Wasn't sure where to place this question at really.

I'm currently studying abroad at a Japanese university. This coming semester I'm looking to take some legit Japanese classes taught only in Japanese and have been considering the possibility of doing a Chinese beginner class. I've recently had an interest in learning Chinese somewhat. My concern is such:
I've been studying Japanese for AT LEAST 5 years now (I haven't kept track), but at varying levels of seriousness along the way. I'm probably close enough to pass the JLPT 2 if I really put my mind to it. I have a good working knowledge of Japanese grammar somewhat, I can read and get a decent gist of most things that I read. Vocab catches me up still but I'm working on that as of late. My question is, especially those that have started Chinese in English already, how difficult is it to pick up (grammatically and such, I'm aware of the tonal aspects) and would you suggest someone trying it this route? Nice part is there are Chinese students in my dorm with me who I could defiantly seek for help if I needed to.

I figure if I don't get disheartened by the amount I understand in the class, then it might be a good way to pick up another language and possibly also increase my understanding of Japanese from another direction.

Thoughts?

If you've got Chinese students to talk to, it'll be a doddle. As ever, just listen as much as possible to the language, and ask them nicely if they don't mind recording some samples for you which you can then SRS. If you've got sentences they can read out (with PinYin for your benefit), it'll be just like a parent reading to their child, and you'll pick up the pronunciation really easily. Just remember, even English has tones [of voice]!

Don't bother with the classes though; just find yourself a decent textbook and work through that.

If you want to study Chinese, take the class. You can always study more on your own, but you should never pass up an opportunity to take a class, especially a great one like this.

My impression of Chinese (after studying for 3 years) is that the pronunciation is very difficult; at first you can't even hear the tones correctly, and even when you can begin to hear the tones it's hard to remember them. But the grammar is much easier than Japanese, and knowing the characters from Japanese is a huge help in learning to read.

The idea that you will pick up Chinese pronunciation "really easily" is a fantasy. English does not have tones. Vocal intonation is not the same thing as tones in a tonal language (Chinese also has vocal intonation, in addition to tones).

yudantaiteki Wrote:If you want to study Chinese, take the class. You can always study more on your own, but you should never pass up an opportunity to take a class, especially a great one like this.

My impression of Chinese (after studying for 3 years) is that the pronunciation is very difficult; at first you can't even hear the tones correctly, and even when you can begin to hear the tones it's hard to remember them. But the grammar is much easier than Japanese, and knowing the characters from Japanese is a huge help in learning to read.

The idea that you will pick up Chinese pronunciation "really easily" is a fantasy. English does not have tones. Vocal intonation is not the same thing as tones in a tonal language (Chinese also has vocal intonation, in addition to tones).

I don't think it is fantasy. There's just a particular way of saying particular things, same as in English (my point here is that while they may not be equivalent, tones are not a completely alien concept to the English speaking learner, and thinking that they are alien is a big psychological block to attaining fluency).

In any case, it took me only a couple of months to pick up passable (~understandable) tone recognition and production, and my native speaker friends say it's improving. I can remember the correct tones for words I'm learning now with a good degree of accuracy very quickly; I think it's partly because there are a lot of recurring patterns and partly because there are only a few common combinations of tones for words in general. I have had to work hard to do this though over the last two months, listening to audio and seeing how it corresponded with a transcript - it's not something that I just "picked up". Maybe I'm exaggerating its ease a little, but only to offset the perception that it's impossible - it's no more impossible than learning 2000 kanji.

I'm curious to know how you've been studying to have found the pronunciation difficult.

Also, my bad - you'll be taking a Chinese class for Japanese people, so you'll get a lot out of it I imagine for both languages. I stand corrected.