"Chinese speakers can learn Japanese faster"

[@TalaySeedam]

With my N1-level Japanese, I visited Taiwan and could understand about 90% of the written language. Everything was super familiar and clear, though I had no clue how to read it out loud. Once I started learning Taiwanese Mandarin, I found that knowing the meanings of over 3000 Chinese characters helped me pick it up quickly. I already knew almost all the everyday vocabulary; I just needed to get used to the new pronunciation, which often resembled Japanese on-yomi. After less than half a year in Taiwan, I could communicate with the locals without much trouble.

[@razorie]

Thank you for your comment, I'll be pinning it as a reference for those who are familiar with Japanese and are planning to learn Chinese! The meaning association and pronunciation aspects of Chinese characters are practically ingrained into you once you learn them, regardless of whether you started by learning Japanese or Mandarin first. Your comment supports that very well!

[@milosuwa]

I think being a Wu or Cantonese speaker helps even more, especially if you also know Mandarin, because you can predict more onyomi, especially those with entering tone, like faat3 -> hatsu; jat1 -> ichi; hok6 -> gaku

[@sibeisun5272]

Chinese speakers who are familiar with Southern Dialects pick up Onyomi pronunciations much faster because we know how consonants shift between Chinese languages (j>k, f>p, x>k). The Onyomi thus functions like a dialect. Should also note that people educated in China or Taiwan learn classical Chinese. Many loanwords in Japanese preserve meaning from archaic Chinese vocabulary. Hiragana and Katakana are also easy to learn because they are derived from Kanji shorthand forms and radicals.

[@est222]

that’s actually such a good content!! i clicked on the video thinking that it was a video from a somewhat bigger channel, and was genuinely surprised when i saw the count of views and followers. i hope you will continue doing what you’re doing and the audience will grow xx

[@razorie]

Thank you for your kind words and support! I will continue to do my best with my content! Hope you learned something from this video!

[@menganlei9378]

其实在学平假名和片假名的时候中文或者是说汉字的知识也是很有用的。如果了解了每个假名是从哪个汉字演变过来的话，把这个汉字的读音和假名的读音联系起来，字形和假名的写法联系起来，对学习的帮助也是很大的，学起来更快。

[@razorie]

在写稿时，我要表达的意思是平假名和片假名并不是我们一般用的汉字，所以学过中文的人也未必能够一对一地用他们的汉字知识来读平假名和片假名和了解使用平假名和片假名的句子。而且意思也不完全一样。 但是现在想了一想，我认为你说得对！比如说，"イ" 是从 "伊" ， "あ" 是从 "安" 等等演变而来的！这些是"万葉仮名"的书写方式。 从这个观点来看，会读中文的人的确可以用这个方式而快速学习平假名和片假名。这一点我应该在视频里更详细地解释，这是我的不好。 谢谢你的回复！万分感激！

[@danielantony1882]

@@razorie I could actually tell you the Kanji forms of Japanese grammatical particles or words which are usually only in Hiragana. I know a decent amount.

[@자유형]

이것은 한국어 모어 화자에게도 적용되는 것입니다. 한국어 모어 화자는 기초적인 한자(1~9999)와 요일에 들어가는 한자 7개(월, 화, 수, 목, 금, 토, 일) 등을 대부분 알고 있으며, 한자가 일상생활에서 자주 사용되기에 한국어와 일본어 간의 발음으로 단어를 쉽게 익힐 수 있습니다.

[@FishyAshB]

This video was really interesting, I knew knowing Chinese characters would give one an advantage over someone that doesn't but it seems like the effect was a bit more than I expected. Learning to read Japanese has been one of the most fulfilling learning journeys I've gone through and I am always excited to learn, read and experience more as time goes on

[@Englishcomprendsive_input]

Most modern vocabulary in Chinese is absolutely identical with Japanese cause in 19/20 century Chinese translators just used the same word in Japanese for the sake of comprehensibility and convenience.

[@honghongkohan]

also some of the simplified chinese characters were inspired by the japanese 新字体

[@user-cf1xm9dh7b]

明治維新の後、清朝から2000人くらい日本に留学生が来ました 彼らが帰国して和製漢語をそのまま使ったので中国で日本と同じ単語が定着した 内戦が終わって共産党統一後、毛沢東は和製漢語じゃなくて中国独自の言葉に置き換えることも検討したが 和製漢語は中国古典由来なので中国人にも理解しやすいのでそのまま使うことにしました また彼は複雑な漢字を簡略化することにしました 簡体字が生まれ現在に到ります

[@GWT1m0]

Brain dead take. Some modern concepts, yes. But to claim everything in current Mandarin Chinese is from Japanese is disingenuous.

[@mmtalii]

I speak English (Japanese has many words from English) I am b1-b2 in Chinese (Will help with Kanji and pitch accent in Japanese since Chinese also has tones) My native language is Turkish (Pronuncing Japanese syllables is very easy for us and there are a lot of similar sentence structure) MY JAPANESE JOURNEY WILL BE LEGENDARY. But I still want to prioritize Chinese for another year or so. Nice content btw.

[@lisamariefan]

What's funny is that I get quizzes for Chinese on KZbin. I can guess more often than not based purely on my Kanji I've learned so far. For context, I am only actively studying Japanese lol.

[@amj.composer]

What about these other way around? I'm a Japanese speaker (not a native but I'm somewhere between n2 and n1 and at approx 2000 characters) and I'm learning Chinese. How much easier would it be for me?

[@razorie]

For the most part, it will still feel like learning a new language. I highly recommend you getting the hang of the pinyin pronunciations, as they dictate the pronunciations (including inflections) for each of the characters, like the ones I showed in this video. Chinese sentences are built entirely of kanji, so there's no "alphabets" like the hiragana and katakana. That's why pinyin (which kinda acts as furigana for lower level readers) are so essential to associating characters with pronunciations. Like in the video, you will be able to associate compound words easier since you have kanji knowledge. Additionally, you will find that Chinese characters (unlike kanji) are more consistent in their pronunciation. A character usually only has one reading, with some rare polyphonic polysemous characters (same character, different meanings and pronunciations) sprinkled here and there. Grammar wise, Chinese follows the same structure as English (Subject-Verb-Object) unlike the Japanese style (Subject-Object-Verb) so you should still have no trouble navigating it given practice. There will be tiny sentence construction styles/phrasings here and there that may feel unnatural to an English-speaker, but will feel natural to a Japanese-speaker, so you will be able to appreciate those when you come across them. The conjugations in Chinese aren't as complicated as in Japanese (or English, actually) because there's just usually big general rules to follow. Verbs and nouns don't necessarily conjugate with plurality or time, and some concepts like articles (the, a, an) are simply unnecessary in Chinese, just like in Japanese. If you have any more questions, feel free to let me know!

[@Aznbomb3r]

It might be a lot easier for you to learn older Chinese languages like Cantonese, Hokkien, Minnanese. Few examples below. 國/国 gwok, canto goku/koku, jp gug, korean guo, mando 學/学 hok, canto gaku, jp hag korean xue, mando 目 muk, canto moku, jp mog, korean mu, mando 復仇 fuk sau, canto fuku shu, jp bog su, korean fu qiu, mando 毒藥/毒薬 duk yeuk, canto doku yaku, jp dog yag, korean du yao, mando 滿足 mun juk, canto man zoku, jp man jog, kor man zu, mando Another very interesting example would be shared terminology that doesn't exist in Mandarin 陰濕／陰湿 yam sap, canto, malicious/devious/sly in shitsu, jp, malicious/devious/sly eum seub, korean, dark and humid eum seubhage gunda, acting suspiciously/to be insidious(sneaky or deceitful manner) yin shi, mando, dark and humid, not used to describe someone's personality or character 渠(archaic), 佢(modern canto) 彼(modern japanese) keui, canto, third person pronoun kare, jp, third person pronoun geu, korean, third person pronoun qu, mando, not used as pronoun I found this in a Japanese dictionary, 渠④かれ。三人称の代名詞.

[@freemanol]

one should make a distinction between mandarin and other chinese dialects. japanese and korean kanbun/hanmum vocabulary are closer to cantonese and hakka than mandarin. these dialects are closer to middle chinese from the Tang dynasty. cantonese and hakka (and also hokkien, but I don't know much about it) also preserves the ending consonant, e.g, "tokubetsu" is something like tok-biet in middle chinese, "yakusoku" is yag-sog. but if you know the shift from middle chinese to mandarin, you can see the patterns. for example Mandarin Ji- was K- in middle chinese. Jian was Kan Jiu was Kiu Jing was Kin/Kyong so Jikan (time) = Sikan = Shijian wen was mun ti was tai So Wenti (question) = muntai/mondai mandarin is actually the divergent language in my view. their vocab is quite far from classical chinese compared to even japanese and korean kanbun/hanmun

[@razorie]

Thank you for the comment! I think what you are saying is very true, and just because the dialects are not focused on in my video doesn't mean the connection isn't there! I personally grew up in an environment that speaks a lot of Cantonese/Hakka so even though I can't speak those dialects myself, I picked up lots of words that I can easily see the parallel for!

[@freemanol]

@@razorie same here! I actually learnt more vocab from japanese rather than mandarin since it's more similar to what my family speak. also there's a couple more interesting history points that I want to share. 1. Up until the early 20th century, chinese people write in classical chinese, not the vernacular. This would look more similar to japanese and korean vocab, even if their dialect isn't close to middle chinese. I wonder how much do the people in china these days understand classical chinese, if they learn it at all. 2. During the republican era (transition from Qing to Kuomintang government), Putonghua was supposed to be a new synthetic language that incorporates the consontant-ending ("checked-tone") of syllables which have disappeared in Mandarin chinese, so that it better represents the whole of china and the historical language. That failed and they settled on simply imposing Beijing Mandarin as Putonghua.

[@nomadicmonkey3186]

中国語には声調があるから、中国語ネイティヴスピーカーは日本語のピッチアクセントに敏感な人が比較的多いのだけど、この人はそうじゃないね😂

[@razorie]

コメントありがとうございます！ 私もそう思います。残念ながら、日本語を話す友達が少ないので、勉強は本を読むだけです。 もっと日本語のピッチアクセントに敏感になれるように、スピーキングを上達させたいです！発声の練習、もっとしたいです。

[@nomadicmonkey3186]

@@razorie すぐできるようになると思います！中国語と違って、ピッチが文節レベルではなく単語レベルなのがちょっと戸惑う点かもしれませんが、非声調言語/非ピッチアクセント言語話者と違って、音の高低を聞き取る耳をデフォルトで持っているわけですから、圧倒的なアドバンテージです！

[@danielantony1882]

@@nomadicmonkey3186 高低アクセントですね、ある意味で全部の言語が持っていると、僕はそうだと思います。 勿論、 公式的には全部の言語が記されていた訳じゃないが、不自然な高低アクセントや強弱アクセントが存在しているので、ある意味で全部の言語です。唯一の問題は、その概念の存在を意識すること｡意識さえあれば、習得はいずれ簡単にできるでしょう。 　僕も同じだと思います。声調程の難しい物じゃないですし。

[@danielantony1882]

Chinese speakers can actually skip a lot more if they have the proper tools to look up the Kanji forms of things that aren’t usually written in Kanji, like じゃ無い for じゃない. There’s actually a lot of Kanji forms which are still legible to Chinese speakers.

[@razorie]

@@danielantony1882 Thank you for the comment! That's very true! Sometimes there are alternatives that may be more difficult for Japanese readers, but end up being easier for Chinese readers! Bottom line is, the more Chinese characters there are in a sentence, the easier it is for people with Chinese background to understand!

[@danielantony1882]

@@razorie Want me to share some Kanji forms of Japanese grammar particles or words by the way?

[@razorie]

@@danielantony1882 sure! Feel free to do it on a new comment! I'm sure other viewers will appreciate it!

[@danielantony1882]

@@razorie Ah damn. Well it’s already 3:42AM here so I’ll have to do it tomorrow, and hopefully won’t forget to do it.

[@siyacer]

idk

[@Ocklepod]

It also easier for some older koreans to learn japanese since they were forced to use kanji/japanese when being occupied until 1945 or sth, there is literally no other reason why that one table listed korean as well, the korean language in itself doesnt contain kanji and 99% of words dont have any relation to japanese words.

[@user-su4dd9kp7l]

There’s actually a lot of similarities between Japanese and Korean that predate colonization. Both languages used Chinese characters for writing prior to the invention of their own native writing systems (hiragana and Hangul). Many Koreans still learn Chinese characters in school, and Chinese characters are sometimes used to distinguish homophones in formal writing. Both languages owe a large percentage of their vocabulary to Chinese, and there is definitely some shared vocabulary as a result. Also, the grammar of Japanese and Korean are eerily similar. Both use particles rather than word order to denote case, and both have complex systems to indicate politeness/social hierarchy. You can often do a word-by-word translation between Japanese and Korean, much like you can between European languages. Korean is without a doubt the easiest language for a Japanese speaker to learn. The reverse is most likely true for Korean speakers too, but that may also depend on how well they know Kanji.

[@TalaySeedam]

Actually, 80% of Korean vocabulary has origins in Sino-Japanese words, so if you know Japanese or Chinese, you can learn Korean vocabulary easily. For example, in the Korean sentence "해외에 있는 가족과 최신 정보를 교환하기 위해 매주 전화를 합니다," all 7 words crucial to understanding have their origins in Japanese: 해외 (haeoe) = 海外 (kaigai) - abroad 가족 (gajok) = 家族 (kazoku) - family 최신 (choesin) = 最新 (saishin) - the newest 정보 (jeongbo) = 情報 (jōhō) - information 교환 (gyohwan) = 交換 (kōkan) - exchange 매주 (maeju) = 毎週 (maishū) - every week 전화 (jeonhwa) = 電話 (denwa) - telephone I know Japanese but can't speak Korean; still, I'm pretty sure that the Korean sentence is about calling to exchange information with or about family that is abroad.

[@honghongkohan]

japanese and korean is much more similar than chinese there are research showing that japanese and korean might be even related (still not confirmed tho)

[@user-cf1xm9dh7b]

韓国では漢字使わなくなったから知らない人が多いのかもしれませんが じつは昔から使ってるワードや四字熟語は中国由来の漢字がほとんどで 現代韓国語のほとんどが日本語(和製漢語)由来なので韓国語と日本語は語彙の発音が似ているんだよ💡

[@cuddlecreeper8]

Heads up 「猫が好きじゃない」does *not* mean "I do not like cats" が is the subject marker, so the cat is the subject not the topic. It actually means "The cat does not like [it]"

[@razorie]

Thanks for your reply! To be honest, that part of the recording I was a little doubtful about how to express myself. But since you brought it up, I might as well take this opportunity to address this for you and for other people who might think similarly as you too! Actually, I agree with you in that it does not mean that, but only from a technical standpoint. I know STRICTLY SPEAKING it does not mean "I do not like cats". Since the cat is marked with the subject marker "が" I believe the meaning is more closer to "Cats are unlikeable (to the implied speaker)" or as you described "The cat does not like [it]" depending on the context. There is no "私" in the sentence so it, in the most technical sense, does not mean "I do not like cats". During script-writing I initially wanted to use the meaning of "Cats are unlikeable (to the implied speaker)" instead, and adding that is a very literal, rigid way of translating the sentence, but I later got rid of that idea because I thought it would cause more confusion if I phrased it that way. I figured I should go for a more natural, easy-to-understand English interpretation for everyone. I checked with some friends, as well as DeepL and Google Translate, that it's a pretty reasonable and understandable (though I agree, not technically accurate) translation. In hindsight, I think I should have at least briefly touched on that in the video itself. For this example, references are made to this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5DEg2V8ZZqXe8U at the time stamp 4:15. Sadly, it does not translate 1-to-1 into the English phrase "I do not like cats.", or rather, I don't think you can really translate 「猫が好きじゃない」into English without it sounding awkward or without losing any nuances it carries. That's why ultimately I still went for the option that "sounds more natural in English but is less technically accurate."

[@hachimuko1167]

As a native Japanese speaker, “猫が好きじゃない” could have either meaning, “I don’t like cat” and “The cat doesn’t like [something], depending on the context.

[@pred4507]

Yea, nice content. But your chances of success would become a lot bigger, if it the vid wasn't so on the nose gay. I mean... its targeted at the Japanese learning community - but still.

[@danielantony1882]

Huh?

[@peach9265]

You sound so stupid

[@ijansk]

Chinese and Japanese are completely different languages from different language families, different grammar, different thought process linguistically. The writing system doesn't make a language in its entirity.

[@Aznbomb3r]

Shared terminology with similar pronunciation does help a lot though.

[@danielantony1882]

Bro, what the hell are you talking about?

[@FishyAshB]

It's not just the writing system it's the shared vocabulary. about 20% of spoken Japanese uses Sino-Japanese vocabulary, as well as 60% of words in the modern Japanese dictionary... knowing Chinese is a considerable advantage for spoken Japanese and a monumental one for written Japanese. Basic Japanese grammar is relatively simple, only a few things can trip you up at most even as an English native. The real wall with learning Japanese is the vocabulary and knowing Chinese will give you an advantage on that quite handily.

[@danielantony1882]

@@FishyAshB Not to mention, the more formal the character or person, the more Sino-Japanese they’re going to use, so that 20% can jump from 40% to 60% at any time; and let’s not mention the assistant announcer/robot characters in Anime/Manga/Light Novels who basically speak 90% Sino-Japanese-those are my favourite.