Learn Chinese Or Japanese?, need opinions... Options

[pianist_1210]

Chinese!!!!!
It only have 5 vowel sounds and you'll find it useful in the future....as there are some more chinese people than japanese people in the world.

[crazy_purple_piano_freak]

I would say Chinese because I don't speak Japanese (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

But I think its very challenging. Although I can listen and speak Mandarin fluently, I still find reading and writing extremely difficult. Its hard to grasp how each word is written as they are all different. Its not like English where you can at least guess.

[zongyi]

do learn chinese!
It's very good to speak.

[flute_gurl]

wow thanks for all the replys! and lots of good points to think about! In terms of what I want to do with the language, I'd like to be able to speak it fairly well at a conversational level, so that I could have a chat with someone in that country. In terms of going to the country, I've always loved china (although I've never been there) and plan on visiting there at some point. I think any of them would be quite hard to learn as at the moment I don't know anyone who speaks them, but I'm going to college next year, so I'll check if they do any 'enrichment courses' (what they call lessons which don't have an exam at the end) in either language as then I could learn in a group and ahve people to chat to!

at the moment I'm leaning towards chinese, as the japanese complex grammer could be difficult for me, as that's what I've found most difficlut in other languages. However, I'll look into it some more, and see if i think I can deal with it :-) I checked out the chinese tones, and that seems pretty straightforward, I reckon I could get the hang of it!

I know it's going to be difficult learning a language that's so different from English, but I think that's half the fun! and I've always thought chinese and japanese writing is so beautiful! anyway, I'll keep thinking about my decision, thanks for all the advice!

[all ears]

If you're interested in China, there's your answer! Stuff happens, anyway, so even if you start out studying Chinese, maybe it is your eventual fate to study Tagalog...

I started out learning a little Japanese to mark time until I got to university where I could take Chinese, which I'd always been interested in. By the time I got to study Chinese, the Japanese bug had already bitten too hard, and my Chinese studies never got past the basics. I don't know why people think Japanese is hard though, it's not!

[off_lady]

If you're interested in China, there's your answer! Stuff happens, anyway, so even if you start out studying Chinese, maybe it is your eventual fate to study Tagalog...

I started out learning a little Japanese to mark time until I got to university where I could take Chinese, which I'd always been interested in. By the time I got to study Chinese, the Japanese bug had already bitten too hard, and my Chinese studies never got past the basics. I don't know why people think Japanese is hard though, it's not!

all ears, just out of curiosity, what is your nationality? 'Tagalog', do you mean one of the dialects of Philippine?

I do agree that if you are interested in one particular country, you tend to want to learn the language. That was why I took up Japanese language years ago. I love visiting Japan. Even I have travelled to there many times, I still want to pay visit again and again especially Tokyo. It is a fascinating city. Crazy with it.

Amie

[all ears]

Annie, I'm a New Zealander, living in Japan, but rather greedy when it comes to new languages - I rarely do more than dabble, but always curious... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Tokyo - yes, it's a great city to be rich in!

I'd love to learn Korean properly though - I'm amazed by the strongmindedness with which the Koreans developed a beautifully logical phonetic alphabet for themselves, and then proceeded to make it the official way to write their language, despite a long history of using Chinese characters. Not to mention, Korea has such a dramatic landscape, and I love the food (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) .

[off_lady]

Annie, I'm a New Zealander, living in Japan, but rather greedy when it comes to new languages - I rarely do more than dabble, but always curious... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Tokyo - yes, it's a great city to be rich in!

I'd love to learn Korean properly though - I'm amazed by the strongmindedness with which the Koreans developed a beautifully logical phonetic alphabet for themselves, and then proceeded to make it the official way to write their language, despite a long history of using Chinese characters. Not to mention, Korea has such a dramatic landscape, and I love the food (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) .

Just the opposite, I dislike Korean language. I have been longing to visit Korea for sometime because it is the up-and-coming country in Asia. Took the opportunity to join a tour last year. Felt disappointed of the place because English was useless there and its written codes were full of symbols that human could not understand. And could not figure out why each symbol may represent more than one spoken word. I did remember that our tour guide said the symbols were made up by an emperor with the inspiration of lattice wooden window frames in the palace.

As for food, I found that kimchi and ginseng chicken soup were the most appealing and appetizing.

Amie

[flute_gurl]

I've checked out my college, and it seems they do run extra curricular chinese classes (as long as enough people are interested) so I'm going to go with chinese! thanks for the advice!

[Ifsy]

[/quote]

Just the opposite, I dislike Korean language. I have been longing to visit Korea for sometime because it is the up-and-coming country in Asia. Took the opportunity to join a tour last year. Felt disappointed of the place because English was useless there and its written codes were full of symbols that human could not understand. And could not figure out why each symbol may represent more than one spoken word. I did remember that our tour guide said the symbols were made up by an emperor with the inspiration of lattice wooden window frames in the palace.

As for food, I found that kimchi and ginseng chicken soup were the most appealing and appetizing.

Amie
[/quote]
Amie,
The korean word is made up of individual code. combination of several of these 'code' makes up a character. There can be quite many combos. These characters are called hangul. I think it's quite fascinating how they developed their writing system. Both North and South Koreans are using the same writing system.
I love korean food as well..they are good:)

[off_lady]

flute_gurl, good luck to your learning of Chinese, remember that getting someone to practise with you regularly is the most effective way of learning language.

Sorry that we have diverted your topic a bit further to Japanese and Korean, but I still want to say hello to all ears, Iris, and who else have interests about this, ohayogozayimasu, konichiwa, konbawa, or oyashiminasai, whatever is suitable on your side. It is such a pleasure to communicate with you all.

Amie (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Ifsy]

yep, good luck with the lessons, flute_gurl.
feel free to share with us how your lessons went:)

it is good to be able to share our views and thoughts alike.
and we already share a language already...MUSIC!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Iris