As for the title, I am Chinese and new here. I am also just a new learner of the Japanese language, and I want to improve my Japanese (and English).
I know a lot of Chinese characters, even if they are subtly different from Japanese kanji. But I think I can help with something. And I want to be friends with you all.
Welcome in, Kevin! I’m also a new Japanese learner and having a firm foundation in Chinese has helped me a ton! It’s actually a lot of fun to learn the on’yomi readings of the kanji because you can usually find some sort of similarity with the pronunciation of the hanzi. Sometimes the vocab ends up being basically a freebie, eg: 注意 = zhùyì /ちゅうい.
Sometimes false friends trip me up though haha. Today I found out that 愛人 doesn’t mean lover/spouse in Japanese, but lover/mistress. Could see that leading to some awkward situations.
I wasn’t very good with Chinese when I started Japanese, but is now studying Chinese via Japanese YouTube.
That’s the thing to be careful about. So, learn common words from meaning-to-sound, rather than Kanji compositions. And more important than that, learn grammar to expose to Japanese sentence patterns and vocabulary choices.
Kanji can be learned as you go if you are good at radicals (parts), but going from – vocab => Kanji in the vocab => various readings of the Kanji => vocabularies associated with each reading.
Sometimes, even with Chinese, I find ignoring individual ideograms at first => general look of the vocab => meaning => reading => affirmation of the reading by individual ideograms. Japanese is more strongly that, looks => meaning => reading, is more important that characters in most common cases.
Thank you and welcome to WaniKani and this community!
We have a very nyaaaaaaaaaaaice commeownity and I really hope you’d like it here!
P. S. You said you want to improve your English as well, so, if you don’t mind my correction recommendation, I’d phrase the title as “What can I, as a native Chinese speaker, do for you to help you learn kanji?”
Then again, I’m not a native English speaker myself, so my recommendations have to be taken with a grain of salt…
Anyway, best of luck with your studies and thank you again!
You are right. Like 注意, its pronunciation in Japanese is very similar to Chinese, so I can remember it when I learn it for the first time. Some words like 娘 and 切手/切符, have totally different meanings and pronunciations between Japanese and Chinese.
But I think this is a very interesting part when learning Japanese.
Thank you for your correction! But I’m wondering whether there is a shorter one for the title here
You studied very carefully. If I can express myself in English fluently, then I hope to talk with you for more details in language learning. Sorry for my poorly English
welcome!
you know, i watched this video that said you should learn japanese, chinese, and korean at the same time–it’s even more efficient. i don’t know why i’m bringing that up right now. feels relevant.
My favourite is 手紙
I had to look up the Chinese, but worth it.