Is Chinese or Japanese harder?

Question

Is Chinese or Japanese harder?

Answer 1

Japanese by far.

Answer 2

"hardness" depends on so many factors, a lot of them unmeasurable.  A lot of the factors are unique to the person learning as well.  One person may find Chinese harder whereas another finds a natural aptitude for it but struggles with Japanese.  One thing is for sure you can't really take any of the above opinions seriously unless they state that they have learned/can speak both languages to a high standard.. you can't compare something you have no knowledge of.

I have heard arguments for both Chinese and Japanese being harder.. Chinese uses more characters (in common use), Japanese has numerous readings for the same characters.  Chinese grammar is closer to English, but the pronunciation is more complex.

I've heard that Japanese is quite unique in that a highly educated person could still have to guess at how to pronounce a certain word (because each character can have more that one pronunciation).

In the end it's a bit of a spurious question.  I only have experience of Japanese so I can't make a comparison...

Answer 3

Chinese is harder.

Answer 4

off coarse chinese it is from the top 3 hardest languages in the world

Answer 5

Chinese is terriblly hard but possible to handle also