Chinese vs. Japanese

 

 

  Nowadays, learning a new language is totally not a difficult thing for people. It’s because so far we have had lots of tools to use for learning a new language, and the information on the Internet can also help us learn a language; in addition, sometimes it will be much easier for us to learn a language if it is related to our mother tongue. For instance, Japanese is quite popular in Taiwan because it has some similarities with Chinese. Besides, we often heard it in our daily life such as in some TV programs, TV advertisements, movies and anime. These access help us get more close to Japanese. So, what are the exact similarities and differences between Chinese and Japanese?

 

 

  Firstly, I think the biggest similarities between the two is definitely the characters. The characters in Japanese are called “kanji” which literally means Chinese characters because they have actually been imported from China. Therefore, we can easily see some characters that both in Japanese and Chinese share same or similar meanings. However, when Chinese characters were first applied to the Japanese language, it is obviously very difficult for Japanese people because Chinese is a non-conjugating language but Japanese is. Which means Chinese characters could not be used to change the word endings to fit the tense. For example, no matter when does the verb happen, the verb wouldn’t be changed, it is always the same character in Chinese. Therefore, Japanese people had to develop other characters that are derived from the kanji that are used for syllables and those are the “hiragana” and “katakana”. They are alphabets which represent the same syllables, but hiragana is used to write Japanese words and katakana to write transcribe foreign words. There are also similarities in terms of some words that might sound similar as well. If you don’t know the Japanese characters in Japanese, you would probably think that it is Chinese. In other words, some characters between Chinese and Japanese are very similar.

 

 

  Secondly, the biggest difference I would say it’s definitely the pronunciation. Since There are four different tones in Chinese pronunciation, it is critical to properly speaking and understanding for people who learning Chinese. Which are first tone, a level and higher pitch; second tone: rising, start from a lower pitch and end at a slightly higher pitch; third tone: falling rising, start at a neutral tone then dip to a lower pitch before ending at a higher pitch; fourth tone: falling, start the syllable at a slightly higher than neutral pitch then go quickly and strongly downwards. In addition, a word can be spoken and depending on which tone it is. It might mean a completely different thing when you pronounce a word in different tones. Take “mian” for example, if it is pronounced with second tone, the meaning could be cotton; however, when it is pronounced with fourth tone, the meaning would be noodles.Whereas in Japanese if you pronounce the sentence in a completely monotone voice, you are probably right. That’ because there isn’t anything like tones and there are definitely things like emphases. There is correct pronunciation in Japanese but it’s much less critical to understanding and speaking correctly for those who are learning Japanese rather than those who are learning Chinese. And it is all because of the differences of pronunciation between Chinese and Japanese.

 

 

 

  In sum, people in Taiwan may be familiar with Japanese since we are exposed to the environment which Japanese can be heard frequently. But are they really similar? Well, there is no easy answer for this question because in some ways they are and in some ways they are really not. I think the biggest similarities between the two is definitely the characters.  And about the biggest difference, I would say it’s definitely the pronunciation. Nevertheless, in my opinion, I think that it is still easier to learn one language if you already know the other with both similarities and differences in two languages.