Japanese is easy if you want to learn it at a beginner level, but I think it's difficult if you want to learn it beyond that level. On the other hand, if you think Japanese is difficult, I think it's proof that you've studied the language a lot.
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Yes, the more your learn the more you see there is so much more you don't konw.
@nnokki
3 ай бұрын
No it is quite the opposite. Once you are familiar with the grammar structure its easy to understand Japanese.
@Akispark
2 ай бұрын
The steepest obstacles that seperate the beginners from those who learn beyond is the first set of Kanji and internalizing verb/adjective conjugations. Once the character salad a sentence is comprised of clicks by itself in your brain, you understand the complexity that is inherent to japanese
Right, I think the easiest part of Chinese is the grammar, and the hardest is probably the pronunciation, since it contains tones which doesn’t exist in most languages
@polarbeardoggo
2 ай бұрын
台湾人です。私も大学で日本語を勉強して、あなたと同じ思いをしました。🤣
@qiangwang7717
2 ай бұрын
中文语法本来就是世界上最简单的啊,基本可以说根本没有语法
@Han-eb1dd
2 ай бұрын
私は日本語を勉強してる中国人です。中国語のイントネーションと発音は外国人より難しいと思います
@1stMilcom
5 ай бұрын
This is by far the BEST video on KZitem about the fine differences in Japanese and Mandarin. Your videos are extremely well organised and presented. It's just a matter of time until you get your 100K subscriber award. Subbed!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
I really appreciate your encouragement.
@wowaone340
4 ай бұрын
I think because he is an academic and not some poor youtube influencer wannabe! Good for him, god bless
@user-96.-
4 ай бұрын
9:44 For anyone learning Japanese i HIGHLY recommend adding this guy to your studies, he has helped me tremendously. His name is Kaname Naito
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Yes...
@Owjdnskoakansbskk
3 ай бұрын
Kaname is the goat
@SVmathfarmer
5 ай бұрын
Thank you for your channel. As a fellow teacher (math in California ) it’s refreshing to have the scholarly viewpoint. My wife is from Hubei Province and I’ve been casually studying mandarin but really want to kick it up a notch after coming back from a recent family trip and planning the next this summer. Heisig books helped me with the characters but I’m Struggling with speaking correctly.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks so much for your support.
@Leonlion0305
5 ай бұрын
Very comprehensive analysis on both languages! Love it when professors do well-organized videos like these on KZitem.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for your support 🙏
@coolbrotherf127
4 ай бұрын
I definitely feel Mandarin is the easier of the two, but I learned Japanese first because I really personally love the people and culture there. There's such a wealth of great linguist art in Japanese that non-Japanese speakers will never experience due to lack of translation and/or localization. So many things really can't be translated to other languages well while still keeping what makes them special. Even things as pop-culture as anime or manga lose a lot of nuance when translated.
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
I totally agree!
@maca_atomica_animacoes
3 ай бұрын
bro, it depends on your mother tongue and the languages you speak. As a Brazilian speaker of Portuguese I still feel that Mandarin is more difficult, but even so I don't speak Mandarin or Japanese 😅
@coolbrotherf127
3 ай бұрын
@@maca_atomica_animacoes For people who speak Germanic or Romantic languages, they are both still pretty difficult. It's like comparing if it's easier to lift a 115kg rock or a 120kg rock. One is slightly easier but both are difficult.
@maca_atomica_animacoes
3 ай бұрын
@@coolbrotherf127 concordo, os dois são difíceis, isso é verdade
@martin32074
3 ай бұрын
@@coolbrotherf127 Japanese grammar is much more straightforward than Chinese or even English. For this reason alone, Japanese should be easier to learn. Also, you don't need to learn all the Kanji to communicate in Japanese, whereas in Chinese, Kanji is essential and you also have different tones for each character, which represent different meanings. For example, "Konbanwa" means good evening in Japanese, whereas in Chinese, you could use "下午好" or "午安, 安means peaceful" to convey the same meaning. You can combine different characters to have the same meaning in Chinese.Some words could have 4 or 5 combinations which makes it much harder to become fluent because people would use them differently. But you can never misunderstand English words or Japanese words.
@eunjioppa4803
5 ай бұрын
this is probably the best language analysis Ive watched on KZitem. Thank you!!❤❤
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Wow, thank you! I appreciate the encouragement 🙏
@raulenriquemoya6292
5 ай бұрын
no one on KZitem has provided so much detail in the language's structure - Thank you!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for that comment. I strive to fill in the gaps in the information on KZitem.
@yumechuu
5 ай бұрын
Thanks a lot for this video, you explained the differences really well. In my opinion, Chinese is much harder to learn because of all the phonetics. Some sounds I simply cannot differentiate from eachother. Also, the fact that Japanese has both the Mora system as well as Kanji makes it easier to read in my opinion, and additionally, readings for Kanji that one might have forgotten can be remembered through the context of surrounding conjugations. Thanks again!!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for your input.
@xilingsinqueso
4 ай бұрын
what a great video! so informative and well-explained!
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Thank you so much
@ramonmenendezrecio4442
3 ай бұрын
Professor Keeley, you are great! Such insightful approaches are rare and greatly appreciated. You've won a new subscriber.
@polyglotdreams
3 ай бұрын
Awesome, thank you!
@guillermodelapuente4688
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for this video. Fascinating!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks... I really appreciate it 🙏
@renanpereira5487
5 ай бұрын
This channel is gold. Congratulations, Sir!!!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thank you very much! I really appreciate your comment.
@MonsieurChapeau
5 ай бұрын
What a wonderfully enlightening and encouraging video, thank you 🙏
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
You are so welcome. Thanks for your support 🙏
@jchan0425
5 ай бұрын
absolutely loved this video. so much depth into two languages that even native speaker could not give a better explanation than this video.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
That is very kind. Thanks
@user-sx3mw4cq8k
5 ай бұрын
日本人です。 When I studied Chinese as a second foreign language in college, pronunciation was quite challenging. However, writing wasn't too difficult since we use kanji, and Chinese grammar is similar to English. I believe Japanese is considerably more challenging for native English speakers due to its greater linguistic differences.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Then we do agree... thanks for your input.
@papayongsarninei8133
5 ай бұрын
In English you can change the full stop , or period , into comma , in order to prolong your sentence .But this can not be done in Chinese .
@papayongsarninei8133
5 ай бұрын
@@tianz1993 example: I met her yesterday . → I met her yesterday , at the train station . 我昨天和她见面了。我昨天在车站和她见面了。我昨天和她在车站见面了。 “我昨天和她见面在车站” ?
@yo2trader539
5 ай бұрын
Those who have the easiest time learning Japanese language are the ethnic Koreans, Mongols, and Turkic speakers from China. They already know most of the KANJI used in Japan, and they instinctively understand Japanese grammar structure because of its similarity to Korean, Mongolian, and Turkic languages. (Tibeto-Burmese, Hungarian, Finn/Estonian speakers may also have similar grammatical advantages.) Many of them are able to have basic conversations in 6 months, and some are reaching N1-level in 3 years. Pronunciation is interesting too. From what we can observe, not all Chinese, Vietnamese, or Koreans are able to pronounce Japanese with the correct phonetics and pitch accent (i.e. "intonation"). Yet, there are native-Russian/Slavic, Mongolian, and Turkic/Tatar speakers who have very little difficulty due to phonetic overlap. Spanish/Italian/Romanian speakers appear to have an easier time with Japanese phonetics and intonation as well. As for native English speakers, the US State Department classifies Japanese as Level 4, or the most difficult to learn along with Chinese, Korean, and Arabic. Due to the history of England/English, Germanic and Latin/Romance languages are classified as Level 1 or 2 for native English speakers. My impression is that Germanic/English-speakers generally have far more difficulty mastering Japanese than Slavic/Russian-speakers from Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. People from Central Asia are language geniuses, because you will hear them speaking Japanese like a near-native but often times Japanese is their 3rd, 4th or 5th language after Turkic/Tajik, Russian, and English. It's true that Chinese grammar is SVO and is similar to English. Yet, I think you need to be raised and educated in East Asia to know why the word "contradiction" is written as 矛盾. (It's the same with words/concepts/idioms such as 約束, 背水の陣, 四面楚歌, 臥薪嘗胆 that derive from historical Chinese tales, texts and practices.) I'm sure you know that Vietnam is 越南. Hanoi was historically written as 河内, and Ho Chi Ming is written as 胡志明 in KANJI. For us, the name starts to make sense when we recognize the KANJI, otherwise it's just random combination of gibberish sounds. Hanoi still suffers from periodic flooding.
Great video ❤ I'm glad I've stumbled upon your channel. Thanks for making the videos. I will be watching them with great interest ☺️
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks... welcome 🙏 to the community
@user-pp3ho8rb9y
2 ай бұрын
Excellent factual comparison. No BS!!!! No gimmicks. Thank you.
@polyglotdreams
2 ай бұрын
Glad it was helpful! Thank for that feedback
@JT-si6bl
2 ай бұрын
I think this is incredibly wonderful content and education. I'd go as far as therapeutic... Thank you!
@yorgunsamuray
5 ай бұрын
Coming from Turkish with its many inflections, Japanese grammar was far less complex. Politeness was more challenging, having only this T-V distinction in my language. Speaking politely is not that much of a problem (when you’re in the service sector you do learn and it becomes automatic) but on the other side…when you’re the one spoken politely, that is harder. I remember going on the school trip for “ryugakusei” of the Japanese university I attended as an exchange student. The guide’s explanations all went over my head, because after all the honorific suffixes and extra words in the sentences I forgot what the topic was about.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
There are similarities with Turkish... I am starting to study your language now. Thanks for sharing your experiences in Japan.
@yorgunsamuray
5 ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreams yes, the word order especially. BTW another experience regarding kanji readings. I once read Hitachi (日立) as “nichiritsu”, and the text was about companies too!
@hayabusa1329
5 ай бұрын
I found Chinese easier actually
@yorgunsamuray
5 ай бұрын
@@hayabusa1329 grammatically yes, if you manage the kanji in Japanese you would manage the characters as well. However the tones…oh boy, my nightmare.
@cheerful_crop_circle
5 ай бұрын
@@yorgunsamurayyes
@user-ho8zn9rd2n
5 ай бұрын
As someone who speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese, I find that Japanese is far more difficult to learn even though I already know all the kanjis. The thing that bothers me the most is that the same kanji can have many different pronunciations in Japanese.
@user-ho8zn9rd2n
5 ай бұрын
@JoshPecksDad There is also a reason why the US foreign office ranks Japanese as the hardest language. I speak from my personal experience and not your opposite syndrome.
@alanguages
5 ай бұрын
I am in agreement with the op, due to the reason the FSI also rated Japanese more difficult than Mandarin Chinese and even Cantonese Chinese. DLI has a similar listing. By the way you are literally stating to the op who is a speaker of Mandarin and Taiwanese, that he was wrong about his own experience about Japanese being more difficult, than Mandarin showed your own ignorance.@JoshPecksDad
@alanguages
5 ай бұрын
Both the FSI and DLI has the same type of rating. Proving you correct. I did contact the DLI and wanted to take one of their language course as a civilian, but it was a no go, as it was only for people who were going to work at the DLI.@@user-ho8zn9rd2n
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
The multiple readings can be difficult for Japanese native speakers too.
@alexandermanzanares3879
5 ай бұрын
The Japanese just need to use hiragana and put spaces between the words and boom problems solved.
@user-bx6lg2rx9i
3 ай бұрын
very insightful introduction, thx.
@edwardbakalenik8573
5 ай бұрын
Really enjoy your content , good luck and continue to educate us!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks, will do!
@ahom9387
5 ай бұрын
Amazing. Thx for your insightful analysis! I like your content!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Much appreciated!
@Botakagi
5 ай бұрын
I speak Chinese as mother tongue and Japanese as a second language, I also learned English in middle school and college,so ok to talk in English. It’s the 1st time I noticed the language I am using is so complex and challenging. Also 1st time to listen the explanation of 2 languages by a English speaker. Language stands for culture, it influences the way people think. Feel more and more about it.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Definitely... language and culture are united.
@mgill1996
5 ай бұрын
An excellent presentation based on an objective, academic perspective. Liked and subscribed.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Much appreciated!
@dmitriimishchenko1379
5 ай бұрын
Awesome video! Super informative
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
THANKS
@Josui1471
5 ай бұрын
This is a great video. Spot on with mandarin and matches my understanding of Japanese. Admire your achievement with the languages.
Fantastic explanation of the differences of my home language growing up which is Mandarin Chinese, and the struggles I'm going through right now learning Japanese as a 20 something year old student. Your expertise and teaching experience really stand out, though maybe review some of those Chinese pronunciations in your examples every once in a while haha
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks so much
@CHELSYLOVESLANGUAGES
5 ай бұрын
Wow! I'm trying to learn both languages... This video is very helpful✨️
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Great... all the best in your studies! THANKS for the comment.
@KingPaulW
5 ай бұрын
Thank you for this video! I have never heard of keigo until now. You explained everything in great detail.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
@trinhphamoan4135
4 ай бұрын
Thank you for your video. As a Vietnamese person who speaks a tonal language, when I learn Mandarin Chinese, I find its pronunciation quite easy, even much easier than when I speak Vietnamese. The most challenging aspect is probably learning traditional characters. However, when I started learning Japanese, I was still shocked by the complexity of its grammar, especially since even if I know the meaning of a kanji, it can be read differently when combined with different alphabets. I think Japanese is truly astonishingly difficult, but I will still try my best to conquer it. It was a really interesting video for me.
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
有り難うございました、頑張って下さい
@hongzexia7142
2 ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreamsthe use of kanji in this sentence is rare to see and I think you made the point that having the kanji sometimes can obscure the reading and comprehension 😂. Thanks for sharing. Love the video.
@norabalogh5910
5 ай бұрын
I just stumbled across this video as I am interested in languages and language learning and do speak several languages, though all of them are European languages. I stayed until the end out of curiosity and learned a lot about these two languages. Pretty cool!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Great... welcome to Asian languages.
@armaugh
5 ай бұрын
Very nice analytical presentation.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Glad you liked it! Thanks
@amelie316
5 ай бұрын
I watch every video you upload and it never disappoints. I have started to study Japanese half a year ago because I met students from Tokyo in Spain to which I currently only speak Spanish to and one of them started studying German as well (my mother tongue) 😂 I love the language journey I have started, the only hard thing is keeping myself from starting to many new languages at once.... once you're hooked, you are hooked 😅 I would love to also study Mandarin one day
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks so much for your support!
@Porquesi502
5 ай бұрын
I am a tutor in both Japanese and Mandarin in case you are interested 🙌
@makeemar
5 ай бұрын
Very interesting, thank you for the video! I'm a native Polish speaker - my Japanese is around N3 level and I also had Mandarin classes at the university for 2 years (it was very badly taught). Personally I find Mandarin harder - I could not grasp the difference in tones. Japanese pronunciation on the other hand is relatively easy for Polish speakers. Of course there are nuances as correctly pronouncing "ん" or "r" sounds or pitch accent but you will still be understood even if you don't master these 100%. Yes the multiple ways of reading kanji is a pain. Sometimes I can guess the reading by looking at radical and sometimes I can work out the meaning of kanji compound but don't know how to read it 😂 Keigo is also very difficult - I have the basics of it but that's about it. I don't think I will go back to learning Mandarin in any case, I will continue with Japanese.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Cześć, Studiowałem na Uniwersytecie Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Bardzo dziękuję za Twój komentarz i podzielenie się doświadczeniami! Faktycznie, różnice między językiem chińskim a japońskim mogą być znaczące, zwłaszcza jeśli chodzi o aspekty takie jak ton, który, jak wspomniałeś, stanowi wyzwanie w nauce mandaryńskiego. Wielu Polaków rzeczywiście znajduje japońską wymowę stosunkowo łatwiejszą, co jest częściowo związane z większym podobieństwem do struktury fonetycznej polskiego. Trudności z opanowaniem dźwięków takich jak "ん" czy "r", a także akcentuacja wysokościowa są zrozumiałe, ale jak słusznie zauważyłeś, nawet nieperfekcyjna wymowa nie przeszkadza w zrozumieniu. Co do kanji, to zgadzam się, że różnorodność sposobów czytania może sprawiać trudności, ale umiejętność rozpoznawania znaczenia kanji na podstawie klucza jest bardzo przydatna. Keigo, czyli japoński język uprzejmości, faktycznie może być trudny do opanowania ze względu na jego złożoność i różnorodność form. Rozumiem Twoją decyzję o niekontynuowaniu nauki mandaryńskiego i skupieniu się na japońskim. Każdy język ma swoje unikalne wyzwania, ale pasja do nauki i zrozumienie kultury może znacznie ułatwić proces. Życzę Ci powodzenia w dalszej nauce japońskiego i mam nadzieję, że znajdziesz w tym procesie wiele satysfakcji!
@makeemar
5 ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreams dziekuje za odpowiedz :) Ja studiowalam japonistyke w Krakowie 20 lat temu. Potem mialam dluzsza przerwe w kontakcie z jezykiem i okolo 2020 zaczelam lekcje online z naciskem na mowienie. Bylam z rodzina w Japonii w zeszlym roku i w sprawch codziennych porozumiewalam sie bez wiekszego klopotu - bardzo mnie to podbudowalo i zachecilo do dalszej nauki :) W tym roku znowu wybieram sie do Japonii, tym razem sama. Na pewno chetnie bede zagladac na pana kanal! Przepraszam za brak polskich znakow, mieszkam w Irlandii i nie mam ich na sluzbowym laptopie.
Thank you for uploading this video:) How to pronounce 生 In Mandarin; 生(shēng) In Japanese; 生(i)け花を 生(i)き甲斐にした 生(ha)え抜きの生娘(kimusume) 生絹(suzushi)を生業(nariwai)に生計(seikei)をたてた 生(o)い立ちは 生半可(namahanka)ではなかった 生憎(ainiku)生前(souzen)は 生(u)まれてこのかた 生涯(shougai)通して 生粋(kissui)の 生(ubu)だった
Wow, that’s amazing! You know,as a normal Chinese,most of us have learned a lot of Japanese words in their animation and tokusatsu tv show.thank you for making this unique version to help more Europeans and American audiences to understand their differences! And 谢谢你(ありがとう)❤❤❤❤
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
有り難うございました
@昼からお月見
5 ай бұрын
Yea Japanese pronunciation in general is relatively easier than other languages but actually the pitch accent thing is quite tricky. Never seen any Japanese learners who have near perfect pitch accent
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Very few achieve it.
@cheerful_crop_circle
3 ай бұрын
Is pitch accent more difficult to learn than tones or stress?
@Suedeash
2 ай бұрын
It's interesting, I don't believe pitch accent (or "intonation") is taught in school in Japan, so they just gain an inherent understanding of it by virtue or being surrounded by the language growing up
@stephenharris
2 ай бұрын
Master course! Well done!
@emmanuel6921
5 ай бұрын
Great video! I learned mandarin about 10 years ago and I continue to speak it everyday for my work in a cross cultural setting. We used to say: if you master the tones, you master everything! 加油!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for sharing!
@alanjyu
5 ай бұрын
I speak both Japanese and Chinese. I loved this video. I appreciated your analysis. Very thorough and good description of linguistic features. One of the mitigating factors for Japanese is that it borrows a lot of English loan words of which you would write in Katakana script. That does make the acquisition of vocabulary significantly easier. In chinese, vocabulary is generally going to be bi-syllabic compounds where you do have to learn two Chinese character together most of the time. A big challenge of Chinese is that you don't always know where one word begins and one word ends whereas in Japanese, you can look at the script and it's pretty clear because the verb is usually at the end and follows certain conjugation patterns, all of the words that before the verb at the end of the sentence are marked with particles or inflections. Japanese, as a mixed script, does work better for my eyes and brain from that particular standpoint. It's well organized, I would say. So I think those are actually some other factors that should be considered when you're looking at the difficulty of Japanese versus Chinese at least on my own analysis, I've always thought that Chinese was the harder of the two languages, but this video made me consider otherwise, especially your discussion of politeness linguistic structures and the use of Chinese and Japanese derived readings for kanji characters.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks so much for your comment.
@tinyRedLeaf
5 ай бұрын
English is my first language, but I also speak Mandarin and Cantonese, and read Chinese (not very well, but enough to get by most of the time). I'm curious about what you mean about not being able to tell where a Chinese word begins and ends.
@alanjyu
5 ай бұрын
@@tinyRedLeaf Thank you for the question. In both Chinese and Japanese, characters can either stand alone or be part of a compound word. The challenge arises because sometimes it's unclear whether a character is forming a compound with the one before it or the one after it. Unlike in Japanese, where markers like particles or regular conjugations indicate word boundaries for multi-character words, Chinese lacks such clear indicators, making it more difficult to discern where one word ends and another begins solely based on the characters. Therefore, distinguishing between individual characters and compounds can be less straightforward in Chinese compared to Japanese.
@tinyRedLeaf
5 ай бұрын
Thank you for your explanation. That's quite novel to me, and I think it comes down to one's knowledge of Chinese vocabulary. As a native speaker of both Mandarin and Cantonese, I don't experience such difficulties: the greatest challenge of reading Chinese remains that of recognising the characters and remembering how the character is pronounced in that instance. The "words" aren't difficult to discern within a written sentence when one knows them from everyday speech. In my experience, Japanese is much harder to learn, due to how words and sentences are phrased differently because of tense and contextual conjugations - these don't exist in Chinese, as pointed out in the video.
@NotSomeJustinWithoutAMoustache
5 ай бұрын
This. I swear, the amount of gairaigo, sometimes even for words which already exist in tons of ways in Japanese is astounding. I feel like you can pretty much hold a conversation with a Japanese speaker with maybe just vocab for connectors and the inflections, etc. and pretty much substitute like, half the verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. with Japanese pronunciations of English words. Some of them like yankee turning into delinquent or mansion becoming another term for apartment, etc. however do have different meanings from their English origins.
@culage
4 ай бұрын
I'm Japanese, and my husband and I are very familiar with the both Chinese and Japanese languages. We enjoyed watching this video. I had been teaching Japanese a decade ago. It was funny that some of my Chinese students complained why the kanji characters have so many sounds for each though these were originated from China.
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Thanks for sharing!
@barzhikevil6873
2 ай бұрын
Great analysis!
@polyglotdreams
2 ай бұрын
Thanks
@retrofizz727
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for this very detailed analysis. As a french speaker, learning japanese is really hard because of the grammar, and kanji can be a challenge sometimes. But I've always wondered what would be the most difficult between japanese and chinese, and the video kinda confirmed what I thought. For most western language speakers japanese seems to be more challenging because of the grammar which is I think the core of a language and the most important part. However I thought reading would be more difficult in chinese, as I thought they also had different pronounciations for each character!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Not so many different readings like Japanese
@Morrisseys7thFriend
5 ай бұрын
I've studied Mandarin (traditional), Korean and Japanese, and I can firmly say Japanese is the hardest.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Yes, we agree.
@sapphosplace1878
4 ай бұрын
Japanese has some difficult tonal differences, too. T and D being switched with regard to aspiration, for example, combined with the overall small amount of sounds (and corresponding increase in amount of words that sound similar) can make it really easy to hear an incorrect word. I also like that Chinese classes will requisitely teach pitch from tge beginning, but many Japanese classes don't really teach pitch at all. It was learning the Japanese pitch that helped me more than anything to more readily understand what I was hearing. Chinese pitch also creates a lot more dynamism in the spoken language. It's easier to follow along when there is a lot of ups and downs.
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Yes. It is quite strange that pitch is not taught at an early stage.
@qingbu
2 ай бұрын
It's a good idea to read the rules on pronunciation in the NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary. If you're serious about learning Japanese, I think having that dictionary is essential.
@DanielSangorrin
3 ай бұрын
Great video! As a Spanish native speaker fluent in Japanese after living and working in Japan for 13 years, I can attest to the similarity between the Japanese and Spanish pronunciation systems, including most consonants, all vowels except "u," and the use of syllables. For instance, I find it much easier to comprehend a drama or movie in Japanese than in English. Hiragana and especially katakana, with many words of English and European language origins, actually make the language easier for Europeans, not more complex. In fact, we are better at katakana than Chinese students. I've been studying Chinese for almost a year now, and having learned Japanese first has proved to be a significant advantage when it comes to learning Chinese vocabulary, characters, and readings. However, I find the tonal system of Chinese to be quite challenging. Perhaps my perspective will change as I become more proficient in Chinese, but for now, based on my experience, while I acknowledge the difficulties you mention about Japanese, I believe Japanese has been much easier to learn than Chinese.
@Santino5788
2 ай бұрын
我想学西班牙语
@backlaboy
5 ай бұрын
Amazing video!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Glad you think so! THANKS
@lingfengzhang7273
4 ай бұрын
As a Chinese, I learned a lot about Japanese language from your video, thank you!🥰
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
My Pleasure! Thank you for your kind comment.
@chihirokannda7501
5 ай бұрын
I grew up bilingual in English and Japanese and I always found Chinese and all the kanji they use incredibly intimidating, not to mention the tonal differences (i tried to copy the lady's "a" sounds and i could only get one of them close), but I never properly considered all the politeness levels of Japanese and realized that I can only do very basic customer service level respectfulness. My mother says i text like an anime character at times, so must sound quite silly.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Even university graduates have to brush up on polite language.
@jojoking6638
4 ай бұрын
Although Chinese pronunciation is difficult to practice, if you speak slowly, Chinese people can understand you even if the pronunciation is incorrect.
@kpm25
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for your hard work! I remember watching your interesting lectures at polyglot conferences 👍
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Wow... great... thanks for joining us here.
@noamavi4039
5 ай бұрын
your videos are amazing ❤
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks so much!
@trayamolesh588
5 ай бұрын
My personal opinion based on experience (intermediate Japanese studies and fluent and literate in mandarin) - Japanese without a doubt is more challenging. The real cagematch video you should do is Japanese versus Korean ;)
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks... coming soon.
@user-go6il2tm4b
5 ай бұрын
I am a korean. And many korean who study languages find that japanese is relatively easy compared to other languages because we have many similar grammer rule and vocabulary and word order. Nevertheless chinese character that is used in japanese is still difficult for korean. Probably european will be extremely difficult to learn japanese
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Yes... thanks for affirming what I said about Japanese and Korean
@yugiohfanatic1964
5 ай бұрын
Korean has no kanji, so you say an obvious thing.
@baptistegaussen4784
5 ай бұрын
It really depends where you come from. Spanish or Italian would be easy for me, at least in the beginning, since I am French. While Norwegians or Germans might find it difficult.
@kairossoteria6215
5 ай бұрын
he is talking about the grammar not the writing system. korean and japanese are similar in grammar. chinese is completely different@@yugiohfanatic1964
@user-wk4xv6ws2s
5 ай бұрын
Modern korean doesn't use Chinese characters, but many korean words are chinese and japanese-based. So there are quite a few words that have similar pronunciation.
@MD-xf2qy
Ай бұрын
Im learning Japanese and I think that what we are calling conjugation is technically just a mix of blocks of verbs and adjectives. For example. Tabetai is not a conjugation of taberu, but taberu verb stem - Tabe + adjective tai. It's like building blocks. I know that what you said was just a simplified idea but i just wanted to say in advance for people who are willing to learn Japanese. Its easier than you think guys! And btw thank you for another amazing video!
@user-st6gn1id1h
4 ай бұрын
Most detailed and yet easy to understand. Thank you for this!
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
My pleasure 🙏
@WolfyLuna
5 ай бұрын
Am Dutch myself; I studied Chinese first for about 5 years but struggled with the tonal system too much. Both to listen and speak properly. Other than that I found the language relatively manageable. Currently I am studying Japanese. At times it can be confusing to have first studied Chinese as modern mandarin pronunciations pop up when reading hanzi instead of the borrowed from 600 years ago by southern Chinese people pronunciation that the Japanese use as kanji. The verb bending so to say is complex in Japanese but it is learnable. What I find complex is that when formulating a sentence or when listening one does not know the time frame used, whether it is a question, request or a command or such until the end of the sentence. Which works in both Chinese and Japanese. with ma for yes/no in mandarin and ka in Japanese. Although both use the ne for a "isn't it?" kind of expression. I intent to go to Japan for 3 months this year April to study Japanese there instead of 1½ hours per week which I used to in the Netherlands. Also I will be staying at a Japanese family to further hopefully have more need to speak and listen to Japanese increasing the getting used to doing both quicker. One thing about both languages I am glad about is that fictional Genders of non living things does not inflict the way words are written which it does in many European languages. Sure a occupation is obvious when speaking about a male or female but a house or a door even in Dutch are not of the same Gender thus get a different word in front of it "Het huis" and "De deur" but at least Dutch has basically either non gender or a gender words. unlike German, French, Italian and Spanish (probably more but my knowledge does not reach that far with other languages ^_^) Informative and somewhat relatable video. Thanks for making the video and sharing your insights :)
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for your input... all the best to uou Herr in Japan
@Pollymichaelis
4 ай бұрын
I think once you overcome the difficulties of tonal Chinese, forming sentences in Chinese is easier in Japanese as Chinese has less grammatical rules as you can rearrange characters and still make sense. As Chinese I struggle to form sentences in Japanese
@user-hv8xc7hx4o
5 ай бұрын
JP is pretty rough. I have studied it to the point where, I have read perhaps 25 books or so in Japanese. However I still have to look words up constantly. Sound words, all kinds of idioms, and yeah, I don't have all the N1 kanji yet either. I'm missing like 500 kanji still. Plus kanji, is a kind of weird system since kanji can have so many readings. Anyway, I always think that even though CN is no cakewalk, how can it be as hard as JP? Plus yeah, keigo isn't that easy. Luckily foreigners aren't really expected to have mastery of keigo or anything, but still, you need to know some of it just to read books since it is used in literature all the time.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Go for N1 ... you can do it
@sirmione905
5 ай бұрын
Even for native Japanese speakers, keigo is difficult. Many Japanese write/speak keigo incorrectly. Also, on these days, many people can read kanji but cannot write them correctly. We don’t do handwriting much anymore, just type words on the PC or phone instead, so we don’t need to remember detail forms of kanji. It’s similar for English speakers that they don’t need to remember correct spelling of words as they get automatically corrected on the PC/phone.
@portable_charger
5 ай бұрын
I'm a native Chinese speaker both Cantonese and mandarin and my second language is English and Japanese. I personally find Japanese easy to learn because of my vast knowledge for Han Zi and similar pronunciations of them, its true that Chinese grammar is similar to English and I did have a hard time dealing with the difference in Japanese grammar. But to me, I think the grammar structure wasn't that hard to overcome. I think any language can be hard or easy depending on different ways you look at it. Great video!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks so much... Cantonese helps with the readings of some Japanese characters. BTW Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese and Korean are head final left branching, the opposite of English. The person who came yesterday... 昨日来た人
@nfwlpw
2 ай бұрын
I've heard Polish is the European language with the most phonological similarity to Mandarin, like pinyin's x and j. Do you find that to be the case?
@user-fq1jm6sw2z
3 ай бұрын
Japanese is a difficult language, but it's also a very beautiful language. Please try learning it. Japanese people will welcome it.
@motherfudger6664
5 ай бұрын
Oh man I started laughing uncontrollably when the woman demonstrated all their 'a' tones. lol Having a Spanish background was useful for starting Japanese, and I've quite enjoyed learning the writing system including kanji, but the politeness tiers are quite daunting.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
The vowels are the same...
@motherfudger6664
5 ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreams yes that helps a lot with a lot of pronunciation, whereas I see monolingual English speakers struggle a little more in that department.
@thepassportog
4 ай бұрын
I speak Japanese and am learning Chinese. This is such a good topic! Bravo
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Thanks
@China-bizvalueinstories
5 ай бұрын
great lecture video. The tonal system variations in China is also difficult for Chinese from different regions across the country, namely from different accents, almost like how Spanish is different from Italian. That's why the first Emperor's effort in unification of writing system is huge in the Chinese civilization.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thanks so much...
@redneckscumbags4422
5 ай бұрын
that's also a reason why china never moved onto a phonetic based writing system since there hasn't been a unified spoken language across china until the past few decades.
@polarninjawastaken
5 ай бұрын
67 YEARS OLD?? YOU LOOK 15 YEARS YOUNGER I AM REFUSING TO BELIEVE YOU'RE 67 😭
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
LOL, thanks ... yes 67, born in 1956.
@FellowOfHammer
Ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreamsyou look mid 40s. What’s the secret
@theredbar-cross8515
29 күн бұрын
Finally a video that presents a clear and correct answer to this often asked question. The multiple readings of kanji is something so complex that most native Japaneses speakers struggle with it, especially if they're dealing with vocabulary outside of their profession. Keigo is another point where young people in particular struggle with, but at least it's a transferable skill across all professions, once you've learned it, you've learned it. No so with kanji reading, that's a life-long struggle.
@polyglotdreams
29 күн бұрын
ありがとうございます
@cedricmoreau3093
4 ай бұрын
Congratulations on such a serious job I had been expecting for a long time! It all takes us back to the question: what means "more difficult to learn"? Does it mean : - How long/hard will it take to be understood in this language? - How long/hard will it take to understand this language? - How long/hard will it take to master it or simply get by with it in everyday situations? Supposedly “easiest language to learn ever” English actually turns into a real nightmare when talking about high-level grammar. Thanks God, you won’t need this high-level stuff to order a Coke in MumbaÏ, so who really cares, apart from real English literature connoisseurs? Similarly, are Japanese pitch tones and variations in politeness forms real crucial knowledge to get understood or a matter for those who want to sound native? Just because sounding like Japanese native is extremely hard, it does not prove Japanese is very hard. In my opinion, though I know Japanese politeness levels are another nightmare, I tend to think it doesn’t take long to understand and be 80% understood in very basic Japanese (After all, “I-want-drink” means 80% of “I am thirsty”, and be at least 80% understood is the real basic goal of any language). Talking about grammar, a language like Chinese that allegedly doesn’t have grammar will then inevitably have THOUSANDS of situations in which the only explanation will be “That’s the way it is, just learn it by heart“, which is NOT the definition of an easy-to-learn language! That’s the case in Chinese! Not to talk about the 成语, thousands of expressions to be learnt by heart, that sound like random words tossed upon. No rules = GIGA trouble !!!! For Western people, It really takes incredible amounts of time to be understood in AND to understand Chinese; too few syllables (400) way too many meanings. Most Western students actually need MONTHS before they can simply make a difference between Chinese sounds like ZH, z, c, s Sh, not even talking about tones or understanding very simple Chinese phrases in context. I eventually noticed that most foreigners tend to find the hardest oriental language is simply … The very first they learnt, for it’s such a mind-blower for any Western learner ! So once again congratulations for this brilliant work, but I remain extremely cautious about your conclusions that might be slightly biased!
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Thanks so much for appreciating my work
@Raifu__
5 ай бұрын
The Kun’yomi readings of 生 are not 16, but 10 in the given example : い, う, うま, うまれ, お, は, き, な, なま, む. What comes after the dot is not the kanji reading. For instance 生やす is は.やす, so the kun’yomi reading is only は. Obviously, it’s still difficult, but context generally gives a hint for the reading.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
That is a valid point... Nevertheless, there are other readings not given in the examples.
@Raifu__
5 ай бұрын
Yeah, great point. I’m pretty sure there are other readings for obscure words in classical literature and in modern first names. I’ve stumbled upon lots of words with a reading not referenced in the kanji dictionary I use when reading novels.
@angamaitesangahyando685
4 ай бұрын
@@Raifu__How would you know a given word's reading in a book? Or do you mean audiobooks? - Adûnâi
@Raifu__
4 ай бұрын
@@angamaitesangahyando685 Simply by knowing the word. : If you learn kanji's, you'll have to make a guess that will prove wrong in a lot of cases. But when you know the word 年上 is pronounced "toshiue", you won't make the mistake of reading it "nenjou" (another reading of the same kanjis, which is wrong here). There are other cases where 2 readings are both okay, and you choose what you prefer (but those are low frequency words) Honestly, there are cases where you have to get some experience in listening to guess which reading a word has in a specific context. For example, 入る which can be both read "iru" or "hairu" depending on context. -> This is rare. Mostly, you can guess the reading when reading a book without audio input by knowing the word.
@photon434
5 ай бұрын
This was an outstanding presentation. Katakana and hiragana can be a little intimidating for beginners, but they can be learned in a short time. While I greatly enjoy Kanji, I find the number of meanings and pronunciations very time consuming to learn. I think it would be easier to learn Chinese writing first. And while the meanings embedded in Kanji are beautiful, it gave rise to what seems like an endless sea of words in the Japanese vocabulary. So, I just relax and study for the love of the language. I admire your dedication to these two fascinating languages. Thank you for your insight into questions that I’ve wondered about.
@vivida7160
4 ай бұрын
I don't think you understand. Words come first, in any language. The vocabulary already exists and you designate written letters to represemt the words. The only thing that increases the number of words are loan words and fusions of existing words. The things you call pronounciations are seperate words that have been given the same letters for writing because the meaning of the letter is the same or similar.
@photon434
4 ай бұрын
@@vivida7160 Of course, you are correct in that a large number of words came even before the Japanese borrowed the Chinese characters. But the Japanese made these characters their own naturally creating the term kanji "漢字" to them. While languages like English that only use phonetic alphabets do use word roots to form new words, it is more common just to simply use two existing words to describe things. On the other hand, it is a natural progression was for the Japanese to mix these ‘Kanji’ into different combinations. They are used either one of many possible Japanese pronunciations, known as ‘Kun’yomi’, or adopted the Chinese pronunciations, known as ‘On’yomi’. This process formed new words that had not previously existed.” “They combined kanji with complementary meanings and desired sounds to create entirely new words.” I’ve heard Japanese people talking about the beauty and descriptiveness of the Japanese language saying that there are over 100 different words to describe rain. Here are just a few examples: Ame (雨): This is the basic word for rain. Kosame (小雨): This term is used to describe light rain. Ooame (大雨): This term is used to describe heavy rain. Niwaka Ame (にわか雨): This term is used to describe sudden rain. Yuudachi (夕立): This term is used to describe heavy evening rain. Touriame (通り雨): This term is used to describe rain that starts and stops suddenly. It is so easy and actually artistic to fit characters together in ways that seem so natural and retain their original meaning for a millennia. それが日本語の漢字です。
@vivida7160
4 ай бұрын
@@photon434 You've just told me you don't understand. The words were designated Chinese letters based on meaning. The words that are pronounced the Chinese way are Chinese loan words. Not inventive complucated ways of pronouncing Chinese letters.
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
The multiple pronunciations indicate different usage and meanings as you may have noticed
@GOREilla.
5 ай бұрын
Looking at all the elements like the wall, windows, natural materials as the clay pot and the lighting, I was almost totally sure you were in a more tropical environment, then the "no fume" sign just confirmed!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Cebu.. Philippines 🇵🇭
@Karl-going-solo
4 ай бұрын
Impressive lecture from a smart guy. Well done. 您很厲害。
@polyglotdreams
4 ай бұрын
Thank you so much
@phen-themoogle7651
5 ай бұрын
As someone who has been fluent in Japanese for 20 years and studied Chinese around the same time and never made it above an intermediate level in Chinese, for me Japanese is way easier. Mainly because of the amount of entertainment and things I wanted to do in the Japanese language were overwhelmingly greater than the amount of things I wanted to do in/with Chinese (less entertainment I was into, besides some Kungfu movies). Also it was much faster learning pronunciation in Japanese and I would even claim that Japanese is the easiest language to pronounce in the whole world since you just need 5 vowels and most sounds just continue that pattern with adding consonants before them. In English there are too many random spelling rules that change pronunciation or weird things. Japanese is always the same, which makes it very easy to hear, and I think hearing a language transfers over to having skills in it eventually. Even Japanese people forget kanji or how to write so although writing is kind of difficult it's not like ultra important, well depending on your goals. Still easy to learn vocab without kanji, just don't get too distracted and focus on all the different readings of individual kanji (you only need one at a time, and learn from context) And in terms of writing Chinese is also a beast with even more kanji than Japanese. To me Chinese (mandarin, or canto, just any dialect) is like 3x harder. I even have a Chinese aunt and some family from China and yet I still got Japanese down instead lol Then again some people get fluent in Chinese and don't in Japanese that study both, so it probably depends on how much you get into the language and how invested you are/how much you enjoy it (how much pressure you put on yourself to immerse in it) *depends on what feels more difficult to learn for the individual*. I still think Chinese is harder though lol
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Exactly... motivation and effort are key factors.
@charlesrodolf7309
5 ай бұрын
aint not way japanese is easy language to pronounce lol are you even aware of pitch accent
@juliab3326
5 ай бұрын
@@charlesrodolf7309Pronunciation and intonation are two different things. Japanese pronunciation is incredibly easy to master for Non-English speakers, the intonation (including pitch) may be harder, but it's no way near the difficulty of tonal languages.
@phen-themoogle7651
5 ай бұрын
@@charlesrodolf7309 I majored in Japanese Linguistics, took Dogen's pitch accent course on Patreon, so I think I'm aware of it lol Every language has a form of pitch accent in the flow of a sentence or rises and changes in intonation of individual words (Japanese isn't completely flat, and some people might sound like a robot if they speak in monotone). To support your point: Japanese has way more variations of pitch-accent for dozens of dialects not including standard Japanese like if you were to learn Kansai ben, there's still subtle differences between Osaka, Kyoto, Hyougo, Wakayama and everything can be quite different in isolation (especially completely different from Standard dialect/Tokyo). But for the standard dialect, there are many resources nowadays for people that study it. 20 years ago it wasn't that popular to study. But let me ask you this question. If there are many regions in Japan with different forms of pitch accent, then are there many 'correct' ways to pronounce it in Japanese? And is it easy to be understood without pitch accent? How do Japanese people understand others from different regions? Basically, you can become fluent in the language without studying pitch accent in isolation (natives never do), and still be completely understood even if you don't sound like a standard speaker from Tokyo, sometimes people give off being raised in America or other country vibes when they are fluent but haven't mastered pitch-accent, but it doesn't change the fact that you are understood completely (and sometimes intuitively have a good pronunciation and natural flow in your pitch accent, from just being exposed to the language enough) . Try speaking Chinese without ever learning the tones...(maybe possible too with enough exposure, but seems a lot harder) Well, if you have like 10k,20k hours of listening to the language you absorb the flow and don't really need to study pitch-accent, it's only like a spice to improve your language ability closer to native-level language. Listening to the language is more important for the first year or two, and just knowing the pitch accent basic patterns, there's only like 4 main ones you need and it's only something I occasionally go back to if I feel off (or want to sound more native). Basically you will know when you are off if you have enough exposure to the language. I think people who are perfectionists like Dogen really zone in on pitch accent, and I do find other regions more challenging to study for pitch accent because lack of resources, but I can sometimes get Kansaiben pitch accent correct since I lived there and watch a lot of youtube videos with speakers from the region. But I don't really search for ways to study it in isolation or zone in on individual words. Overall sentence flow has always made more sense for me, since in a conversation you won't slowly pronounce individual words, but use them with surrounding words/sentence and context. Also pitch accent changes depending on what words follow, so you could sometimes sound unnatural if you study it too much in isolation. Much more useful to shadow a full sentence if you are at an advanced level or fluent. And occasionally look something up if you feel off.
@beniocabeleleiraleila5799
5 ай бұрын
@@charlesrodolf7309 every region in Japan has a different pitch accent, and a japanese person can understand clearly absolutely any japanese person. And even if pitch was really that important, it would still be way easier than english
@abfab117
5 ай бұрын
This video is brilliant. All my respect and congratulations. I know both languages (Japanese much better than Chinese). I am absolutely convinced that Japanese is far much harder to master. The only simple thing in Japanese is the pronunciation, anything else is nothing but complexity... As for Japanese, you might have forgotten TWO other 'Big' challenging things : 1/ Joshi (助詞 gramatical particles), they are many and their use is difficult and confusing 2/ The fact that in a sentence many things can be omitted (subject in most cases)... for that reason the Japanese sentence is often ambiguous for we don't really know who did what. Even the Japanese get confused sometimes and have to ask : sorry but who did? I experienced once reading a manga in Japanese: I was lost many times despite my honorable level... I read the same manga translated in Chinese and all was so clear. At last I could know who did what! Thank you if you can confirm and/or develop those two points, and again, CONGRATULATIONS for your excellent work. You are such a talented person.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for the kind words and sharing your experiences.
@youzhi7251
5 ай бұрын
My opinion is that there are much more perspectives to any language than just reading, writings, speaking. You will find bottleneck at different stages of learning for different languages. For example, you want to learn ancient Chinese if you want to really be part of the culture, but it’s really a pain as even native speakers find it hard when they learn it at school. On the other hand, Japanese Keigo system is much more complicated to deal with, and you have to master it if you wish to blend in with the society.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Yes... the cultural aspects are extremely important.
@czaronero
5 ай бұрын
amazing video and editing. thanks for that!!!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
My pleasure! Thanks for your support.
@user-ph3ye7fj5n
5 ай бұрын
My native language is tonal language. We have 3 tones and Chinese Mandarin has 4 tones. So we find Chinese easier. Japanese grammar is similar to ours but a lot more complex.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Which language?
@canelo4079
5 ай бұрын
For anyone interested in Chinese, you can try using Traditional Chinese characters. I think they are way more beautiful and meaningful with just a single word. But to be honest, they're a bit harder to learn, so no stress. just about knowing something fun.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
I love traditional characters
@user-ml2uu4fj8u
5 ай бұрын
So, what do you recommend to learn first (or learn parallel) if one is interested in both? Incredibly interesting video. I just felt like this one question was left open. I would be happy if you responded.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
It depends on your interests and the amount of time you can dedicate to learning. I see nothing negative about learning both at the same time. I learned Chinese here in Japan in Japanese as I was improving my ability in Japanese (which I first started studying in Poland in 1979 when I was studying Slavic languages in Poznan)... So I started with Japanese first. But I found it interesting to study both at the same time and learn all three types of characters. I think it helps you remember the differences in character pronunciation.
Hello, I have a question, about Duolingo, is it completely useless or it's not bad for beginning and like additional material?
@summcunt5421
5 ай бұрын
I used Duolingo for many years. It's not bad for a free app. I got sick of it after a few updates took away the features that used to make it good. There are definitely better apps if you are willing to pay money. I feel like they are just trying to make money these days. It's become more like an addictive little game than serious learning. That being said, I did become reasonably proficient in Norwegian after 6 years of only using Duolingo. I'm currently using 2 different paid apps to learn Chinese. Hello Chinese and Pimsleur. I'm very happy with the combination of these 2 apps. Pimsleur is the best for learning conversation. It's very obviously American based, but easy enough for me to adapt as an Australian. There is a half hour audio lesson each day which is fantastic. Then there are some optional exercises you can do afterwards. The learning is ridiculously fast. It's actually quite hard, but possible. This one takes a lot more self discipline to do than Duolingo. I spend an hour each day on this app and I feel like I've worked hard and learnt a lot. On Duolingo, you could finish a lesson in under 2 minutes and it was easy. But Duolingo makes it a competition, so I used to use it for several hours each day to get the highest score and I wouldn't have learnt near as much. You will learn, but at a very slow rate. Hello Chinese is great for learning to read and write and has some speaking as well. It also has some interesting cultural information. There's a lot packed into the app and it has both a Chinese lady and a Kiwi lady who teach lessons together which I find very helpful as they both pick up on different things that are very useful for us to know. In addition to lessons, there are lots of short stories to read. I feel like this is the best app for Chinese if you could only do one, but this app is only for mandarin, unlike Pimsleur and Duolingo which have multiple languages. I've also learnt a fair bit of Spanish between Duolingo and Pimsleur. Can't learn Spanish on Hello Chinese. But for the one language, it is very good. I guess it depends on how serious you are about learning. If you want a free game that will slowly teach you a language and can keep you entertained whenever you are bored for a couple of minutes, Duolingo might be exactly what you are looking for.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Exactly... it depends how serious you are and efforts you make
@Mathias-bz2kr
5 ай бұрын
I liked it, but it was a time waster, too bad at adding context(should be fixed at latst stories) and tried to translate words into a single English word, which gives problems later: 奪う 盗む both mean "steal" in different ways, or お茶 is translated as tea, which is wrong as お茶 is most of the time only for green tea, as black tea is 紅茶 The biggest point is learning hiragana version and then learning kanji later: why not learn the kanji version at once and you don't have to learn the same word 2 times ?
@anacouto9686
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so very much!
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@atharv_bajpai21
5 ай бұрын
As an Indian learning Mandarin Chinese currently at B1 level,I personally didn't find Chinese as difficult as I thought. I tried to learn Japanese too but I found it harder than I expected.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
It is challenging, but I hope you succeed
@sahasraillindra
5 ай бұрын
How did you get interested in it? How long have you been learning?
@atharv_bajpai21
5 ай бұрын
@@sahasraillindra I have been learning Mandarin Chinese for almost 1.5 years now,and my interest in Mandarin Chinese developed because of the Chinese script as it looks so beautiful and appalling to me and also during my Chinese learning journey, I started watching C-Dramas and I realised a lot of similarities in Indian and Chinese culture which kept me motivated to learn Chinese.Also I saw vlogs of different Indian vloggers travelling to China which also made me wanting to travel to China at least once and experience it on my own. Edit: Apologies if my English is bad 🫠
@Primalxbeast
5 ай бұрын
@@atharv_bajpai21Your English looks good to me, but I think you meant appealing instead of appalling, but the characters could be appealing because of their beauty and appalling because of their difficulty at the same time. :+)
@enchongliu4339
5 ай бұрын
English is dramatically similar to chinese, maybe for this reason is easier learning mandarin in terms of?speak ing as a Chinese, I speak Spanish and living Spain 16 years, then I found that the pronunciation of Japanese is similar to Spanish😂😂
@phoenixknight8837
5 ай бұрын
I am a native English and Arabic speaker, and would love to learn Mandarin, Korean and Japanese. I've committed to Japanese for this year at university. I half-heartedly attempted it in 2010 and failed. What I found was the pronunciation was natural and so mellifluous, but perhaps that is simply subjective positivity. By comparison, Korean was challenging to pronounce and listen to and I have yet to return to studying it properly. Would you advise to learn Korean adjacent to Japanese or prioritise Japanese then Korean then Chinese Mandarin? I am inclined to study Mandarin only once I have become fluent in Japanese and Korean, however long that takes.🙄
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
I would advise getting good at Japanese first, and then you can study Korean and Chinese... at the same time if you wish.
@phoenixknight8837
5 ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreamsthank you for your advice. Much appreciated.
@jumpinallans
5 ай бұрын
I love how you enunciate when you speak English.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
I do my best.
@user-sq4vc5qw4h
2 ай бұрын
I speak 5 languages now learning Japanese and Cantonese. One thing I notice is that these asian languages are very similar to Turkish (grammatically), because of their Ural Altay linguistic family (Finnish and Japanese)
@sss-hidden
5 ай бұрын
As Russian who learned Japanese and Mandarin I'd say that Japanese is way more difficult to learn for western people. Chinese has more and better resources for learning. Japanese has multiple pronunciations for kanji and Chinese almost always one. This is very important if you want to learn by comprehending raw input (reading, watching shows with subs). Japanese uses different to western languages word order (just google japanese word order) so it'll be hella hard to think in Japanese and even harder to translate something from English to Japanese and vice versa. But Japanese is super interesting to learn, not gonna lie
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Yes very interesting... thanks
@WeiGuanNian
2 ай бұрын
thank you for sharing
@caleb7475
5 ай бұрын
How is it that you have a American English Accent if you are from Poland and live in Japan?
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
I wad born in the US and lived in 🇵🇱.. I live in Japan for 42 years and am a Japanese citizen.
@juliab3326
5 ай бұрын
In general, people can learn all kinds of dialects and accents even without being from those places or living there.
@cheerful_crop_circle
3 ай бұрын
Lol
@deanzaZZR
5 ай бұрын
It's all about the pathway I would think. Decades ago, me, a native English speaker started studying Chinese at the age of 20 at university. Having first lived and worked in Taiwan and China Chinese is still more natural even though I have married a Japanese beauty and have lived there as well. Most of the time I'm reading Chinese/Kanji using Chinese sounds and then need to switch it to the Japanese pronunciation if I know it. To summarize it's complicated but it's all good.
well, I am crazy enough to learn Korean, Japanese, and Chinese simultaneously and study C1 English. it is fun 😁😁😁😛😛
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Fantastic... all the best to you!
@SK-so1ml
5 ай бұрын
Can you please give us some info on why there are less people good at speaking Japanese than Chinese in terms of pronunciation. Japanese should be easier to speak pronunciation wise but I came to realize that because of less phonetic elements its actually harder to speak like real Japanese.
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
One thing is being able to communicate in another thing is to exactly imitate a native speaker, and in that case, Japanese is very challenging, as you pointed out.
@Porquesi502
5 ай бұрын
The short answer is learners of Japanese don’t pay enough attention to pitch accent. Sure, it’s not the be all and end all and pitch accent differs by region in Japan. However, taking Tokyo pitch accent as standard, imitating the correct pitch accent is absolutely fundamental to speaking Japanese well. Think about 花が versus 鼻が, or 端を versus 橋を
@SK-so1ml
5 ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreams Yea and I guess Japanese is mora-timed which makes it extremely unique although vowels are super simple.
@containternet9290
5 ай бұрын
@@polyglotdreams He asked you where you took that information from that there are fewer people good at speaking Japanese than Chinese. Show me your data, please. Mandarin is spoken in Mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore so I really doubt there are great casual Chinese speakers outside of this sinosphere. In fact most polyglots who claim to know Chinese are frauds, most of them can't even pass a HSK 3/4 exam, they just memorize common phrases and sentences. I've put some to the test and they all failed, they can't really type and handwrite coherent Chinese let alone read an intermediate/advanced Chinese text. I've been learning Chinese for 5 years and even so I don't even dare say I'm fluent or give the slightest impression I can compare to Chinese native speakers. I do know I could brag myself a lot about this knowledge I've built both in and outside China but I don't really feel I yet deserve such admiration, I would be misleading people and myself. As for Japanese, the hardest aspect within Japanese language is actually Chinese(the Kanjis originally called Hanzi), remove the Kanjis in Japanese and then Japanese becomes one of the easiest languages to master.
@cheerful_crop_circle
5 ай бұрын
@@SK-so1ml Japanese is syllable-timed. There arent languages that are mora-timed actually. Mora-timing is way too robotic to exist in the real world languages
@Layla-Young
5 ай бұрын
I watch every video you upload and it never disappoints. I have started to study Japanese half a year ago because I met students from Tokyo in Spain to which I currently only speak Spanish to and one of them started studying German as well (my mother tongue) I love the language journey I have started, the only hard thing is keeping myself from starting to many new languages at once.... once you're hooked, you are hooked I would love to also study Mandarin one day
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
Awesome... I am very pleased to know.
@dreamer4957
2 ай бұрын
im japanese and i really love your videos! keep up the good work!!
@polyglotdreams
2 ай бұрын
Glad you like them! Thanks so much.
@celulaperfecte
5 ай бұрын
As I said to a chinese friend: speak japanese is easier than chinese (specially for me that as an spainard that japanese phonetics is 90% alike to spanish), but read and write in chinese is easier than japanese
@polyglotdreams
5 ай бұрын
The vowels are similar...
@mapl3mage
5 ай бұрын
In China you learn 2500 Chinese characters by the end of elementary school. For comparison's sake, the highest JPLT test, the N1, requires knowing "only" about 2,000.
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