Chinese Studies?

[BleedingSoul]

Okay, so my school is offering Chinese studies next year. I'm debating whether or not if Chinese can help me learn Japanese. I've heard a lot of the characters are the same but different sounds. This could confuse me or not.

How many think it would be a good idea to take Chinese?

[hiraikotsu]

I think you should take Chinese if you're interested in the language itself. Taking Chinese for the sake of improving your Japanese may leave you with even more to memorise/learn (which can be confusing), since Chinese grammar and pronunciation differs from Japanese. Both lanuages share many kanji, I think it would be easier if you already mastered one before tackling the other

[keatonatron]

Plus many characters essential to Chinese aren't used in Japanese (like the character for "I").

I think it would confuse the crap out of you

[flammable hippo]

Plus many characters essential to Chinese aren't used in Japanese (like the character for "I").

Well actually, I think the Chinese character for I in Chinese is 我, which shows up in Japanese in words like　我々 which is "we".

[faqcorner]

flammable hippo wrote:

Plus many characters essential to Chinese aren't used in Japanese (like the character for "I").

Well actually, I think the Chinese character for I in Chinese is 我, which shows up in Japanese in words like　我々 which is "we".

yes that's correct...


and depends whether if you are aiming for traditional / simplified, and Japanese takes from both, and adds own kanji too...

[Gundaetiapo]

私 means "private", as a Chinese coworker has pointed out before.

[lemonaid]

I think you could pull it off as others have before you. But learning two languages with easily distinguishable scripts would probably be the best in the beginning.

[richvh]

They are easily distinguishable. If you see kana, it isn't Chinese.

[Delekii]

I have 2 people in my Japanese class at Uni studying both Japanese and Chinese, and apart from the fact that they occasionally use the wrong word, they seem better off. That said, if a person decides to study 2 languages at the same time at Uni, they are probably the kind of person motivated enough to study 2 languages at the same time properly.

[lemonaid]

richvh wrote:
They are easily distinguishable. If you see kana, it isn't Chinese.

I'm talking about mixing up hanzi/kanji/hanja/hán tu, not as much while reading them as writing or memorizing them, which can be a challenge if one is learning more than one language using chinese characters at the same time.

I see the possibility of mixing the meanings of this one when writing about one's family or friends:

娘 (むすめ) daughter
娘 (niáng) mother; young lady

[keatonatron]

faqcorner wrote:

flammable hippo wrote:

Plus many characters essential to Chinese aren't used in Japanese (like the character for "I").

Well actually, I think the Chinese character for I in Chinese is 我, which shows up in Japanese in words like　我々 which is "we".

yes that's correct...

Hmmm... I have a friend who lives in Japan and speaks very good Chinese. I asked him if he can write e-mails in chinese on his cell phone even though it can only display Japan's standard kanji set. He said he could almost do it, but a very important kanji was missing (ah! I think it was the kanji for "is" or the equivalent of です... I don't know, I can't speak Chinese).

[Mike Cash]

keatonatron wrote:
...the equivalent of です...

The word "copula" always makes me think of cabooses. I'm assuming there are at least a few people here old enough to remember what those were.

[two_heads_talking]

well, in slang it means backside.. posterior.. kinda like junk in the trunk doesn't really mean odd items in a box..

[hungryhotei]

keatonatron wrote:
(ah! I think it was the kanji for "is" or the equivalent of です... I don't know, I can't speak Chinese).

The Chinese for is would most likely be　是 (which is used in Japanese, eg 是非) so it's probably yet another word you were thinking of. Or maybe mobiles just have a much smaller set of kanji ?

[trabia-wind]

well, i'm chinese, and chinese helps me a lot in japanese (aka not having to memorize as many kanji and being able to guess meanings of stuff), but i don't think you should take it for the sole purpose of getting better at japanese -_- but then again, why not? xD