Chinese/Japanese

Hello, I have two questions I would love you to help me with. I am currently trying to decide whether to learn Mandarin or Japanese at uni and I can't make up my mind. So:

1. Which of these languages is easier to learn for a native English speaker who is quite experienced with languages (I speak Spanish and Russian and a bit of German)?

2. In your experiences, which people, Japanese or Chinese seem to be more open and accepting of foreigners? I know it probably depends a lot but what in general?

Thanks a great deal if you can help me.

Perineal.

1 japanese is a language deprived form chinese,so that means u will found
bunvh of chinese character in japanese.
2 and they creatived character easier to matser.
3 and some words have the same pronouciation

Overall ,i recommend u to study mandarin ,since japanese seemed all to understand English ,I have heard that Japan is even considering to add English as its second official language.And chinese people are more enthusiatic about foreigners due to they just opened their gate not long and they don't as fully understand western curlture as do japanese.

learn mandarin. it's going to be more important in the future and chinese people are very accepting of foreigners.

"I have heard that Japan is even considering to add English as its second official language."

Definitely not! Where did you hear that? =p

"1. Which of these languages is easier to learn?"

Grammar and syntax = Chinese.
Pronunciation and vocabulary = Japanese.
You'll need to memorise characters in both languages.

"2. Japanese or Chinese seem to be more open and accepting of foreigners?"

Chinese, I suppose. Well, look here... westerners in China are generally investors/businessmen; most westeners in Japan are poor English teachers living on a pittance in dilapidated "gaijin houses" (or so it seems =p). So, you can't really compare.

That said, I recommend that you learn Chinese!!

Based in my little contact with Japanese I could tell you that if you speak Spanish you will find Japanese much easier since both languages share almost the same phonetics, same vowels consonants (except L) so our alphabet can be used to represent the Japanese sounds without much problem. There are lots of words loaned from English too but in Japanese style.

Although the kanji symbols come from Chinese and they are too hard (not to say impossible) to memorize there are a couple of syllabaries (same sounds-different symbols) with 46 simpler symbols each one.

I don't know the Chinese grammar so I can't compare both.

Prefer Japanese. It sounds more beautiful. Mandarin sounds harsh, Cantonese sounds ok.

Definitely learn Mandarin.

Even though the Chinese tend to be irritated by foreign accents, it will come to GREAT use.

The Japanese pronounciation is easier, and the people tend to be more accepting of foreign accents (In fact, European accents are considered kind of sexy.), but you won't have to worry about the notoriously hideous Japanese grammer if you take Chinese.

What's this negative vibe about Japanese grammar all about? What I know of it seems relatively easy. Isn't it true than Chinese has no words for "yes" and "no"? For instance, I heard that if someone asked:
"Is the store open?"

You wouldn't say "Yes" in Chinese, but simply an affirmative rephrasing of the question.
"The store is open."

Japanese is a much prettier language. If you know Spanish, you will find Japanese phonology to be a piece of cake. They are still a major trading partner for us. But, within twenty years, it will be extremely valuable to know Mandarin, because of China's explosive economic growth and industrialization.

<<But, within twenty years, it will be extremely valuable to know Mandarin, because of China's explosive economic growth and industrialization. >>

This has been touched many times before but being Japanese supposedly "easier" than Chinese and it hasn't been a popular language worldwide through many years, why Chinese, a more difficult language, would be popular in a near future ? Why would Chinese get it when Japanese couldn't ?

Again, my opinion that economies has nothing to do with that, at least by itself.

Because you must think of it in terms of international trade and from a business perspective. If China is going to occupy a huge chunk of the world's production, consumers, and trade, then quite naturally, they are going to exert some influence on their trading partners and the world as a whole, just as English became the international language as a result of the British Empire and the American hegemony. I would think it would be wise to learn Chinese if you are entering a business field.

Your answer doesn't answer my question. I know Chinese dealers who have learned Spanish to trade with Latin America that definitively makes your argument stumble.

I've never been to either China or Japan and I haven't talked to anyone about visiting Japan. But I do know several people who have been to China and they all said that the people they met were very friendly and accepting.

<<You wouldn't say "Yes" in Chinese, but simply an affirmative rephrasing of the question.>>

Actually, if you were to ask, "is the store open?", the positive answer would be "是", which means "is".

Also, they do have a word for no. It is "不".

To Presley:

Actually, no, you cannot use "is" as an answer to "Is the store open?". I guess you're referring to the Chinese word "shi", equivalent to English "is". (I can't see the Chinese text you typed, so this is an assumption)

Well... here goes...
Question: "Dian kai le ma?" (Is the store open?)
Correct answer: "Kai le." (Has opened.)
Or: "Hai mei kai." (Has not opened yet.)

You CANNOT reply to that question with "shi" (is) or "bu" (not). Both would be grammatically incorrect in such a context. So, it is true that Chinese has no words that correspond exactly to "yes" and "no", though "bu" and "mei" are more or less equivalent to "not" (depending on the tense and time, I guess?).

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To Kelly:
You wrote "Mandarin sounds harsh, Cantonese sounds ok."

How funny! We Chinese tend to think of Cantonese as harsh and Mandarin as melodic! =p

(I speak both: paternal family = Cantonese, maternal family = Mandarin.)

>>You CANNOT reply to that question with "shi" (is) or "bu" (not). <<

Nightingale is correct.

There is also something can't be said the way it is in English. for example in English you describe a car by saying " this car is nice ". In Chinese you say " Zhege Che "Hen" Piaoliang" ( "Hen" here means very)... you can't say "Zhege Che Piaoliang" without using a quantitative terms like "Hen=very". I always find it unconvincing the need for that way, but after years in China, I am used to exaggerate my description to things.

Chinese/Japanese

If studying a Far Eastern language is the only interest,then Off course, it is more wisely to learn Chinese at the present time. Chinese is more widely spoken language if compared to Japanese (Japanese is the only official language of Japan and Japan is the only country to have Japanese as an official language). There is also one factory to be taken into consideration: the proximity. If you are to learn chinese/Japanese in your own country, then I would suggest again to go for chinese because I heard that understanding the Japanese language requires knowledge of Japanese society.