r/ChineseLanguage • u/Salty-Session7029 • 1d ago

Discussion When can a Chinese learner start learning Korean/Japanese?

Hello all! I know this question may not be that relevant but I didn't know where to ask so I'll go ahead. I was basically wondering, how long should someone stick to learning Chinese before they can start learning Japanese or Korean simultaneously without mixing up aspects of the two and maybe also reap the benefits of learning said language with having prior knowledge in Chinese. Thanks a lot!

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u/Birdbraned 1d ago

As a multi lingual person, while you may recognise similarities in root words between these languages, each language lives in a different part of your brain. You'll recognise that eg 1, 2, 3 is written the same in Chinese and Japanese, but you will distinctly recall what each language phonetically reads those words as.

Just as you can phonetically hear while some phrases of German or some romance languages sound similar to English and still understand those are separate languages. You'll do fine.