ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

East Asian languages

East Asian languages are the languages spoken in countries like China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. These languages can be pretty different from each other, but they do have some things in common. One thing is that they don't use the same letters as we do in English - they use characters instead. These characters are like little pictures that stand for words, so instead of spelling out a word like "cat," you would draw a little picture of a cat to represent it.

Another thing that's different about these languages is how they sound. In English, we use different pitches to show our emotions - we might raise our voice to show we're excited, or lower it to show we're sad. But in East Asian languages, the pitch can actually change the meaning of a word. So if you say a word with a higher pitch, it might mean something completely different than if you say it with a lower pitch.

Finally, East Asian languages can be pretty hard to learn if you're used to speaking English. There are lots of characters to learn, and the grammar rules can be pretty different too. But if you put in the time and effort to learn these languages, they can be really rewarding - you'll be able to communicate with people from all over the world!