Better for Self-Defense: Tai Chi or Karate?

I am considering learning one of these martial arts this summer and wonder which might be better for self-defense, the main reason for me wanting to learn a martial art.

Karate. It's even made for self defense, but people usually mistake it for a sport style.
Just like Japanese Ju Jutsu, Karate has both a traditional side and a sport side.

You will be taught how to fight through sparring and do the traditional aspects of Karate at the same time.
You will spar, do kata and condition yourself at the same time.
Some Karate styles include weapons. So in my opinion Karate is like Tai Chi, but with sparring and competitions.

Because in Tai Chi all you do is forms, with and without weapons. Usually very slowly, in Karate you can choose if you want to do the kata slowly or rapidly.

The best self defense teacher i have come across is Erle Montague because his knowledge of pressure point fighting is incredibly advanced. Tai chi originally was purely pressure point fighting but the original families like the Yang family have not shared all their knowledge of such techniques with the general public. Montaigue learnt Yang Tai Chi from the Yang family in the Wudang Mountains in China so he knows a lot about the original Tai Chi forms.

If you learn proper Tai Chi with proper fajing fighting methods then Tai Chi is very effective otherwise it becomes useless. The following is an example of Tai Chi fajiing.

Shihan J is correct. I practice both and I can tell you they are both effective fighting styles. That being said, if you are younger, say less the 30, you'll probably enjoy the karate training more than the tai chi, and a year of karate training will give you a few practical fighting skills. A year of taichi will vastly improve your posture but little else. (at least if taught in the traditional way.) My teacher told me there is a saying in tai chi. Ten years you don't go out of the gate. After ten years you go out and beat everybody. :)

The real problem is finding a good instructor. That is vastly more important than what style you learn.

Melon is a moron for saying that karate does not work as fighting and saying tai chi would work better!!! Have you ever heard of karate competitions because all they do is fight. kyokushing for example is the hardest and toughest form of karate out there! If any style would teach you how to defend yourself it is karate!!!

they are both excellent for self defense, but it depends on your time frame.

tai chi takes a lot longer to learn self defense the karate.
there really is not set time from to learn self defense. it depends on how you train and how good your instructor is

melon has a lot to learn about martial arts

BOXING
if you go to a boxing gym you will learn self defense quick

I do Tai Chi so i will go with that;)

Tai Chi

Tai-Chi teaches you to sense whats around you. I heard of a girl who was actually Blind & was able to feel her attackers energy coming towards her & was able to defend herself, she took Tai-Chi. Karate is a beautiful form of martial arts to look at, but that's just it, in real combat i doubt it would help you much at all. Try looking into other forms or go visit some schools & see how they are & how they teach, it will help you decide on which you think will be best for you.