{"id":45,"date":"2023-06-12T17:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T16:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/?p=45"},"modified":"2024-11-20T03:40:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T03:40:41","slug":"how-to-tell-the-difference-between-chinese-and-japanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/12\/how-to-tell-the-difference-between-chinese-and-japanese\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Even an idiot can spot the difference (with a little training)."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"874\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-8.07.37-PM-874x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-544\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-8.07.37-PM-874x1024.png 874w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-8.07.37-PM-256x300.png 256w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-8.07.37-PM-768x899.png 768w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-8.07.37-PM-1312x1536.png 1312w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-8.07.37-PM.png 1332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 874px) 100vw, 874px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I occasionally see people on Instagram posting pictures of what they say are snacks from Japan although the snacks are actually from China, Korea, or even Thailand (or vice versa).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since I&#8217;m a linguist, the difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (and even Thai) is obvious to me, but, even if you&#8217;re not a language expert, once you have finished reading this post you&#8217;ll also be able to spot the difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean in no time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chinese<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you essentially see nothing but Chinese characters, the item is from China. Chinese characters are, for the most part, rather intricate and there are 1000s of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Examples of Chinese characters (combined to make words):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u65b0\u53e3\u5473 (New flavor)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u5965\u5229\u5965 (Oreo)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u65b0\u897f\u5170 (New Zealand)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Below you can see a box of Oreos from China, with Chinese characters galore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"937\" data-id=\"537\" src=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.32.56-PM-1024x937.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.32.56-PM-1024x937.png 1024w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.32.56-PM-300x275.png 300w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.32.56-PM-768x703.png 768w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.32.56-PM.png 1130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Japanese<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you see a combination of Chinese characters and Japanese letters, the item is from Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In layman&#8217;s terms, Japanese letters are basically made up of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>clean\/straight lines (= katakana, as in: \u30ad\u30c3\u30c8\u30ab\u30c3\u30c8) OR<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>curved\/loopy lines (= hiragana, as in: \u3092\u3064\u304b\u3063\u3066)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Below you can see a bag of Japanese KitKats, with katakana letters, hiragana letters, and Chinese characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"713\" data-id=\"538\" src=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.45.40-PM-1024x713.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.45.40-PM-1024x713.png 1024w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.45.40-PM-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.45.40-PM-768x535.png 768w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-6.45.40-PM.png 1238w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Korean aka Hangul<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In layman&#8217;s terms, when you are looking at Korean, you will primarily see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>a bunch of horizontal and vertical lines<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>some circles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>some boxes\/squares<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>letters that are basically divided into a top half and a bottom half<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and even letters that resemble the numbers 2 and 7<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Below you can see a container of instant noodles from Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"760\" data-id=\"535\" src=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/PXL_20230612_160407846-1-1024x760.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-535\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/PXL_20230612_160407846-1-1024x760.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/PXL_20230612_160407846-1-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/PXL_20230612_160407846-1-768x570.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/PXL_20230612_160407846-1-1536x1140.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/PXL_20230612_160407846-1.jpg 2038w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Thai<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, just for kicks, I&#8217;m also going to show you what Thai looks like (since I mentioned that language earlier).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you are looking at Thai and stretch your imagination quite far, you will notice that some of the letters in the Thai alphabet resemble letters in the English alphabet, such as a, b, l, n, s, and u. In other words, Thai looks a lot more like English than Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thai has:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>no Chinese characters (as opposed to Chinese and Japanese)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>no clean\/straight letters (as opposed to Japanese)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and no letters that are basically divided into a top half and a bottom half (as opposed to Korean)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-4 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"868\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"541\" src=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-7.25.14-PM-868x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-541\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-7.25.14-PM-868x1024.png 868w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-7.25.14-PM-254x300.png 254w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-7.25.14-PM-768x906.png 768w, https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-13-at-7.25.14-PM.png 1048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 868px) 100vw, 868px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So there you have it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now you should be able to identify snacks from China, Japan, Korea, and even Thailand!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I occasionally see people on Instagram posting pictures of what they say are snacks from Japan although the snacks are&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1447,"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/1447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelinguistandthemule.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}