Anyone here Studying Japanese and Mandarin Chinese either together or bit of one then the other?

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I’ve been studying Japanese for about a year, but I’m also really interested in studying Mandarin Chinese and would really like to experience a work placement in either or both countries. But as I’ve already made good progress in Japanese, it would be a shame to drop it to start a new language as after another year I could be better in Japanese or just have a small amount of knowledge in both languages.
So I’d just like some thoughts please has anyone who is a native english speaker experienced learning both languages? Which do you prefer and if it was you would you rather just specialise in one language or try to learn a bit of both?

I’ve had bad experiences with other Japanese language learning communities, people who are just anime obsessed and will find any reason to argue with you and tell you that how you’re studying is wrong. And I don’t even like telling people that I study Japanese because people automatically assume that I’m heavily into anime/manga when I’m not, but I think its also important not to let the westoners that exist who hold Japan up on a pedistal put me off.

I am thinking about spending a year now learning Mandarin and then specialising in the one that I enjoy the most I just don’t want to forget everything I’ve learned in Japanese so far lol!

Anyway thank you so much for listening to my rambling train of thoughts if anyone has any comments or thoughts I’d really appreciate it, thank you!

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I’ve only done a little studying of mandarin and while I definitely found it interesting, its really hard to compare learning them. I also learned french for a few years but same deal.

I don’t think the language itself matters so much as what the language means to you. The language that is most fun to study is going to be the one that you will want to use the most and is most relevant to you. And by extension, thats going to be the one also most useful to you.

So yeah I think theres a little 主客転倒 here. I would first do your best to figure out if you would rather live in japan or china / which language has more content/applications that you’re interested in. Then, learn that one.

Someone with more experience learning a lot of languages (like @simias ) can maybe tell me how I’m wrong though.

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Thank you much, that’s given me some things to think about (^-^)

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I’m in my late 30s now but I first briefly started studying Japanese when I was 18 almost 20 years ago and I vividly remember experiencing this. I wasn’t into that stuff at all, I just loved Japanese movies and didn’t watch anime or read manga. At that age I cared a lot about how people perceived me and I was embarrassed that I might get lumped into the Naruto crowd just because I studied Japanese.

At some point you just have to accept that any mainstream Japanese learning communities is going to be filled with weebs with waifu avatars (you’re on thin ice by the way). I don’t really have any other advice than this frankly. I can just tell you that in the long run it’s completely insignificant. Live and let live. Carry a pretentious Japanese book with you at all times so that you can point at it and say “One Piece? Never heard of it. I’m reading this essay on geopolitics of the Kamakura Shogunate, it’s pretty fun.”

Definitely ignore the “you’re doing it wrong” crowd though. I swear I’m going to flip if Youtube recommends me one more video where a gaijin twink tells me I need to study pitch accent.

Regarding studying Chinese or Japanese, the decision can only come from you, but while I would always recommend focusing on one language at a time it doesn’t mean that you have to drop the other. You can put the bare minimum amount of effort into studying Japanese in order to maintain your level while you spend most of your time studying Chinese for instance. That’s sort of what I’m doing with Russian and Japanese currently for instance (I spend at least 15 minutes reading Russian daily, but most my effort goes towards Japanese).

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Thank you so much for your help, that’s really good advice and glad I’m not the only one who has experienced that with the Japanese language learning community. Lol I need to change my profile pic now ははは

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Embrace the weeb in you. Succumb to the dark side!

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Noo! I am not weeb xDD

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I studied Japanese for over two years (one in Japan) before deciding to study abroad in China for a year during my last year of college. Before I went, I took Chinese 101 at my local university.

Honestly if I could’ve afforded to study in Japan again instead, I would have, but my financial aid at the time would only cover China. It was like 1/4th of the price for dorm, tuition, food, etc. So it was either China or nothing. (I really wanted to travel again!)

In China there were a lot of Japanese students I could practice Japanese with outside of class. I also self studied, but didn’t do very well keeping up with it. I was there to study Chinese after all, and so were the rest of the students.

For me, Chinese seemed much easier to learn in class. The writing system is way easier, despite there being more characters (around 4k). Each Chinese character only has one pronunciation (with a few exceptions), and they are one syllable each. This makes reading so much easier. And the grammar is more similar to English.

That being said outside of class, I felt that Chinese was way more difficult. Everyone there has an accent / speaks a dialect.

As far as living in either country, I’d choose Japan every time. China was a great experience for me, but I wouldn’t live there again. It all has to do with the government.

Also, I had the same thing happen to me while studying in Japan. Most of the english speaking students were obsessed with anime, JRPGs and the like. I felt out of place at times, and often got questioned about why I was there. I felt that there was a sort of elitism about who was the biggest weeb & got made fun of because I only really liked DBZ and Inuyasha. I didn’t really care though. I was there to learn & have fun. It’s best to ignore people like that imo.

Anyways I’d much rather be advanced/fluent in Japanese right now than have the Chinese knowledge I currently have. Constantly switching back and forth between studying each language was something I couldn’t keep up with personally.

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Tagging @Jonapedia さん wricat

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Thank you so much for sharing your experiences

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Where in China did you go to? Asking because I’m vaguely considering something similar.

Btw welcome to the forums!! Just saw you’re a new user. (May I interest you in opening a study log? They’re great motivation and a way to make online friends to share the journey with :smirk:)

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Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and experiences, you’ve certainly inspired me to want to start learning Mandarin :blush:

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Does anyone know of any useful beginner text books for Mandarin ie similar to what Minna or Genki is to Japanese?

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I would recommend searching for a community of Chinese learners and asking there. Reddit might (or might not) be a good place to start for instance, they sometimes have decent resources.

For instance: Reddit - Dive into anything

Note that I can’t vouch for any of that but hopefully that gives you some threads to pull at.

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Integrated Chinese is commonly used, it is very good, similar to tobira (far more accessible though) or quartet in workflow/style, you learn vocab and grammar very quick, but it is very reliant on multi media (using the videos is a must imo), and does not have an answer key. The online version might have one, so the online version might be better for self study.

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Are you planning on studying Chinese in a classroom or self study?

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Thank you so much for your text book recommendation =) I would be self studying

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Pronunciation is a major concern, it is the hardest part of the language and the first thing you have to learn. If you want to study Chinese I think it is necessary to have a native speaker friend that is willing to help. Chinese people are the most friendly and encouraging people when you are interested in their culture, I have made a lot of Chinese friends since starting the language, almost all the friends I have made at university are Chinese, it is a uniquely sociable culture so don’t be afraid of reaching out, trust me when I say it is easier to make a Chinese friend than a friend of any other nationality. But nonetheless, you are asking for a major time investment from someone to help. It is not a language like Japanese where you do not have to think about pronunciation, half the sounds are completely new and tones need to be drilled thoroughly. Though I believe the language is a lot easier to progress in, it requires someone to help you along the way.

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I’m currently not learning Japanese actively as I used to. Every now and then I consume Japanese media, such as TV show or movie, and try to understand what is being said. My Japanese is not good, but good enough to order food and ask for simple things when I visited Japan.

Since I’ve been living in Singapore for 3 years now, I’m learning Mandarin. Knowing kanji certainly helps in my learning process, although the language itself is of course very different. My Chinese is much worse than my Japanese, but improving.

I’m also not a big consumer of anime or manga. When I watch Japanese films, it’s usually either contemporary drama like Hirokazu Kore-eda films, or classics such as Yasujiro Ozu/Seijun Suzuki.

Currently, I’m having problems finding suitable Mandarin films to watch. Most of the Chinese films I like to watch are in Cantonese, or dubbed in Mandarin (which I dislike). However, there’s no shortage of interesting YouTube videos about learning Mandarin, so I’m watching those now.

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Zhang Yimou is one of my favorite directors (Fellini and maybe David Lean are the only better live action directors imo), watch his Wuxia film’s if you haven’t (Hero, House of the Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, and Shadow). Chen Kaige is also great but phones it in on a lot of films, regardless Farewell my Concubine and The Promise (I know it may seem silly but its too good) are incredible.

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