What Chinese is easiest to learn?

We would recommend you to start learning Mandarin first since it's said to be easier to learn and then build up to Cantonese.

Which is easier Mandarin or Cantonese?

Cantonese is by far the more challenging of the two languages, particularly for a beginning Chinese language learner. This is because there are more tones used in Cantonese (Cantonese uses up to nine tones, whereas Mandarin only uses four).

Should I learn Cantonese or Mandarin first?

If you decide it makes sense to learn both Mandarin and Cantonese, most people recommend learning Mandarin first before conquering another Chinese dialect. It's interesting that both dialects use pretty much the same characters for writing though. This is because the characters share the same roots.

Is Korean or Mandarin easier?

Generally speaking, we might assert that Korean is easier for an English speaker to learn than Mandarin Chinese. But this is very relative. In fact, the US Foreign Service Institute assigns Mandarin Chinese and Korean the same level of difficulty. Both languages are in “Category Four”.

What is the hardest Chinese language to learn?

Mandarin Chinese

Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else) accustomed to the Latin alphabet.

5 Reasons Chinese is the Easiest Language

Which Chinese language is best to learn?

Mandarin is the lingua franca and the sole official language of China, so if you plan on doing business in China or traveling around the country, Mandarin is the language to learn.

Is Chinese harder than Japanese?

Well, they're equally foreign to English native speakers. The writing system, the grammar, and the vocabulary will mostly be completely new knowledge. But, the one major difference between Japanese and Chinese is pronunciation.

Is Mandarin or Spanish harder?

Compared to the simple alphabet that English offers, Mandarin contains thousands of symbols. Learning expert Scott H. Young states that speaking Mandarin is not only harder than speaking Spanish, but it is fundamentally different.

Should I learn Chinese or Japanese first?

If you're interested in learning Japanese with anime, J-pop, or because you love Japanese food and culture, then the choice is easy. On the other hand, for those interested in Chinese history and how it shaped many other Asian cultures, learning Chinese would be a great way to gain more insight.

Which is more useful Chinese or Japanese?

Japanese is far more useful than Chinese. Fluency in Japanese can get you well paying jobs because relatively few Japanese are fluent in English. If you learn Chinese you will be in competition for jobs with a very large number of Chinese who are very fluent in English.

How long does it realistically take to learn Chinese?

It takes about 4-7 years (roughly 2200 to 4000 hours) to become fluent in every aspect of the language, if you spend at least an hour and a half to study every day. However, it's quite common for learners to become more fluent in some areas than others depending on how they allotted their study time.

Which version of Chinese is most spoken?

Mandarin. This is the group spoken in northern and southwestern China and has by far the most speakers.

Which Chinese is more common?

Of all languages, Mandarin is the most widely-spoken.

Can a Mandarin person understand Cantonese?

Mandarin. Therefore a Mandarin-speaker and a Cantonese-speaker would be able to write letters to one another with minimal difficulty. However, the two languages are distinct when spoken. Mandarin speakers typically cannot understand Cantonese speakers, and vice versa.

How do you reply to Xie Xie?

As we know, you should answer "bu keqi 不客气" (you're welcome) when someone said "xiè xie" to you. However, many Chinese answered "bu yong xie" instead. "bu yong xie" means "you don't need to say thank you to me".

What level of Mandarin is fluent?

Language level 4 – Full professional proficiency

The person uses language fluently and accurately on all topics.

What language is most similar to Chinese?

Because Japanese and Korean have Chinese roots, there's a lot of similar vocabulary between these three languages. Linguists believe that around 60% of Korean words and 50% of Japanese words come from Chinese. So if you know one of these languages, it gives you a massive head-start when learning the others.

Can learning Chinese help your brain?

Boost your brain power!

Did you know that learning Chinese utilizes areas of the brain that other languages do not? Learning Chinese takes intensive brain power. It's an intense training of the mind that enhances memory and cognition. English speakers use the left temporal lobe but Mandarin speakers use both!

Is it too late to learn Chinese?

If you are middle-aged or north of your thirties, you may think that it is too late in your life to learn a new language. But the truth is, it is not too late, even for a language as difficult as Mandarin. It is never too late until you are dead.

Is Chinese or French easier?

We drew parallels between Chinese and German, French, Spanish, Italian and even English and we discovered that not only is the pronunciation of Chinese much simpler than French, but its grammar is also more straightforward and easy to learn than German, Spanish, Italian and English.

Which is the toughest language after Chinese?

Why is Mandarin so easy?

The language is actually easier to acquire than romance tongues like Spanish or French because Mandarin Chinese shares a similar grammatical system with fewer commonly-used words. There is no conjugation in whatever form. The widely-held view that tones are inscrutable to Westerner ears is a myth.

Is Korean Japanese or Chinese easiest?

Korean is the clear-cut easiest to read and write when compared to Japanese and Chinese, as its alphabet is easier to remember and more logical to Western language speakers.

What difficulty level is Chinese?

They are described as “hard languages”. Category V – It usually takes 88 weeks or 2200 hours to reach S-3/R-3 proficiency in these languages. This small group of “super-hard languages” includes Chinese (Mandarin), Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.

Why is speaking Chinese so hard?

It's all about the tones!

Mandarin operates with four different tones, meaning that the way that you say a word can give it four different meanings! It is this tonality – this pronunciation – that causes most trouble for nearly all new speakers and makes Chinese a difficult language to master.