I'm learning Chinese at school next year as I need two-three years of foreign language and chinese was the only one that interested me. However im also going to Japan next summer for a month or two in an exchange program and want to atleast partially be able to communicate while there. My question is will I get iso impossibly confused that I'll end up mixing up the languages/characters and destroy my progress in both languages?
It'll be mutually beneficial to an extent. You will excel in kanji reading when you get to it in Japanese. Or at least it might make some sense. The grammar and pronunciation are different though. Some are similar and you might notice that, but its not a bad thing. Just work hard and speak it a lot!
if your brain doesn't have a problem learning both at the same time then why not? do it. I am thinking of learning new languages too, I started with korean although I don't seem to be making much progress so far
A lot of kanji have the same or at least similar meaning in Chinese so there will be some overlap. The grammar is completely different though and you will need to memorise the different pronunciations (ex: 世界 — world, sekai, shì jiè)
Plus Kanjo and Simplified Chinese is not exactly the same. If you're learning traditional, then there would be some overlap, but otherwise it would be like learning the Greek and phonecian alphabets together, they have the same root, but are very different in practice. Mandirin is hard enough without throwing Japanese on top.
Doesn't necessarily have to be. The only problem Ai-chan can think of is probably you might confuse Chinese characters with Japanese kanji. They're not really the same. While kanji originate from chinese traditional, kanji has diverged, in the same way as chinese traditional is different from chinese simplified. If you are proficient with either language, you will be able to tell the difference, but before you reach that, you will likely mix up different characters from different languages. That is not to say that you will not encounter actual Chinese characters in Japanese texts. It's common to see Chinese characters in Japanese texts. It's like how you sometimes use French words in English. If you are proficient, you will know what it means but if you're not, you may misunderstand it as part of the Japanese vocabulary. The rules are different too. Japanese is descendant of Formosan language. Chinese is descended from Sino-Tibetan. Apart from Japanese adopting Chinese characters, they have no similarity.
As someone who is actually learning both, although one formally and one informally, it is not impossible. Though you might get messed up in the writing and reading part. But it also helps because you can kinda connect the two languages together because the kanji reading sometimes sound similar.
If you were trying to start both at the same time, I would stay steer clear, but it's not looking like that so I'd say go for it. Trying to learn what kanji are used in everyday talk is probably very different I'm guessing, and would be massively confusing at the same time. If you have any intention of learning both together in the long run, doing slower self study of JP grammar while learning more kanji in CH might not be too excessive later.
Parts of Japanese have their roots in Chinese, so it will be easier to recognize some characters after becoming familiar with one of the languages. However some of the characters have slightly or completely different meaning (and pronunciation) despite looking very similar, so I would hesitate to start the second language until you are familiar enough with the first to not get them mixed up.
"That is not to say that you will not encounter actual Chinese characters in Japanese texts. It's common to see Chinese characters in Japanese texts." Dundun. Dun dun dun dun dun!
China isnt currently possible for the exchange program sadly, plus I've always wanted to visit Japan while China not as much.
Here are some characters that I think are common. The pronunciations are different but the meanings are the same. 山 - mountain (may be used for names in Japanese - "Yama") 北 - north (If you play/know some mahjong, then these are familiar.) (Beijing (北京) - North city) 西 - west 南 - south 東 - east (Tokyo - 東京- east city) 右 - right (For directions) 左 - left 人 - people There might be more, but I am not too familiar with both languages,
Well, there is also Taiwan, Malaysia. I know anime is a great export also Japanese food but a simple research shows that you can experience the same great things in other Asian countries China has things like the Great wall Taiwan lots of temples. Oh well, I doubt that you will learn Japanese during a short program
I think Japanese and Chinese are different enough that there won't be too many problems. In the first place, you probably won't find a lot of text that is only written in Chinese characters. It'll be mixed with the other writing systems.