Wakarahen wrote:Oh, is that so. How come there's so little about them? Do most Koreans still speak dialects, or only the older ones? Coming from Japanese I expected a bit more to be written about them, at least the basic feautures
Maybe when my Korean is good enough I'll be able to look into dialectology. I wish there was an easier way to learn them, especially Busan-mal
Most Koreans don't speak dialects. One of the biggest social-demographical differences between South Korea and Japan is that South Korea has a much, much higher populatio concentration around the capital: 1/2 of South Korean population live in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, compared to 1/4 of the Japanese population in the Greater Tokyo Area.
Just to be clear, there IS a lot written about the dialects, but mostly academical. You'll hear dialects on the streets of major non-Seoulite cities (including Busan) but expect quick changes to the standard Korean or even English, most people (unless very, very elderly) are bi-dialectal at least.