Choice about foreign Asian language?

Question

1.From the points of view of westerners,if you never learn three of these foreign language,can you tell the difference among these three foreign languages,Japanese,Chinese,Korean by only hearing the conversation from the native speakers? Can you tell me how you feel if you hear each of them? May be the prononciation, intonation, accent and so on.

2.I know most westerners tend to choose Spanish for their second languages.Now if there are only three foreign languages(Japanese, Chinese, Korean ) which you can choose, which one is your favorite foreign language? Explain why?

3.Which language you think is the most difficult from three of them? Why

P.S. I hope the answers are westerners

Answer 1

1) I differentiate between them mostly by the individual sounds of the words. For instance, I notice, possibly incorrectly, that in Korean all the words are usually one syllable or two. Ex- Ho, Chou, Ni, Wu, stuff like that. In Japanese, the words are all really long. Ex-Akanagwa, Ikagnu, these are just made up words that might sound like the real words but they're probably just jibberish.
2. Out of those three, It all depends on your goal. Japanese for immediate payoff. Chinese in the coming years will be very advantageous, so maybe that's your choice. And Korea, is not such a world power as the other two but it's a very beautiful language.
3. Either Japanese or Korean is most difficult. Because they both use not only Chinese characters but also their own alphabets, making learning either of them a challenge. But dont let my analysis scare you off.
Hope this helps

Answer 2

1. (I did take a Japanese class, but it was only 2 or 3 hours a week for 2 or 3 months). I can tell Japanese (more staccatto) from Chinese (more tonal), but I don't know what Korean sounds like (used to watch MASH...I'd say more like Chinese but I think I'm wrong). I don't have any particular feelings about them, I think Japanese sounds nicer than Chinese/

2. Well, I did take the one Japanese course, but for no particular reason. If I had to pick one today, I'd pick Korean, but only because there are three Korean women in my German class who I might be able to practice with. I think I think Chinese is the coolest, but more for the writing than speaking.

3. For speaking, I think Chinese, I don't think I'm good with tones. For writing, I believe it's Japanese which has most of the Chinese characters PLUS two different alphabets.

PS yes, westerner, I'm a Canadian living in Switzerland. I never took Spanish though, in Canada almost everyone takes French.

Answer 3

1) I think only those who have had a lot of exposure to each language will be able to differenciate between them. Chinese is VERY distinct because of all the various tones used. Korean and Japanese are easy to differenciate once you've had enough to exposure to each language. I'm just completing my fifth year in Asia (four years in Japan, one in Korea where I'm at now, and a visit to China).

2) I would learn Japanese because Chinese is one of the hardest of all languages to master and because Korea doesn't have the global influence that Japan does.

3) Chinese...when you use a different tone for the same word, you get a whole new meaning. The written language is far more complex than either Kanji or Hangul.

Answer 4

If someone had never learned or studied any of those foreign languages, they obviously wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I would choose Japanese because Japanese people are nicer than the other two. Japanese and Korean sound the same to the untrained ear and would give the same impression. Really fast chattering like someone speaking Spanish on speed and with no accent. Chinese sounds like an untrained person trying to play the trumpet. Random squeaks and squeels but little sounding like actual communication.
All three languages have zero relationship with English and would all probably be equally hard to learn. However Korean or Japanese would probably be easier because it is easier to sound like chatterbox than a broken fog horn

Answer 5

1 ) If you ever heard and asian who can't pronounce L's and replces them with R's... then they're Japanese. Chinese is super fast and sounds kinda like they're yelling at eachother.
Korean... well not 2 sure about that one at all.

2 ) Japanese... it's easier and a lot more useful.

3 ) Chinese, its the 2nd hardest language out there besides English. I'm serious... English is the hardest language to learn...

Answer 6

Here in Finland essentially the most selected international language at institution is English, simply considering the fact that it is so effortless to be taught. But, many students do pick further languages somewhat later, for illustration in my town it is feasible to research German, French, Italian, Russian or even Spanish at institution. Oh, and it is obligatory for every person to research Finland's moment local language, Swedish as good!

Answer 7

Although I have never STUDIED I have HEARD them often enough to be able to tell the difference.

Which one to choose depends on what kind of Chinese we are talking about. I would choose either Mandarin or Japanese.

Chinese is probably hardest to learn for two reasons:
The phonetics,
Chinese SCRIPT.

There are a LOT more characters to learn in Chinese and they are not phonetic, they are conceptual.
.

Answer 8

As for japanese, i know it well so the key to knowing japanese is to listen to the number of vowels. japanese needs a vowel for every syllabol. you can hear it by the large number of sylllables needed to make a word.

I like japanese because of the kanji (which might make you like chinese even better) even japanese dont learn correctly (some japanese) but just by looking at the kanji you can understand a word even if you cant pronoucing.

Chinese is by far the most difficult. the pronouciation scheme is very difficult. namely because of voice inflection. very difficult

Answer 9

I think japanese and korean language had a little chinese in it. Japanese is much cooler for me and I think chinese is harder.

Answer 10

Pick Japanese.
It's really cool so you can also watch all the movies and manga without subtitles.
Most Koreans speak Japanese as well so you will kill two birds with one stone.