Thread: Language: Chinese or Japanese

I want to learn either Chinese or Japanese, but I dont know which language I should learn, so I wanted to ask you guys what is the best to learn for a guy who likes to read manga (maybe scanlate someday), lives in London (many chinese people here), wants to learn from the internet and does not have a lot of time to learn it due college.

Japanese. Okay don't acusse me of being racist because I'm chinese and japanese.

Japanese concists of three alpahbets: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Chinese (written) consists entirely of what would be known as kanji by the Japanese. This is because the Japanese basically copied the entire chinese culture.

To speak Japanese you'll have to learn like three ways to say the same thing: formal, informal and very formal. Chinese is a very tonal language meaning how you pronounce the syallables affects what you say. And then when you are learning Chinese you'll have to chose between Mandarin and Cantonese, the two main dialects of Chinese.

That should help your decision if I think of anything else I'll post it later.

There's only one way to pronounce a syllable in Japanese, and once you know that it's fairly easy to pronounce something once you've read it. If you're learning online, that'd definitely be easier.

Oh yeah, writing in Japanese you just need to know hiragana and katakana. Writing in chinese you have to know the exact character you want.

i dont wanna be a prick but why are you asking what language you want to learn. just think which one would be more useful in your life and go for it... i for one if possible would like to learn both. i spend way to much time in Chinatown suspicous that those guys are cursing me out in Cantonese or something.

Chinese, would be the more benificial language to learn out of the two
It's just more practical IMO with the ever expanding chinese market

However, it's much more difficult to learn chinese over the net than anything.

Japanese would then be the suggested choice, just learn to speak/hear chinese by getting some chinese friends, it works =)

i suggest both, but chinese (mandarin first and then cantonese) is much much more useful. japanese is useful if u want to watch raws :P

Originally Posted by StealDragon

i dont wanna be a prick but why are you asking what language you want to learn. just think which one would be more useful in your life and go for it... i for one if possible would like to learn both. i spend way to much time in Chinatown suspicous that those guys are cursing me out in Cantonese or something.

Well to tell you he truth, I dont need to learn it. I already know 6 languages(not all fluently). I just like learning new languages. The reason I am asking is to learn a language that is benefical for me, or there would be no point learning it.

Chinese is more useful.

If you'd mainly be learning Japanese for anime/manga...don't bother. It will take you years to reach the desired level, and by then your interest could fade, anyways.

China's economy is skyrocketing, and learning the Chinese language will be hugely beneficial. I plan to learn it in the future.

chinese and japanese in all fairness will be useful in the future. The way you said things, u might as well learn both. Both will have some similarities at some points...so learning either just gonna help learning the other.