Which is easier to learn, Chinese or Japanese?

O.   Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:20 am GMT
Please reply here.
Tionghoa   Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:42 am GMT
For whom? For Europeans? Koreans? or whoever else?
Guest   Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:50 am GMT
Japanese pronunciation is much easier. It has a simple syllable structure, no difficult vowels/consonants, and doesn't have tones.

In terms of writing systems, it's difficult to say which is harder. Japanese has phonetic characters and uses a smaller number of kanji (ideographic characters), but each kanji in Japanese can often be read in multiple ways, which isn't so common in Chinese. I would say Japanese is easier at first because of the phonetic characters, but it will eventually get very hard when you are trying to read tougher words like 三味線 where a character has a nonstandard reading.

I have no idea which is harder in terms of grammar. It probably depends on your native language...
Shaun   Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:11 pm GMT
In terms of grammar, Japanese.
stupidity   Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:38 pm GMT
This is one of the most stupid questions, actually very common on antimoon. How can you compare these two different languages??? and then difficult for whom?