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Chinese characters after Japanese Kanji | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| G2Ident89 Newbie United States Joined 5340 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 1 of 4 01 June 2010 at 11:33pm | IP Logged |
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I'm working on learning the Japanese Kanji now but I also hope to one day go back and learn the Chinese characters as well for studying Mandarin. I was wondering if knowing the Japanese Kanji(like the JoYo Kanji List and then some) would give me a leg up on learning the Chinese characters.
How much of a cross-over between these two character-based languages(Japanese and Mandarin) is there? If I know the meaning of a character in Japanese, will it have the same or similar meaning in Mandarin? How similar are the pronunciations for characters in Standard Japanese vs. Standard Mandarin? ALso, if anybody speaks either of these languages or has studied both, how confusing does it get when going from Japanese characters to the Chinese? How quickly can one master the Chinese characters if you already know the Japanese Kanji? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Akalabeth Groupie Canada Joined 5522 days ago 83 posts - 112 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese | Message 2 of 4 02 June 2010 at 12:58am | IP Logged |
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I've not studied Chinese, but I have managed to read parts of ingredient labels on
Chinese products using my knowledge of kanji, so there is overlap. It will definitely make things easier I think. The Japanese characters pronunciations are divided into kun-yomi (Japanese derived) and on-yomi (Chinese derived), and so knowing the on-yomi would help partly for knowing the pronunciation in Chinese. That said, a number of the on-yomi are based on historical pronunciations, so some of the current pronunciations that Mandarin uses are probably quite a bit different. Also, Japanese uses a very different set of sounds than Mandarin, so the on-yomi can't represent them perfectly in the first place. I think knowing the Japanese readings could probably be used as a reminder if you can't forgot how a character was pronounced in Mandarin, but only if the information is still lurking in your brain somewhere. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6771 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 4 02 June 2010 at 3:03am | IP Logged |
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If I know the meaning of a character in Japanese, will it have the same or similar meaning in Mandarin?
90% of the time, yes. The Japanese character usually reflects its meaning in Classical Chinese, which in some cases has changed in the transition to modern Mandarin. However, the more technical the term, the more likely it is to be identical in both languages. Also, Chinese has begun doing the reverse, borrowing new meanings from Japanese kanji. How similar are the pronunciations for characters in Standard Japanese vs. Standard Mandarin? There's definitely a resemblance, but Mandarin has changed quite a bit from Medieval/Classical Chinese. Some characters are pronounced almost identically, and some quite different, but there are patterns that you begin to see. ALso, if anybody speaks either of these languages or has studied both, how confusing does it get when going from Japanese characters to the Chinese? How quickly can one master the Chinese characters if you already know the Japanese Kanji? Once you know a thousand or so kanji, learning new characters just in general becomes easier. The haphazard simplifications used by continental Mandarin can be a little strange, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| G2Ident89 Newbie United States Joined 5340 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 4 02 June 2010 at 5:08am | IP Logged |
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Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions.
I was mainly worried that, once I knew the Japanese Kanji, going on to learn the Chinese characters would almost be like starting from scratch. I figure if I know the meaning of the character in Japanese(as well as how to write it and such) then I'll be leaps and bounds ahead of where I might have been. I'm wondering if it would be possible to learn a lot more Chinese characters in half the time if I already know the Japanese ones. Right now I'm thinking yes but I'll have to try and find out. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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