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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6891 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 113 of 346 04 August 2006 at 6:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I see. As far as the Han go, I'm pretty sure that the 'Han ethnic group' has been somewhat mythologised a little over the centuries and probably used as a device by imperial families (and the Communists) to seize power. It's hard to believe that 90% of the Chinese population derived from just one ethnic group, especially given how many times the country was invaded. I have no doubt that most Chinese have a little Han in them but it's very unlikely that the vast majority of them are 'pure breeds'. The Japanese are equally adamant about their genetic purity but it's quite unlikely that there hasn't been *any* mixing over the centuries. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6703 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 114 of 346 05 August 2006 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
...along with '5000 years of history' and '2000 yeas of continuous empire.' They love their idea of unity as much as Europeans love their idea of regional uniqueness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese Plus, I've read enough of the pre-imperial history to know that southerners were considered barbarians and distinctly different from northerners. There has been quite a bit of movement, but the descendents of the original population tend to remain in the same place. It's like the Roman empire -- the culture spread much more than the Roman genotype. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6703 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 115 of 346 05 August 2006 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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And the on-topic post:
The first thing I'd recommend is "ten the easy way." 1. French 2. Spanish 3. Italian 4. Portugese 5. Latin 6. German 7. Dutch 8. Swedish 9. Norwegian 10. English That's ten languages relatively close to English and one another, for someone who just wants numbers. If he's really interested in world culture, and wants to learn ten to go everywhere, then I'd recommend these: 1. English 2. Spanish 3. Mandarin Chinese 4. Arabic 5. Russian 6. Swahili 7. Hindu 8. French 9. German 10. Japanese With these ten, you could go almost anywhere in the world and be able to speak with the natives in something close to their own language. The last three are added because they represent stong economies that have a large influence on their regions, so you could read the latest news in the original language. In addition, each of these languages (except maybe Swahili) has a long and robust traditions in literature and cinema, which would open up a world of culture for him, as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Quackers Triglot Newbie United States Joined 6713 days ago 18 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, French, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Bengali, Armenian, Italian, Russian | Message 116 of 346 05 August 2006 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
On a general list, I might suggest Bengali instead of Hindi. I know Hindi has more speakers, but Bengali is still among the top eight in number of speakers. (I consider Hindi and Urdu two different languages due to their differnet cultural backgrounds and, more importantly, their use of completely different scripts.) Considering that Bengali was the language of Rabindranath Tagore (the literary giant of twentieth-century India) and Satyajit Ray (South Asia's leading director), Bengali might be a better option than Hindi for delving into South Asia's culture and history. The last part of William Radice's "Teach Yourself Bengali" includes extracts from Tagore, Ray, Shamsur Rahman, and Jibanananda Das; I don't know if any introductory Hindi texts include similar extracts from its leading literary figures. Furthermore, it appears that the social status of Hindi within India is lower than that of English. Also, India needs a lingua franca for communication between various linguistic communities; given the hostility towards Hindi in Tamil Nadu, and that English is already a major language within India's business community, English would serve as a lingua franca. English won't drive out Hindi or Marathi or Tamil or Kannada in India any more than it will drive out Czech or Estonian or Greek in Europe (where it serves as a medium for international communication), but the odds are that in India, it won't be too difficult to find someone who knows English. Not so with Bengali. Bengali is the official language of the Indian state of West Bengal, which includes Kolkata (Calcutta), and English might be as useful there as it would be elsewhere in India. However, Bengali is also the official language of Bangladesh, where 98% of the people are ethnic Bengalis. Thus, Bangladeshis don't need to learn another language in order to talk to people elsewhere in the country; Bengali will serve that purpose. This, and the fact that the Bengali language was a major factor in Bangladesh' separation from Pakistan, means that English is nowhere near as useful in Bangladesh as it is in India. Hence, it may be more useful to know Bengali than it is to know Hindi. On the other hand, Hindi is apparently simpler for English speakers to learn than Bengali is, and Hindi does have more speakers than Bengali. One could also make a case for Tamil, as it is a Dravidian language, while Hindi and Bengali are both Indo-European languages. Additionally, Tamil is an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore as well as in India, and Tamil does have a significant body of literature dating back to the time of the Roman Republic, which is not the case with any of India's other major languages. I would recommend that at least one of Bengali, Hindi, or Tamil be among the ten languages. If I had to choose just one of the three, though, it would be Bengali. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| gothwolf Diglot Newbie Bulgaria Joined 6660 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Bulgarian*, German Studies: Russian, Finnish | Message 117 of 346 01 September 2006 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My top 10 is:
1. Icelandic 2. Hungarian 3. Estonian 4. Slovio 5. Old church slavonic 6. Latin 7. Old Bulgarian (old slavic) 8. Serbian 9. Slovenian 10. Slovak I really hate: 1. Spanish 2. French 3. Japaniese 4. Esperanto 5. Dutch 6. Romanian 7. Greek (this includes and Classic Greek) 8. Turkish 9. Maltiese 10. Hindi 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Kapherus Newbie United States Joined 6673 days ago 20 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 118 of 346 01 September 2006 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I have a current top 10 that I hope to gain at least some level of fluency in before the end of my life:
1. English (Mother tongue) 2. Arabic 3. Spanish 4. French 5. Japanese 6. Mandarin 7. Russian 8. German 9. Italian 10. Turkish or Persian This was a fun exercise. With a bit of dedication and a good dose of perseverance, I think most people are capable of learning at least 10 languages well in a lifetime. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6660 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 119 of 346 02 September 2006 at 10:28am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My answer depends on a number of things. What is this person's first language? Where does this person live? Where does this person want to travel? What sort of work does this person want to do? Is this person willing to study a "difficult" language, or does this person just want to learn ten languages as easily as possible?
Here's a list of ten languages that I would choose for a person who wants to be understood by a large number of people in many different parts of the world. 1. English 2. French 3. Spanish 4. Portuguese 5. Mandarin Chinese 6. Hindi 7. Arabic 8. Russian 9. Japanese 10. German 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Michael Diglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 6660 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Czech*, EnglishB2 Studies: Latin | Message 120 of 346 02 September 2006 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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1. English
2. German 3. Latin 4. Spanish 5. Mandarin 6. Franch 7. Russian 8. Arabic 9. Ancient Greek 10. CZECH (mother tongue) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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