The purpose of the study is to provide empirical data on contrastive analysis by clarifying the acoustic properties of L1(Chinese) and L2(Korean) vowels. In Korean language, the distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs is made by the movement of the articulatory organ; however, some mohophthongs in Chinese are perceived as continua of two vowels by native Korean speakers. In order to verify this phenomenon, the vowel quality of Korean /i, e, a, Λ, o, u, ɨ/ produced by ten Korean speakers were compared with Chinese vowels /i, a, ɤ, o, u, y/ produced by ten advanced chinese learners of Korean. Formant frequencies of L1 and L2 were measured in Hz, and three Korean listeners identified Chinese six vowels. The results showed that Chinese /ɤ/ as perceived as a Korean /ɨ/-/Λ/ continuum in 20% of the total tokens, /o/ as an /o/-/Λ/ continuum in 17% and /y/ as an /i/-/u/ continuum in 10%. This data provides useful implications for L2 phonetics teaching and learning by raising the language researchers’ awareness of these speech sounds. (Daegu Cyber University)