How does Chinese differ from Japanese? Chinese or Japanese? Which language is easier and which is more difficult to learn?

From year to year, knowledge of oriental languages ​​is becoming more and more in demand, many people sign up for courses every month. Chinese can be called the most popular language, Korean and Japanese are slightly behind it. Many people who want to join Eastern culture are faced with the question: which of the three languages ​​to choose?

If you…

... have nothing against metal chopsticks, easily put up with the lack of pillowcases and duvet covers, love spicy food, ultra-modern transport and unusual clothes, your choice is courses Korean language. In addition, you will have to take off your shoes at the doorstep of the house (not a centimeter beyond the outlined zone!), eat rice at every meal, go hiking and not smile in vain on the streets.

...tolerate the dirt on the streets, widespread smoking and noise, admire ancient culture, delighted with tea ceremonies and respectful attitude towards elders - take the course Chinese language. In addition, you will simply see incredible love towards children, a free attitude towards punctuality and an ineradicable desire to deceive a partner at least a little in trading transactions.

... value sophistication and silence, are ready to respect other people's traditions, even strange ones, are fans of raw fish, courses will be ideal for you Japanese language. Ikebana, origami, geisha art, haiku tercet, anime and manga, kabuki theater - you will learn all this by getting to know the culture of Japan better. Do not think that these are some complex matters - basic knowledge about, for example, calligraphy will be given to you by courses.

Chinese language: reasons for popularity

As mentioned above, Korean language courses attract far fewer applicants than Chinese courses. This is due to the fact that the Chinese language is much more widespread in the world, and even its complexity for the European mind does not deter determined listeners. In addition, business with China is very developed today, and the main purpose of training is usually work necessity.

On the other hand, there are much fewer specialists in Japan and Korea, so there will be little competition in the profession. Russia has stable ties with both of these countries. If you live in Far East, then in any case you will find yourself Good work– if, of course, you become a successful specialist in your field based on your studies.

When choosing an Eastern language to study, listen to your feelings: do you like the speech, writing, culture of the country; whether you can devote enough time to studying; How did you cope with pronunciation in other languages? Evaluate all aspects, and the right decision will appear in your head!

People usually have the idea that both of these Asian languages ​​are similar, and someone who speaks Chinese can also understand Japanese, and vice versa. Indeed, Chinese and Japanese and have common roots, but nevertheless there are more than enough differences. Each of these languages ​​is unique from each other. The alphabet, grammar, pronunciation and even speech styles have a number of differences.

ABC

The Chinese alphabet is called "Phinyin", which is essentially a set of phonetic sounds. The Chinese phonetic alphabet is designed to describe sounds and is used as a transcription. While in the Japanese language there are 3 types of alphabet: Hiragana (used to write words of Japanese origin, for example " はがき " - hagaki - envelope), katakana (for writing words of foreign origin, for example " ハンドクリム »　－handokurimu - hand cream, the word comes from English) and hieroglyphs. Therefore, if you want to visually learn to distinguish Chinese from Japanese, look at the characters - if you see only a set of hieroglyphs, then it is Chinese, and if the sentence contains not only hieroglyphs, but also incomprehensible squiggles and hooks, it is Japanese. For example, the phrase “Hello, my name is Yulia, I’m from Russia” - in Chinese and Japanese:

• 我的名字是尤丽娅，来自俄罗斯。 - Chinese (only characters)
• 私の名前はユリアです,ロシアから来ました。 - Japanese (hieroglyphs + sticks, squiggles and hooks)

Hieroglyphs

The characters in Chinese and Japanese are also different. There is a simplified and complex style of writing hieroglyphs. The complex style was used in ancient times, but gradually the Chinese themselves simplified the writing of hieroglyphs, and a simplified style appeared. A complex character has more strokes, for example the character “only” in simple and complex writing 才 - simplified style (3 strokes), 纔 - complex (23 strokes). In mainland China, a simplified style is used (Hong Kong and Taiwan - the islands - still use a complex one).

Japanese language for a long time did not have a written language, so the Japanese borrowed hieroglyphs from the Chinese, and therefore most Japanese hieroglyphs are identical to Chinese. Also, Japanese characters generally have several pronunciations, one similar to Chinese, the other purely Japanese, the pronunciation changes depending on the context. In Chinese, as a rule, there is only one option.

Grammar

The grammar of Chinese is easier than that of Japanese. In the first there are tenses, endings, conjugations and prefixes. Tense is indicated by one or two hieroglyphs at the end of a sentence or after a verb. In the Japanese language, all this is there, and each verb, depending on time, changes its ending. The Japanese language also uses a large number of speech and grammatical structures.

Pronunciation

To distinguish Chinese and Japanese by ear, listen to the speech. Japanese, unlike Chinese, has no tonality., it is smoother and sweeter in sound. The Chinese language is tonal, has 4 main tones, so when you hear the Chinese peacefully having a conversation, you might think that they are swearing or speaking in a raised voice. In Chinese, the same transcription in different tones will have different meaning, for example “ma” (ma) in the first tone - mother, in the third - horse. Or “guoji” (guoji) in the second tone - national, in the fourth tone - international. The Japanese pronunciation can be written in Roman script, and you will definitely be able to read it, while when you see the Chinese transcription of Phyinyin, you are unlikely to be able to read it correctly the first time.

Speech styles

And one more important difference is the speech styles of Chinese and Japanese. In both of these languages, as in Russian, there is an official, journalistic, colloquial, etc. The difference is that in Japanese there is a clear line between colloquial and polite styles of speech; the same word can be pronounced differently in colloquial and polite styles. Polite style is used when addressing elders in age, rank and superiors. As a rule, a phrase in a polite style is much longer than in a colloquial one. For example, you offer someone to try something from food, in a conversational style simply “tabete ne” (tabete not), in a polite style “douzou meshi agatte kudasai” (dozo meshi agatte kudasai). In Chinese, this difference in style is not very noticeable; if you say something to an elderly Chinese in a conversational style, he will most likely not pay attention to it, but in Japanese, if you confuse the words, you will most likely be considered ignorant.

Another interesting difference is the recording of foreign names and titles. For example, in Japanese the names of countries are pronounced this way: Russia is roshia, Ukraine is ukuraina, America is amerika, Italy is itaria. In Chinese, all names and titles are written in Chinese, and have nothing to do with the original pronunciation. Russia is eluosi (e luo sy), America is meiguo (mei guo).

In general, we can say that both of these languages ​​are very different from each other. Despite the fact that they have common roots, the Japanese will not understand the Chinese, the Chinese will not understand the Japanese. In modern Japanese, many characters have changed their meaning, that is, the same character has different meanings in Chinese and Japanese. The most common example is the character “手紙” - in Japanese it means “letter”, in Chinese it means “toilet paper”.

Studying Chinese, Japanese and Korean today is becoming increasingly popular: many mothers, in addition to the almost obligatory English, take their child to a teacher of one of the oriental languages. Anna DULINA, a lecturer at the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, candidate of science, told us about the advantages and prospects of this idea. historical sciences, NSU graduate, translator.

- Anna, how can learning oriental languages ​​be useful for a child?

Firstly, they develop the brain very well: in addition to the fact that the child learns grammar, listens, reads and talks, he also writes complex graphic structures - hieroglyphs, that is, fine motor skills are involved. Secondly, oriental languages ​​perfectly stimulate memory, no worse than solving complex mathematical equations.

If a child decides to take an oriental language seriously, what are the prospects? Nowadays Chinese seems to be in great demand...

” - Regarding prospects for further study and work, Chinese, of course, beyond competition. Knowing Chinese makes it easier to find a job: more people, more contracts. However, this year Russia and Japan also concluded many agreements on cooperation - primarily economic, but also cultural. 2018 will be declared the year of cultural exchanges between Russia and Japan.

There are many joint long-term projects, and they are developing. For example, the project to build a bridge between Sakhalin and Hokkaido is currently being discussed. Working with the Japanese is easier, they pay more attention to fulfilling obligations, punctuality and reliability are in their blood. There is one minus, but a significant one: Japan is an expensive country, and not every company can cooperate with the Japanese. The Chinese have everything cheaper, but the quality sometimes lets you down.

That is, if a child becomes interested in the Japanese language and dreams of an internship or courses, parents need to prepare for serious expenses?

Yes, but it will be easier for diligent students. For example, there is annual competition for schoolchildren learning Japanese. It is called Speech-contest and is held in Moscow; children from all over Russia can participate. The conditions are very simple: the child must present an interesting story in Japanese, then the jury members will ask him a couple of questions. The winner receives the main prize - a trip to Japan. Novosibirsk schoolchildren often win the competition; their Moscow peers have already heard that there are strong competitors in Siberia. By the way, our tradition of studying oriental languages ​​is in no way inferior to that of the capital. At the Faculty of Oriental Studies Faculty of Humanities NSU has excellent teachers, they really invest in students.

- What are the main difficulties a child will encounter when starting to learn an oriental language?

I would highlight several aspects.

• Chinese and Korean are tonal languages, and stress and pitch in them have a distinctive function. For example, "ma" pronounced with different intonation in Chinese will mean "mother", "horse" or "hemp".

• There is no “r” sound in Chinese and no “l” sound in Japanese, which confuses some children.

• In Japanese sentences, the predicate always comes at the end. Without listening to the end of the phrase, we will not know its meaning. That is why there is no such thing as simultaneous translation from Japanese: it will be fast, accelerated, but consistent. Schoolchildren who are just starting to learn a language try to translate a sentence from the beginning, but they first need to look at the end and determine the ending of the verb. The Japanese sentence looks like a thread with beads strung together.

” - However, in general I think the complexity of Eastern languages ​​is exaggerated. The grammatical structures are quite simple and are well remembered by the child; there is no branched verb system, characteristic, for example, for Romance languages. It is not so difficult to understand the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Koreans in everyday life; they speak in short sentences. Those who begin to study an oriental language usually quickly achieve their first and such important successes, this stimulates them to new achievements.

- The main difficulties are associated with memorizing a large number of hieroglyphs. In this sense, the Japanese language is easier to cope with, because the Japanese also have a syllabary alphabet. When I went to my first internship in Japan, I was lazy and almost didn’t write in hieroglyphs. Teachers turned a blind eye to this: for children and foreigners, the use of the alphabet is considered acceptable. Everything changed in the master's program, when I had to take hieroglyphs seriously, otherwise there was nothing to even dream of getting high scores for exams. It is very difficult in Japan without knowledge of the hieroglyphic system: signs, street signs, store names, books, magazines - all these are hieroglyphs. The alphabet is used only in literature adapted for children, and all more or less serious publications are written in hieroglyphs. Explanations are given only when particularly rare or complex hieroglyphs are used, so that the reader does not have to look into the dictionary again. I would recommend paying special attention to them if the child is determined to learn the language. The Japanese value hieroglyphs very much. The country holds competitions to test their knowledge, which give nothing but a sense of moral satisfaction, but participation is considered honorable. Many Japanese in free time practice writing hieroglyphs. Today, few people write by hand; you remember the basic set of hieroglyphs, but complex ones are quickly forgotten. By the way, I am often asked how the Japanese work with English keyboards and whether they have their own special one. Yes, Japanese keyboards exist, but mostly they use a regular one. There is a special computer program that converts words written in Latin into hieroglyphs or alphabet.

- Will knowing Japanese help you later learn Chinese or Korean and vice versa?

Korean and Japanese are a bit similar, including in sound, so it will be easier. Chinese after Japanese and vice versa go with a bang, since the characters in Japanese are borrowed from Chinese. There should be no problems with reading texts even at the initial stage of learning.

- At what age is it better to start learning an oriental language and how to choose a teacher?

I started learning Japanese in second grade. I think it could be a little earlier. There is no need to try too hard right away; once or twice a week is enough. As for choosing a teacher, his credentials are not so important. Talk to parents of children who have been studying for a long time: is it interesting, does the teacher explain it clearly.

Going to a tutor is not really right choice, it’s better to find a language school with a children’s group so that the teachers focus on the gaming aspects when teaching. The ideal option is a cultural center. Origami, cartoons, fairy tales, communication with native speakers, correspondence with peers are more important than it seems.

” - Language reflects mentality, and the Eastern mentality is not an easy thing, as a Japanese specialist I can say this. Without knowledge of behavior and etiquette, a child will face difficulties. For example, the Japanese are very fond of understatement and allegory. Of course, the words “yes” and “no” are in the language, but most often the question posed will not be answered directly. A person can study a language successfully for a long time, and then come to Japan and discover that he understands almost nothing.

Another problem is that there are several levels of politeness that can easily get confusing. A competent teacher will explain to the child how to behave in Japanese society, which phrases should be used often, and which, on the contrary, should be avoided.

- What can a child gain from contact with Eastern culture, for example, Japanese?

Firstly, it fosters respect for other people and restraint in expressing emotions: the Japanese pay great attention to discipline, rash statements are excluded. Secondly, respect for nature. Thirdly, patience. This is one of the main features national character. There is a lot of ceremony in Japanese culture: the well-known tea ceremony, religious rituals, and so on. Calligraphy, martial arts suggest slowness. Nothing should be done in a hurry; smoothness and gradualness are valued. Fourthly, punctuality is known throughout the world. Fifthly, the accuracy and ergonomics of the Japanese. They have long lived in difficult conditions: the islands are very small in area, and the areas free from mountains and suitable for growing rice are even smaller. Hence the desire to save space and maintain cleanliness - there is a lot to learn from the Japanese here.

Interviewed by Maria Tiliszewska

In our group

There is no absolutely difficult language compared to all others. After all, children have no problem learning their native language, whatever it may be. However, adults who speak one or more languages ​​find it easier to speak a language that is closer in kinship to their family. For example, for a Russian speaker, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian will be the least difficult.

In terms of writing, Chinese and Japanese are difficult languages ​​to learn even for native speakers.
Every language is a challenge in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, spelling, etc. The more similar these problems are to those you solved when you were learning your native language, the less difficult it will be language to learn.

An interesting study was done by the Institute for the Protection of Languages ​​in Monterey, California. All foreign languages ​​taught here were divided into groups according to degree of difficulty. There were four groups: from “ himself lung" before " the most difficult» depending on how many hours of teaching students (mostly English-speaking) need to be devoted to in order for them to reach a certain level.

Below is the comparison: 1 = least complex, 4 = the most difficult.

1. Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish.
2. Bulgarian, Dari, Farsi (Persian), German, Modern Greek, Hindi-Urdu, Indonesian, Malay
3. Amharic, Bengali, Burmese, Czech, Finnish, Modern Hebrew, Hungarian, Khmer (Cambodian), Lao, Nepali, Pilipino (Tagalog), Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Sinhalese, Thai, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese.
4. Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean

Chinese is harder to learn than English – officially proven

According to recent scientific research It has been found that the human brain processes information differently depending on the language. The study looked at the brain activity of native English speakers and native Chinese speakers while they listened to speech in their native language. It was found that the Chinese use both hemispheres, while the British use only the left. Conclusion: understand and speak Chinese more difficult than in English.

Which language is more difficult to learn, Chinese or Japanese?

I would like to immediately note that we are talking about the Mandarin dialect of the Chinese language. Other dialects of the Chinese language have similar features, although they differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
Learning to read and write in Japanese is possible and more difficult than in Chinese, because most Japanese characters (Kanji) have two or more pronunciations, while the vast majority of Chinese characters (Hanzi) have only one pronunciation. Also keep in mind that Japanese has two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana). On the other hand, some Japanese words and endings are easier to read than Chinese ones, since in the first case they are written phonetically using hiragana and katakana, while all Chinese words are written using Hanzi. If you don't know how to read Hanzi, you can only guess based on what you know.

The word order in Chinese is more or less close to the word order in English or other European languages, while the word order in Japanese is similar to Korean, Mongolian and Turkic. Therefore, for a native English speaker, Chinese is easier in this regard than Japanese.
Chinese grammar is considered easier to learn than Japanese. Chinese is an even more isolated language than English, lacking verb conjugation, cases, and grammatical gender. Moreover, the use of the plural in Chinese is limited and selective. Japanese is an agglutinative language and has many different endings for verbs, nouns and adjectives.

Japanese pronunciation is perhaps easier than Chinese. Japanese has a small number of sounds and no tones. However, Japanese words have different intonation contours that need to be learned in order to be understood. Although only a few Japanese words differ in intonation, so if you pronounce it incorrectly, you will most likely be understood. Chinese has a large range of sounds, and each syllable has its own tone. Incorrect use of tone can affect meaning. Most Chinese dialects have even more tones - 6 or 7 in Cantonese and 8 in Taiwanese, for example.

How long does it take to learn a language?

It all depends on what level you want to achieve and how much time you are willing to devote to studying. Some manage to acquire practical knowledge in a few months or even weeks, while others struggle for years and do not get any noticeable results.
If you use the methods described on our website, you will be able to master basic language skills in a period of several weeks to several months; 6-12 months are needed to learn to understand and participate in everyday conversation, and in 10 years you can learn to speak, understand, read and write fluently, at the level of a native speaker.
If you live in a country or area where they speak foreign language, you can achieve success faster, especially if the locals do not know your language.

What is the most common language?

Below is a list of languages ​​with the largest number of native speakers. If you choose one of them, you will have someone to talk to!

These are approximate figures showing the total number of native speakers, including those for whom these languages ​​are a second language after their mother tongue. But this does not include the number of people who study these languages ​​as a foreign language.

How difficult is Chinese?

Difficult:

• In Chinese almost no words common to European languages, so a Chinese student has to study a lot (in European languages ​​we can find many common words). But even though some Chinese words share common roots with a number of Asian languages ​​(especially Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese), they are difficult to recognize.
• Writing system It’s quite difficult to learn, although in theory there’s nothing complicated about it: you just need to memorize a lot.
• Chinese - tone, i.e., various syntagmas in speech not only add an emotional connotation, as, for example, in English language; they serve to distinguish the meaning of words. How difficult it is depends on the student himself: students with good hearing can easily learn this.

Easily:

• Unlike many European languages, Chinese No irregular verbs or plural nouns, which have to be memorized, since the word has only one single form, without suffixes to denote time, number, case, etc. (there are a number of particles that serve to denote time, but they are unchanged and do not depend on those words , which they join.)
• The Chinese are always tolerant refer to the mistakes of foreigners - perhaps due to the fact that for many Chinese themselves the generally accepted state language is a second language.

In this article I want to discuss which language is better to learn:

Some of you are learning these two languages ​​at once, others are just looking closely and choosing.

I don’t know Chinese myself, but I’ve talked a lot with people who teach or are learning Chinese. Therefore, I have my own point of view on this matter and will share it with you.

Let's, Firstly, let's look at these two languages in terms of benefits. Who learns Chinese and who learns Japanese and for what reasons?

Japanese Most often they are taught by people who are very passionate about Japanese culture and want to know it more and get to know it better. It is also taught by people who already live or plan to live in Japan. Having Japanese friends and a desire to communicate with them is another reason to learn Japanese.

Thus, if we take the total mass of people studying Japanese, then among them there are a lot of people who learn it at the call of their souls.

Studying the same Chinese language more like learning English. Chinese is mostly learned from a practical point of view, for example to get a good job. The Chinese economy is now developing very strongly. Russia has more ties with China than with Japan. Many rationally choose to study Chinese.

This doesn't mean you can't make money using Japanese, but it will be more difficult. You need not only to know the language, but also to be a professional in your field. It is also worth considering that Japan is not as open a country as China.

So if you're wondering, With which language are there more opportunities to earn money?, I would say that with Chinese. With the Japanese language there are also such opportunities, but you need to look for them, you need to make more efforts.

The second aspect is pronunciation. Let's compare pronunciation in Japanese and Chinese - which is easier and which is more difficult. Chinese has 4 tones, but Japanese does not. Japanese has tone accents, but no 4 tones.

Accordingly, in this regard, Chinese is much more difficult. There you can pronounce the same syllable 4 times different ways. It can be difficult to understand which word is being spoken. Chinese is more difficult to understand by ear. The Japanese language is much simpler in this regard. Its pronunciation is easy for Russian people, and reading Japanese texts is also much easier.

And the third aspect is writing. It is known that the Japanese borrowed characters from China several thousand years ago. After this, the Japanese also invented 2 syllabic alphabet: hiragana and katakana, which were originally intended to sign the reading of Chinese characters.

If you visually compare Japanese text and Chinese, then Chinese will be written entirely using hieroglyphs, and Japanese text will be a mixture of hieroglyphs and syllabary symbols. In addition, reading characters in Japanese is often signed with hiragana at the top.

In this plan Japanese is easier to learn, the amount of characters studied in it is smaller. You can not know them at all and read texts written on top of the hieroglyphs in hiragana. In Chinese, you need to know a lot of characters.

The main difficulty in learning Chinese is the amount of information which needs to be learned.
I told you mine own opinion. Choose for yourself: what is closer to you, what culture is closer to you, what goals in learning the language you pursue.

And if you still decide to learn Japanese, sign up for our main course.