Abstract:
This thesis aims to study the similarities and differences between Japanese and Mandarin Chinese on 3 topics: (1) the comparative study of Chinese character appearance; (2) the comparative study of the pronunciation of Chinese characters in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese; and (3) the comparative study of lexical meaning in both languages, in order to synthesize advantages and precautions of studying Chinese for a foreign learner who has equivalent Japanese knowledge to the level of JLPT N2. The purposes of this study are (1) to analyze the differences between the appearance of Simplified Chinese characters and Japanese Kanji characters which appear in HSK 5 and JLPT N2; (2 ) to study the sound systems in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, then construct each counterpart of characters pronunciation between both languages; (3) to compare the meaning of words appeared in HSK 5 and JLPT N2; and (4) to synthesize advantages and precautions of studying Chinese for a foreign learner who has equivalent Japanese knowledge to the level of JLPT N2. The findings of the research were (1) most of Japanese Kanji characters have the same appearance as Simplified Chinese characters; (2) there is a linked sound system constructed from Mandarin Chinese and Japanese pronunciation but it is not a complete system, other concepts in the research process should be applied instead, which are pronunciation guessing using alveolar ridge system concept and syllable ending with -n sound topic; (3) most of the lexical meanings of Chinese word and its Japanese counterpart are the same; and (4) the advantages of studying Chinese for a foreign learner who has equivalent Japanese knowledge to the level of JLPT N2 come from obvious traces of Chinese borrowing in character side, pronunciation side and lexical meaning side, but after they borrow, they become some parts of Japanese which have their own developments. Those developments cause differences which can be so little or so much that there is no original form left that can synthesize precautions of studying Chinese using acquired Japanese knowledge onwards.