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SIMILARITIES BETWEEN MANDARIN AND JAPANESE
The similarities between the two languages ~ Nov. 30th, 2023 - Selena (RCP Newspaper)
MANDARIN
In some provinces in Canada, there are a large population of Chinese students in English-speaking high schools, which offer the abilities to learn Japanese, Spanish, and French. While there are many dialects of Chinese, Mandarin Chinese is considered the "mainland standard" form of Chinese, as it is what all of these different dialects derive from. Many of said Chinese students speak Mandarin Chinese. Even if one does not speak Mandarin, if they know a dialect of Chinese, it will affect their Japanese language learning greatly.
Mr. Fukazawa, a Japanese teacher at Palmer, explains that if you can already do some kind of Chinese, you already know half of the words in Japanese, which is immensely helpful for students who cannot fully speak English, helping them grasp and understand another language without trying to understand English guidance as well.
JAPANESE
Japan is one of three countries that utilize the Chinese characters in their writings, the others of which are China, and Korea, abbreviated as "CJK" characters. Japan especially has been influenced by China and uses these characters in one of their writing systems, Kanji, and has many of the same phrases and expressions as Mandarin Chinese. This is an integral note to the learning of the Japanese language as a whole, especially in school in a province like B.C., because as stated before, many students are Chinese, and knowledge of any kind of Chinese boosts and increases learning of the Japanese language.
Mr. Fukazawa estimates that in general, Chinese and Japanese are about 50% related by vocabulary alone. While this does not mean that they are exactly the same, at times, Japanese grammar looks "eerily similar" to Chinese grammar. At other times, it looks completely different. He also estimates that about 20% of Japanese grammar is similar to Chinese grammar.
It is because of these similarities that non-asian people often mistake one for the other, however, speaking them is an entirely different thing. These similarities also cause other asian countries to teach Japanese, because of how easy it is to grasp from these same factors from their own language, and they are able to apply it to Japanese while learning. While not a tip, it is a helpful fact to know before a student starts a Japanese course!
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