(2016-01-08, 5:06 pm)Saruyatsu Wrote: I've done both. Japanese is a more complex language grammatically. But if you can master the grammar, which is possible with enough time and effort, you can sound close to native. Unless you have a gift for sounds, it will be more difficult to sound native in Chinese, though you will be understood (unless you have no ear for tones for all). I was very relieved when I heard people in China yelling at other Chinese -- "Hey, I can't understand a word you're saying -- where are you from anyway?" Even without getting into different dialects, the pronunciation differs from region to region. It's not just us laowai with the pronunciation problem.
That is my impressions. Japanese is just a matter of putting in the hours and the effort. Chinese I am concerned might require some skill or at the very least feedback.
I was reading somewhere of the difference between something that is hard vs something that just takes a lot of effort.
As for the other stuff, yeah that drives me a but nuts. Hell there are dialects of Mandarin which are not intelligible to each other. Same with Hindi from what I understand.
I've read that only 10% of the population is considered fluent in Putonghua and 70% know it to a degree. I suspect a lot of that 10 and 70 percent come to it via having similarities with their home dialect, I'd guess folks from Beijing and Harbin would find it easy to pass as fluent.
I wish everyone would just speak Klingon, it was good enough for Shakespeare.