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Russian is past, Chinese is future? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7304 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes  6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 105 of 150 30 July 2006 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Yes, the Chinese did invent the compass. I hate being the "China invented everything first" freak, but other inventions also include the movable type, which appeared about two centuries before Gutenberg's printing press. And this was a character system we're talking about. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6754 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 106 of 150 30 July 2006 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Mathematics
Here's my source for that: ChinaCulture.org Wikipedia also has a nice article on the history of mathematics, listing many Chinese accomplishments. Literacy
It appears that one period a day in a Japanese school is devoted to the Japanese language — writing and so on. Children have little difficulty learning all the characters as they're taught. I read a book once (I can't remember the title) that noted how school instruction techniques and discipline are far more important than the subjective "difficulty" of a language when it comes to literacy. Comparing Italy, Britain, and Japan at the time (the 70s or 80s), it noted: 1. Italian has one of the world's easiest spelling systems — an adult can learn it in a day. Yet, the average Italian child is years behind his English peer in learning to read. 2. English spelling is much harder than Italian, and arguably much easier than Japanese. Yet the average English child lags a Japanese child's reading skills as much as the Italian lags the English.
No. :)
Mandarin has no inflection. Neither does Japanese, but it uses postfixes to conjugate verbs and indicate noun functions. This is primarily what the kana (phonetic characters) are used for. A Japanese verb is typically written [kanji root + kana ending]. The choice of kanji can sometimes even indicate nuance of meaning not present in the spoken language.
I wouldn't doubt it. Japanese are avid readers; there's a bookstore every few blocks (including one next door to me), and typically half the people on any subway train are reading, either novels or manga. Everywhere you go, people are sitting or standing around reading. You just don't see that in North America. :) Edited by Captain Haddock on 30 July 2006 at 10:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6670 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 107 of 150 27 August 2006 at 8:17am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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^ That's because we're addicted to television :^).
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| VityaCo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7067 days ago 79 posts - 86 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 108 of 150 22 November 2006 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I always think that Arabic is much overlooked in importance when it comes to assessing the 'most important' world languages. [/QUOTE] It is so true. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| VityaCo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7067 days ago 79 posts - 86 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 109 of 150 22 November 2006 at 3:08am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
These are the right numbers. Seems, like you do not trust to statistics. In the Ukraine a half of those who speak Russian, can switch to Ukrainian overnight, and the opposit is also true. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| VityaCo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7067 days ago 79 posts - 86 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 110 of 150 22 November 2006 at 3:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
I would say that those perspectives are individual for everyone. As of myself, I'm going study those languages that I'm planning to use, and therefore Chinese is not on my list. Simply, because I do not know what to do with it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| dontaskjeevez Newbie United States Joined 6665 days ago 15 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* | Message 111 of 150 26 November 2006 at 11:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I don't understand why people keep saying that Chinese is going to
become a signifigant language of the future, and that knowledge of the language will somehow make you rich. If that were the case then China would have the higest national gross in the world lol. But what I am really trying to say is, I think some people are overestimating China's improvement in economy. People are saying that it is doing so great and all that....WELL YEAH, compared to how it has BEEN. What I am saying is say you make F's on all your tests and you begin to start making D's thats 100% improvement in your test taking abilities, so yes it looks like you ARE improving, but then if you look at the overall percentage of the class and everyonelse is making A pluses, then your grade looks much much worse. So yes China's economy is IMPROVING now compared to how it had BEEN, but who's to say they'll ever be the largest world power, and I know anythings possible, but this is probobly 99% UNLIKELY in OUR lifetime. Even if this DOES happen why do you think knowing Mandarin will make you rich, considering there are probobly about 6 Chinese people to every 1 American, or w/e you come from (maybe less maybe more) I don't think they'll have trouble finding proficient, and highly intelligent, and probobly more qualified speakers. (Chinese schools are very rigorous and higly motivated- I had a math teacher from China and have heard many stories about the extremely high drive of success in China, considering other job options such as rural work which has some of the most horrible conditions you can think of but this is another long story) Now I am not saying this should STOP anyone from studying the Chinese language, but I think they should sort out their reasons for wanting to. If it is a genuine love of Chinese history, culture, ect then thats a great reason, that is the reason I am learning French, but if it is because you THINK it will make you rich! Then that is just ridiculous! If that is the case and you do acheive native like proficiency in the language, then good luck with that qualification considering at least 1 billion people have already accomplished that feat. This is not mean't to be discouraging to Chinese learners, but if your learning the language for superficial reasons like becoming rich then your a fool, and you will probobly not ever be rich with this kind of thinking. However if it is a dream of yours to live in China or communicate with, or work with the Chinese than this will obviously be a great advantage to your life, and career, and bring wealth into your life inn a deeper way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6645 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 112 of 150 27 November 2006 at 11:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Chinese is one of the most demanding languages for Western learners. It's a major commitment, and so you need to be really motivated to learn it well.
I agree with dontaskjeevez that you probably shouldn't expect to get rich just because you speak the language. However, people with other skills to combine with language ability might be in high demand. Where I live, there are very few Chinese-speaking people. I have no plans to travel to Asia soon, so Chinese is not a particularly immediately practical language for me. However, if other people are attracted to Chinese, I wouldn't try to discourage them. I just don't think that the money is there for the amount of work that is involved. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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