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Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ziloh Newbie China Joined 4948 days ago 8 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 39 11 September 2011 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm looking to start studying a new language, I hope some points can be clarified for me. I'm interested in Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. I'm leaning towards learning Mandarin first, however I think in the future I will pick up the other two languages. I have heard that these three languages overlap in some ways.
I've heard that Japanese uses three different styles to write, I believe that kanji (?) is the use of Chinese characters. Do these kanji retain the same meaning as their Chinese character counterpart? I have never delved into Korean, however I have heard something that Chinese characters are used in some ways in this language? I'm pretty sure I understand some basic concepts on the grammar differences between the three, Japanese and Korean have similar grammatical structures, whereas Mandarin retains grammar that is somewhat similar to English. Please let me know if this is not the case. Starting with Mandarin is for my own reasons, however by learning the characters, would this benefit me down the road if I ever do pick up Japanese? Would this also have a similar benefit to Korean, or almost no impact at all? Thanks for any help, it is greatly appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DNB Bilingual Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4886 days ago 47 posts - 80 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, Estonian*, English | Message 2 of 39 11 September 2011 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't learn any of those languages if I didn't have deep interest in them, so I
hope you have this. I'm learning Korean because I find the language itself really fascinating, but I'm dedicating tons of time to it everyday. Mandarin has the most speakers, so it would obviously give you the highest chance for practicing the language overseas because of the higher number of Chinese immigrants compared to Korean or Japanese. You pretty much stated the obvious; A half of learning the characters is 'learning how to learn' itself already, so when you have that down in Mandarin, transitioning into Japanese kanji should be much easier than for someone completely new. Plus, you would know the simplified characters already, of which many are very similar to kanji. However, my main point was that whatever of these three you choose, give it your 100%, because otherwise the progress will be surprisingly slow, and thus less motivating overall. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5231 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 3 of 39 11 September 2011 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, Japanese utilizes quite a few Chinese characters. I have heard the number is around 1,000. Beyond that, I'm not sure what benefits there would be. And if you're looking for opinions, I'd say choose one and focus on it. Those three languages are some of the hardest ones around. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DNB Bilingual Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4886 days ago 47 posts - 80 votes Speaks: Finnish*, Estonian*, English | Message 4 of 39 11 September 2011 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
If you mean that Japanese uses mainly only 1000 characters, then I think that is wrong. I'm not an expert, but if I remember correctly, Japanese kids during their compulsory education learn 1945 characters, and about a thousand more if they continue to high school. According to this, the amount of characters one should know in order to read comfortably is around 2000 at minimum, and 3000 is pretty much the ideal. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Edited by DNB on 11 September 2011 at 6:51pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ziloh Newbie China Joined 4948 days ago 8 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 39 11 September 2011 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks to both of you for your information and opinion. I've seen glimpses of the cultures due to travel, and been very interested ever since. I was very curious about how they are connected to one another, and if they all make the other languages clearer. Similar to how I picture Latin explaining English words. I'm planning on putting my effort on one language at a time, and hopefully a year of studying followed by a nice excuse for a trip.
Jasoninchina, I've also heard that these are some of the hardest languages around. That was actually on my mind when I wrote my initial questions. Are they only considered hard because it is starting from a language such as English? Would starting from Korean and learning Japanese, or Mandarin to Japanese be much easier, or have little effect on the overall amount of effort required? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5415 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 6 of 39 11 September 2011 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese uses Chinese characters, but they're different from the ones you'll be studying when you're learning Chinese, because 1) Japan adopted them long ago, and long before the simplification process in the PRC, and 2) they often have different meanings from in Chinese.
Korean does indeed occasionally use Chinese characters in the form of hanja, but only rarely, and although it would certainly help relative to nothing at all, it's probably not worth the effort to learn them if you're trying to balance it with two other languages that already use them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6294 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 7 of 39 12 September 2011 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||
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There are several threads on this exact topic.
There are tons of good study materials available for each of these language. Regardless of which one you start with, it will be easier when you start on the second one in the group. (The first one will hurt though.) Pick the one you are most interested in and study hard for a couple of years. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| misslanguages Diglot Senior Member France fluent-language.blog Joined 4846 days ago 190 posts - 217 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 8 of 39 12 September 2011 at 2:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Pick Korean. Hangul is really pretty, and Korean is melodious. :)
1 person has voted this message useful |
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