I've heard that apparently, Japanese pronunciation is simpler to pick up (anime, games, etc). when you hear it spoken. As in, when foreigners learn it: they find that easier to listen to than spoken Mandarin since there's no tones in Japanese (rather pitch accent, but it's not the same as it could be understood based on context even if said wrong) while Mandarin places a huge emphasis on tones that change the definition completely.

Also, how does spoken Japanese sound to the ear when you either watch subtitled anime when you compare that to anime being dubbed in Mandarin? I know that one of my friends watches Asian dramas and prefers either Japanese or Korean audio over Mandarin for some reason (I'd assume it has to do with accent and how a language sounds when spoken). Is Mandarin dubbed anime even good or does it sound bad?

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[–] 6 points 10 hours ago

In addition to being more familiar due to anime, I find Japanese easier to listen to (although I don't understand much) because when transliterated into English it's quite easy to pronounce the words once you get the hang of it. Not even considering the tones, I think there are just fewer sounds in general and they're all easy to learn. It's not hard for an English speaker to understand what words are being spoken even if you don't know what most of them mean.

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