8bits

Also, I've noticed a sort of lashback reaction where people start exaggerating how hard Korean is once they realize the problem. But I don't think it's impossibly difficult or anything...it's just that the perception gap created a lack of infrastructure we haven't filled in yet.

(Rather, the fact "is learning Sino-Korean optional" is still even a topic of debate at all when talking base literacy rates alone says a lot about why it's also treated as an expendable bonus in most current second language education programs, even though It Really Shouldn't Be)

-- with laymen who aren't familiar with the difficulty of their own language (this is a common trap for a lot of languages, but I think the deceptiveness of hangul's ease makes the gap even worse here) That's the bottleneck I'm talking about.

As an addendum: People who are actually involved with linguistics have known about the problem for a long time (hence how I learned about it myself eventually), but what I mean is that second language education in practice often involves resources and practical interactions --

2. The gap between "learning" and "mastering" Grammar conjugations in Korean have so many different levels of nuance that you basically can't get by without practical language application, but most programs outside Korea are still too based on theory and not enough on practice

1. Confusing the ease of hangul learning with ease of language learning Even putting aside the fact that orthography =/= semantics, the reality is that you kind of do need to learn Sino-Korean to properly internalize vocabulary

I'm speaking as a linguist, but I worry there's going to be a perpetual problem with Korean second language education as long as Korean people still have this psychological trap of thinking the language is "easy" (it's not out of pure vanity, there really are a lot of traps)