japanese is easier but china is an incredibly up and coming world economy and shows a lot of promise, so people are adapting by learning their language accordingly. not to mention that the number of mandarin speakers worldwide simply dwarfs the number of japanese speakers, so people will want to learn the language that will connect them to a greater number of people, especially people who are part of an economy that is stipulated to continue having great economic success in the near future
Maybe i picked the wrong one to learn.... dammit, can't change now.... -.- I would learn both, but could you imagine the confusion?
I now feel really bad for choosing japanese - i love it but now it seems like its not gonna be very useful... I wonder if i should attempt at learning both....
dont feel too badly, you are only 15 and have plenty of time to learn whatever you want. My Chinese teacher speaks Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese, and Japanese fluently so it is definitely possible to learn more than one asiatic language and keep them straight
Japanese is actually much harder than mandarin. Once you get past the multitude of characters and tones of mandarin, it is actually a very sensible language ( to speak and translate). Japanese is a challenge since it is so foreign to english in terms of translating and structure. Of course Mandarin is considered the most important language now so that is why there is a boom. Japanese is something i still think is very important and extremely rewarding. Both can easily be learned side by side - They are actually remarkably different!
Kevin Rudd our new PM speaks mandarin i think i've mentiond this several times.... In Australia we have weekend language schools where perants force there little kids to learn chinese i dont see that happening with japanese
not unless you have the time, lots of commitment, and a genuine interest in chinese. it is a lot of work, and you need to want to do it for itself, not just because u feel like u ought to. japanese is a very useful language, and there's no mistake in learning it instead of chinese! it has other advantages over chinese. if u want to learn both, great, but don't overload yourself, because you already do much more than most people. but kgmn exactly described how much easier chinese is. it depends on the individual learner's brain, but it is a lot more similar to english than japanese, and tbh japanese can seem gratuitously infuriating and wierd sometimes. lol but that does not make it an unworthy language, it makes it unique!!
oH I have far too much time lol, i enjoy languages - the only reason i didn't do it was because i was afraid of getting the two confused and just having some horrible crossbreed between japanese and mandarin (scary) :S
i would agree that japanese singing is generally more pleasing that chinese singing. the language itself seems more fluid , whereas chinese seems to have a lot of harsh consonants at the ends of words that break up the flow a little (especially the hard "r" sound like in èr 二) if I have time or room in my brain after chinese i definitlely would be interested in learning japanese. I love the song "Suteki Da Ne" from final fantasy X, i would love to be able to understand that and other japanese music, it sounds so beautiful
