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Westerners fluent in Asian languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5677 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 9 of 57 22 January 2010 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The only Westerner's I know personally and are fluent in an East Asian language are
people employed in academia and make their livings by using languages. Aside from that, I've often read that the Australian PM speaks a decent level of Mandarin. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hombre gordo Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5583 days ago 184 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Portuguese, Korean | Message 10 of 57 23 January 2010 at 4:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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The number of westerners learning and getting fluent in Asian languages is rising.
However, that number is nowhere near the number of westerners studying European language. The reason is obvious. Utility. Most people will only learn something they think will be of use to them. In Europe you are much likely to use English, French, Spanish, German or Italian than Thai, Vietnamese or Mandarin. So that probably explains the comparatively low number of Europeans learning Asian languages. The likes of Mandarin and Japanese are getting really popular though. I have met quite a few westerners who have really high levels of fluency in Mandarin and Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6316 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 11 of 57 26 January 2010 at 7:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm still curious about the popularity of Vietnamese and Korean specifically. If I were to spend a week in a popular Vietnamese or Korean city (say, Hanoi, Saigon or Seoul), would I likely hear many foreigners speaking the language well?
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| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5783 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 12 of 57 26 January 2010 at 7:23am | IP Logged | |||||
Americans, the largest non-East Asian demographic in Seoul, make up a mere 0.1% of the population (Korean Times 2009). You're not likely to see westerners in Seoul, let alone fluent ones. Based on nothing but my personal impressions, the westerners in Korea seem just as likely to speak Korean as westerners in Japan do Japanese. Not very. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6316 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 13 of 57 26 January 2010 at 9:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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But what about all those who go to major cities like Seoul to teach English? South Korea is supposed to be a particularly popular choice for students who have finished university and want to pay off their loan, earn decent money and enjoy low living costs. I imagine Seoul is probably more expensive in living costs than other cities, but I have heard there are tons of Westerners living there as teachers. Surely a reasonable percentage of them learn the language?
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| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5783 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 14 of 57 26 January 2010 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
It is popular and, yes, I would assume a significant portion of those 12,821 Americans in Seoul are English teachers.
Unintentional, I'm sure, but it still made me laugh. I suppose it depends on what you consider reasonable. I have never lived or worked in Korea but my conversations with those who have, including a small few who have also taught English in Japan, paints a very similar picture of English teaching and teachers in the two countries. Sure, there are differences in the details, but there is nothing that leads me to believe that English speakers working in an English environment make signficantly larger gains learning Korean than Japanese. And I can say with great certainty that there are many foreigners in Japan who cannot do much more than order a basic meal, and a not insignificant number that can't even do that. That said, I have a good friend whose plan is to stay in Korea - most likely continuing in his position as an English teacher specializing in TOEFL prep - until he reaches level 6 of the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK). Some people have the drive and motivation to learn these languages... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5433 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 15 of 57 26 January 2010 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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No, I haven't met such persons. In Sweden, there are not so many possibilities to study languages other than English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. However, Mandarin has become a lot more popular the last years at the universities. I've heard there are also classes in Mandarin in highscool/upper elementary school in a few cities and at some universities you can study Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic, Japanese, etc. I don't think there are courses in Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian or the languages in India (apart from Hindi). Still, the adult educational asociations generally offer a wider array of languages, including Asian languages.
The problem is that the later you start studying a language, the harder it is to achieve fluency. In addition, there are often bigger cultural distances between the Asian languages and the European languages. This makes it also a bit difficult. Furthermore, the system of different words depending on the speaker's gender, age etc (as in Japanese) is a bit unfamiliar. The alphabets Edited by Impiegato on 26 January 2010 at 11:42pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| JacobTM Groupie United States Joined 5598 days ago 56 posts - 67 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 57 26 January 2010 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have a neighbor who taught English in Japan, then stayed there on business, and is now living in the USA married to a Japanese woman. She speaks English much better than he does Japanese, but he speaks it well enough to have been doing business in Japan for a couple of years.
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