I have two Indian co-workers from the very same city in India , when one calls home she is speaking in Ordoo , the other speaks in Punjabi …as a programmer , I joke and tell them the official language of India is C++ anyway 
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hehe for that you’ll have to factor in descent and sometimes religion too…especially if they’re from a metro like Mumbai, there’s an entire mix of cultures and languages…some people have two or three native languages!
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A lot of Korean women feel the same way, especially if they are not married! 
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Unless if you actually know at least one of those languages, it will be hard to distinguish them.
But here’s an interesting fact. Although Korean and Japanese sound very different in general, the sound of the Korean Busan dialect can be very similar to the Japanese intonation. Busan is geographically very close to Japan so that might be why the intonation is similar. I can fully understand and speak both standard Seoul dialect and Busan dialect.
One day I was at a restaurant when I heard a couple sitting at the next table speaking softly. I initially thought they were talking with Busan accent, but for some strange reason I couldn’t understand what they were saying, and then I realized that they were actually speaking Japanese.
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Okay so I am no expert… but chinese is much harsher on the ears than Korean. Korean has lots of nim sounds, and is more melodic. The different dialects have variation in sound too… Most of what we are use to is what is seoul dialect or something to that effect. (again just my observation, I am not Korean)
Chinese has lots of SH sounds. Xi Xiau and so on… I would say Mainland chinese is less guteral than like what they speak in Hong Kong. I can hear the difference but cant explain better without understanding the written and phonetic differences. There is also more modern vs. traditional words… At least based on my understanding.
The synthax in Korean is more like Farsi or Spanish. Where the place of the verbs and subjects alter from english.
Hope I am not completely mistaken, but this is my understanding.
I speak 5 languages, English, German, Turkish, Farsi and Arabic… I can read and write in them as well… I understand about 20-30% of a chinese episode without subs… but can basically get the whole of most Korean ones. In fact, although I am translating from Eng to Farsi… I often check the original Korean as the phrase and sayings line up much better to Farsi.
ANyways, learning new languages is great.
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Hyderabad - Culinary Capitol of India
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I have noticed as well a dialect difference that make it harder too, I have Chinese friends who are immigrants , and I notice the tonal quality is so different then when spoken in C-Dramas. To be blunt about it, somewhere in China , someone finds it sexy or cute for a woman to mumble when she speaks; notice that the male speakers are much clearer when saying the same thing ? I caught on to this with the Koreans to, as sometimes the femme fatale or ‘hottie’ character will speak with a Busan accent ; I guess this sort of marketing is global as we in the US have the whole “Southern Belle”/Ellie Mae thing with American women of Southern descent.
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When you start learning hundreds of words without essentially even trying, ye’ll them out at characters in the series… You realize you binged 30-40 dramas, and it’s only been 2.5-3 months since you’ve started kdrama…
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The biryani!
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My entire Korean lesson in a nutshell
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CHMkPozpj25/?igshid=bcukmmhbx49g
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My boss is from there , every office potluck we have , she gets bombarded with requests, it occurred to us that the people there take cooking very seriously …her dishes last about 45 seconds…
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Someone mentions the band Coldplay and you hear Crudeplay
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I believe it. I spent two weeks in Hyderabad on business, and the food is up there among my favorite memories of that time. Pairing different kinds of dal and naan with a cold beer was an excellent way to end my workday!
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I dated a guy from Egypt and their food is a bit spicier than ours, but they cook the things with almost the same ingredients we cook in the Island.
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and (I know I will butcher the spelling) - " Gwenchana? " which I think means “I’m ok” or " Are you ok?"
So, just found out “jebal” means please - makes IU’s “Ending scene” more emotionally impactful 
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This happened to me too…‘saranghae’ is such a pretty word to me now, and hearing Cha Ji Won call out to her husband with ‘jagiya!’ at that cruicial cliff moment had me bawling my eyes out . Funny story: I was watching an English movie after a LOOONG time and when the confession scene came, my mind was like “say it, say it, its ‘saranghaeeeee’” and of course the guy went “I love you” and I was just ??? for a second 
Also I was annoyed that it didn’t take ten hours for the OTP to become a couple.
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its not quite that simple. my understanding is that they always dub everything so it sounds better and more people can understand it. china is a vast country and probably the hardest language to learn so it makes sense that they have this practice. also different parts sound way different to my ears then it simply being dialect alone.
Korean dialects are more about regions and class status. like a rich person will have a Seoul accent and a country bumpkin will sound like they drag their words. I find Korean more melodic… and it is structured almost exactly like Farsi so I fond it easier to learn.
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just thought of one more:
You Know You’ve Been Watching Too Many Kdramas When-- your dream is to go to Korea and TASTE THAT ICED AMERICANO!
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Don’t you have them in your own country? 
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When you finally reach Korea but realize there aren’t subtitles
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