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Originally Posted by Roivas
They get their Rs and Ls all mixed up. Funny.
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Yeah, there is a reason for it. I'll explain Korean because I speak it better and have a better grasp of its subtlties than I do of Japanese.
The Korean character that most closely resembles the phonetic value of 'r' is ㄹ (hope you have a text translator). However, this character also resembles 'l'. In the Korean language, syllables are created by forming characters basically into a box (read from left to right, top to bottom; always consonant-vowel-consonant or vowel-consonant; a consonant never takes a secondary position; Korean can create 'ch' and 'sh' sounds only because the characters ㅊ (ch) and ㅅ (sh) carry those sounds independantly of themselves. 'V', 'Z', and 'F' phonetic sounds are impossible to create in Korean. They simply do not exist). These syllables are put together to make words, and some of them stand alone as words. Syllables can be two characters (네, read as 'ney', meaning 'yes'); three syllables 발, read as 'bal', meaning 'foot'); or four characters (닭, read as 'ta'k', meaning 'fowl' or 'chicken'). Putting 닭발 (ta'k-bal) together then means 'chicken foot'. Easy. Now, regarding the ㄹ (r/l) character. Remembering that characters are formed into a box, when ㄹ takes the initial position in a syllable, it creates a phonetic sound similar to 'r'; when ㄹ takes the final position, however, it carries a sound more resembling 'l'. The differences in sounds of ㄹ are very subtle and difficult to hear for non-native speakers. Therefore, Koreans have a difficult time in distinguishing 'r' and 'l' in English.
