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Mandarin or Japanese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| FinalFan3 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5858 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 18 18 November 2008 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey guys,
First off can I just say these forums are great... so motivating to see people studying all these languages! Right, so Mandarin or Japanese? I've been fascinated with Japan and it's culture for many years now (I'm 19) and I've always wanted to learn Japanese. I've learnt bits and bobs but never really got around to it. For my gap year I went to teach English in China as nothing like that was offered in Japan and Japan's also much more expensive. I absolutely loved it and now find myself interested in Chinese culture as well. So I find myself listening to Japanese and Chinese music and watching Chinese and Japanese movies (also like Korean culture, but don't wanna learn that... at least for now). I undertook Mandarin lessons when I was staying in China, so I guess I have a basic grasp. I managed to buy train tickets for example and can recognize basic characters. Now at university and am surrounded by international students and feel stupid being only able to speak English and intermediate French, which I studied at school. So, I'm motivated to learn. I'm gonna self teach this first term and start lessons next term (late applying this term) as my uni offers discounted lessons to students at the language centre. I thought I was gonna go for Japanese, but the more I think about it, the more I'd like to do Mandarin. Actually, I'd like to do both someday. Worried I might forget the Chinese I've already learned if I go for Japanese first? Obviously there are hard and easy parts in both languages. Chinese grammar seems simple, but Japanese pronunciation is easier. I'm also thinking about the characters. You need to learn many more in Chinese than in Japanese to get by, as far as I'm aware? So, as you can probably tell, I'm in a bit of a dilemma. If it's worth any consideration, there are many Chinese students at my uni and not so many Japanese. Oh another thing. I really enjoyed the teaching in China and although it's a way off, I want to apply with the JET scheme to go and teach in Japan for a year after I graduate. You don't need any knowledge for this, but obviously this would help me significantly! Thanks guys!! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5923 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 18 18 November 2008 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think Japanese would be better, since:
-You're interested in the culture. Face it, learning a language doesn't happen overnight. It's a long journey. Motivation will not only make the journey bearable, but it often makes the journey shorter/quicker. -You have future plans for going to Japan. -The fact that your university has Chinese students is not necessarily going to help you with Mandarin (although I could be wrong!). Generally, most Chinese immigrants in North America speak Cantonese, which is actually a different language, and not really a dialect. Btw, even though Chinese uses more characters than Japanese, that does not necessarily make it easier. In Japanese, most characters have 2 or more possible pronunciations ("readings"). So yeah... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rekunoto Senior Member United States Joined 6183 days ago 104 posts - 105 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 3 of 18 18 November 2008 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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-Sigh- If I had a dime for every time there was one of these "should I learn X or X?
Please tell me what I should do strangers on the internet" posts (just kidding :) ) As somebody who has studied both languages (Japanese 14 months, and Mandarin 4), I think I can give me input here. Although I am learning both Japanese and Mandarin now, I spend a lot more time on Mandarin. I highly suggest you learn Mandarin first for multiple reasons. 1. Mandarin is spoken in more countries than Japanese, and much more wide spread than Japanese 2. The simplified Chinese Characters (used in mainland China and Singapore), are obviously a lot "simpler" than the traditional characters. In my opinion, Japanese keeps a lot more traditional characters than it has simplified (Japan simplified many of their own countries). 3. The grammar is A LOT easier! I was always paranoid whether I was using Japanese particles correctly, but it seems like you are able to form sentences easier in Chinese sooner. 4. The multiple readings for Kanji in Japanese is beyond annoying. Most Characters in Mandarin have 1 reading, although a few have 2 or 3. Also, in my experience, learning advanced vocab in Japanese is a pain, because there is so few syllables, and a lack of tones, so a lot of words are sound the same as others, while having different meanings (I believe the word is "homonym" or "synonym", not sure sadly...) 5. Then again, there is always the business aspect. As a fresh man in high school, I have no financial benefits from learning Mandarin, however, you, as a university student, may very well be more into the "business advantages" of knowing multiple languages than I am. I doubt you will want to be an ESL teacher forever, and if you want to live in Japan/China, China seems to be developing quickly (while Japan is already "first world Asia", so I really have no point here...) 6. Subtitles: In my experience, things are not subtitled regularly in Japan (just as they aren't in America), but in China, all media seems to have either simplified or traditional subtitles, depending of course on whether they were created in China or Taiwan, respectively. I am assuming China subtitles everything because Mandarin is still not known by 100% of the population in China (confirmation anyone?) Another thing to keep in mind is dedicating yourself to learning any of the "Big 3" Asian languages (Chinese,Japanese, or Korean), is a HUGE task. It is obviously a lot harder than learning a language closely related to English. Think a lot about whether you really want to know these language,because you will have to sacrifice a lot of time, and energy, as well as money (possibly), so just be prepared to work a lot (although it can be a lot of fun at the same time). Good luck in whatever your choice may be! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6022 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 18 19 November 2008 at 10:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Just as Rekunoto I'm studying both languages at the moment but have exactly the opposite suggestion: start off with Japanese and then move on to Mandarin. Why? If you already know Japanese learning Mandarin is ridiculously easy, it doesn't happen the other way around (and I've talked to people majoring in Chinese, taking Japanese as the second language). Your reading comprehension will be very high right from the start, even though reading out aloud could be confusing.
Hope this helps somehow... Of course the choice is yours. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6156 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 5 of 18 19 November 2008 at 10:35am | IP Logged | |||||
I think one reason why most Chinese-speakers who learn Japanese in courses find it slower than the other way round is because these courses are targeted at Westerners who don't know any Kanji. If knowledge of kanji is taken care of, even if you don't speak Chinese, and you start learning the various readings and uses right off the bat, it will go much more quickly for you than someone else who learns 「がっこうへいきます」 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6156 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 6 of 18 19 November 2008 at 10:37am | IP Logged | |||||
Various aspects of grammar are quite similar, with Chinese usually being the easier language (i.e. lacking all the conjugations of Japanese). Topic-comment constructs for instance, are common in both languages although Chinese doesn't have an overt particle to indicate the topic. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| grwn Groupie Netherlands Joined 5857 days ago 79 posts - 80 votes Speaks: Dutch* | Message 7 of 18 19 November 2008 at 1:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you are going to study both of 'em, I would suggest starting with Mandarin. You
would already know one of the two reading of the Japanese kanji, so your reading comprehension would be quite good. The only written difference is the hiragana and katakana writing systems. Japanese grammar uses particles and conjugations which are harder than the Mandarin grammar. I'm studying Japanese myself, so if you are looking for some advice, even though I just started, just ask. I've got some nice free resources to link to if you want :) grwn.net 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6480 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 8 of 18 19 November 2008 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
Many Japanese kanji have more than two readings, and the readings are not derived from modern Mandarin, either, so they will often not be the same or even similar. 日本 is "Rìběn" in Mandarin, which doesn't sound at all like "Nihon" or "Nippon"!
I'm not sure what you mean by "only written difference". Japanese and Chinese do not use exactly the same set of characters, and the same character or word can mean entirely different things between the two languages. Anyway, my own advice to the original poster is: learn the language you want to learn. If your heart's in learning Japanese, then choose Japanese. Passion is the most important thing in language learning. Passion destroys all barriers. - Kef 1 person has voted this message useful |
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