I have been stuck on this question for a while now. I know that there are various difficulties and benefits with each language, but what I really want is to be as fluent as possible by the time I've completed five semesters of study in this language. I want to know in which language am I more likely to have the most overall proficiency, and will best be able to use/converse. Some say Chinese takes longer (the nearly complete lack of English cognates and a phonetic writing system), and others say Japanese takes longer (all of their synonyms and grammatical differences as well as how the language is used culturally). Some information that may help: -I am an Anthropology major -The Chinese text used at my school is the "Integrated Chinese" series -The Japanese text used is the "Genki" series from the Japan Times -I go to the University of Massachusetts in Boston, MA (in case anyone has taken either language at this school) Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for all the great responses so far! I would really like some answers on one of the main points of my question, and that is, which language takes less time to gain strong speaking proficiency? Also, has anyone worked with the aforementioned texts for the languages, as they will be my basis for learning and I would like to hear from people who've used them in an academic setting. Thanks again!
Languages - 25 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
PIG LATIN will make you big bucks in years to come
2 :
JAPANESE
3 :
they're both great languages. but seeing as china is becoming more important in the world today, chinese may become an important language to learn
4 :
i think you should study japenese
5 :
Yes
6 :
Mandarin Chinese is the langiage of the future....close to 1 billion people speak it now, Japan has a declining population and economy and a lot few people speak the language.
7 :
Study what is most beneficial to you.Only you can decide that.
8 :
Japanese would be more praticable.
9 :
I've heard Japanese is easier... I know a 16 year old who went to Japan for only a few months and is fluent. My aunt and uncle have been trying to learn Mandarin for more than 2 years and they still struggle with it.
10 :
Japanese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11 :
depends on what you need it for. Japanese would serve you well if you need to have language for a business pursuit, but since you are an anthropology major. I guess it justs depends then on where your interests lie. My brother took Japanese for a degree in Economics/minor Japanese and did very well. He really enjoyed it too.
12 :
Wow, same question I've had. I decided on Mandarin Chinese, because each has all the points you raised, but in general, it seems that Chinese will become a more dominate language with their economic boom and whatnot, so I figure I'd be better off with taking Chinese. I say go with Chinese, unless you simply have a really strong passion for Japanese.
13 :
it depends on which one you will be using in the future.
14 :
I study Mandarin chinese. I think it will be the most useful, seeing that the Chinese will/already have/in the process of taking over the world economicly. I goto China every year, which would make sence to study chinese. Chinese Is complex. But I find it easier to learn than I thought it would be. Also theres not alot of specifics in chinese like describing what gender someone is. If you want something easy, Japaneese is probably easier to pronounce. I've take a little of that too. But I think Chinese would be the most useful. The hardest part of Chinese is just the memorization of the charecters. If your good at pronouncing things, its an easy language. I hope that helped. ~Nicole
15 :
hmm to be honest its really up to u, there's good and bad to both languages. And both will probably take some time to master. However for me personally I like Japanese better, I just love the culture and everything about them. And the language is so cool sounding. Um yea hope this helped, good luck! Omg I live in Boston too! Way cool man, I just love this area^-^ have a nice day
16 :
Mandarin! it is the language of the future!
17 :
I think you should study Chinese. True, it is hard, and this is coming from a chinese myself. At first, you HAVE to learn the phonetic writing system. Its the key to learning chinese. Knowing that can make your leanring a lot easier. The advantage of learning chinese: Well to start off, China is one of, if not THE fastest growing nations in the world. In the near future, Chinese (or mandarin) will be as useful as English in the past. Buisiness will grow on it, its much easier to communicate with people. Considering how many chinese and chinese speaker in the world, compared to Japanese, its fairly evident to say that you ahve more of a chance to meet a chinese-speaker. The main problem in Chinese language is the speaking (and hearing), a word can have as many as a few hundred meanings. For example, Zhang can mean dirty, grow, obstacle, a family name, look etc. The way to differentiate is to look that its phonetics. For an american, its gonna be hard, your work will be cut out infront of you, but trust me, learning the language can help you in life later one, BIG TIME.
18 :
As you said, both of these languages have their difficulties and benefits. Both can be confusing because of the various similar sounds. Chinese revolves around the four main accents of a particular sound. Each accented word can mean a different thing. However, in Japanese, there are usually no accented words (except for prolonging a sound). Since there are a limited use of sounds in Japanese, many words have different meanings. For example, "kami" can mean paper, hair, and god. "Hana" can mean flower or nose. Japanese also uses kanji, words borrowed from the Chinese system. To read a newspaper, you need to know at least 2,000 kanji, all 46 of the Katakana (writing system for foreign words and names), and all 46 of the Hiragana characters (native Japanese writing system). In Chinese, knowing at least 1,000 words will be sufficient enough. My suggestion would be Chinese since it may be more useful for you in the future.
19 :
Ooooooh... well, I'm a Mandarin-speaker who desperately wants to be fluent in Japanese, but you're right; Japanese is quite difficult because of the cultural uses. However, I believe that Japanese is probably easier to pronounce and speak (maybe because of my Asian tongue), but the romanji is seriously more dead-on than say the pronunciation of Mandarin characters written in the English alphabet. All you need to know for Japanese is WHERE to stress the word. In Mandarin, there are 5 different sounds for each character, and altering the sound gives a different meaning. *shrugs* Maybe I'm partial to Japanese (even though I speak Mandarin) because I'm fascinated with Japan, it's manga, its culture, etc. In the end, it all depends on which you're more interested in. If you do NOT plan on traveling over to Japan and just plan on staying near MA or going to CA, then Mandarin might be better for you because there are more Chinese than there are Japanese in the US (or at least I believe so because I live in CA, and there are maybe 3 or 4 Japanese students and a whole lot of Chinese ones). I personally would rather learn Japanese, though, because it'd be pretty good for business. Of course, you can always just become fluent in Japanese and THEN study Mandarin for another five semesters (or vice versa), can't you? Who says you've got to limit your knowledge to just one foreign language?
20 :
Okay, so im probably not as old as some the the college people and beyond here but i know this. Since i speak Chinese and Japanese fluently i think u should learn Chinese. Although Chinese and japanese are alike the mandarin chinese language is growing and the japanese language is dimishing. So it is in my opinion that u should study Chinese but however this is your choice.
21 :
I'm speaking from a more biased point of view because of the simple fact that my b/f is Japanese/Puerto Rican and so in my house we speak Japanese, Spanish, and English... I'd have to say learn Japanese... simply because The Japanese and Chinese languages are not easy to learn that's for sure. But if you love anime then knowing Japanese would be a great thing for you. Plus, I think it's much smoother than Chinese. Moving from biased point and on to something that could be more helpful. Let's say this, why don't you take both classes *not for a full year or anything*... but just take them for one semester and see which one you like best. And whichever one you like best then take that language. *and if you can't do that* Then you can either buy the language CD for both languages *meaning buying two different how-to-speak cd's*, or buy the language CD for All Asian languages *buying one how-to-speak cd for all Asian languages* and then decide from that CD which one you wanna take. I may like something completely different then from what you like so I couldn't choose for you. HTH
22 :
mandarin because right now china is growing fast,so if you know chinese your chances of getting a job compared to one that knows jap. might be higher
23 :
You should study Japanese because japan is way more exiting than china. However in the news they keep saying Chinese will be the next spanish, as in the next biggest language besides english. Elementary Schools are now teaching mandarin, but i'll still say to study japanese, they have the anime, movies, electronics, etc...
24 :
As someone else already mentioned--I myself am also a native Chinese/Mandarin speaker who is interested in Japanese language and culture. If you want to pick the more practical, useful one, I would say Chinese because like others have already said--China's economy and world power is growing very fast. Both languages are equally hard, but I will say that if you learn Chinese first--Japanese will be a LOT easier for you to learn later on because Japanese borrowed lots of characters from the Chinese language and the sounds will be easier to pronounce. For now, I would recommend Chinese, but the choice is ultimately up to you! Good luck.
25 :
Learn Chinese, it's much more easier than Japanese, and the number of speaker is 10 times more important... http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese
