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Arabic or Chinese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6597 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 17 of 43 26 August 2007 at 3:48am | IP Logged | ||
What happens if the war on terror is won or runs out of vogue before you achieve fluency? Are fluent Russian speakers being paid top-dollar now? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7209 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 18 of 43 26 August 2007 at 6:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Many Arabic countries speak English and French. I'm in the UAE right now there's no need to learn even a word of Arabic here as the whole country speaks English to some extent.
Also think of the different Arabic dialects if you learn one Arabic dialect you might not be able to understand the other. The same could be said to be true for Chinese but usually most will be able to speak some Chinese Mandarin and you can always write what you want to say assuming the person is literate. I'd go for Arabic less competition for people like me. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6597 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 19 of 43 26 August 2007 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | ||
Are Arabic dialects really as different as Chinese dialects? I only know Egyptian and MSA, and I have never had a serious problem understanding anyone who wasn't from the Maghreb. I don't know if they people moderate their dialect for my benefit though. On the other hand I hear that Mandarin and Cantonese are entirely different, that it's almost useless trying to understand one if you only know the other. Don't know if that's true though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6387 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 43 26 August 2007 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think the Chinese dialects (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc) are similar in differences to the Romance dialects (French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc), while the Arabic dialects (Egyptian, SA, Lebanese, etc) are more closely connected, with the exception being the Maghreb dialects.
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| BelgoHead Senior Member Belgium Joined 6331 days ago 120 posts - 119 votes Studies: French, English* Studies: Esperanto | Message 21 of 43 26 August 2007 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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ok look at it like this. China is a fairly large country with around 800 million speakers i beleive and arabic has around 200 million speaker's.
Now the Arabic language crosses countries all the way from Mooroco to Iran. -lots of muslims speak arabic still so theortically you could use arabic to take you from mooroco to the borders of china and india. Thats a huge way for one language to take you. Also when your struggling with fluency with arabic you could always add a french phrase or sentence here in there as in the Maghreb they speak arabic mixed with french. Though they can speak MSA arabic and pure french aswell i have found. The choice is clear go with Arabic :) It is also renound for its poetry. Best of luck.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6387 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 22 of 43 26 August 2007 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Belgohead raises a good point. I listen to a small amount of music from the Maghreb - particularly Souad Massi; ie, my favorite Algerian - and while my comprehension of Arabic is next to zero, the use of French allows me to understand a lot of music I otherwise wouldn't have explicit access to. There's nothing like listening to a beautiful song in a language you don't understand, followed by a beautiful song in a language you do (or at least do to a greater degree!). This would also apply to one's ability to communicate. I have skyped people from the region, and again, found French a most adequate lingua franca for communication. The same phenomenon would not exist in Chinese, unless you already understood another Chinese dialect (in which case you likely wouldn't be choosing between Chinese and Arabic, as it would take much less time to learn another dialect), or your speaking companions understood English (very unlikely outside of large cities). Simply put, you'd have more flexibility with Arabic - and the writing system, being based on an alphabet and all, would be far easier to learn :^) Edited by FSI on 26 August 2007 at 10:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7209 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 23 of 43 27 August 2007 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Belgohead,
Sure the Chinese dialects can be more like seperate languages. Cantonese would be called a dialect but you wouldn't understand it if you only spoke Mandarin. Nanjing hua is also be called a dialect and is treated as being equal with Cantonese. What is significant though is that everyone now is taught Mandarin in schools so most people younger than 40 speak it. That's a good point about Arabic taking you over a large geographical surface. Though, would you be better of knowing French and English? Could this also take you over the same area? I also thought about Arabic but thought I might aswell learn French. Maybe i'm wrong though??? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BelgoHead Senior Member Belgium Joined 6331 days ago 120 posts - 119 votes Studies: French, English* Studies: Esperanto | Message 24 of 43 27 August 2007 at 12:48am | IP Logged | ||
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"I also thought about Arabic but thought I might aswell learn French. Maybe i'm wrong though??? "
Sorry man i wrote that assuming that you guys know french or atleast have a knowledge of it... You don't have to learn french if your interested in Arabic i have only noticed the french speaking with Maghreb Arabic. You could go to a place like Lebanon which was under french rule but you will find their arabic contain's very little french if any. For example when my mom is on the phone with a relative she goes of into arabic then uses a french word maybe a few and also will use a french sentence among her arabic... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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