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Japanese kanji vs Chinese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| anothermember Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6711 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 22 30 August 2006 at 11:32am | IP Logged |
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The kanji used in Japanese compared to the current writing system used in Chinese.
I have wondered for a while to what extent does learning one help with learning the other. For example, I am just starting to learn Japanese kanji so I want to know will this someday make reading written Chinese easier? So, to what extent have the characters changed over time? What about the pronunciation, how different now is the Japanese "on'yomi" reading to what is found in Chinese language today? I imagine quite different, but is it at least slightly beneficial to know them? And finally although the language may be different, since kanji represent meaning could someone read some written chinese with knowledge only of Japanese kanji? Edited by anothermember on 30 August 2006 at 11:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| japkorengchi Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6680 days ago 334 posts - 355 votes  | Message 2 of 22 30 August 2006 at 10:57pm | IP Logged |
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Learning Japanese to a high level (level 1 Proficiency Test passed, for example) will automatically make you literate in written Chinese to a very high extent. An educated Japanese can easily understand an impressing amount of written Chinese without any training in Chinese. And more interestingly, the more difficult the content of a Japanese text, the more kanji we can discover, and so the more similarities between a Japanese/Chinese version of the same text.
In terms of vocabulary acquisition, a solid foundation of Japanese can largely shorten your time in learning Chinese. Many common Chinese characters in use can be found in the Japanese language with identical or slightly different meanings. And the toning system of Chinese is compensated by its much less rigid polite form system as Japanese does. Both Japanese and Chinese have undergone a simplification process in the previous century. Fortunately, many characters are simplified in the same way, or in different ways that can be easily detected and thus mutually understandable. It’s different to link the reading of Japanese kanji and Chinese characters. On the one hand, Japanese kanji bears so many readings for the same character, making comparisons difficult. On the other hand, the similarities between Kanji and spoken Chinese vary from one Chinese dialect to another dialect. My personal view is that usually either the vowel or consonant of a Chinese character is retained in its Japanese counterpart, and southern Chinese dialects (such as Cantonese) sound more similar to kanji. You can communicate with Chinese or even Korean in Japanese kanji without reading them in the Chinese/Korean ways. So it’s quite a good bargain as you buy one(Japanese) and get 3(Japanese, in addition to some communication skills with Chinese and Korean). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| japkorengchi Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6680 days ago 334 posts - 355 votes | Message 3 of 22 30 August 2006 at 11:00pm | IP Logged |
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I am sorry that I made a typing mistake. It should be 'it's difficult to link the reading of Japanese kanji and Chinese characters'~
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| anothermember Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6711 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 22 31 August 2006 at 7:56am | IP Logged |
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Thanks, thats great. Looks like it is time well spent learning it then.
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| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7318 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 22 31 August 2006 at 5:25pm | IP Logged |
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GJ, you can also try searching previous posts on this forum regarding the topic. There were some who thought that learning one set doesn't necessarily make it easier for you to learn the other set. My opinion is that the best it can do is save time learning how to write and when stuck in China/Korea/Japan, at least you can use Chinese characters in the event that the use of English fails.
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| anothermember Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6711 days ago 12 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 22 01 September 2006 at 4:00am | IP Logged |
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Well its quite important to me that I understand the written language for the things I want to do with it. I don't want to just "get by", and anyway I'm enjoying learning Kanji.
Before I started this topic I tried searching but didn't come up with anything, I wouldn't have posted this otherwise. If you've got a link that would be great. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AML Senior Member United States Joined 6825 days ago 323 posts - 426 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 7 of 22 03 September 2006 at 1:52pm | IP Logged |
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I know that they are similar.
I have a japanese friend who once went to China on vacation. He doesn't speak any Chinese. However, his wife got sick, and they went to a pharmacy. No one at the pharmacy spoke any Japanese. My friend and the pharmacist used Kanji to communicate with each other, and my friend got the proper medicine. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hagen Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6960 days ago 171 posts - 179 votes 6 sounds Speaks: German*, English, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 22 04 September 2006 at 6:33am | IP Logged |
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Communicating at a pharmacy is quite a special situation, involving rather technical vocabulary, some of which might have been borrowed into Chinese from Japanese. You could probably do the same between European languages with all the Latin and Greek medical terms. Of course, the body parts might be another case, but there pointing is about as effective as knowing the word... ;-)
I'm not saying that knowing Kanji won't help with Chinese - far from it. Only the test setup would have to be broader. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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