A reader writes:
I read an article that stated learning a second language in middle life is really good for the mind. I was thinking of trying either German (I work with a few from time to time) or Japanese (as I really like that place and their food). Any idea which would be easier? Also do you have a suggestion on something I could buy for my PC or listen to in the car that would help me learn more quickly? I am not really interested in being able to read or write the language at this point.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated!
I think I can be of help. I’ve had some experience studying both languages, so I can give you some info that might help you figure out which would be easier for you.
The main advantage of studying German is that it belongs to the same language family as English (English is a Germanic language), which means lots of common vocabulary words. Often, you’ll feel like you’re just saying a familiar English word with a funny accent. German word order is also similar to English word order (at least compared to some languages).
The disadvantage to German is that it has way more inflection in it than English does. Inflection is when words change their forms to encode grammatical information. English is a very low-inflecting language (even Spanish has more inflection than English does). There are only a few suffixes in English that encode grammatical information (e.g., -s, -‘s, -ing, -ed).
German has way more than English does. In fact, the noun system in German has cases, like Latin and Greek do. This means that every noun in every sentence will be changing form depending on the function it is playing in the sentence (e.g., is it the subject, the object, a possessive). Cases make learning the noun system of a language more difficult since we don’t have cases in English (except for our pronouns, which do change form based on case).
Now for Japanese:
The disadvantage to learning Japanese is that it is not from the same language family as English. (It’s a Japonic language, you may be stunned to learn.) This means that it will have very little vocabulary in common with English. Except for loanwords that we’ve swapped between the two languages, none of the roots will be the same.
What’s more, Japanese word order is very different from English. This is often thought to be the hardest thing to learn about the language (though I don’t think it’s that bad, myself, at least from what I’ve studied thus far). Here’s a concrete illustration of how the word order is different: They don’t have prepositions. They have postpositions.
Prepositions are tiny function particles that we put in front of words that show how they relate to each other. If I say "the king of Gondor," then the preposition "of," which follows "king" shows how the king is related to Gondor. We call them prepositions because we put them in front (pre-) of words.
Japanese, like some other languages, doesn’t put its function-executing particles in front of words. It puts them after (post-) them, so they’re called postpositions. For example, in the Japanese sentence "Nihongo ga wakarimas ka," the word "ga" is a postposition that, more or less, tells you that "Nihongo" (the word for "Japanese") is the subject of the sentence, which means (or can mean) "Do you understand Japanese?"
The advantage to learning Japanese is a big one: It’s got almost no inflection in it. This means very few word endings to memorize. Most words keep their form all the time, like in English, only moreso.
In some ways, Japanese grammar is even easier than English because it doesn’t encode all the information that English does in a sentence. It relies more on context to tell you things that you’d have to say expressly in English. For example, you often don’t have to do anything to a sentence to indicate what its subject is (e.g., are you talking about yourself or someone else). Context fills that in.
Overall, which language is easier? Hard to say. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. It depends on what you’re up for. Personally, I like learning languages that are as different from English as possible. At times I find the modern European languages a little . . . boring compared to Asian languages (though I plan to keep studying them). They’re not exotic enough for me. But if you make your own decision. Just remember: All your base are belong to us. You get signal?
Now, as to what study method to use, longtime readers already know what I’m going to say: Get Pimsleur. It’s an all-audio method that has no textbook and that gets you to speaking in conversational style immediately. You just drive around in your car and listen to the CDs, talking back to them. It makes learning languages incredibly easy and non-threatening.
The Pimsleur sets can be expensive (though discounts are available), though not compared to taking a course in the language, and they are far easier than typical courses. You might start with one of the tiny, introductory Pimsleur sets to see if you like a language before buying a big set. Some of the small "Quick & Simple" sets are so cheap (like $10-$20) that you can even get one for German and one for Japanese and see which you like better.
GET PIMSLEUR QUICK & SIMPLE GERMAN.
GET PIMSLEUR QUICK & SIMPLE JAPANESE.
Goodwife Extremist has done exactly that for me, although my tossup was between Polish and Mandarin. She got me the Pimsleur cheap version to try out both of them.
I might also add to Jimmy’s observations that Japanese is easy to pronounce once you’ve transcribed it into Roman characters. Native English speakers will likely accent the correct syllables just by reading them as they would an English word.
A drawback of learning Japanese is the difficulty of reading and writing. It has three alphabets, none of which use recognizable (to Westerners) characters.
German or Japanese, eh? Sounds like someone was on the wrong side in the last world war. Care for some Italian with that? 🙂
Jimmy this is excellent! I am going to try the cheap version of both and go from there. This should be very interesting. In school my thing was math and science never language.
“German or Japanese, eh? Sounds like someone was on the wrong side in the last world war.”
On that point you don’t know the half of it. I play an online game called WWII On-Line. I don’t know how it worked out this way but I play the German side!
Mandarin Chinese!!! I am on a crusade to dispell the notion that it is a hard language. It’s the easiest I’ve ever learned and that includes Spanish. Si, amigo, siiii!
Dave Barry, the wonderful columnist, who wrote a laugh-until-coffee-comes-out-your-nose book called “Dave Barry Does Japan,” says the best way to learn Japanese is to be born a Japanese baby, to Japanese parents, in Japan.
A stinker of a language to learn.
I had been wondering about the best way to start learning German (I got kin over there). Thanks for the tip!
Another question: Anybody know the preferred Chinese dialect in Hong Kong? I work with some guys over there and I would enjoy surprising them.
Thanks a rot-
Howdy, Tim!
(Tim J is a *long*time friend of mine. No relation to IMAO.us’s Frank J, so far as I know.)
According to Wikipedia, Cantonese is the dialect spoken in Hong Kong. (I think there may be a few Hong Kong readers of this blog. Perhaps they can confirm.)
Incidentally, Pimsleur does have CDs for Cantonese.
Affirmative– Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong.
I’m not a reader from Hong Kong, however I am from Massachusetts– which is pretty much like a foreign country these days. 🙂
Be fine with me if it decided to become one, literally.
I speak both German and Japanese and have lived in both countries. There are some other important things to mention about Japanese.
There are no plurals. Determining whether a word is plural or singular depends on context.
Word order of sentences is very different from English. For instance the verb always come at the end. This and other differences can make understanding spoken sentences difficulty, especially for more complex ideas. Since people think in terms of language, we are used to thinking in English and using the logic of the English language. This all gets thrown out the window with Japanese.
To truly speak Japanese you need to learn Keigo, or honorifics, which creates a whole net set of conjugations for the verbs.
Japanese is a very ambiguous language and context is key, as Jimmy stated. For instance, the word “Yes” (“Hai”) in response to a question does not always mean “Yes” or “Yes, I agree.” It often means “Yes, I understand what you mean, but no, I’m not actually going to do it.”
I say that German is a much easier language to learn, especially if it is your first foreign language.
Beware of the savants who know and master multiple languages. I am convinced they think differently than the rest of us. I may know several languages, but I am not one of them. I’ve had classmates who were, and they have an ease with languages that the rest of us simply do not have. So if they say that if language x is easy when popular opinion states it is notoriously hard, public better is a better guideline for most people.
I would say it was easier for me to learn Japanese than German, but that was because living in Germany broke my habit of thinking exclusively in English and I was able to approach Japanese on its own basis as opposed to forcing it into the English structure which I did while learning German.
Learning the cases and genders of German nouns can be frustrating, but getting them wrong will not confuse people when speaking, and does not affect your understanding of German.
In short, you will speak German and understand the German spoken in WWII movies and on the History Channel must earlier than you will speak Japanese and understand the Japanese spoken in anime or Kurosawa films.
Somewhat off-topic, but this dialogue reminded me of a funny story someone once recounted in a magazine article I read years ago.
He was an American stationed by the military in Germany for several years, so he learned the language well. When he came back to the U.S. he decided to learn French as a hobby. The first day of class, the professor asked people to write down brief information about themselves on index cards. Then he collected the cards, pulled names, and gave those people French words to repeat after him.
When the professor got this gentleman, he kept giving him more and more French words. Finally the guy asked the professor why. The professor shook his head and said with a shade of wonder:
“As a linguist I find it fascinating to hear French spoken with a German accent by a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma!”
An update: I got the introductory CDs for both German and Japanese. I have started with the German. I really like this way of learning langauages! I have noticed one thing though. I was hoping to be able to use these in the car while driving around. I live in the Seattle area which has some of the worst traffic in the nation. I am not able to concentrate enough on the lesson while I have to avoid slamming into the car in front of me! So, I will be mostly doing this at home and possibly repeating them while on the road.
I’m gonna say something simple, since everyone else added much. 😀 Study them both! It has been said that studying two languages at once it better than studying just one. (Unless you count studing a foreign and your native language, which I don’t count that.) I’m interested in German, but don’t care to study it. And I’ve been studying Japanese for three or more years. Do it the best way that fits you, there are many tips for how to study a language..Whatever is best and easier for you. But again, try them both, and drop one if you’re not liking it!
Debate on ease of learning Japanese
This is an interesting debate, as one writer, Jimmy Akin, weighs the pros and cons of learning German or Japanese. What’s interesting is the perceived advantages of Japanese, and also the warnings. The comments are as helpful as the post itself….