Comments on: Is Learning Japanese Really That Difficult? http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult learning languages online.... Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:00:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: John http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-61 John Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:08:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-61 They have a good start. Much easier than other people.<br><b>References : </b><br> They have a good start. Much easier than other people.
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]]> By: Fred http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-60 Fred Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:06:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-60 Pretty difficult. Japanese speakers are required to know almost 2,000 Kanji, which is very inadequate for Chinese. Most important is the extreme difficulty with the tonal system, the phoneme set, and the grammatical differences.<br><b>References : </b><br> Pretty difficult. Japanese speakers are required to know almost 2,000 Kanji, which is very inadequate for Chinese. Most important is the extreme difficulty with the tonal system, the phoneme set, and the grammatical differences.
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]]> By: bryan_q http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-59 bryan_q Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:04:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-59 I don't know how he did it: My Japanese friend knows CJK: Chinese, Japanese and Korean. To the person who said "Japanese and Tamil are exactly the same." Are they really? Then they are related? Then how come linguists never reached that conclusion? So if Japanese is related to Tamil, and Korean is supposedly related to Japanese, then is Korean somewhat related to Tamil, too?<br><b>References : </b><br> I don’t know how he did it: My Japanese friend knows CJK: Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

To the person who said "Japanese and Tamil are exactly the same." Are they really? Then they are related? Then how come linguists never reached that conclusion? So if Japanese is related to Tamil, and Korean is supposedly related to Japanese, then is Korean somewhat related to Tamil, too?
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]]> By: meien http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-58 meien Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:02:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-58 A lot easier than say an English speaker, though I'd imagine it'd still be somewhat of a challenge because they are really completely different. A few of the Characters are the same, but still different pronunciation. And for the most part, they are going to have to learn a completely different writing system.<br><b>References : </b><br> A lot easier than say an English speaker, though I’d imagine it’d still be somewhat of a challenge because they are really completely different. A few of the Characters are the same, but still different pronunciation. And for the most part, they are going to have to learn a completely different writing system.
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]]> By: China Guru http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-56 China Guru Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:58:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-56 It is pretty easy for the Japanese to learn Chinese as compared to people from other linguistic backgrounds. The reason being is that they are already familiar with a character system, which is the hardest part of learning Chinese. Like someone already said "Kanji" the word for Chinese characters in Japanese literally means Chinese characters and comes from the Chinese word "han zi". (note the similarity) The classical Japanese language is basically the same as the classical Chinese language, this is where they got the Chinese characters to begin with. Then then added their own script to make up for the deficiencies of Chinese characters being used with a language which is not of Chinese origin. The Chinese language and character system were created for and by each other. Japanese, on the other hand, is a language which has a much different, and more complex linguistic make-up than Chinese. The characters in Japanese are sometimes written slightly different than their predecessors in Chinese and they usually always have a different and sometimes many different ways to be pronounced depending on the script (Hirogana) suffixes added to them. Many times they also carry different meanings from that of Chinese. Take for instance the characters in Chinese for "to force" 勉强“ when used in Japanese mean "to learn" and the pronunciation is nothing like the Chinese. So for the Japanese to learn Chinese they basically have to learn to pronounce the Characters differently and get used to a much different syntax and grammar system, which shouldn't be too difficult as Chinese is grammatically very simple. Now, if you turn the tables, the Chinese will have a harder time to learn Japanese than the Japanese to learn Chinese because the Chinese language is such a simple language grammatically. The Chinese language is probably one of the most grammatically simple languages on Earth giving the Chinese speaker a challenge of complexed verb conjugation, time concepts and other aspects that are natural to most languages.<br><b>References : </b><br>Learned Chinese in China over 20 years and interacted with lots of Japanese over that time. It is pretty easy for the Japanese to learn Chinese as compared to people from other linguistic backgrounds. The reason being is that they are already familiar with a character system, which is the hardest part of learning Chinese. Like someone already said "Kanji" the word for Chinese characters in Japanese literally means Chinese characters and comes from the Chinese word "han zi". (note the similarity)

The classical Japanese language is basically the same as the classical Chinese language, this is where they got the Chinese characters to begin with. Then then added their own script to make up for the deficiencies of Chinese characters being used with a language which is not of Chinese origin.

The Chinese language and character system were created for and by each other. Japanese, on the other hand, is a language which has a much different, and more complex linguistic make-up than Chinese.

The characters in Japanese are sometimes written slightly different than their predecessors in Chinese and they usually always have a different and sometimes many different ways to be pronounced depending on the script (Hirogana) suffixes added to them. Many times they also carry different meanings from that of Chinese. Take for instance the characters in Chinese for "to force" 勉强“ when used in Japanese mean "to learn" and the pronunciation is nothing like the Chinese.

So for the Japanese to learn Chinese they basically have to learn to pronounce the Characters differently and get used to a much different syntax and grammar system, which shouldn’t be too difficult as Chinese is grammatically very simple.

Now, if you turn the tables, the Chinese will have a harder time to learn Japanese than the Japanese to learn Chinese because the Chinese language is such a simple language grammatically. The Chinese language is probably one of the most grammatically simple languages on Earth giving the Chinese speaker a challenge of complexed verb conjugation, time concepts and other aspects that are natural to most languages.
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Learned Chinese in China over 20 years and interacted with lots of Japanese over that time.

]]> By: Aidant http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-55 Aidant Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:56:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-55 Kanji is the Japanese word for Hanzi (the Chinese word for characters). All Japanese Kanji come from Chinese Hanzi and all carry the same meaning except for when they are duplicated in some cases. For the Japanese, I think it's just a case of learning new pronunciation of Kanji and maybe slightly different grammar.<br><b>References : </b><br>Learning Chinese, some Japanese people in my class too. Kanji is the Japanese word for Hanzi (the Chinese word for characters). All Japanese Kanji come from Chinese Hanzi and all carry the same meaning except for when they are duplicated in some cases. For the Japanese, I think it’s just a case of learning new pronunciation of Kanji and maybe slightly different grammar.
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Learning Chinese, some Japanese people in my class too.

]]> By: thex707 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-54 thex707 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:54:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-54 Well for a japanese person, it's obvious that they can understand most of the writing, but not all. They indeed will have to learn more chinese characters. I'ts like someone learning spanish ,say that they already knew french, they will have to get use to that word (in this case chinese) even thought they are familiar with one that sounds the same in their language. It will just be alittle easier for them to learn chinese that's all. I hope i wasn't confusing<br><b>References : </b><br> Well for a japanese person, it’s obvious that they can understand most of the writing, but not all. They indeed will have to learn more chinese characters. I’ts like someone learning spanish ,say that they already knew french, they will have to get use to that word (in this case chinese) even thought they are familiar with one that sounds the same in their language. It will just be alittle easier for them to learn chinese that’s all. I hope i wasn’t confusing
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]]> By: sundar http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-53 sundar Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:52:59 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-53 i dont know abt mandarin but i know that learning Japaneese through TAMIL will be very easy as the sentence structure of japaneese is as same as TAMIL. also about 1300 words in Japaneese language are having same pronunciation and same meaning as those in Tamil language.<br><b>References : </b><br> i dont know abt mandarin but i know that learning Japaneese through TAMIL will be very easy as the sentence structure of japaneese is as same as TAMIL. also about 1300 words in Japaneese language are having same pronunciation and same meaning as those in Tamil language.
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]]> By: Franck Z http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult/comment-page-1#comment-52 Franck Z Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:50:04 +0000 http://www.stand-texas.org/learning-japanese/is-learning-japanese-really-that-difficult#comment-52 <b>How difficult is Mandarin learning to Japanese people?</b><br>Do you need to learn another kanji set ? How do Japanese words imported from Chinese (on'yumi) match with today Chinese ? How difficult is Mandarin learning to Japanese people?
Do you need to learn another kanji set ?
How do Japanese words imported from Chinese (on’yumi) match with today Chinese ?

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