Hi at my University I have an option to take evening classes in either Japanese or Chinese. I was wondering in terms of what may be more beneficial to learn which one would you recommend to learn? I have a interest in both of them however I would like to focus on one for now.

嗨，我的大學可以選擇日語或中文的晚上課程。 我想知道學習哪一門語言更有益 哪一個你會建議學習？ 我對這兩個都有興趣，但是我現(xiàn)在想關注一個。

Jeff Hamacher Japanese Proficiency Exam (Level 1)
Written Sat
A2A. The main consideration for you I think is which language has greater potential to open up new educational professional or personal opportunities for you as an individual.

我覺得主要的考量是哪種語言在教育，職業(yè)或個人機會上能提供更大的機遇。

Some people might argue that greater economic opportunities lie in learning Chinese because of that society’s much larger domestic and international-diaspora populations. Although I don’t know how the maturing and growth-slowing of the Chinese economy could affect such opportunities it might still offer better prospects than Japan’s.

有些人可能認為更大的經(jīng)濟機會在于學習中文，因為中國國內(nèi)人口以及海外華人人口更多。 雖然我不知道中國經(jīng)濟如何成熟和增長放緩可能會影響到這樣的機會，但它可能比日本還有更好的前景。

As for cultural or educational opportunities you’d have to decide which society might interest you more. I didn’t know much about Japan before I first went there but slowly immersed myself in several different aspects of the country’s traditional culture and ended up learning a great deal as well as having a fantastic time doing it.

至于文化或教育機會，你必須決定：哪個你可能會更感興趣。 在我第一次去那里之前，我不太了解日本，但我慢慢沉浸在這個國家傳統(tǒng)文化的幾個不同方面，最終學到了很多東西，并且度過了一個夢幻般的時光。（外國不好中國好（霧））

-------------譯者：tomandjerry-

If learning one language or the other is simply a matter of personal enjoyment and fulfillment I don’t think that there is a “superior” choice although you might find that one has a greater number of similar characteristics to your mother tongue and therefore could be somewhat easier for you to pick up e.g. basic Chinese grammar consists of subject-verb-obxt word order similar to many European languages whereas Japanese word order even for basic statements is essentially reversed.

如果學這個那個語言只是為了個人愛好和滿足，我感覺沒有什么“更好的”選擇，雖然你可能發(fā)現(xiàn)其中一種與你的母語有相似點，那么你能比較容易學會，例如基本的中文語法是主語-謂語-賓語的語序，與很多歐洲語言相似，而日語的語序即使是簡單的陳述句也是反過來的。

[EDIT] Other respondents here have mentioned the ideographic writing systems of both languages (kanji in Japanese hanzi in Chinese but both the same in essence … be aware that different styles of the ideographs exist in Japanese usage “mainland” Chinese usage and Chinese usage of Hong Kong or Taiwan). Committing to learning the ideographs for either language is essential for long-term progress towards real mastery. The syllabaries found in Japanese (hiragana and katakana) must be learned as well but they cannot be relied upon solely to communicate at a level beyond beginner-to-intermediate.

[編輯]其他答主提到了兩種語言中的表意文字（日語中的漢字和中文中的漢字，但是它們本質(zhì)上是一回事……注意在日本、大陸中文和港臺中文存在不同的表意字形態(tài)）。投入學習兩種語言的表意文字是非常重要的，如果你想朝向精通邁步時還能有長期進步。日文的字母表（平假名和片假名）也必須學，但要想突破初級和中級水平，不能完全靠它們來交流。

Whatever you decide have fun with it! And learning any language helps you prepare your brain to learn others more readily so your time won’t be wasted either way if you put a solid effort into your study.

無論你做出什么決定，享受它吧！學習任何一門語言都能幫助你的大腦做好學習另一門語言的準備，所以兩種選擇你的時間都不會浪費的，如果你努力學習的話。

-------------譯者：想知aya-

Victoria Weiya HSK5 working towards HSK6
Written 3h ago R26; Upvoted by Jessica Tang Professional Chinese instructor and lover of the language
From my understanding it would be more difficult to understand spoken Japanese that spoken Chinese for native English speaker. From what I know about Japanese it’s grammar is quite different to English and there are many more rules and spoken etiquette. Chinese grammar is actually quite simple and there are no particular grammatical rules that are used to address different people. Also the Chinese grammatical structure is not too complex it makes it very easy to guess any word you don’t already understand simply by context.
Ultimately it depends on you current interests. eChineseLearning has a free first Mandarin Chinese lesson offer so you could try them and see if Chinese suits you.
Good luck!

Victoria Weiya HSK5 正在向HSK6努力
根據(jù)我的理解，對于英語母語者來說，日語口語比中文口語更難懂。據(jù)我所知日語有完全不同的語法和很多規(guī)則以及敬稱，漢語語法很簡單，稱呼不同的人沒有特定規(guī)則。中文語法也不復雜，很容易只根據(jù)上下文猜出你不理解的任何單詞。
最終還是取決于你的興趣，eChineseLearning提供免費的第一節(jié)漢語課，你可以試試看是否適合學中文。
祝好運。

-------------譯者：想知aya-

William Park speaks Japanese
Written Sat
As Mr. Duran said Chinese is a tonal language so speaking may be the hardest part of Chinese. However it is frequently said that Chinese grammar is easier as there aren’t as many verb conjugations. Also it is true that Japanese grammar (which is surprisingly similar to Korean grammar) is very complex but possible to master. On the other hand speaking Japanese is easier as Japanese is not a tonal language (although tones are important for connotations).
In terms of writing I would say that Japanese and Chinese are similar. Both Japanese and Chinese need to memorize thousands of characters. Memorizing characters isn’t as important in Japanese but is it still vital if you want to be good.
I would say both are good options and if you are interested in both Japanese and Chinese cultures just go with your gut feeling.

William Park 說日語
星期六回復
如杜蘭先生所說，中文是一門音調(diào)語言，口語可能是中文里最難的部分。然而，也經(jīng)常有人提到由于沒有許多動詞時態(tài)，中文的語法更簡單。同時，日語語法（和韓語驚人的相似）是真的非常復雜但可以掌握。另一方面，日語口語更簡單，因為日語不是一門音調(diào)語言（盡管音調(diào)對內(nèi)涵意義很重要）。
以書寫方面來說，我認為日語和中文是類似的。日語和中文都需要記憶上千個漢字，記憶漢字對于日語不是非常重要，但是如果你想學好，它非常必要。
我想說，二者都是不錯的選擇，如果你對日本和中國文化感興趣，那么就跟著感覺走。

-------------譯者：capsclock-

Laurie Chilvers
Written Sat
I’m leaning towards the opinion that Japanese is a lot more approachable than Chinese.

我傾向于日語比漢語更易于理解的觀點。

You can learn Hiragana in the space of a day and instantly have stuff to read which is just something that doesn’t exist in Chinese. Japanese has a very minimal and easy to pronounce phonetic repertoire if you can do a Spanish ‘r’. then you already know all you need. You don’t have to worry about mispronouncing tones (people have different opinions on how difficult this is and native Chinese speakers have even told me it’s not that important as long as they can understand you from context but it’s still a thing). The first 1000 or so Kanji represent 90% of everyday newspaper articles written communication etc which still a lot but a heck of a lot more forgiving than Chinese.

一天時間你就可以學會平假名，并且立馬可以閱讀一些材料，在這一點上漢語是不行的。日語的語音庫很小，而且音也容易發(fā)。如果你能用西班牙語發(fā)出“r”這個音，那么你就已經(jīng)知道你所需要的一切。你不用擔心發(fā)錯音（人們對發(fā)音的困難程度是有不同意見的，母語為漢語的人甚至告訴我，發(fā)音不是那么重要，因為他們可以通過上下文來理解你的意思，不過這確實是個問題）。最常用的1000多個日本漢字就能表述90%的每日的報紙、文章、書寫和通信等等，雖然仍然很多，不過比漢語少太多。

-------------譯者：想知aya-

There just seem to be a lot of little reasons that make Japanese one of the most accesible east Asian languages. Not any one of them on their own is huge but when you add them up…
Plus this is all backed up by a near bottomless library of world class Japanese films tv series and computer games which can be used for practice and exposure.
Finally since you have declared you are interested in both if you were to pick Japanese to study at University first then you would break through the toughest hurdle people face when learning Chinese namely 漢字. The process of learning Japanese will completely demystify how Chinese Characters work for you and although China and Japan use them in very different ways and have different standards you can still reuse your experience of Kanji to make basic sense of Chinese if and when you decide to study Chinese later on.

看起來有很多原因使日語成為最易理解的亞洲語言。每一個都不是很重要但是你把他們合起來...
而且還有那么多世界級的日本電影，電視劇和電腦游戲，可以讓你用來練習和實踐。
最后，由于你說你對二者都感興趣，所以如果你在大學里準備先學日語的話，那么你要攻破學習中文時所面臨的最大障礙，那就是漢字。學習日語的過程可以完全闡明漢字是如何工作的，盡管中國和日本的使用方法和標準都非常不同。如果你事后改學漢語，那么你學習日語漢字的經(jīng)驗仍然可以提供一個基礎感受。

-------------譯者：capsclock-

Severine Riise More than averagely interested albeit yet to by anywhere near proficient
Written Sat
As for statistical usefulness I’d go with Mandarin. It is the most spoken language in the world and China is becoming more and more relevant in the world economy (both as producers designers as well as consumers).

從統(tǒng)計學實用性來說，我傾向于普通話。中文是世界上使用人數(shù)最多的語言，并且中國同世界經(jīng)濟的聯(lián)系也越來越緊密（同時作為生產(chǎn)商、設計者和消費者）。

The bad point with Mandarin specifically is the tones. There are four tones to be applied in order to indicate meaning in spoken language. There is the issue of hanzi (Chinese written scxt) as well.

普通話的難點在于發(fā)音。為了表達清楚意思，在口語中有四種聲調(diào)。學習漢字也很難。

Japanese is also very useful but is slightly less likely to encounter (unless you work in the tourism or service business) out of Japan. There are of course a number of companies that are Japanese and that could require some proficiency.

日語同樣非常實用，不過離開日本就不太用得上（除非你從事旅游或服務行業(yè)）。當然也有許多日本的公司，它們會要求你精通日語。

The good point about Japanese is that learning the sounds is relatively easy. It is not a tonal language like Mandarin Chinese. You still have to topple the challenge of kanji (Japanese scxt) that is complimented by two additional (as well as purely phonetic) syllabaries.

日語的好處在于學習發(fā)音相對容易。它不是像漢語普通話一樣是聲調(diào)語言（指發(fā)同一個語音的時候，用不同樣的長短、不同樣高低的聲調(diào)，會構成不同的意思的話與涵義。 譯者注）。不過你還要贏得日本漢字的挑戰(zhàn)，它還要附加兩種假名（讀音也不盡相同）才能表述。

I don’t know what to recommend because it still comes down to what interests you. I’m not just talking about the language but what kind of job you see yourself having or where you see yourself going.

我不知道該推薦哪一個，因為這取決于你對哪一個感興趣。我不僅是在談論語言，我更是在談論你會做什么樣的工作或是你怎么規(guī)劃你人生。

I hope this helps.

希望幫助。

-------------譯者：藍BluBlu-

Kelvin Bradley I've learned conversational Japanese Mandarin and Spanish
Written Sat
I have learned a little of both Mandarin and Japanese. Japanese I did for fun; and it was. Its a beautiful language with a rich culture that connects directly to the language itself. It’s much much much easier to speak than Mandarin.
Mandarin though I learned because it is useful. It is spoken by far more people on Earth than Japanese. And is the second most spoken language period. There is a large growing population of Mandarin speakers in the part of America I live in. And the language can help with getting a job. Mandarin I have had opportunity to speak with people living right in my community. Japanese on the other hand I have only had a chance to speak with people who are visiting straight from Japan.
That said if I had to focus on one or recommend one Id go with Japanese. It’s the one I enjoy more. I would love to visit Japan; China would be cool but if I never go that’d fine. So really the question will likely come down to which you feel more passionate about. (Unless you want to aid a career. Then probably Mandarin)

Kelvin Bradley(學過日語、中文和西班牙語，能夠交談)
寫于周六
我學過一些中文和日語。學日語是因為有趣，并且這是真的。日語是很優(yōu)美的語言，并且語言本身與其豐富的文化緊密相連。何況與中文相比，實在是太太太簡單了。
而我學普通話是因為它很有用。與日語相比，地球上使用這門語言的人真是太多了----是世界上第二使用人數(shù)最多的語言。就美國我所居住的地方來說，使用中文的人數(shù)在大幅增長。而且會中文能幫助我找到工作。說中文使得我有機會直接與住在我社區(qū)的人交談。從另一方面來說，只有見到來這里的日本游客，才能有機會用日語交談。
如果我只能專注于一種或推薦一種（語言），我會選擇日語。它是使我更享受學習的語言。我很想去日本，但中國，去也很好不去也不遺憾。所以問題是哪一種你會覺得更有熱情并靜下心來（學習）。（除非你是為了對事業(yè)有幫助，那可能該選中文）

-------------譯者：capsclock-

Joshua Duran
Written Sat
Chinese tends to be easier in terms of grammar however learning the characters can be insufferable . Chinese is also a tonal language which means a word can mean something else if it’s pronounced differently which can be hard and confusing. Although Chinese takes a while to learn it does yield many benefits such as many more business opportunities.

漢語的語法更簡單，不過學習漢字卻非常痛苦。漢語還是一種聲調(diào)語言，也就是說一個詞的發(fā)音不同意思也不同，這很難，也很令人困惑。學習漢語要費一番功夫，不過也會帶來很多好處，比如說更多的商機。

Japanese can be quite hard as well. For one you need to learn three writing styles Hiragana Katakana and Kanji. Learning Hiragana and Katakana shouldn’t take you too long but learning thousands of Kanji characters can be a pain. Japanese grammar rules are also said to be quite hard as well. In terms of job opportunities Japanese isn’t as useful as Chinese because of Japan’s slower economic growth in recent years.

日語同樣很難學。你要學習三種書寫方式：平假名、片假名和日本漢字。學習平假名和片假名不會花多長時間，不過學習數(shù)以千計的日本漢字會很痛苦。日語的語法規(guī)則同樣非常困難。就工作機會而言，日語不如漢語實用，因為近些年來日本經(jīng)濟增速更低。

So in my opinion I’d learn Chinese it’s easier and you’ll get more bang for your buck

所以，在我看來，我會學漢語，它更簡單。并且，這會讓你更有“錢”途。

-------------譯者：糯米團子-

Krishna V studied at PSG College of Technology
Written Sat
My recommendation would be to learn the language that you have most interest in and either whose movies/media you like the most or you have the most people with whom you can practice with.

我的建議是挑你感興趣的去學，兩種語言中你最喜歡哪種語言的電影和媒體資源，或者兩種語言中哪種語言你能找到最多的人一起學習。

Both languages are tough and need long concerted effort to learn. It's like a marathon so you need to have sustained interest to fuel your studies.

這兩種語言都很難，需要馬拉松一樣漫長的學習周期。所以只有強烈的興趣才能學好。