Japanese is slightly easier to learn. But, Chinese is much more widely spoken. Both languages have their pros and cons. Ultimately whichever language pulls on your heartstrings the most is the winner.
Compared to Chinese, Japanese does have its own set of complexities and challenges but overall, it's considered easier for beginners. Japanese is a language spoken by nearly 130 million people in Japan, as well as in many other countries across the world.
If you generally have no problems with grasping foreign grammar concepts, Japanese is the easier language. If you find tones easy, and getting used to using them correctly when speaking, Chinese might be easier.
Since there is so much competition with English speaking Chinese natives, it's hard to find a job that will hire you for language skills alone. Japanese, on the other hand, has less supply and more demand—thus making it a potentially more useful language.
Korean and Japanese are at the top of the “most difficult” level – with Japanese having just a small edge on Korean for it's use of 2 alphabetic structures PLUS the use of Kanji – Chinese characters (in total 3 alphabets essentially) instead of just one alphabet like in Korean.
Mandarin Chinese
Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else) accustomed to the Latin alphabet.
To cut it short, Japanese who have advanced reading skills can easily recognize Chinese phrases. They can grasp many Chinese characters but not to the extent of understanding the whole phrase.
Most learners have suggested that you should learn Chinese first before Japanese. Why is it exactly? Because once you've mastered Chinese, you're already halfway conquering Japanese. As we've talked about earlier, Japanese has three alphabets — Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.
Actually the order doesn't really matter. The logical order would be to start with Chinese, focus on learning the Hanzi, learn the vocabulary, and then start Korean and/or Japanese with a head start. Characters are a great mnemonic help to learn new vocabulary.
Japanese is slightly easier to learn. But, Chinese is much more widely spoken. Both languages have their pros and cons. Ultimately whichever language pulls on your heartstrings the most is the winner.
After reading through all the differences, Russian probably comes across as the easier language to learn. And it is! For native English speakers, Russian is categorized as taking 44 weeks to learn (or 1,100 hours), while Japanese takes 88 weeks (2,200 hours).
As we've already mentioned, Japanese is considered the fastest language in the world. It is always mentioned as the first on the list. So, here are 6 of the fastest spoken languages in the world, based on the average number of syllables spoken per second (SPS): Japanese - 7.84 SPS.
Unlike other East-Asian languages, Korean isn't a tonal language. This means, that the meaning of the word doesn't change, regardless of what your accent is like. This makes learning Korean much easier than Japanese. Japanese has 46 letters in its alphabet. Meanwhile, Korean only has 24.
Though this can provide you with some useful phrases, it will not help you to become fluent. To learn Chinese, you really need to get a good grasp of the grammar principles, so for this reason Duolingo alone will not help you (especially at the higher levels).
It takes about 4-7 years (roughly 2200 to 4000 hours) to become fluent in every aspect of the language, if you spend at least an hour and a half to study every day. However, it's quite common for learners to become more fluent in some areas than others depending on how they allotted their study time.
There are tons of people learning Japanese on their own and those who will help you learn it by yourself too! Many self-taught learners of Japanese have used their experience to help others do the same. Here are 3 self-taught learners and their strategies to effectively learn Japanese by yourself.
Conclusion. Overall, the choice of whether to learn Mandarin or Japanese is up to you! Think about where you envision yourself spending time, who you might need to communicate with, and which culture excites you the most. Then, give it your all.
However, many experts believe it takes between 4 to 6 months of dedicated study to reach a beginner level. On the other hand, you can expect to spend at least 3 years studying to become fluent in Japanese with near-native level accuracy.
Duolingo Is Great as a Supplement
It is great for learning vocabulary and seeing how words are used in context. However, it's generally not great for learning the “why”s or “how”s of language. This includes grammar and semantics–how words interact with each other to create different meanings.
When you hear that Japanese uses three different writing systems, for instance, it may make you want to run for the hills. However, Japanese katakana and hiragana are basically alphabets, making them much easier to learn than the Chinese writing system.
Thanks to its phonetic alphabet and more simplistic grammar rules, Korean is not the most challenging Asian language to learn. Chinese on the other hand is much more widely spoken. This means that finding study materials and practice partners would be easier.
Japan and China do not share a national language. The official language of Japan is Japanese, while the people of China mainly speak dialects of the Chinese language, notably Mandarin and Cantonese.
Not very well, I would say. The languages are quite different in grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and practically every other respect. Being able to recognize several hundred or even a couple of thousand kanji will not get you very far when it comes to making sense of whole passages.