Wow... how did I miss this one... UK here... and just in case they haven't been mentioned... here are the major differences between Chinese and Japanese Spoken: Chinese: 5 tones, changes of tone can seriously change your meaning. Japanese: 2 tones, changes of tone do not seriously change your meaning, they will make someone think 'silly gaijin' though... Written: Chinese: All Kanji (more often the more complicated characters... each one has a meaning derived from pictographs) Japanese: Kanji intermingled with Hiragana & Katakana. The Kanji that Japan has have been simplified, sometimes differently than the simplifications done in Chinese recently. The readings of the kanji differ greatly, as the Kanji themselves have been taken during different eras, from different areas by different people over centuries of history. The kanji also are associated with native Japanese words which have nothing to do with the original Chinese readings... just with the meaning. Meanings are by-and-large similar. I love having fun with Kanji with Chinese friends of mine, it's really interesting. As far as Hiragana & Katakana, they comprise two syllabaries. Like an alphabet, but each symbol stands for a syllable. Hiragana is used for native japanese words alone, Katakana is used as a sort of italics at times, but in the vast majority of cases, it's used to represent foreign words, like those English words they borrow... or German, French, Spanish, etc... Just so you know, Hiragana & Katakana have their origin in Kanji. I have a table with the origin of most of the Kana (short way to refer to Hiragana/Katakana), I'll have to scan and submit it sometime. As far as Korean goes... they use a writing system (a phonetic one) called the Hangoul (I'm not sure on the romanization for this one) in addition to some Kanji.. again simplified differently than Chinese or Japanese have been. Speaking... I don't know, I've never talked extensively with my friends studying it to find out, I'll have to. it's about time for my next Hangoul lesson anyways. 8-] Lecture man UK out ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learning Japanese I think I'm learning Japanese I really think so...
We know it's your opinion, and we know that it's wrong to be racist. However, you brought on the commotion by the way you presented yourself in that first post. Yeah, people tend to make racial comments like that (and it IS pretty stupid of them), but Quistis was just asking an innocent question. Don't you think it's possible for someone to ask a question which may actually be a relevent question in their view? (c0ke had a good point.) Besides, it's true that Japanese and Chinese could sound the same to a person who simply hasn't been used to listening to them yet. Even I thought to myself, "They sound kinda the same," but that was when I was a kid, plus I'm Asian-American myself! Fact is, we're all ignorant about things until we learn. I agree with your feeling that it's discomforting when people stereotype who/what Asians are, but you exaggerated your point inappropriately, as well as insulting others. Holding strong to your "opinion" even though you present it in a disrespectful way (exaggerating, stereotyping Quistis, swearing) is not a good move, no matter how many times you say "it's my opinion." So what if you have an opinion? We all have, so it's no use reminding us. I respect what you've brought up about racism, but I don't respect how you got nuts with Quistis. As for my take on the topic: Mainly, Japanese has a "harder" sound to it, while Chinese has a "softer" sound to it. (Metaphorically, kinda like comparing the martial arts of Japan to China: how karate is quite stiff and angular in movements, while kungfu is quite fluid and circular...that's just in general.) Chinese languages vary in tone (as UrashimaKeitaro pointed out), while Japanese is known for being nearly "monotone" (you don't really make your voice go up and down unless you're emotional). Also, Chinese (as well as Korean) uses smooth sounds like L's and Ng's, which Japanese doesn't have. It just takes some time getting used to the difference in sound. About 1-2 years ago I finally got to distinguish Korean from Chinese from just their sound. Now, since I'm taking Korean, I can recognize Korean just by listening for familiar suffixes or verb endings.
I know that i made a misstake I can tell the difference now thanx you for the help, but I just never knew the difference. I am really sorry if people hate my question and I respect everyones opinion. I am NOT racist i know languages are different. I just wanted to know how. I would like to say thanx to all the people who help me understand the difference and if i hurt anyone i am truely sorry so next time i will think before I ask.
Hey, hey, don't you -dare- apologize. You have -nothing- to be sorry for. You're not the one who misinterpreted. You're innocent. And, Seraphinx, I agree. I also feel Chinese has a softer sound to it while Japanese is somewhat harder.
i'm chinese and i'm also learning japanese at school well for me learning japanese is so much easier for me unlike others... i'm in australia btw... cause i can recognise all the kanji and the mainline of grammar is about the same the only hard part is trying to remember when writing japanese or chinese that i dont' mix them up
Sounds like me with German. (English = Germanic origins :: derivations quickly become automatic) Came home one day, turned on the TV, didn't realise I was watching the German news for a good 20 minutes. It was bad.
ok this is slightly off topic...but the Korean language is almost totally seperate...it was originally created by King Sejong in the year jeeezzzz...i forgot...but he developed specificly for Korea's use...although you can see some bits of japanese in it its a 24 letter alphabet...quite an interesting language non the less tho...kinda weird tho considering that there 24 characters while the other asian languages have some 40,000 characters in it...
.. the opinion of a hypersensitive moron. She didn't say they are the same, she said they sounded the same. She can't help how they sound to her. She knows there is a difference, or she would not have asked what it is. Why the hell do you have to go off on her for wanting to know what the difference is, for wanting to educate herself. Would it have been better if she didn't ask, and continued to not know what the difference is? Would that have been better? FFS you are an idiot. To me, Swedish and Norwegian sound the same. I know they are not though, but I can't help it if they sound the same to me. I don't speak either of them. The only way I am going to know what makes them different is to ask what the difference is. Somehow I doubt Teddz would freak out about me wanting to know more. Troll.
Thread lockdown I'm locking this down... too much bad juju, perhaps an intelligent discussion of Linguistics will pop up later, but this certainly isn't that. -UK
