Rolling Earthquake

[Stan]

I'm note sure where to put this thread (apologies if it's in the wrong forum), but I need some trading advice.

Many people can tell Asian languages apart, but I can't. How do I see the difference between a Japanese and a Chinese Rolling Earthquake? I googled pictures of them, but the search results don't help me. Gatherer doesn't have images of the cards in those languages either. Simply put: is the card with the minus sign at the end of the first and second line the Chinese or Japanese version?

[Phoenix Ignition]

Wrong place, but mods hopefully can move it.

Japanese:
http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mkW2AEWBF-vXPvAcDuMATtA.jpg
Chinese:
http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mMRH0OKqUxi9Z7RX3Kq_cWg.jpg


Sounds like yours is Japanese from the description you gave.

[Lord Seth]

There's a fairly easy way to tell Japanese and Chinese apart, even if you don't know the languages or their specific symbols. If a bunch of the symbols seem fairly simple, then it's Japanese.

To explain: There are three sets of symbols that are all used for writing in Japanese: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Kanji is basically just the same symbols used in Chinese. Hiragana and Katakana are alphabets, the latter being used for foreign words/names and the latter being used for pretty much anything Kanji and Katakana aren't used for (e.g. verb stems, particles).

The key point here is that Hiragana and Katakana are much more simple-looking than Kanji. Let's compare the Japanese and Chinese texts for Snapcaster Mage.
Japanese:
瞬速

瞬唱の魔道士が戦場に出たとき、あなたの墓地にあるインスタント・カード１枚かソーサリー・カード１枚を対象とする。それはターン終了時までフラッシュバックを得る。 フラッシュバック・コストは、それ自身のマナ・コストに等しい。 （あなたはフラッシュバック・コストで、そのカードをあなたの墓地から唱えてもよい。その後、それを追放する。）

I took the opportunity of bolding the Katakana and Hiragana (may have missed a few symbols though). Note how they are far more simple symbols than the unbolded Kanji. Now compare the Chinese text of the same card:
闪现

当迅咒法师进战场时，目标在你坟墓场中的瞬间或法术牌获得返照异能直到回合结束。 其返照费用等同于该咒语的法术力费用。 （你可以从你的坟墓场施放该牌，并支付其返照费用，然后将它放逐。）

Note how the simple Katakana/Hiragana symbols, scattered throughout the Japanese card, are conspicuously missing. Almost every symbol looks fairly complex. That's your instant clue that it's Chinese.

It's easier to tell if you're familiar with the Hiragana/Katakana symbols, but even without knowing them you should be able to tell Japanese and Chinese apart fairly easily just by the fact that Hiragana and Katakana are exclusive to Japanese, whereas Kanji is shared by both languages. The Hiragana and Katakana, however, are far more simple-looking than the Kanji symbols, so if there are a bunch of fairly simple symbols on the card along with the more complex ones, it's likely Japanese, whereas if all or almost all the symbols look rather complicated, it's likely Chinese.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

On a side note: That's also the reason why I decided to go fully-Chinese, because when comparing the look of Chinese cards with their consistent writing system to the Japanese mix of three writing systems, the Chinese cards are IMHO aesthetically more appealing. (Except for the Modern font which is awful.)

[crow_mw]

Adding to what Seth said, if you see the following characters (hiragana and katakana) it's Japanese. Also the 'minuses' as you called them are also fairly specific to Japanese and I don't think they are as much used in Chinese.

あ か さ た な は ま や ら わ
い き し ち に ひ み り ゐ
う く す つ ぬ ふ む ゆ る
え け せ て ね へ め れ ゑ
お こ そ と の ほ も よ ろ を
ん

ア カ サ タ ナ ハ マ ヤ ラ ワ
イ キ シ チ ニ ヒ ミ リ ヰ
ウ ク ス ツ ヌ フ ム ユ ル
エ ケ セ テ ネ ヘ メ レ ヱ
オ コ ソ ト ノ ホ モ ヨ ロ ヲ
ン

[Namida]

And as a final note which won't help you in this specific case...From Kamigawa block onward, Japanese card names have furigana--this means that if your Japanese card has any Chinese Characters in the spelling of the card name, there are Japanese characters directly above it to tell you how to pronounce it. Most card names have at least a few Chinese characters in their name. Even if you don't recognize the difference between Japanese writing and Chinese writing, if a card is from Kamigawa or later and you can see that there are small symbols above some or all of the symbols that make up the card name, then the card is Japanese.

[[SLAYER]chaos]

And if there's tons of circles everywhere in the writing that's Korean!

[Stan]

Alright, thanks for the help guys. Thing is, I own one of each, and I'm looking to trade one away (trading away all of my rare, valuable stuff that I never use to complete my power 9). The guy I'm trading with owns a webshop, and he values Asian P3K cards as equally valuable, regardless of the language (English versions trade higher). I want to keep one, for possible future EDH use, and because you never know those things might surge in price again. Which version do I keep, or does it make no difference?

[GoblinZ]

Based on my experience, there is no difference.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

In Portal: 3 Kingdoms, the english version is actually the rarest. You should definitely keep the English version. For asthetics and flavor, I recommend the Chinese version. Ship the Japanese version out the door, but I recommend the English Version to be the one you keep, value and playability-wise.

-ABC

[kaiserruhsam]

の is japanese-only, and should cover most, if not all, cards.

[Lord Seth]

Adding to what Seth said, if you see the following characters (hiragana and katakana) it's Japanese.
That's not quite true, though. Some symbols--at least in Katakana--are the same as Kanji, or at least very similar; for example, see how similar ニ (Katakana) and 二 (Kanji) are. Indeed, Katakana pretty much comes from Kanji, and you'll see a lot of Katakana symbols in Kanji; for example, ム is a Katakana symbol (for "mu") but you can easily see it in the Kanji symbol 私. So simply seeing the symbols, particularly for Katakana, doesn't mean it's Japanese. Seeing a lot of those symbols, though, most certainly makes it Japanese.