learning chinese and japanese?

Question

im learning chinese right now and i really wanna know japanese too i have the time to learn japanese too so coudl i learn btoh at the same time in chinese i rank newbie (high) on a few online test and i know no japanese but konichiwa so could i learn both without getting confused and actually hurting any progress in my chinese?Thanks

Answer 1

Chinese and Japanese are not related languages. Aside from characters, Chinese will not help you to learn Japanese in any way. I suggest you focus on one language at a time.

Answer 2

Don`t underestimate the language study. You will be busy with Chinese.
Generally, the kanji study in the Chinese language will give you some advantages, but you have to learn the Japanese reading (kun) as well. Beside that the Japanese language includes katakana (for foreign words) and hiragana ( which you will have to use for verbs and some other word forms)
The pronounciation in both languages is different, too.
If you are interested then give it a try and focus on your main interest when you notice difficulties.

Answer 3

Theoretically you can do this without any problems. Japanese characters are borrowed from Chinese, which will give you a leg up on learning Japanese Kanji--particularly if you aren't learning the simplified version of Chinese. Also, certain words are of Chinese origin, so you might find some connections between them that make it easier for you to remember. The grammar styles are completely different, but you could in theory do both without problems.

If you find that you are taking away from your time to study Chinese to study Japanese instead, then you might notice some lagging behind, but that's mostly a time constraint. The key would be to keep studying both. If Chinese is most important to you, then try to keep that as your main focus.

I was studying French when I started learning Japanese. Initially, I was able to do both without any problems, though on occasion I would randomly substitute words from the other languages on accident. This probably happens to you with English to begin with, though. I know when I speak Japanese I often randomly insert English words if I don't know the Japanese one for it lol. My problem with French came in that I stopped learning it, and then ended up completely forgetting. I was okay when I was learning and using both, however.

So make it a point to work on both and not neglect your Chinese. You might find that it helps to study them on separate days rather than one after the other to help keep them separate in your mind.

Answer 4

yes you could.

i've been going to a chinese school since kindergarten

and been watching those anime/cartoons that have japanese voices and english translations at the bottom

Since it wasn't really formal education,

I can say that i learned a little japanese

but my chinese lessons weren't affected at all

I'm not saying i got to be good at chinese coz i'm not but that's coz i went to a "not so good" chinese school and i really wasn't interested in learning at the time

boy, do i regret it now..

my point is, although the two languages are similar, there's nothing confusing about learning and studying the two at the same time

they have a distinct difference and that helps a lot

Answer 5

Japanese has three forms of writing. One of the forms, kanji uses Chinese characters. Sometimes the characters mean something very different in Japanese.

This could become an issue w/ reading comprehension & writing as you advance in both languages.

Answer 6

If you are dedicated to it I'm sure you are capable of learning both. The desire just has to be there. I'm just starting to learn Japanese and have found it to be much easier than I expected. I recently created a yahoo group to help learn Japanese and would like to invite you and anyone else with interest in this language to stop by.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nihongo4u

Answer 7

Be careful because Chinese and Japanese have some same characters and you can get mixed up easily.

Sa-yo-na-ra = Goodbye
O-ha-yo = good morning
watashi = I / myself
A-na-ta = you
O-ya-su-mi = Goodnight

Ni-hon-go = Japan/Japanese
Ei-go = English

Mu-zu-ka-shi = Hard/difficult
Ya-sa-shi = Easy

Mi-zu = Water

Ta-be-masu = Eat
No-mi-masu = Drink

O-tan-ji-o-bi O-me-de-to = Happy Birthday

Watashi wa mizu o nomimasu = I drink water

You always end a sentence with Masu or Desu.

Always put a persons name at the start of a sentence.