beginner stories are narrated:
- Korean: 5 of the 24 free A1 chapters are narrated in formal -ㅂ니다, the rest in plain written -다; by B1, all are plain.
- Japanese: 22 of the 24 free A1 chapters are narrated mainly in polite -masu form, 8 at A2, none at B1 or B2.
So a Korean beginner meets the plain written style from the start, while a Japanese beginner gets more time with the polite form, and more script to learn. Both counts come from the October 2026 free chapters, sorted by how most sentences end.
How do you choose, and can you learn both?
- Choose Korean if Korean dramas, music, food or people are what pull you in, or if you want to read real sentences within weeks.
- Choose Japanese if it is anime, manga, games, literature or Japan itself, and you are ready for a longer reading apprenticeship through kanji.
- Still undecided? Read chapter 1 of a beginner story in each and keep the one you want to finish. Over 88 weeks of effort, motivation will matter more than script.
Learning both is realistic, but not at once: the shared grammar that helps later makes particles and endings easy to mix up early. Get one language to where you read stories comfortably, around B1, before starting the other. The second will feel shorter. Contos keeps one learning language per account, and both libraries run from A1 to B2. For timelines, compare how long Korean takes with how long Japanese takes.
Try chapter 1 of an A1 Korean story. If you can sound it out by the end, you've already started.
Read free in your browserFrequently asked questions
Can Korean speakers understand Japanese?
Not without learning it. The grammar runs on parallel lines and many Chinese-derived words are related, but the sounds, the native vocabulary and the scripts are different. What a speaker of one does get is a head start on the grammar.
Is Korean easier than Japanese?
To start, yes, because Hangul is one small alphabet and Japanese needs kana plus kanji. Over the long run the FSI rates them the same, at 88 weeks. Korean pronunciation has its own hurdle: tense and aspirated consonants, such as ㄲ and ㅋ, that English doesn't separate.
Does Korean use kanji?
Modern Korean is written in Hangul. Chinese characters, called hanja in Korean, survive mainly in names and some specialist writing, and the Contos Korean stories are written in Hangul. Japanese still uses kanji in every sentence.
Should I learn Korean or Japanese first if I want both?
Many start with Korean because reading comes sooner, but either order works. The grammar you learn first will make the second language feel familiar. Avoid starting both together.
Does Contos teach both Korean and Japanese?
Yes, separately: one learning language per account. Korean is standard Seoul Korean in Hangul; Japanese is standard Japanese written with spaces between words, without romaji or furigana. Both have series from A1 to B2, with chapters 1–2 free.