Learning an Asian language.

[Bortman]

Ok first off if "Asian" was the wrong word to use, I'm sorry.

I've noticed lately that there have been some language threads showing up and I was curious about something. For a few years now I've been very interested in learning an Asian language, but I'm not sure which one.

I'd like to visit some places like Japan and Thailand sometime in my life, but I'm not sure if its worth my time learning one of those languages. From what I've heard, Mandarin is one of the most comon languages spoke in the world second to English (with regards to business anyways). Is it true, is Mandarin as comon as I've heard? Or should I spend my time trying to learn something else more comon than that? I have a few Philipino friends, but they don't speak Tagolog (I think I spelt that way wrong...) so I'd only be able to talk to their parents and though there is nothing wrong with that, I'd like to be able to be more diverse than friends parents...

Obviously I know in the end its my decision in what to learn, but I don't want to learn something that I'd never be able to use.

[KevC]

Chinese would be my recommendation. Mandarin. Most spoken language in the world, and the language of one of the fastest growing economies. If you want to do well in the business world, the Chinese market is what you should be looking for.

[ahyue2]

I'd say Mandarin or Japanese.

Mandarin is easier to learn for foreigners due to their "Pinyin" where phonetics can be spelled out.

Cantonese is too hard due to the different intonations. Unless you grew up in Hong Kong, it is hard to get the accent/ intonations right.

I am not Japanese, but Japanese phonetics can also be spelled out easily.... (correct me if I am wrong)

:lol:

[Bortman]

I'd say Mandarin or Japanese.

Mandarin is easier to learn for foreigners due to their "Pinyin" where phonetics can be spelled out.

Cantonese is too hard due to the different intonations. Unless you grew up in Hong Kong, it is hard to get the accent/ intonations right.

I am not Japanese, but Japanese phonetics can also be spelled out easily.... (correct me if I am wrong)

:lol:

What is "Pinyin"? Is it just a phonetically spelled word?

I'm in Regina and we have a fairly large Chinese and Philipino population, but I think there are very few of any other culture. I did a look and there are lots of Chinese and Mandarin lessons to be taken here, but not much for anything else.

[teknoluv]

These days, if you are to learn a second language, it would be CHINESE.

[jayslay]

yea i'd have to agree with the others, mandarin is the most spoken langauge right now and will def. help you in business or traveling if you wish to visit asia. almost every country in asia speaks mandarin next to english and their native language

ill teach you :P

[hugejazz]

What is "Pinyin"? Is it just a phonetically spelled word?


"Pinyin" allows Chinese 'words' to be 'spelt' using the English alphabet, so words are easier to pronounce because people usually have a deep understanding of the alphabet. Now, assuming that you want to be able to speak as well as write, I think that you should start off with Mandarin because 1) It is more popular & 2) because it is easier to learn.

The reason why Cantonese should not be the first is because what you say in Cantonese is very different then what you write, in reality, it can probably be argued that Cantonese (especially in HK) is actually slang words. Cantonese (HK) is also harder to learn because of the writing, Chinese words can be classified into 2 main subsets: Traditional/Simplified.

If you learn Cantonese (assuming that you want to communicate with HK people), then you have to learn Traditional Chinese. Traditional chinese writing is more elegant to look at and is easier to understand, but the drawback is that there are more strokes per character and takes longer to write.

I am sure that others on this board will be able to fill you in with other information, I speak/write Cantonese so I can only telly you what I know about it.

[dark169]

Mandarin by the shear numbers makes it a sound choice (one that I'm starting to learn) but Japanese is also a good choice in business. Alot of the companies doing work around the world are based in japan.

MY rank would be:
English
Mandarin
Japanese
Spanish (covers most of South America, flows pretty easily into Italian and Portuguese)
Russian

[gamer123]

Mandarin

I am slowing learning it via mp3s :)

[Topher]

I've been teaching myself Japanese using the Pimsleur method and don't find it very hard at all. However, for those that don't know, the Pimselur method does not teach you to read and write, only to speak and understand, reading and writing comes later. (much the way we all learn our first language) I've got a commute that is at least a half hour (sometimes an hour, rarely much more than that), and it passes the time very well. I find the grammatical structures very logical, as are the pronunciations.

Never tried Mandarin, can anyone tell me how it compares with Japanese? i wouldn't mind learning Manadarin. There are lots of Japanese words that come from the Chinese, and learning one will most likely help learn the other.

[Mehrtens]

I only know engrish. :(

[mahpoaht]

+1 for Japanese, sounds cute.

- for Chinese and Korean, sounds like you are yelling at each other.

[teknoluv]

Allow me to clarify a bit. It is called CHINESE (Mandarin is more a term used to distinguish it from Cantonese or other Chinese dialects). And please don't make Cantonese anything comparable to Mandarin, not to say that it's not worth your time to learn (Cantonese).

[eshchan]

Never tried Mandarin, can anyone tell me how it compares with Japanese? i wouldn't mind learning Manadarin. There are lots of Japanese words that come from the Chinese, and learning one will most likely help learn the other.

If your first language is English, learning Japnese would be easier because while both languages can use English characters to pronounce the word. Mandarin use accents on a number of their sounds (i.e. é and è). Also in japanese you can romaize each words so it would be easier to ease into the language. I don't recommand learn both at the same time because one doesn't really complement the other.

[KevC]

+1 for Japanese, sounds cute.

- for Chinese and Korean, sounds like you are yelling at each other.

lol.

[Rocketo]

russian? then u can pick up those ukranian blondies

[Menace]

Would Swedish be better?


I would agree both Chinese and Japanese are useful.

russian? then u can pick up those ukranian blondies

[astraea]

I'm Filipino; I speak fluent Tagalog =)
It's a really phonetic language and very closely linked to Spanish.

[Bortman]

I'm Filipino; I speak fluent Tagalog =)
It's a really phonetic language and very closely linked to Spanish.

Yeah I thought so. I hear my friends parents talking all the time and it sounded Spanish.

[ronin893]

MY rank would be:
English
Mandarin
Japanese
Spanish (covers most of South America, flows pretty easily into Italian and Portuguese)
RussianI would have placed French in the top three just right after Chinese.

[dealforme]

I would have placed French in the top three just right after Chinese.

I would have to second this statement. If you're planning to do any business in Europe, this is the best language to have besides English. I have to also agree with everybody stating Mandarin is the best language to learn if you're planning to go over to Asia. It is easier to learn compared to Chinese, you're only dealing with 4 tones compared to 7 tone with Cantonese.

Japanese is also fairly easy to learn as well. As long you're used to the reverse sentence structure. subject - object -verb (kind of like French)

[ronin893]

"Pinyin" allows Chinese 'words' to be 'spelt' using the English alphabet, so words are easier to pronounce because people usually have a deep understanding of the alphabet.You mean romanizations like "zhong", "qing", or "xu"? :lol:

Now, assuming that you want to be able to speak as well as write, I think that you should start off with Mandarin because 1) It is more popular & 2) because it is easier to learn. Yup, Mandarin is easier to learn, but I would say it is because there is so much more materials and resources available for you to learn from. Plus I find it easier to type Chinese using Mandarin pinyin instead of Cantonese pinyin. (Pinyin is the transliteration of Chinese pronounciation to the Roman alphabet. Note that there is no such thing as an English alphabet because the English and most other European countries "borrowed" the Roman writing system.)

The reason why Cantonese should not be the first is because what you say in Cantonese is very different then what you write, in reality, it can probably be argued that Cantonese (especially in HK) is actually slang words. No, it's not slang. It can be argued that Cantonese was a distinct language a long long time ago which later on became sinicized by nothern invaders from the Yangtze river area. Cantonese-only words are most likely relics of that ancient language.

If you learn Cantonese (assuming that you want to communicate with HK people), then you have to learn Traditional Chinese. Bad info there, buddy. You can write Cantonese in simplified if you want. Lots of people in the Guangdong province do that. Also, Taiwan mandarin speakers write in traditional Chinese. The type of written Chinese has nothing to do with spoken Chinese.

[gmark2000]

Just try and download the Pimsleur Language Series on Chinese (Mandarin) from Limewire. It'll save you $300.

[felix]

+1 for Japanese, sounds cute.

- for Chinese and Korean, sounds like you are yelling at each other.
I thought Korean sounds a lot like Japanese. Even the food is so similar :D


Yeah I thought so. I hear my friends parents talking all the time and it sounded Spanish.
Yeah, Philippines was a Spanish colony so i heard so they know spanish.

[teknoluv]

It can be argued that Cantonese was a distinct language a long long time ago which later on became sinicized by nothern invaders from the Yangtze river area. Cantonese-only words are most likely relics of that ancient language.
There is a theory that Cantonese actually preserves some of the ancient accents because if you are aware of, there were more than a couple of invasons by the "barbarians" who took over the Northern part of China like a thousand years ago, which led to massive migration to the South, a relatively undeveloped territory back then.