Japanese vs Chinese: Which Is Easier, and How Similar Are They?

Key takeaways

Japanese and Chinese are in the same Foreign Service Institute difficulty group (Category IV).
Roughly 3 in 10 everyday words are written with the same or similar characters (Chinese uses simplified forms of some), which gives a reader of one a real head start on the other. Spoken, the same words usually sound quite different.
Study time will not decide it, so start with the one you will actually use.

How hard is each one?

For an English speaker the two sit in the same difficulty group, so neither is officially easier: the Foreign Service Institute puts both at 2,200 class hours. These are the figures behind the how long does it take to learn a language calculator, from the US Foreign Service Institute's published language training times.

	Japanese	Chinese
FSI difficulty group	Category IV	Category IV
Class hours to working proficiency	2,200	2,200
Full-time weeks	88	88

The hours are for a native English speaker in full-time classes aiming at professional working proficiency. Useful everyday conversation comes sooner, and the calculator breaks the time down by level.

How much do the words overlap?

Roughly 3 in 10 everyday words are written with the same or similar characters (Chinese uses simplified forms of some), which gives a reader of one a real head start on the other. Spoken, the same words usually sound quite different.

A few everyday words that are written with the same or similar characters in Japanese and Chinese:

English	Japanese	Chinese
bird	鳥tori	鸟niǎo
bridge	橋hashi	桥qiáo
chest	胸mune	胸xiōng
listen	聴くkiku	听tīng
long	長いnagai	长zhǎng
mountain	山yama	山shān
sheep	羊hitsuji	羊yáng
water	水mizu	水shuǐ

And a few everyday words that share no characters at all:

English	Japanese	Chinese
America	アメリカamerika	美国měi guó
belt	ベルトberuto	腰带yāo dài
colorful	カラフルkarafuru	多彩duō cǎi
fashion	ファッションfasshon	时尚shí shàng
to keep	取っておくtotte oku	存放cún fàng
now	今ima	现在xiàn zài
rose	バラbara	玫瑰méi guī
style	スタイルsutairu	风格fēng gé

Writing system and grammar

The writing systems differ: Japanese uses three scripts (hiragana, katakana and kanji) and Chinese uses Chinese characters.
Only Chinese is a tonal language, so pronunciation carries more of the meaning there.
Japanese writes much of its vocabulary with kanji, which are Chinese characters, so written words can look familiar to a Chinese reader even when they are pronounced quite differently.

	Japanese	Chinese
Writing system	Three scripts: hiragana, katakana and kanji	Chinese characters
Grammatical genders	None	None
Noun cases	Marked by small particles	None
Tones	No (it has pitch accent)	Yes (Mandarin has four, plus a neutral one)

Which should you learn first?

Study time will not decide this one, because the two ask for about the same. If you want to reach a particular place, a person or a job, start with the one you will actually use: steady motivation counts for more than the difference in hours.

Frequently asked questions

Is Japanese easier than Chinese?

For an English speaker the two sit in the same difficulty group, so neither is officially easier: the Foreign Service Institute puts both at 2,200 class hours. Hours are for a native English speaker reaching professional working proficiency in full-time classes; casual learning gets you to useful conversation well before that.

How similar are Japanese and Chinese?

Should I learn Japanese or Chinese first?

Do Japanese and Chinese use the same alphabet?

No. Japanese is written with three scripts (hiragana, katakana and kanji) and Chinese with Chinese characters.

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