Learning Chinese as an English speaker can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. But have you ever wondered what the opposite scenario is like? How does it feel for Chinese speakers to learn a new language?
Naturally, just as there are languages that suit English speakers more, there are also languages that are easier for Chinese speakers to pick up. But before we dive into the easiest languages to learn for Chinese speakers, first let’s get to know this ancient language just a little more.
All about Chinese
Chinese is a Sinitic language that belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. In fact, it is the most dominant branch of that language family, with over 1.3 billion speakers worldwide. The language is widely used in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and even parts of Southeast Asia.
The roots of the Chinese language can be traced back thousands of years and its written form is the oldest written language in the world! It is known for its pictographic script (hanzi) which can be traced back to its origins in oracle bone script. But have you wondered if there are any other languages that are similar to Mandarin Chinese?
Chinese as a Sino-Tibetan Language
One of the fun facts about Chinese is that it isn’t just one language, but a collection of many different dialects — think Mandarin, Cantonese, Fujian, and more. In this particular article, we’ll focus on Mandarin since it is the most widely-used dialect.
Most Sino-Tibetan languages are widely found in Asia and while they may look and sound different, many of them share similar roots, which has led to similar-sounding pronunciations for certain words. If you watch Japanese, Korean, or Chinese dramas, I’m sure you’ve come across instances where certain things sounded the same across all three languages.
That said, Sino-Tibetan languages don’t really share common grammar rules, or at least not with the Chinese language. That said, are there any languages from the same family that Chinese speakers can pick up easily? Read on and find out!
1. Japanese
Perhaps the easiest language to learn for Chinese speakers is Japanese, often considered one of the toughest languages to learn for English speakers. That’s because both Japanese and Chinese (Mandarin) share strong linguistic connections and similarities.
For one, both languages are tonal languages, meaning certain words, when pronounced with a different tone or pitch, can mean something different. And while there are grammatical differences between Japanese and Chinese in terms of sentence structure and conjugation, both languages share similar cultural nuances, such as the use of honorifics and collective nouns.
Most importantly, both Japanese and Chinese share an (almost) identical writing system. Japanese kanji is based on Chinese characters (hanzi), and more than half of kanji characters retain the same meanings in Chinese. This, understandably, makes reading Kanji a lot easier for Chinese speakers. What’s more some of the words are also pronounced in a similar manner!
2. Korean
Korean is another one of the easiest languages for Chinese speakers to learn. After all, much like Japanese, Korean shares plenty of similarities and linguistic roots with Mandarin.
A large portion of Korean vocabulary is borrowed from the Chinese language, leading to certain words, such as market (shichang in Mandarin; sijang in Korean) or exercise (yundong in Mandarin; undong in Korean), that sound almost identical. There’s also a traditional writing system in Korean called hanja, which uses Chinese characters! Although these days most Korean prefer using hangul, the shared similarities between Korean and Chinese words remain.
In addition, since both Korean and Chinese are tonal languages, it’s pretty easy for Chinese speakers to get the hang of Korean pronunciation. Add to that the flexible word order of Korean sentence structure, and it’s easy to see why Chinese speakers are able to pick up Korean easily despite the latter using a completely different alphabet system.
3. Thai
The fact that Thai is one of the easiest languages to learn for Chinese speakers is proof that languages from the same language family are easier to learn.
At first glance, Thai and Chinese look like languages that are worlds apart. After all, unlike what we’ve covered so far, there don’t seem to be any similarities between the writing systems of both languages.
What makes Thai an easy language to learn for Chinese speakers is the similar gramma style of both languages. Both Chinese and Thai don’t use conjugation for verbs, and both languages use similar sentence structures for daily conversation. Interestingly, there are SOME words in Thai that sound like Chinese but are more similar to Cantonese than Mandarin.
4. Vietnamese
With Vietnam being one of the many countries that neighbor Mainland China, you might think that Vietnamese and Chinese are similar languages but they’re not. In fact, they don’t even belong in the same language family (Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan language while Vietnamese is Austroasiatic)!
Despite this, I would still say that Chinese speakers have a much easier time learning Vietnamese than English speakers. That’s because even though both languages are phonetically worlds apart, they are quite similar in terms of grammar and intonation.
For one, both Chinese and Vietnamese are tonal languages with rising and falling tones that convey different meanings. More importantly, the two languages share a similar basic subject-verb-object sentence structure. While Vietnamese and Chinese words are pronounced differently, both languages are also monosyllabic in nature, meaning each word/character is one syllable.
5. Spanish
Moving further away from Sino-Tibeten languages, we have Spanish. I’m sure most of you, especially if you are a native Chinese speaker, will find this to be a weird inclusion. After all, if Vietnamese is considered vastly different from Chinese, then surely Spanish is even harder to master!
Speaking from personal experience, Spanish is perhaps one of the easiest languages to learn for Chinese speakers when it comes to European languages! That’s because compared to other languages like French or German, the rules of Spanish pronunciation are similar to Chinese, in the sense that vowels will always sound the same no matter where they appear in a word or how they are spelled.
For example, the letter “a” in Spanish is always pronounced with an “ah” sound, similar to how the letter “a” in Hanyu Pinyin (the romanization of Chinese characters) is pronounced. The same applies to double vowels, (dĂa (dee-ahh; meaning day) in Spanish vs jia (jee-ah; meaning home) in Mandarin).
That said, one thing Chinese speakers might struggle with in Spanish is the grammar aspect of it, especially when it comes to gendered nouns and verb conjugation.
6. English
And last but not least, the easiest language to learn for Chinese speakers is — English! Now, I’ll admit, this is one inclusion that stands out. Every other language I’ve listed so far either comes from the same family as Chinese or shares grammatical similarities with it. English fits neither criterion. In fact, there are more differences between English and Chinese than there are similarities!
Instead, English is an easy language for Chinese speakers to learn simply because of how many people study the language and how accessible it is for those who want to learn it! Whether it be online courses and apps or self-study language books, there are plenty of resources for Chinese learners to learn English. In fact, there are even specific English learning materials that are specially designed to cater to Chinese speakers.
What’s more, given how much emphasis is placed on English in China’s current education system, Chinese speakers have a whole host of resources at their disposal to master the language!
Final thoughts
As is the case with learning any language, consistency is key. Regardless of how similar these languages are to Chinese or how “easy” they are to pick up, it really depends on each your own style of learning and your language goals.
While choosing an “easy” language may help you pick up a second language quickly, you might find that it is not as useful as learning a language that is slightly more challenging but has a wider use case. Thankfully, for Chinese speakers, it would seem that the easy languages to learn (mostly the Sino-Tibetan languages) are also languages that bring with them career opportunities and a wide range of uses.
And let’s not forget the knock-on effect of mastering one of these languages! After you’ve gained fluency in Spanish, for example, you might suddenly find learning Italian to be a lot easier too! So my advice is simply to start now: Pick a language you like, and learn away!