Japanese vs Chinese

Japanese and Chinese are described by linguistic experts as the most difficult for native English speakers to learn. However McGaughey says Chinese is much more difficult. Here are his reasons:

Chinese characters used in Japan (Kanji) do not have tones. They do have at least two pronunciations one in Japanese and one of Chinese origin. But the Japanese characters are polysyllabic and easier to remember. The words don't sound similar, unlike in Chinese.

There are only 2,500 Japanese characters in common use, opposed to more than 5,000 Chinese characters. This makes a huge difference.