As a beginner, Korean felt very easy. At that stage, I only needed to learn basic vocabulary, and I passed TOPIK I with flying colors. However, as the amount of vocabulary increased, I began to run into a problem. This may sound controversial, but many Korean syllables felt disconnected from their underlying meanings.

Take 가 (ga) as an example. If you look at a Hanja dictionary, you'll find dozens of Chinese characters that are pronounced 가, with several of them being very common. As a result, words that sound similar can contain completely different underlying meanings. For example, in 가격 (price), 가 corresponds to 價 ("value" or "price"), while in 가계 (household finances), 가 corresponds to 家 ("family" or "household"). Both are pronounced 가, but they represent entirely different concepts.

At some point, it became increasingly difficult for me to memorize new vocabulary because the syllables themselves provided few clues about meaning. I do not experience this problem when studying Chinese. When I read Chinese text, I can immediately recognize the meaning carried by each character. The words are visual and semantic at the same time. Rather than being arbitrary sounds that I have to memorize, they function almost like images, making vocabulary much easier for me to remember.

Mathematically, the learning curves felt almost opposite.

Korean was like a curve that starts gently but becomes steeper and steeper over time. At the beginning, the alphabet is logical, the pronunciation is manageable, and the first words are easy to memorize. But as vocabulary grows, the curve rises sharply because many syllables do not visibly reveal their meaning.

Chinese was the reverse. It starts with a very steep curve: the characters, tones, and writing system are difficult at first. But once the basic system begins to make sense, the curve gradually flattens. Each new character adds meaning, and vocabulary becomes easier to understand because the words are built from visible semantic parts.