Chinese vs Japanese, which do you think is harder?

I've never studied Chinese, but I hear that it is grammatically closer to English than Japanese. For native English speakers, I think both offer unique challenges and I find it difficult to measure hardship. Which is more difficult? Learning 2000 more Kanji to be able to read in Chinese? or mastering 2000 Kanji with both Japanese and Chinese pronunciations? Learning to write "loan" words the way Japanese use them is also a challenge. The foreign words adopted into Japanese are not always from English, for example, arubaito, which means part time work has German roots. Others are shortened like, saboru, which comes from the English word "Sabotage" and means to skip school. There's also so much Onomatopoeia in Japanese, and they use them A LOT! フワフワ (feeling light and fluffy) ザーザー (heavy rainfall), etc. Then there is also honorific Japanese, which is really tough. Especially in business. Each kanji has a general meaning and that meaning doesn't change. You will know how to read a Kanji because usually the "Japanese reading" of a kanji is pronounced when the Kanji is alone, followed by hiragana. If the Kanji is in a Kanji compound, it retains its original Chinese reading. Example: 同　- 同じ ona.ji without the "ji" じ it is pronounced どう dou 時 - by itself like this, you would say toki, but added the kanji above, they both take on their chinese readings and it becomes 同時、どうじ douji - which of course means simultaneous in English or "at the same time" 漢字は本当に面白いけれど、難しいと思います。

Japanese is easier, in my opinion. Hiragana and katakana are super easy to write and remember, and though kanji can be quite challenging, it's only used for nouns and such. Though word structure, in a way, is sort of 'backwards', pronunciation is easy and the way you speak it is sort of like a poem--it has a kind of beat. Chinese--phew. I can speak Chinese and understand but only because I've grown up in a Chinese household--I STILL find it hard. Tonal marks can be confusing, pronunciation is difficult and writing it is an absolute pain!!!! By the way, the average person living in China knows close to 20,000 characters, and there are around 40,000 in existence. It's absolutely mental.

I'm fluent in Chinese, Mandarin and Japanese. I learnt Chinese before i learnt Japanese. I would say it is extremely easy to pick up Japanese once you know Chinese. I picked up everything, their alphabets systems (Hiragana and Katakana), the way they form sentence structure, their particle (Like is, to, at in English) and how to use them in 3 days. 1. Grammar - Japanese win this round in term of difficulty. In Japanese unlike in Chinese, there are word forms of past tense and present tense. For example Nomimasu means to drink. Nomimashita means drank. Nomimasen means not to drink, the opposite of to drink. They basically use masu to indicate it is happening, mashita to indicate it has happened, masen to make the action a negative one and there are many other more forms. 2. Speaking & listening - Chinese is obviously harder when it comes to speaking and listening. In Japanese, the words are basically made up of "a,i'u'e'o" with some exception like "n" and "wo". All the words uses this. For example Nomimasu as mentioned earlier, No-mi-ma-su. Chinese is a lot harder, with many pronunciation like ching, cong, sha and even the nu(female). 3. Reading & writing - Chinese is the champion in this sector. This is what makes Chinese way harder than Japanese. Japanese is evolved Chinese. Japanese words and pronunciation are originated and changed slightly from Chinese. You see, in Japanese, you have three writing system, Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana is like "ABC" in English. Hiragana is used for Japanese words like shin, which means heart in Japanese. However, foreign translated words such as Hamburger are written in Katakana as Ha-mu-ba-ga. Kanji is traditional Chinese characters that are used to replace the Hiragana characters. This is so that you can express your message accross more clearly. For example, the word prey in English can mean you are a prey or you are preying for food. In Japanese, this confusion is eliminated with specific Kanji words. In Japan, an average elementary school graduate(12 years old) knows about 2.000 Kanji characters and a high school student knows about 6000 Kanji characters. Kanji is the vocabulary of Japanese. 'It is true that Chinese Hanzi has only ONE sound per Hanzi, in few cases it has 2. Japanese Kanji have 1 or more possible sounds for a Kanji but once you learn Japanese, it is very easy. Because you had never learnt Japanese, only Chinese, you would tend to find language that uses different concepts very difficult. For example, the word 心 (Xin) in Hanzi means heart. 心 (Shin) in Kanji means heart. However, the word 星 (Xing) in Hanzi means star. 星 (Ho-shi) in Kanji means star. It is just their system. A single character in Japanese can have many meanings just like in Chinese too. Chinese, Japanese and Korean are classified as Level 3 Language while English, French are Level 1 Language. Level 3 means that they are the hardest language to learn while level one is the easiest. If you know either Japanese, Korean or Chinese, learning the other two language is SUPER easy. Japanese and Korean are "Evolved Language" of Chinese. ♥ I personally find Chinese the hardest language in the world as it does not have a alphabetic system. Every object has one or more Chinese characters to express it.

Japanese is more difficult. True! You're considered literate in Japanese if you know 2,000 Kanji but to be considered literate in Chinese, you have to know about 3,000 - 4,000 Hanzi. But Chinese Hanzi has only ONE sound per Hanzi, in few cases it has 2. Japanese Kanji have 2, sometimes 3 or 4 possible sounds for a Kanji. I never know when to use each sound.

Chinese is much harder as far as speaking is concerned. In chinese you have to use tones, and the same word can mean ten or fifteen different things depending on the tone and context of the sentence. Also, Japanese takes a minimalistic approach which makes it easier to speak and understand. For example the way to say "I don't speak Japanese" in Japanese is "Nihongo Hanishmas" You only need two words. The way to say I don't speak Chinese in Chinese-Mandarin is "Wo bu shou han-yu". That's four words to say the same sentence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsm6o0xkR6A