Learning Chinese & Japanese at the same time?

[sagescroll]

Hi,

My native language is English but I know some Japanese due to my heritage. I'd like to learn Taiwanese but my college doesn't offer it, so I will have to settle for Chinese (I'm guessing Mandarin-the class just says it teaches both simplified and traditional characters...this could be incorrect since the website's a bit screwed up). My first question is, do you think I will become very confused if I attempt taking Japanese and Chinese at the same time because of the kanji? My main priority would be Chinese. Also, if I become fluent in Chinese, will I have any trouble understanding Taiwanese and vice versa? Would I be able to learn Taiwanese after Chinese?

Thank you!

[歐博思]

Japanese more or less uses traditional characters or modified Japanese only characters. Depending on your focus in Chinese (mainland and simp or Taiwan/overseas and trad) the Japanese characters will either be quite similar or an extra learning burdon. No matter what you have to learn the Hiragana, Katakana, etc etc (Japanese alphabetic scripts).

If you become fluent then you will have no problem speaking Mandarin with people from Taiwan whom are also speaking Mandarin; however, if they speak the local dialect (a variant of 闽南语) then you may as well be talking with some Koreans.

[sagescroll]

Thanks for the reply! I already know Hiragana and Katakana, fortunately Is it possible to learn the Taiwanese local dialect? I'm curious since a cousin is going to Taiwan over the summer.