Chinese vs Japanese
Should I learn Chinese or Japanese?
Chinese and Japanese are unrelated languages that share a writing tradition: Japanese borrowed Chinese characters (kanji) and a huge layer of Sino-Japanese vocabulary. Grammar, sound systems and politeness are completely different, and neither is intelligible to speakers of the other.
The short answer
Choose Chinese if you want the biggest speaker base and characters you can later reuse for Japanese kanji; choose Japanese if Japan, its media or a toneless sound system pulls you. Both sit in the FSI's hardest category, so motivation should decide, not difficulty.
🥋 The Dojo · five rounds
Kungfucius asks Chinese and Japanese to come to the Dojo!
Five rounds, two choices each. Click what you would pick. No thinking allowed.
Round 1: music · click one
The verdict
Pick Chinese if you want tones-but-simple-grammar and a billion potential conversation partners; pick Japanese if you want no tones but three scripts and verb-final grammar.
Closeness score
8 / 30
Mutually intelligible?
no
Shared vocabulary
About half of Japanese dictionary entries are Sino-Japanese (kango), many shared with Chinese in meaning
Which first?
Chinese first if you want both: kanji readings come easier.
Kungfucius says: Same characters, different language, and a toilet-paper misunderstanding waiting to happen.
Side by side
diànhuà電話
denwaA Meiji-era Japanese coinage that Chinese adopted; the characters match, the readings do not.
dàxué大学
daigakuJapanese writes the shinjitai form 大学, which matches Simplified Chinese here.
shǒuzhǐ手紙 = letter
tegamiLiterally "hand paper". In Japanese it means a letter; in Chinese it means toilet paper. Ask a Chinese friend to send you a 手紙 at your peril.
miǎnqiǎng勉強 = study
benkyōChinese 勉強 means doing something unwillingly or only just managing; Japanese 勉強 means studying (and, in shops, giving a discount).
deの
noBoth mark possession (我的書, 私の本), so they appear constantly and make a reliable giveaway.
àirén愛人 = lover, mistress
aijinIn mainland Mandarin 愛人 traditionally means spouse; in Japanese it means an extramarital lover. Taiwan Mandarin uses it as "lover" more broadly.
dàzhàngfu大丈夫 = all right, OK
daijōbuA Japanese learner's most-used word means "manly hero" to a Chinese reader.
qìchē汽車 = steam train
kishaSame compound, different vehicle: Chinese means a motor car, Japanese a steam locomotive train.