Both Mandarin and Japanese are languages with huge learning curves for westerners, but depending on how you analyze them, you could make the case that Mandarin is easier than Japanese for two reasons. If you are for some reason on the fence as to which one to pick, this might help you decide.

Kanji are a colossal headache compared to hanzi

As you know, Japanese has kanji and Mandarin has hanzi, but they are not in the least created equal. To summarize it: what the Japanese language did to Chinese characters in any sane universe would be considered treason of the highest degree.

For westerners, learning kanji is already difficult as it is. It’s something very different than what they are used to because kanji aren’t letters, but agglomerates of strokes. To make kanji matters even worse, kanji can also have multiple pronunciations and they can flat out be unpredictable most of the time. In other words, when you learn one kanji and its pronunciation, you’ll think you’re set and it’s all good. Then, eventually you’ll see this kanji being used and you’ll realize (through furigana or some way else) that it isn’t pronounced the way you were taught. And then when you see this pattern happening to every kanji you learn, you’ll probably start having second thoughts as to whether you should continue studying Japanese, since kanji are so unpredictable.

This happens because Japanese, for whatever reason, developed in such a way that a kanji’s pronunciation depends on which meaning it is being used for. For example, the kanji 生 can be pronounced “nama”, “sei”, “ki” as well as in other ways depending on which meaning you’re going for. Another good example is 人, which in Japanese can be pronounced “hito”, “nin”, “jin” as well as have a completely random pronunciation as in the word 大人 which is pronounced “otona”. The pronunciation of a kanji is highly dependent on context and which other kanji or kana come before or after the said kanji and you have no choice but to immerse yourself in such a way you learn every possible exception to every single kanji in every imaginable context (which takes years).

In contrast, 生 and 人 in Mandarin have only ONE possible pronunciation and that’s it. As per pinyin (Mandarin’s equivalent of romaji), 生 is pronounced shēng and 人 is pronounced rén. No matter what happens, no matter which hanzi comes before or after, 生 will always be pronounced shēng and 人 will always be pronounced rén. If anything, what might happen is that 人 (or any other character) will lose its tonal property (人 uses the second tone, rising tone, market by the diacritic ´) and be pronounced instead without any tone at all, as in the word 大人 above, which in Mandarin is pronounced dàren, instead of dàrén, which is the only exception I can think of for the hanzi 人.

Does this mean that all Chinese characters in Mandarin have only one pronunciation and it’s easy like that? NO! But the ratio is far less extreme than it is in Japanese. Some examples of Chinese characters in Mandarin with more than one pinyin reading (if you’re curious as to how the pinyin syllables are pronounced, refer to this table):

行 – A really tricky one. Equally as likely to be pronounced háng as it is xíng, depends on the word. 处 – Pretty tricky. Can be pronounced chù or chǔ. 觉 – Can be tricky. Pinyin jiào means “to sleep” and pinyin jué means “to feel”. 见 – Can be tricky. Pinyin jiàn means “to see” and pinyin xiàn means “to appear”. 要 – Most of the time you’ll pronounce it as yào, but in some words it is pronounced yāo. 发 – Most of the time you’ll pronounce it as fā (it’s a verb), but when it’s a noun, it’s pronounced fà (means “hair”). 少 – Most of the time pronounced shǎo, but sometimes pronounced shào to mean “young”.

Or better yet, don’t trust me, try it yourself. Download this Chrome extension, go to any Chinese website and start hovering over characters and seeing how many of them have multiple pronunciations.

Also to keep in mind that, in Mandarin, you should be worried with characters that look too similar to each other more than characters that have more than one pronunciation. Also, some characters’ alternate pronunciations are only used in extremely specific contexts and some characters’ alternate pronunciations can also be exclusive to Taiwan.

So, as far as Chinese characters go, you will have a far easier time in Mandarin than you will in Japanese.

Japanese grammar can partly be more difficult

Let’s take this one slowly, because it’s not very straight forward to analyse. The concept of difficulty of a language is highly relative because it depends on who is doing the learning and which the native language of the person who is doing the learning is. Japanese grammar is surely very difficult to an American who only speaks English, but a native speaker of Korean will have a far easier time grasping Japanese grammar.

Having that said, there are parallels that can be objectively drawn between certain parts of Japanese and Mandarin grammars, ones which may end up swinging your efforts more towards Mandarin.

Two words: conjugation and formalities.

Japanese verbs’ conjugation varies according to whom you’re talking to. In other words, if you want to ask someone in Japanese whether he/she wants to eat something, the way you will conjugate the verb “to want” in that sentence will vary depending on who you’re talking to. Is it your mother? Your boss? Your subordinate? A stranger? Or is it an order like “go eat something!”? Levels of formality are huge thing in Japanese grammar.

Sure, any Japanese speaker or student will jump in at the first opportunity to explain to you how straight forward and regular these rules are, but it’s a fact that those rules exist. They are a thing you have to go through the hassle of understanding in order to speak Japanese without offending one in two people you talk to or sounding ignorant. We’re talking over 10 different conjugations, it’s a lot to absorb.

In contrast, Mandarin doesn’t have levels of formality nor does it have conjugation. Mandarin is straight to the point, blunt and unpolished. The sentences unceremoniously go from point A to point B, they don’t mess around. For example, in Japanese you have to learn a few of combinations of kana in order to negate verbs and, of course, they vary in degrees of formality (kana in Japanese is used to express grammar). In Mandarin, you simply put the hanzi 不 before the verb and that’s it, you don’t need anything else. It’s as simple as putting the verb after the subject and before the object, like saying “I love you” in English. It’s literally three hanzi!

我爱你 = Wǒ ài nǐ = I love you

And that’s it. If you wanted to negate the verb in Mandarin, you add 不 before the verb like:

我不爱你 = Wǒ bù ài nǐ = I not love you

In Japanese, you’d have to worry about conjugation and formality levels, it’s a whole lot more in comparison. Again, yes, Japanese speakers will promptly tell you how wonderfully regularly conjugation patterns in Japanese work, but the fact that matters is that they are a thing you have to learn, unlike in Mandarin.

Does this mean that all of Mandarin grammar is easy? No! Advanced Mandarin grammar topics can be very difficult, but my point is that in Mandarin it is much easier to start talking straight away, as there is less grammar to worry about in the beginning when you want to achieve a basic communication. You learn the characters for the pronouns, learn a few verbs, read a thing or two about word order and you can start talking. In Japanese, you need to learn conjugation and formalities just to be able to ask simple questions and make simple statements. Sure, they’re not difficult, but they are a thing you have to learn and go through and it’s one thing you won’t have to deal with in Mandarin.

Keep in mind the title of this part is “Japanese GRAMMAR can partly be more difficult”. I’m by no means rejecting the notion that Mandarin pronunciation is much more difficult than that of Japanese, that is irrefutable. I am isolating the grammar only.

To summarize everything: in Mandarin you will learn characters much faster, for they are much more predictable, and you will start communicating much more in much less time, for elementary grammar is less demanding.

If you are interested in teaching yourself Mandarin, refer to this post.