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Ideas for Asian-themed language hitlist | ||
Tags: Hit List | Asian Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Leftcoaster Diglot Newbie China Joined 5032 days ago 22 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Russian | Message 1 of 28 22 March 2011 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Over the past two months of lurking, I've noticed that most of the members here tend to focus on Indo-European
languages although many people have one or two non-european languages on their hitlist (please don't take this as criticism guys!). I've also noticed that most "choose five/ten/twenty languages that you would like to learn" - type threads are heavily dominated by European languages. As an expat living in Asia (and with little desire to return "home") I've often thought about what languages would be beneficial to my career in China and life in East Asia in general. So in the spirit of prior chose-five-languages thread, why not do an Asian-themed one? To start, I would like to learn: Mandarin - This is the obvious one Cantonese - If only because I love Hong Kong! Russian - I've met a lot of Russians in Beijing and quite a few Chinese can speak this language too Indonesian/Malay - I really can't decide which but I'm leaning towards Indonesian, more of an "elective" language ???? - Just about anything could fit here, a major language (career-oriented) like Korean or a minor language (for cultural interests or fun) like Nepali or any Chinese dialect. Note that while Russian is not an typically considered Asian language I chose it because it is still widely spoken here and is considered quite useful. I could certainly see French as occupying a similar (if reduced) role in some countries and ex-colonies. Of course, there's no way that I could learn all these languages in my lifetime but one can certainly dream! Please post your own Asia-themed hitlist but don't limit to just five languages or just Asian languages. Think about what you would want to learn and what would come in handy if you were living in East Asia. Cheers! 3 persons have 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 2 of 28 23 March 2011 at 12:25am | IP Logged | ||
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As another Asia-phile, I know what you mean about wanting to stay there and never go home. I'm slowly working on my own version of a mostly-Asian hit list, which includes Russian, BTW. While it is not a traditional Asian language, between the influence it has had on the region and its geographical location make it important in the region. I've also met a lot of Russians living over there, and knowing Russian would also let me read about Asia from a different angle than other European or Asian languages.
My hit list of sorts would be: 1. Mandarin: actually I already know it to a good degree. I'd like to get better at it. 2. Korea: I'm currently studying it. It was really a toss up between this and Japanese, and I'm sure that I'll study Japanese in the future. Korea is becoming what Japan was for the 70s-90s, the source of high-quality products and innovation. One of my professors also pointed out that Korea is one of the best sources for non-English scholarly articles about China. Better than Japan. 3. Indonesian: I started on it because it is my wife's language, it's interesting as a non-traditional Asian language. 4. Russian 5. Minnan/Taiwanese: I started studying this when I was in Taiwan, and I just like the sound of it. It would also be cool to be functional in one of the "lesser" dialects. It's interesting; Southern dialects are actually closer to the Sino words I'm learning in Korean, so while it was hard for me to learn Taiwanese just from my knowledge of Mandarin, I think knowing Korean will actually give me a leg up on learning Taiwanese. It's also related to another one of my wife's languages. 6. Japanese: eventually. 7. A Mainland SE Asian language: I don't know which one yet, but I'd like to learn either Vietnamese, Thai or Cambodian. Thai has the most appeal to me, but I have enough other languages ahead of me that I don't have to decide yet. If you had asked me a year ago if I would learn Korean or Japanese first, I would have said Japanese, but here I am studying Korean. You never know what will happen in this life. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mayfair Diglot Senior Member Australia theasiaanalyst.wordp Joined 5420 days ago 48 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Mandarin | Message 3 of 28 23 March 2011 at 1:09am | IP Logged | ||
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1. Japanese: I have been studying this since the age of seven. Completely inseparable from my life.
2. Korean: Meeting a group of Koreans last year gave me the impetus to learn this. Now considering writing my thesis on Japan-Korea relations, so I foresee this language being a part of my life for good. 3. Mandarin: Currently studying this, but not as actively as my other languages. 4. Russian 5. Indonesian: As an Australian, it would be nice to learn the language of our closest neighbour. I've only ever met a couple of Indonesians, so my ties to the country are not strong, but if I looked into it I'm sure it would be fascinating. 6. Mongolian: The classical script has always intrigued me, although as a vegetarian my opportunities for travel to the country would be limited (meat is a huge part of the diet). 7. Tibetan: Similar reasons to Mongolian. I thought that, with its Buddhist history, there would be more opportunities for a vegetarian there, but on further inspection this doesn't really seem to be the case. The scripts of some Southeast Asian languages like Burmese and Thai are also beautiful, but I can't see myself studying them in-depth. Likewise, a South Asian language like Hindi or even Sanskrit should be on there, but these would only come much later in life. Edited by mayfair on 23 March 2011 at 1:18am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ilcommunication Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6693 days ago 115 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 28 23 March 2011 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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My own Asian language list looks like this: Mandarin, Hindi, Russian, Turkish. If I can get intermediate-to-fluent with most of them I'll be more than satisfied, but if I was ever able to extend the list, I'd add Japanese, Thai and Persian...but that's a long way off I think. Edited by ilcommunication on 23 March 2011 at 1:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 5 of 28 23 March 2011 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure when or if I'll get around to these.
1. Korean: An easy yet unique writing system. I would have put Japanese first, but I can't after hearing how long it takes to learn to read and write. Korean seems like a great alternative to Japanese with over 60 million speakers and an interesting culture and history. 2. Japanese: I've always had a fascination with Japanese culture and history. I want to eventually get around to this. Considering the difficulties in learning the writing system I may never learn this aspect of it when I get around to Japanese. For now the only things I can say in Japanese is Watashi Wa nicu tabemasen, Arigato, kanichiwa and sayanorra! 3. Mongolian: Like others have said the original script is awesome. I also like the sound of the spoken language, culture and history of mongolia. Unfourtunately it has only about 3 million speakers and there is limited use of the original script.(as far as I understand.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6950 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 6 of 28 23 March 2011 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Great topic! It's been really interesting to read which Asian languages are the most
appealing for everyone (I didn't expect so much interest in Indonesian and Mongolian!) Here's my list: - Have studied - 1. Japanese: If I could go back and do it over again I might have picked another Asian language (I agree with what Raincrowlee said about Korea being what Japan was in the 70s-90s, and of course Mandarin is also hard to ignore), but like mayfair said, it's become "completely inseparable from my life" now. I'm so thankful to Japanese for teaching me how to look at the world in different ways. - Plan to study seriously - 2. Mandarin/Cantonese/Taiwanese: I'm really interest in China for its immense historical influence and because it seems to be less influenced by Western thought than Japan. Mandarin is the one I feel least personally drawn to, but it has the most speakers, influence, and media. Cantonese seems to have more personality, and Taiwanese hhas captured my interest because I have met many kind native speakers from there and because I have noticed similarities in pronunciation with Japanese. 3. Hindi/Urdu: I've always been interested in India, and Persian could serve as my gateway language into Urdu. - Want to flirt with - 4. Indonesian/Malay: It seems like an underrated language in proportion to the number of speakers and its purported simplicity. I really know next to nothing about Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, but I'm intrigued by the intersection of Southeast Asian and Islamic culture. 5. Korean: Mostly, I'm interested in it from a comparative perspective with Japanese. From what I understand, it seems like Japanese taken to the next level: more complicated grammar, more honorifics, more exotic pronunciation, and a more unfamiliar culture. 6. Vietnamese: I grew up near one of the biggest Little Saigons in the world. My best friend, my former fiance, and many other friends are Vietnamese and spoke Vietnamese as their first language. It has always been close to home for me. It's a difficult language spoken in one small, isolated, oppressed country, but thanks to the widespread diaspora of proud and friendly natives, it's never lost its appeal for me. EDIT: I'm also planning to study Persian seriously and flirt with Arabic, but for some reason this entire region slipped my mind! I'm not sure which continent I was thinking they belonged to... Edited by Lucky Charms on 23 March 2011 at 3:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Segata Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5172 days ago 64 posts - 125 votes Speaks: German*, Japanese, English Studies: Korean, Esperanto | Message 7 of 28 23 March 2011 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | ||
All of these are true. However, if you're just in it for the grammar and honorifics, classical Japanese might be what you're looking for. ;) My own list includes Japanese, Classical Japanese, Korean (<-- I'm here), Mandarin Chinese, Classical Chinese and maybe Cantonese - because of Jackie Chan. That's about it though. I know hardly anything about other Asian countries/culture. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Nguyen Senior Member Vietnam Joined 5094 days ago 109 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Vietnamese | Message 8 of 28 23 March 2011 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Vietnamese is a difficult language. i think FSI has underestimated it's difficulty just by looking at the number of non-Vietnamese (Asian and others) that I have encountered that cpeake it. I can count on one hand. Hardly a small country with nearly 100 million speakers. Also very open and as far as oppressed is concerned how would you substantiate this? To get back on topic Behasa Indonesia/Malay is a very useful language and not so easy as many are lead to believe. Mandarin is also useful but due to China's vastness it is not as universal as you may think. Native speakers often have difficulty communicating with one another. I am surprised that Japanese has not been mentioned more! There is no better Asian language to study in my opinion at the moment. Given that Japans population is aging they need to increase their workforce. Japan is increasingly welcoming foreign talent. After the recent tragic events this will be even more apparent. Also a lovely language and culture despite being one of my former "oppressors". Korean; definitely up and coming. A country that is synonomous with producing high quality product. Very hard to learn I have heard. Those would be my picks based on utility. Edited by Nguyen on 23 March 2011 at 9:25pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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