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Chinese or Japanese: which is easier? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6889 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 25 of 73 22 April 2012 at 6:24am | IP Logged | |||||
It's probably true that in the 'real world' very few people take up another language unless they have to, but HTLAL has its share of users who are into languages for their own sake, and for such users the language choice is not necessarily part of a "personal life-changing decision". So, we have two categories of learners who may aproach the language selection process differently, which is not surprising. As far as it being a bit of hair-splitting to take the general relative difficulty of Mandarin and Japanese into account when choosing between the two, we are in agreement. I would, however, find it easier to understand if someone were looking at the differences in a specific area of concern to him or her. Edited by frenkeld on 23 April 2012 at 1:57am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Superking Diglot Groupie United States polyglutwastaken.blo Joined 6589 days ago 87 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 26 of 73 22 April 2012 at 6:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think we can all agree at this point that Mandarin is so hard, that it's doubtful that even native speakers really know how to speak it. I posit they're all just making it up as they go along.
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| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5361 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 27 of 73 22 April 2012 at 6:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think we can disagree on that...
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| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4617 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 28 of 73 22 April 2012 at 6:56am | IP Logged | |||||
Why would it be hollow? Different people learn languages for different reasons. In another thread, you provided a list of factors you think people need to consider to select a language. While that list wouldn't be useful to me, I accept that it's useful to you. It's good to keep an open mind about these things, since we vary so much as individuals. Regarding the topic, Mandarin is easier than Japanese for me. Grammar is my weak point, and for me Japanese grammar is much harder than Mandarin grammar. Also, I find multiple readings to be more difficult that multiple characters. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4955 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 29 of 73 22 April 2012 at 11:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks nway. One of the things I love about this forum is broadening my horizons.
And to the question "why do we compare languages' difficulty", there is a simple answer. We enjoy it and as we never come all to an agreement (except for the obvious variations, such as comparison of Mandarin and Swedish), we can enjoy the discussion repeatedly. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5002 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 30 of 73 22 April 2012 at 11:10am | IP Logged | |||||
I wonder why. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6543 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 31 of 73 22 April 2012 at 2:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
Also, Danish is often said to be more difficult than Swedish or Norwegian, because while their difficulty is similar, the Danish pronunciation is considered more difficult. Though really it's all just theoretic in my case. I have enough interest in Danish that I made up my mind without hesitation. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6889 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 32 of 73 22 April 2012 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
If my memory is right, it was furyou_gaijin who said that. He chose to remain a bit mysterious, listing Latin as his native language. He profile currently lists Japan as the country of residence. I also recall that he mentioned having done simultaneous interpreting, and that his native language was not English. From what I rememeber, he had studied Mandarin and Japanese, as well as several other languages. He may have been from Russia, but that would be speculation on my part. I had the impression he knew Russian well and had at least visited the country. I would certainly seek an independent corroboration of this claim if you are about to jump into Japanese or Italian. :) Edited by frenkeld on 23 April 2012 at 2:01am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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